Star Citizen 3.8.0 PTU Wave 1 – New Features

Star Citizen Alpha 3.8.0 is now with the 1st wave of a wider PTU that includes RSI Subs & Concierge in addition to the Evocati testers. Let’s take a look at the features and patch notes.

The Patch is not yet complete, expect more additions, tweaks and fixes over the coming week before a LIVE build.

Server-side Object Container Streaming v1 (SOCS) has been implemented and is currently being stress tested.

Players now have the ability to select their initial spawn location when it is their first time logging into the game.
Planets and moons have been updated to Planetary Tech v4 which has seen big changes to the way they look and their generation, including the distribution of biomes on Hurston.
MicroTech Planet has been added including the exterior of New Babbage – The interior of New Babbage is not completed and is unavailable for now, it’s going to be added in Alpha 3.9.

Orbital Space Stations above major planetary landing zones have been added, some of these have EZhabs and will count as spawn locations, such as port tressler above microTech.
There are new Rest Stop Station interior variants and Stations have been updated with these.

An Early Form of Weather had been added

Added visor and canopy moisture effects when in appropriate environments.

Added wind texture rotation on all planets and moons.

Added dust/sand storm effects to appropriate planetary bodies.
Wind will now effect the flight model while ships are in flight.

New Additions to the Law System

Impounding – Players who incur landing infractions that cause their ship to be forcibly despawned will now see it as “impounded” rather than “stored” when they return to the ASOP terminal. Players can then see their infraction and either pay to have their vehicle removed from the impound or wait until the vehicle is released. Different jurisdictions have different fine amounts and impound times.

Fines – are no longer automatically deducted at time of infraction, but instead accumulate on the player until they manually pay them off. Fines can be payed off at new fine paying consoles, located at all major landing zones. At the consoles, players can choose which fines to pay (ordered by importance) or simply “pay all” to clear all fines. Fine amounts increase over time to reward quick/early payment. If a fine elapses (goes unpaid after a period of time), the player will incur a felony.

Added criminal infraction for “battery”.

Added melee combat including fist and knife fighting along with lethal and non-lethal takedowns.

Melee is now in the game, for light attacks press L/RMB, heavy hold them.

Attacks are directional (LMB for left, RMB for right) and can be chained together for combinations. Block by holding L&RMB together and facing the attack. Dodge by double tapping a direction other than forward. Attacking an unaware enemy from behind with middle mouse will perform a takedown.

Unarmed melee is non leathal and renders enemies uncounsous, you can also equip a knife tho… which is very leathal. To pull out your equipped knife (which you can buy at FPS shops and put in a utility slot) press 5 and to go back to unarmed 0.

Grim HEX armistice has been updated to allow non-lethal melee combat.

New Missions

New mission: Rescue hijacked 890 Jump
Added “cell type” bounty missions requiring multiple targets to be taken down.
Added greater difficulty patrol style missions that spawn harder ships and sentry turrets.

Call to Arms is a general mission that allows players to gain UEC for killing any criminals they encounter and can be accepted to gain bonuses for each criminal eliminated that are not part of regular missions. These include any random criminals spawned as part of environmental scenarios as well as interdictions.

Land Claim Jumps which task you with taking out turrets around asteroids.

There are various other mission chains as well including taking out members of the Arlington Gang which is currently a 6 part mission. There were rumors of an idris being at the end of the mission, I can confirm that currently there is no Idris in this mission AT LEAST not as part of this PTU.

Moved Wallace Klim to GrimHex.
Moved Miles Eckhart to Lorville at MacIntyre & Victor’s Bar.

Updated mission icons.
Improved AI ship collision avoidance.
Increased the speed of most first person animations.

Mining Updates

Adjusted spawn rates for valuable mining materials & instability on FPS mineables.

There are new mining vehicle attachments: Mining Laser Heads.

Laser heads are the mining component that is responsible for fracturing and extraction. These components can now be swapped and purchased, with different components offering different advantages and disadvantages when in use. Laser heads currently can have different instability dampening, resistance modifiers, extraction rates, power transfer rate, optimal charge rate, range, power consumption, heat generation, signature size, and wear characteristics.

