Star Citizen 3.9.0 New Babbage Preview
Welcome to some more Star Citizen, we have had a good amount of info on New Babbage, the new city opening up on microTech as part of 3.9.
I wanted to combine a lot of the visuals and what we know about the city together to give a bit of a preview tour and talk about what the city has to offer, put it in a bit more context and I also want to briefly talk about Weapon mods that were shown in inside star citizen as well.
New Babbage opening up in Alpha 3.9, it’s the major Landing Zone on microTech. It’s also a major spawn location.
When visiting you’ll land at the New Babbage interstellar SpacePort there, which is outside the city. This should have access to garages and to leave by foot if you want as well.
Ship Rentals and the like will be available from the SpacePort.
There is a large atrium there that connects to transit trains (similar to ArcCorps System) that take you to New Babbage which is around 24 kilometers away BUT the train is VERY fast.
This is the Grand Line there can take you to the Commons area OR Aspire Grand in addition to the SpacePort. There maybe other lines opening up in the future.
The commons area which has a park/exercise type area, you’ll see NPCs chilling or exercising, there is a gym there, all inspired by tech campuses of today. Also there are artisanal food courts and shops here, lots of choice.
We have seen
Garcia’s Greens
Twyn’s Sandwiches
Ellroys Coffee
As well as whammers burgers that we know is in new Babbage
The Commons main area also connects to 2 other areas the Promenade & The Plaza.
The former has a Sky Bridge that connects from the Commons to the promenade it is positioned to be able to view microTech and what’s going on outside in all it’s majesty. various entertainment areas, wallys bar, a climbing wall, high class restaurants, waterfalls, exotic plants, ice sculptures, all juxtaposed to the glass domes showing off the icy world outside.
Wally’s Bar here is a massive location and will be a social hub for players to meet with their Orgs and friends, it’s also likely going to be one of the places that sees BarTender NPCs get really put through their paces when they are ready for primetime.
You’ll see a bit of food & some other more casual shops here.
The Plaza Location again off from the Commons is focused on shops & commerce. It has microTech’s main store but also has elements of silicon valley startup companies around the area too.
Shops, Trade Areas, Offices, Components on Display. You’ll be able to buy a huge range of things here, eventually mobiGlas variants / upgrades and things like that too are a possibility.
Offices Named after Moons
Trade Development Division – Commodity market prices
Aspire Grand is the other location the train line goes as is where the Nest Apartments and Player Spawn / Habs are. It’s the really big building at the heart of new babbage, with the hole in it… it will make for some interesting visuals with players flying thru.
This area will also be where you see things like medical facilities in the future.
There are HoloGram Guides in the SpacePort and Around microTech that you can interact with to get some more info on the area and lore there.
All elevators & interactions are built with the new UIs in mind, more pressy button rather than interacting with inner thought.
There are surface exits with garages/exits both in the spaceport and around the inner city, with plan to get players more active around these areas and getting more life into these zones.
Also in Inside Star Citizen from the 26th March they talked about
Weapon Attachments which are getting a bit of an overhaul in 3.9.
The Building Blocks New UI has been used to get a weapon mod system that can be changed easily on the fly.
You can use the inner thought or interaction system to customize your weapon.
Which will then bring up an inspect view of your weapon and you can highlight the attachment points to then customize them.
This will show all available mods you own for that slot and preview them with a hologram and clicking them will immediately attach them.
It’s very much a WIP and first stage implementation and it will be getting an art pass and then looks to pretty work later.
Each attachment should be recognisable with it’s own unique icon in the future, they want full 3d hollow previews.
We also have some new bearing holo optics as well which are very clean and more FPSHooter Traditional.
In the future expect to see stats and more information about mod choices and changes as well as animations of your characters changing the mods.
They want the customization and inspect modes to be unified allowing you more movement while modding.
More generally we are going to see a lot of new UIs, improvements and interactions coming to the game over the next few quarters as CIG implements building blocks improvements to all their systems.