Star Citzien 3.11 Roadmap & Potential Features

Star Citizen, Alpha 3.10.0 is about to go to wider PTU and with that there will be a torrent of Star Citizen Content released upon the interwebs in the meantime I wanted to Look Ahead to Star Citizen Alpha 3.11 what’s currently on the roadmap for the patch and what we might see.

Star Citizen Alpha 3.11.0 is the Q3 2020 Patch Expected at the end of September 2020.

Please understand that even if a feature is discussed here or on the Roadmap it might still get delayed… 3.11 is in an interesting place as typically the Q3 patch for a year is a bit smaller due to CitizenCon taking up some development resources, this year CitizenCon is cancelled and this may see the patch actually be a bit more content-full.

I’ll start with a major set of Features: the Refinery & Cargo Decks. These are New Locations and Sets of Features for Space Stations.

Refinery Decks are dedicated areas in Stations that serve as mining hubs, where the player can drop off mined materials to be refined, pick up mining missions, or buy new mining equipment. You’ll take mineables here and then be able to pay for them to be refined and after an amount of time the resources will be available for you to pickup. At this stage it is likely it will just allow you to potentially make more profit.

Cargo Decks are facilities within Stations where players can handle all their cargo needs. From dropping off and picking up, buying new cargo equipment, and taking on cargo-related missions including escorts. There are plans to have times associated and costs with loading and unloading cargo here as well and eventually you’ll be able to rent space here too.

Docking HOWEVER was removed from 3.11… this is one of those features like Salvage that has seen consistent delays, I would expect it for the Q4 2020 patch tho due to how important it is, as it allows the spawning/storage of larger ships at stations and where appropriate docks exist.

Moreover to this the Push Pull mechanics planned for 3.11 allow players to grab larger objects and move them around an environment. This will at somepoint add to Cargo mechanics and depending on if the iCache is complete and cargo gets physicalized here COULD allow for the moving of cargo between ships making piracy much more viable.

Also we know that CI have been working on a gravity tool for the multi-tool that would also aid in the movement of boxes. 

The Multi-Tool Cutting Module will allow players to cut through specific objects with their multi-tool. This will primarily include the ability to free-form cut on specific surfaces.

There are uses here for missions and puzzles (like from the Original Satellite Down Mission) BUT also there are strong Potentials for T0 Salvage & Looting potentially allowing for the removal of components and weapons from a ship.

The Origin 100 Series of Starter Ships are here this is the 100i starter, 125a combat & 135c cargo variant.

And excitingly (for me anyway) the Mercury Star Runner medium sized multi-role cargo/data runner.

There is no confirmation if there is going to be a way to use the Data Running abilities of the MSR or Herald in 3.11, tho a real basic version of data as cargo or a mission items being carried by them are possible. 

There are further combat updates with the Missile Operator Mode – Giving players the ability to select and fire specific missiles and torpedoes.

Expect to see even more tweaks to the combat and flight model here as well with feedback from the changes in 3.10.

There are some important netcode improvements with the Server to Client Actor Networking Rework better communicating player actions from the server to the client

This will improve the positioning and movement of players and NPCs with improved dead reckoning, helping to reduce perceived lag and instances of rubber-banding basically less jankiness while also getting the code in a better state for SSOCS, iCache and in the future Server Meshing.

Ship AI are getting Hazard Awareness and Avoidance Updates allowing them to identify hazardous entities such as heavily guarded zones, etc. and steer clear of peril accordingly or at least be aware of it and factor it into their action.

Interestingly there are Combat Improvements and Polishing for FPS AI touted as “Final touches to the FPS combat AI”

This polishing pass contains final work on behaviors and balancing, as well as bug fixing. The overall goal is to improve the look and feel of character combat in the game. I assume it’s more referring to the basic combat AI rather than all of the planned AI features, as there is no way FPS AI is going to be fully done here!

They  are Improving grenade throwing to make it more accurate and reliable, as well as expanding & unifying the throwing mechanic to accommodate other objects in the world.

Also we have the Behring GP-33 grenade launcher here – Previously we saw some leaks with this showing it might have various types of ammo available OR maybe other grenades to throw.

Elevator Panels – The utilitarian elevator panels are being updated to use interactable screens moving away from innerthrought and instead a more tactile experience.

The Ability for criminals in ships to surrender to security rather than be killed is being added.

Coming to a halt and powering down their ships when ordered to by security. Security will halt their attack and arrest criminal players aboard the ship, impounding the ship if owned by a criminal. The Criminal will spawn in prison if appropriate.

There are Death Animation Improvements – Combining updated ragdoll properties with the animation system to make the death reactions of players and NPCs more realistic. This will be achieved by blending death animations with physical ragdoll simulation and should help with body dragging looking even better.

Some other Features Potentials that are being worked on BUT Not yet on the Roadmap.

The iCache or Item Cache is being built and may be completed around where 3.11 hits, it’s important for item tracking, efficiency and allows for full persistence of items, so you could hide a stack of gear in an area and come back for it later.

Expect to see some new Missions that make use of the new features being added to 3.11 or evolving from other content added in the last few quarters, we know that CI want to have multi-part missions and missions that become available to others once some have been completed by another player. 

It would be awesome to see some of the Quanta, Universe Simulation Dynamic Economy / Mission stuff, we could see some early parts of it, if it’s ready.

We know that CI have been building out Ship UIs & MFD Updates, we recently saw the changes that the Gladius is getting, expect this to be further to completion in 3.11 with maybe some ships having been updated.

The Gladius is getting an external weapons rack in 3.10 and we could see more functional Weapons/Item Racks in 3.11 on other ships. 

Physicalized Inventory for players is currently being worked on by CI as is Physicalized Components for ships, we don’t know the time frame on these features yet BUT they are being actively worked on now.

Something else CI have been saying should be in the game soon is vehicle in ship spawning, allowing you to have your ursa rover start in your carrack for example.

The Mission Giver Eddie Parr is could turn up here as he was moved out of 3.10, though CI said they were doing a pass at all the Mission Givers so this could be for Q4.

Stuff that was removed from the Roadmap like the NPC Scheduler, Shield Replacement Tech & Weapon Handling Features we don’t know where they will land… 

We should see Evolutions of current mechanics & 3.10 stuff, new items available to purchase, more ships and rentals may be available in game from the already flyable selection.

Again we don’t know when this will land but CI have been working on a Resource/Power System for ships as well that kind of will be part of physicalized Damage/components, tracking where everything is going and being converted into so that ships operate more realistically and are affected by damage.

There is the possibility that we could see a new straight to flyable ship or vehicle as well. 

And that’s it, though as I said earlier, things change and we could certainly see bits move off and maybe some extra bits moved on to 3.11 as well.