Rebalanced mineable rocks and lasers for expanded range of laser heads and to expand difficulty.

Ships and Vehicles

Updated and rebalanced ship components (shields, powerplants, coolers, quantum drives.) around manufacturer characteristics so that each item is now unique with unique strengths and weaknesses related to their intended use.

They Added annunciator panels to some ships that displays various state driven ship conditions.

They have updated the camera/chase camera for ships for improved behavior and stability and less shake AND Set the new look ahead to be the default mode.

Reworked what was “target focus” into the new look ahead setup as “Look at selected target” which will have you trying to follow the target with your head.

There is an experimental option for look ahead mode – In that mode, look ahead now looks into the ship’s “velocity vector”, look into turns, rolls into turns, and toward the horizon when near planetary surfaces, dynamically blending when appropriate. Head motion can also be impacted by g-forces to give an additional sense of motion.

Added g-force induced head movement, the strength of which can be customized in the game settings.

They Added a new keybind to deselect a target which is ZERO 0

The reliant now has decoupled it’s flight modes by pressing J.
Disabled canopy interactions during quantum travel.
There have been various minor improvements to ships, UIs and animations.
Updated the size and scale of ship status visor displayed and moved some ships displays to exclusively MFD. Added a drop shadow to all ship HUDs.

There are various weapon tweaks, fixes and they have updated shop logos & brands.
Added Ballista to New Deal and Astro Armada. The Heartseeker has a military power plant. The Pisces now has gimbals.
Ship weapon convergence point when no target is active can now be manually set in the options menu.

A Couple of new FPS Weapons are in the game –

Animus Missile Launcher – Once target lock is achieved, the Animus launcher rapidly fires multiple missiles from its barrels, unleashing the kind of devastation that Apocalypse Arms is known for.

The Behring P6-LR ballistic sniper rifle more than makes up for its slow rate of fire with a high powered 0.50 cal round that’s effective from long range. Featuring a scope with variable zoom modes and a barrel composed of a proprietary high-strength alloy, the P6-LR was designed to deliver when needed most.

Major Bug Fixes

NPC security at major stations should no longer occasionally get stuck in a combat ready pose.
AI mission target ships should now consistently spawn for all related missions.
Fixed an issue on multiple ships where a player could eva through landing gear without collision.
Missiles should now correctly fire to sub-target.
The player should now be aligned properly to the MFD and interaction nodes when laying in the bed of the Mustang Beta.
Small vehicles should no longer be able to enter Port Olisar’s airlocks.
Vehicles at Lorville gates should now be properly restricted by the restricted area.
The turret gunner in AI Cutlass should no longer be standing up.
Bindings for target scanning controls should now be visible in the binding menu.

There are still various Known Issues

There is a client crash that occurs on exiting the PU.
The player will suffocate in the Terrapin if they sit in the pilot seat without a helmet.
If the quantum travel marker is at the edge of a moon or planet they can QT through the moon and explode.
Party launch is currently not functioning.
If a player interacts with a fine kiosk they will be turned around and unable to interact.
There are no items available for purchase at commodity kiosks.
Many flight suits and armor are missing from shop mannequins and kiosks.
The buttons on the Fine and Citations kiosk can frequently not respond to the player’s interaction.
There’s a chance the enemy AI in the hijacked 890 mission will not react to the player.
Personal transport beacons do not broadcast.
The Vanguard Sentinel is incorrectly named Harbinger on ASOP and comms channel.
Carriable mission items can fall through flooring.
Purchased commodities will often visually not appear in the ship’s hold.
The collision for commodities in a ship’s hull is out of place.
Carriable boxes may fall through the flooring.
Players may experience stalls in performance shortly after loading into Star Marine and firing weapons.
Player AR markers for party members do not display consistently.
NPC beacon notifications will sometimes display an incorrect distance.
AI ships can often get stuck in the middle of their motion and not advance further.
AR makers for enemies can sometimes be seen through walls in Star Marine.