Star Citizen 3.10 – What’s On The Roadmap?
elcome to some more Star Citizen News we have a few little updates BUT mainly I’ll be focusing on the Changes to and current State of the 4.0 now 3.10 Patch for the Persistent Universe.
CI have changed (or at least tweaked) the Patch Naming Scheme for Star Citizen’s Quarterly Patches.
Q2 the June 2020 Patch was supposed to be Alpha 4.0, that’s now named 3.10 and the one after Q3 2020 September Patch 3.11.
The 4.0 Patch Title is being reserved for the Addition of the Pyro System into the game.
Again in the future with 5.0 expect that name to used for a big ticket feature release.
As we don’t have details of the Q4 2020 Patch for December we don’t know if it’s going to be 3.12 OR 4.0… CI are making progress on the Pyro System so even with other delays going on we could still see it in 2020, MAYBE QUESTION MARK?
We have seen some changes to the Roadmap for that now 3.10 patch so what are it’s planned features now?
We saw the NPC Scheduler, Shield Tech Replacement & Realistic Weapon Handling Features move off the Visible Roadmap. They will return in the future.
GrimHex is getting updates to make it into a fully fledged Landing Zone with internal hangars, the ability to spawn large ships, a race course and various other updates to it’s facilities. This is in aide of giving a pirate / outlaw haven in the Stanton System.
New Babbage is getting additional shops opening up. The Factory Line Store is opening up in the main shopping area, it’s the FlagShip store for microTech… it sells computer and tech related items like mobiGlas’ & Simpods. To what extent it will have purchaseable useful items in 3.10 remains to be seen tho. It might be somewhere you get Computer Blades & AI Modules in the future… Maybe?
They are also opening a shop that sells flair, souvenirs and knick-knacks. I am hoping that this will allow for some interesting customization, I’d like to buy food and drink makers for ships!
An Addition to Wally’s Bar at New Babbage is of the Bar’s Owner Eddie Parr who is a new mission giver. He is a bit of a smuggler bringing other forms of “entertainment” to new babbage and it’s suspected his Missions will be smuggling oriented, maybe mixed with a bit of delivery and combat.
Star Citizen’s Planet Tech v4 is seeing additional updates with the Ocean Shader – Adding support for in-game oceans to react to flares and local lights using screen-space and cubemap reflection. Upgraded shading to include a Fresnel component and Sub-surface scattering term, and new shader features, to enhance the realism of oceans with improved refraction and additional detail layers.
We also have Heightmap Updates to fully take advantage of higher resolution. This will mean more detail can be utilized during the painting process and we should see better LODs, blending and better looking terrain and features.
The long awaited Cutlass Blue is being made flyable, it’s supposed to be the more armored militia version of the Cutlass. A more rounded cockpit and blue livery are what make it unique externally and they’ve mentioned that it has cells still for bounties, there have also been rumors of a QED like the mantis has, this could be a variant, module or just a rumor. If I can stripe the internals and have data or cargo space then I would happily use that rather than my Cutlass Black!
The m50 is also getting it’s updates here, bringing it in line with the rest of the Origin series, I’d also expect it to be potentially very useful in the GrimHex Races…
We have some weapons the Lightning Bolt Co Atzkav Electron Sniper Rifle and Yubarev Pistol. These will have a new damage type in game. There is also the C54 Ballistic SMG as well as updates to the Sledge Mass Driver S1-3 Ship Weapons.
Along with general ongoing updates to Social & Ship AI there are 2 major listed features for 3.10 focusing on FPS AI – “Weapon Types that should Update current combat AI to make them act more realistic and tactical. Adding new behaviors that will allow AI to utilize wider range of weaponry”
There is cover usage here as well. “Expanding the tactic selection for the NPC-Human Combat to analyse the environment and detect, in absence of full cover, possible positions where they can engage enemies without being fully exposed to them. This includes objects such as small crates, which could potentially provide partial cover.”
There are UI Updates that are ongoing with CI new Building Blocks System, they want to have the Elevators all updated to use the more interactable screens as they move away from inner thought for interaction.
Ships HUDs are getting reworked too with many much needed improvements pushing them towards a more complete, useful & functional implementation.
There are potentially some very big combat changes coming too, a Targeting Update that Fundamental changes to how targets are tracked with further UI updates to improve the visibility of locked and tracked targets, and the return of pinned targets.
Also there is High Speed Combat changes, when you are moving above SCM speeds you’ll see more limited function with your ship we don’t know exactly what yet but it could be you can’t QT or you can’t use missiles or you are otherwise more vulnerable. The idea being it will push players into engagements at lower speeds.
Body Dragging is planned here. Enabling a character to pull another prone character, this will eventually be very important to medical gameplay, pulling buddies out of combat to stabilize and heal them. They also want players to be knocked down, stunned, bleeding out and that kind of thing as well. It will be useful for Bounty Hunting and Mission rescuing NPCs as well.
The Surrender Mechanics are here too giving players the ability to surrender as an action or by slowing their ship to a complete halt and powering down when ordered to by security. Impounding the ship and not killing the player… but that will put you in prison if you had done an appropriate crime.
We are getting Restricted Areas Reworked, around Major Landing Zones and Cities you see Players be guided more appropriately to their landing pad or hangar and movement near cities being more natural. This should make for better city flybys and exploration of them.
Beyond that we could see something new like a straight to flyable ship or vehicle.
We know that CI wanted to get the Idris mission in 3.9 but it wasn’t ready, so hopefully that will fall in 3.10 as well now. More generally there should be more missions, ones for Eddie Parr, potentially the race track for GrimHex might be functional, there could be new foods, harvestables, mineables and UEC making opportunities.
The Sneak Peek this week was of the Hercules Starlifters upper deck.
The Star Lifter is currently not on the Roadmap for release BUT I would expect it for the Q4 2020 Patch.
RSI Subscribers can bring citizens back from the brink in the Drake Cutlass Red for the month of May. With a built-in medical bed that doubles as a mobile spawn point, it’s the ideal support for any dangerous op.
Referring a friend until the 11th of May will net you both a GreyCat Buggy if they Purchase at least a Starter Pack (spend $45) in that time.
We are still awaiting details of Fleet Week, Squadron 42 Updates, the free fly and the 3.9.1 patch, we should see more on those soon tho!
And that’s it for the news and the 3.10 Roadmap Update.