Star Citizen – CitizenCon Tickets On Sale Next Week & New Shield Effects 3.6
Welcome to some more Star Citizen News today looking at a sneak peek of the Prowler interior, 3.6 Alpha Roadmap Updates, New Shield Effects and CitizenCon 2019 Tickets on Sale Next Week.
Newsletter – 21st June
The latest quarterly patch, Alpha 3.6, is currently in the capable hands of the Evocati test group. Their efforts ensure the patch will reach the PU with the many diabolical bugs and issues thoroughly obliterated. They have our gratitude. For more on the new features and improvements coming in Alpha 3.6, straight from the devs and Chris Roberts himself, be sure to check out our latest quarterly series, Pillar Talk.
We saw some of the early work on the Prowler interior in a sneak peek video from the Newsletter as well.
You can find the newsletter and links to all that is discussed down below in the description / comments.
CitizenCon 2949 Wave 1 Tickets
Calling all Explorers,
CitizenCon 2949 approaches and we could not be more excited to celebrate Star Citizen and its community together in Manchester, England – Saturday, November 23rd at Manchester Central Convention Complex.
Next week, we’ll kick off wave 1 of ticket sales alongside an update to our CitizenCon website, providing additional information about this year’s event.
- 125 tickets – Thursday, June 27 at 18:00 UTC – Concierge/Subs Only
- 125 tickets – Thursday, 27th June at 22:00 UTC – Concierge/Subs Only
- 125 tickets – Friday, June 28 at 18:00 UTC – All Backers
- 125 tickets available on Friday, June 28 at 22:00 UTC – All Backers
They look like they will be available via the CitizenCon Website: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/citizencon
So that first wave of tickets is for 500 total, I suspect there will be another wave in the future if for some reason they don’t sell all the tickets, it’s also possible there could be more tickets in the future too. Also this year seems to have just one ticket type, which is an improvement imo. I believe last year you couldn’t use store credit to buy tickets so bear that in mind if you are after one.
Roadmap Update
There are a good amount of features completed for 3.6 this week.
Rest Stop Space Stations : Exterior Variations, The P72 Archimedes & P52 Merlin Rework.
The MaxOx Neutron Repeaters, Klaus & Werner Lumin V SMG & Behring S38 Pistol
There are still 7 Features left to complete for 3.6 initial release and another 2 for a 3.6.x coming later those 2 being Ship Rentals & the 890 Jump which both saw some progress.
Back to 3.6 Initial, Weapon Attachments, the Vanguard Warden Rework & Distribution & Ecosystem improvements are dangerously close to being cut from the initial release IMO though as they are only 60%, 43% & 35% complete by task and have a lot of tasks to complete. Hopefully they won’t get pushed back to 3.6.x
They also have to get the new shield tech framework in and then start on Performance Optimization for the patch.
Typically I avoid evocati leaks at the moment but when CIG employees comment on them I think that moves it far enough into public domain.
3.6 is getting the framework for some new shield tech BUT not the full thing currently:
CIGs Intrieri (Principal Ship Technical Artist) responded to a clip of some of the new shield effects in 3.6
Hi! Just wanted to mention that this isn’t the new SDF (Signed Distance Field) tech just yet. The old bubble effect visual was tweaked for 3.6, but we’re working on SDF for the next release. Instead of a 2D texture effect, the SDF will cause particles to flow over it. Looks amazing for hits, re-entry and cloudy turbulence visuals!
Another question was asked – To clarify, the Signed Distance Field is what you’re calling the visuals where the shield effects better follow the exterior of the ship rather than be a bubble?
Imagine an invisible field that wraps the hull but is pushed out a bit as the “SDF”. Now add a projectile that when it collides causes particles to spew out. The visual is the particles following the contours of the SDF.
So it appears that in initial 3.6 we are getting some improved effects and then at a later stage the finished product with 3.6 laying the framework for that.
Star Citizen Live: Dressing the Scene
Looked at props and placing them in game to create and enhance gameplay area and scenes. They made a crime scene in a back alley of Area 18 on ArcCorp.
They can edit and drop in prefabs straight into the environment at real time, this can also be as simple as copy paste BUT also allows them to move an item or prefab where-ever they want.
Objects that aren’t in view or are behind doors are culled out on the client for performance BUT OCS allows for them to be quickly physicalized when they come back into view.
A large amount of props are created to help dress areas and make believable environments. Some items will be used for one area, others might see variants or reuse BUT they want to avoid repetition where not appropriate.
Groups of props are dropped into kits that allow them to quickly build out and search for appropriate props easily for building out a themed zone.
The Crime scene that they made had a body bag and various associated props and placeables from a kit already, blood splatter, evidence bags… the use of these really transforms an area. Lastly props can be scaled up and down on the fly as well.
They are moving transit systems such as Trains & Public Transport to looped tracks & we will have more trains and buses on those loops so we won’t have to be waiting around long to move around from area to area.
Ship damage & it’s visuals are now persistent even to debris and sections of destroyed ships. You can write your name in the hull of a ship or debris with weapons fire.
The S38 Ballistic Pistol is medium damage, semi auto medium fire rate and pretty accurate.
The Lumin V SMG is a 5 short burst laser weapon.
They have also been doing some early work on having tinted dust & effects based on the surface materials of a planet or moon.
And that’s it for the news this week I am going to be looking to grab a CitizenCon ticket