Star Citizen’s New 400i Ship is Causing Some Drama

We have some drama and updates around the latest flyable ship in the game the 400i, 3.15 is gearing up for wider PTU, when are we getting components diversity again, we also have some company financial infos coming out of CI as well… let’s jump right in.

CitizenCon Highlights, 3.15 PTU in Wave 1, and Halloween Contests!

Star Citizen Alpha 3.15 is currently in Wave 1 PTU but should be going to wider PTU Shortly.

The patch adds loads of new features including major medical & Inventory Updates and expanded FPS Missions. I’d expect to see wider PTU by the end of the week and a live build potentially next week if all goes well.

The 400i had some changes in the latest PTU patch that are going to be reverted CIG Said:

“The 400i will be reverted back to close to the original tuning and landed height in the next PTU patch. We found that raising the 400i by stiffening the gears compromised the feel of the landing and the role in which the vehicle is meant to play in the ‘verse. It was something that I personally wanted to see if we could make work and so I was given permission to try different tunings while in PTU, but raising the ship turned out to have too many knock-ons.”

The ship does seem to be a bit polarizing to some. With people complaining that it doesn’t have enough cargo space OR it’s not really a competitor to the Constellation.

Players were kind of fitting vehicles like a ROC in it’s cargo bay too… but that was causing some collision and logistic issues and the ship isn’t really built to have a vehicle in it’s cargo hold. Infact a CI dev said they would be removing the ability for a vehicle to be carried there:

My apologies for giving this ability and removing it, but the final tuning will not accommodate a Roc or a Cyclone MT for this release. In future releases, we are working on ways of aligning the Lifts and Ramps to the ground that will adapt to variable terrain. One of those features will be “sticky” lifts and ramps that stay aligned to the ground when the ship is moving by playing a specific frame of the animation until it collides. This would allow the lifts to open more than they do now, if one were to hover slightly or land over a depression.

You can read into that how you want… maybe in the future you will be able to jam a vehicle in there like a ROC and it will be ok… maybe it isn’t the intention to do that.

The 400i is a luxury exploration ship, it’s not going to be super long range for expeditions like the Carrack but it has the ability to carry a ground vehicle (more specifically the X1 bike) and carry 3 players around with some facilities, 42 SCU isn’t a huge amount but it’s fine for the 400i’s needs. Really at the moment it’s getting compared to other multirole ships and just isn’t as good at any one role… when exploration is a thing then something like the 400i that is in a smaller package might start to shine a bit brighter.

I am really liking the Sabre Updates, the dashboard looks great and the ship handles extremely well.

I saw a thread with someone asking when is the Sabre Raven going to get the same pass and updates that the Sabre Gold Standard recently had BUT CI have yet to respond to that part of the question… maybe one day the ship will get some love.

One last thing from some ship updates Red Huntress asked on a spectrum thread:

I think everyone is wondering when we are going to see diversity among components restored again (aside from Weapons which already has some diversity). That’s a big one. Even if you just set expectations and don’t promise, we still want to know that it’s not being swept under the rug for a long period of time.

CI Responded:

That process has already started. 3.15.0 adds the first pass of balancing for shield generators which is in PTU already. Vehicle weapon work is ongoing as well but the bulk of it won’t be included in 3.15. I am not sure if we will do a big “now all weapons are tuned” patch. Just as with flight balance this will be ongoing over several releases.

This Week’s Sneak Peek is of a Hospital Interior this is probably Maria Pure of Heart on Hurston or the Hospital at Area 18.

Digital Goodies Pack – There were some problems getting these out to players.

If you are still waiting on your items CI are dealing with it and it should be with you shortly.

But they have started going out to peeps!

There were some organized weekend playtests for AC and SM. Testing out the new Broken Moon Map, the AC Updates and Medical / Inventory Additions to Star Marine.

They found some bugs that should now get fixed, like being able to heal enemies with a medpen and asteroids being a bit desynced with where they actually are as well as the lasers being far too bright… but also it is for catching crashes of which there were quite a few.

Cloud Imperium have filled their company accounts in the UK showing almost £4.8 Million profit which is around $6.5 Million for 2020.

Typically later December CI post a break down of their companies financial health and direction. So it’s probably worth waiting until then before any major analysis HOWEVER that is a good amount of profit for CI to be declaring and 2021 has been incredibly strong for them too… they are however hiring even more staff and looking to get bigger offices so… I’ll be interested to see how this all stacks up!

Boom, that’s it for the news this week.