Studio Update Frankfurt

VFX

working on improving existing systems for 3.0: ensuring existing vehicles and systems still work as intended and doing a polish pass

remade the old airlock effects for both the ‘high tech’ and ‘low tech’ airlocks

started shifting more focus towards Squadron 42 cinematic scenes

FPS Weapons

completed passes on the last two legacy weapons: Geminii L86 ballistic pistol & Behring P4AR ballistic rifle

finished Klaus and Werner laser repeater (S1-3) & Apocalypse Arms ballistic scattergun (S1-3)

started on Klaus and Werner laser repeater (S4-6)

Worked on general tasks for 3.0 including polishing, optimising and bug fixing

Tech Art Team

finished multiple animation implementation tasks for the useables sprint & cinematics

continued to debug weapon animation issues

adjustments a few weapon rigs to make them more realistic and believable

work on a VFX Exporter primarily to support exporting simulated objects from Maya

continued to support the animation code with ground alignment R&D

Game Programming

spent time fixing outstanding issues and polishing up existing code.

identified and began fixing game code vs. engine code issues with the new airlocks and elevators

added the ability to hide a weapon from first person view in ADS mode

completed the technology to easily apply weapons skins

working on the Weapons System 2.0 and additional elevator and airlock feature polish for 3.0

AI

working on more mission broker and mission system features for PU 3.0 and S42

adapted mission broker to support multiple players accepting the same mission & asymmetrical missions for multiple players.

added support for takeoff and landing of AI ships: landing pads, ship hangars, other ships and celestial surfaces

adding quantum travel functionality for the new non-Kythera AI

focusing on adding more Subsumption AI support: using nav splines and entering/exiting AI behaviour

finished the second Buddy AI sprint: a step towards having companion AI that will intelligently follow and assist the player in combat

Engine

refined the handling of GPU crashes and proper reporting via the Public Crash Handler

worked on performance analysis and engine optimisations for 3.0

started to work on was a new roads system and toolset to work in conjunction with the planetary terrain

Level Design

making a pass on the room system for Levski to ensure the player won't suffocate in random places

performed general polish and bug fixes for 3.0.

started taking a look at the Lorville: the next flagship landing zone

QA

handled multiple test requests from the Engine Team including a change to the Entity Component Update Scheduler

handled test request for area optimisations: improvements to door and elevator code

continued to support Subsumption and Subsumption tools testing

performance testing is underway for the PU

testing various gravity conditions on the new moons

System Design

experimenting with Levski having a full AI population and tweaking behaviours to avoid overcrowding areas

stress testing servers to determine the AI populations that can be supported without degrading performance

Cinematics

continued to work on scenes across all chapters of Squadron 42

continued work on the two dimensional render-to-texture display screen and holographic volume rendering

Lighting

focused solely on applying some of the final touches for 3.0: colour grading for moons, integrating outposts and moon lighting, Levski bug fixes and polish

Environment

polishing and bug fixing existing content for the PU

added new areas and locations to Levski, a new shop and an admin office and performed a final pass on garages

Started post-3.0 R&D: ArcCorp, procedural cities and the planet Hurston

Behind the Scenes: Kiosks and Commodities

The kiosk is an important step in allowing players to buy and sell goods and commodities in game.

Not only does the kiosk support buying and selling, but placement of cargo within ships and is the foundation for interaction with future panels such as elevators, doors, etc.

With the kiosks you'll be able to sort, filter and compare within the interface and choose where you want the items to go. It could be either to your character, your ships cargo, or a designated area.

The kiosk is what most players will see, but underneath the kiosk is an array of systems unified together in order to bring the first stages of the economy to life by having price, quantity, location all have an effect on the global economy that can be manipulated by players in real time.

Factories, shops and more all have needs that players can meet or affect depending on their goal. A trader can bring supplies desperately needed by a factory producing a certain weapon or players could pillage the supply chain in order to drive prices even further up.

The kiosk also expands player persistence to not only what's on them, but their ships as well. Players will be able to store items on their ship and have them remain there the next time they log in.

The kiosks won't all look the same as they've designed the UI and console to be modular to allow the many shops and manufacturers in the game to have their own look and feel with some UIs being either basic or advanced.

With 3.0 players will start to get a good feel at how Star Citizen as it's been talked about in the past, is now becoming playable in front of their eyes.

PCGamer have a new article up detailing their hands on experience with 3.0 here: http://www.pcgamer.com/first-man-on-the-moon-hands-on-with-star-citizen-alpha-30/

The Tumbril Cyclone went on concept sale this week all versions include LTI

Cyclone Warbond: £38.40

Non-Warbond: £48.00

Cyclone-TR Non-Warbond: £52.80

Cyclone-TR Warbond: £43.20

Cyclone-RC Non-Warbond: £52.80

Cyclone-RC Warbond: £43.20

Cyclone-RN Warbond: £43.20

Cyclone-RN Non-Warbond:£52.80

Cyclone-AA Non-Warbond: £67.20

Cyclone-AA Warbond: £57.60

In addition; there are also bundle deals with spaceship as follows:

Air and Space Pack Non-Warbond edition. Contains: Terrapin, Tumbril Cyclone-AA, Takuetsu Cyclone Model, Tumbril Cyclone Poster and LTI: £240

Air and Space Pack Warbond edition. Contains: Terrapin, Tumbril Cyclone-AA, Takuetsu Cyclone Model, Tumbril Cyclone Poster and LTI: £216

All-Terrain Vehicle Mega Pack Non-Warbond edition. Contains: All Cyclone variants at time of print. RSI Lynx Rover, Greycat PTV, Cyclone poster, Takuetsu Cyclone model and LTI: £388.80

All-Terrain Vehicle Mega Pack Warbond edition. Contains: All Cyclone variants at time of print. RSI Lynx Rover, Greycat PTV, Cyclone poster, Takuetsu Cyclone model and LTI: £360.00

Offroad Vehicle Pack Non-Warbond edition. Contains: Tumbril Cyclone-TR, Greycat PTV, RSI Ursa Rover, Takuetsu Cyclone model, Cyclone poster and LTI: £105.60

Offroad Vehicle Pack Warbond edition. Contains: Tumbril Cyclone-TR, Greycat PTV, RSI Ursa Rover, Takuetsu Cyclone model, Cyclone poster and LTI: £86.40

Tumbril Cyclone Pack Non-Warbond edition. Contains: All variants of the Cyclone at time of print, Cyclone poster and LTI: £244.80

Tumbril Cyclone Pack Warbond edition. Contains: All variants of the Cyclone at time of print, Cyclone poster and LTI: £220.80