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Star Citizen News – 3.6 Roadmap & Hover Mode Updates – Crytek’s New Lawsuit Stance

Welcome to some more Star Citizen News today covering the latest SC Newsletter, Additional Alpha 3.5.1 Fixes, Updates the PU Roadmap, more info on VTOL & Hover Mode as well as some statement and response from Crytek’s New Lawyers.


Let’s Start From the Newsletter

Alpha 3.5.1 has been unleashed upon the Persistent Universe, bringing with it the newly revamped 300 Series from Origin, manufacturer-level ship customization (for the 300 series), and multiple bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements.

Star Citizen Alpha 3.5.1e LIVE

There was a little mini update a Fix for server performance slowdown. It was tested in the PTU then deployed to LIVE servers.

Alpha 3.5.1 does have some issues still CPU spikes, ships jitter and other AI and Combat issues, there was a problem where you had to spool your Quantum Drive before calibrating. There were also some issues that seemed to appear a while after 3.5.1s inital release. However this morning I have had great success playing around in the Verse a significantly better experience than previously with 3.5, though often when a patch has been deployed and not many people are online I have great performance so bare that in mind, it requires more testing. There are things that desperately need to get fixed for Alpha 3.6 though.

The Origin Celebration is on meaning that anyone with a GamePackage has access to all the currently flyable Origin Ships in game until the 13th of June. That’s the 85x, 300 series, m50 & 600i.

The New Customization System is available from the website for the 300 series of ships allowing you to customize colors, aesthetics and item packages, some options are free others have a cost attached, the system will evolve and will eventually be available fully in game, with in game credits and will roll out to more ships in the future.

Star Citizen PU Roadmap

For Alpha 3.6 Rest Stop Exterior Variation, Weapons Attachments, AI Cover Usage, P72 Archimedes have seen significant progress

Player Free Look as well as the incredibly important Client to Server Actor Networking Rework are completed & are now in polish. That Update should help significantly with jitter and server issues.

Additional tasks have been added to the Black Market Economy and Misfires.

There seems to have been some delays in regard to AI features, 3D Pathfinding v2, Bartender NPC and Civilian NPC have all moved to Alpha 3.7.

With 3.7 in mind, Unoccupied Rest Stop stations have been pushed back from 3.7 to 3.8.

It’s a shame to see those AI features get pushed back for sure, potentially we could see some partial implementation in the 3.6 patch still though.

This week’s Sneak Peek was of a new Space Station

VTOL & Hover Mode Changes

In Inside Star Citizen they showed off some early stages of the new VTOL Hover Mode that will have ships acting more like helicopters when it’s activated OR moving at low speeds, tilting forward will move you forward as all your thrust is being aimed down, there have been some further updates to this CIG DColson taking to spectrum (the lead on the Flight Model):

They’ve made a lot of changes to hover mode specifically spurred about by mining and scanning to make that whole process easier. For example:

  • Certain ships have the ability to rotate their vtol thrusters so they can tilt the ship forward and not drift. The prospector being the prime example. It can face down about 10 degrees without moving forward
  • We now allow you to strafe back/forward and left/right with normal strafe controls, so you can face down even more and strafe backward to try and balance yourself without falling forward (bit tricky to pull off though, for more advanced players)
  • We implemented an auto-hover mechanic that’s bound to the spacebrake. If you hold spacebrake the ship will arrest any sliding and sit in a stable hover. While this is on you can freely rotate your gimbals to face down at surface targets. So you can turn on the brake, and then gimbal your mining laser to a rock and mine without any issue.

Hover mode is a bit of a mix of decoupled and normal flight mode, and so you can no longer enable or disable decoupled in hover mode. Hover mode is very much like decoupled already. If you strafe left and right you have to counter it yourself to stop.

It was necessary to take some of the coupled behaviour away for hover mode to work, otherwise you’d never get “drifting” around.

Crytek Response to Bond

Crytek have new representation and have responded to CIG’s Motion for a Bond which is supposed to cover all of CI possible costs should they be deemed the prevailing party.

It’s an interesting Read BUT I’ll summarize it as I understand it.

Crytek believe that the bond value of $2.2 million is too high.

Crytek wants the court to deny the motion for bond or reduce it.

And that CI have not met the burden showing that them prevailing is likely for the bond.

They also believe that they will be the prevailing party & that CI have not shown any analysis of how they would prevail themselves other than referring to claims as meritless quibbles.

And issues that we had with Crytek’s previous attorneys can now be ignored, also implying they will get the case done more efficient and less costly to everyone fees wise.

They did say they wanted Discovery to be much more straightforward as the issues are not particular complicated.

They also argue that the fact CI have sent them bugfixes now should be weighed toward Crytek being the prevailing party BUT CI need to be providing yearly updates.

And have changed or have a new focus, that CIG should still be tied to the GLA and it looks like that they are saying Lumberyard Engine has things that are also in Crytek’s Code so CI haven’t really changed engine and should still be using the trademarks and logos and are tied in to the original GLA.

BugSmashers showed Code and Faceware had CryEngine Code shared with them they should not of.

They suggest there is no need for a Source Code Expert.

Also that Squadron 42 the fact it was developed at any point using CryEngine was not allowed, the argument there will be (CI were always planning to sell it as a seperate game, where as CI are likely to say, it was both part of the agreement and it was only sold as a seperate game after the switch, previous to that it was only available with SC as a package)

A beautiful phrase they use is:

Crytek  is fairness  driven not money  driven, and if fairness ultimately means nothing more than stopping CIG in its tracks because monetary relief is not available, that would meet Crytek’s objectives.

Crytek will seek discovery  demonstrating that, before  CIG entered the Amazon license

CIG’s principle explanation — its activities in developing Squadron 42 as a stand-alone game were  knowingly and intentionally in breach of the GLA. Regardless, if monetary

damages are not available, Crytek seeks equitable relief blocking any further use or development of Squadron 42 using the CryEngine as that entire game is now built on unlicensed development activities.

Crytek will also be able to show damages (both monetary and reputational) for CIG’s failure to display its credits.

Although this is much more geared towards trying to reduce or remove the Bond BUT it does suggest Crytek’s new lawyers position and hopefully they will be much more amenable to putting a settlement position forward. It is a little more doubling down and sidestepping to other arguments and creative use of the GLA wording still, but they are lawyers, that’s what they do. I’ll update you on any more information as it arrives at my eyes.