Star Citizen Alpha 3.17.2 Release Plans & Features
Star Citizen Alpha 3.17.2 will be in testing within the next few days… with a planned release to LIVE or at least Open PTU around the end of June. The 3.17.2 patch is replacing the major patch for Q2 this is because the 3.18 which is now pegged for release around the end of
Q3 September will require a long testing cycle with a load of features and work on them wasn’t ready for a Q2 implementation. That does mean that we will see a Alpha 3.18 3 month testing cycle start early July or at least that’s the current plan. In the mean time Alpha 3.17.2 still has a lot of features AND it should tide us over until 3.18 turns up with Salvage, The Cargo Refactor and Object Persistence…
So what are we getting in Alpha 3.17.2, what’s been confirmed, what’s expected and what might we get beyond that if we are lucky?
New Space Stations & the Gas Clouds / Point of Interest around them are being added specifically around microTech and ArcCorp, filling in some holes that were in the Lagrange Points in the game.
They are adding Reclaimer Derelicts & Missions associated with them around the Stanton System. You’ll have wrecks both in space and on the ground and there will be narratively unique missions for them… they will be worth exploring and finding all the loots around them too.
There is also a Settlement point of interest that is built out of a Reclaimer, which again will have missions & loot there too. This proof of concept also sets the stage for additional settlements to come as CI are working on a 600i and Mercury Star Runner derelict and other ships for settlements too most likely in Alpha 3.18.
Connect to this are also updates to Planetary Navigation and the Nav Mesh.
This system allows NPCs to move on planetary surfaces using a dynamically generated navigation mesh. This will efficiently process planetary terrain and objects to prioritize the processing of the environment around the players into navmesh, allowing the use of all existing functionalities on planets. The first implementation of this feature will be the Reclaimer Derelict Points of Interest.
So you can expect these areas to actually have NPCs capable of moving around them and tracking a player.
There is a new Mission Providing Organization Red Wind that provide potentially Illegal Delivery Missions… these missions will have greater risk but greater rewards. You’ll get access to riskier and rewardier missions after building some reputation with Red Wind and doing well in their missions.
We know there is a Combat Service Beacon Update, expanding out these missions to have a range of difficulties 1 – 10… the harder missions will require powerful ships and group play to take on and the top end rarer missions will have a small fleet of enemies potentially led by an Idris. Remember Service Beacons will have you also needing to protect a ship, which can be difficult if you don’t have friends with you. Fortunately you will be able to see the difficulty of the mission before you take it in the mobiGlas.
Siege of Orison is the new Dynamic event in Alpha 3.17.2.
The Nine Tails have secured various floating platforms around Orison and players will be needed to help assault the various platforms, complete objectives, take out the Nine Tail Leaders and eventually their big boss. It’s a large scale mostly FPS event that players can join in while in progress in a similar manner to XenoThreat and you’ll want to get all the help you can either jumping in with an org or group OR supporting other players that are doing it.
I recommend some heavy armour and a range of FPS weapons as well as medical supplies and it’s a good shout to bring a medi-gun for helping up friendlies.
Alpha 3.17.2 is replacing a major patch this year… which means it’s still part of the 3.17 branch and this should mean it’s in a more stable state. We should see a lot of bug fixes in this patch and less in the way of additional bugs that a new branch would bring.
Another thing you can expect is a mixture of Balance updates, the siege of orison probably necessitates some FPS weapon and medical tweaks but there are various minor ship and combat changes that are likely to turn up too.
So What Else Could We See?
There are various unnacounded Ships & Vehicles that CI have been working on. We could see some new variant, vehicle or ship in 3.17.2.
It’s very possible we will see some Additional Missions or tweaks to current ones.
There could be some Some More Minor Features that CI have yet to reveal, like additional NPC behaviours, maybe some new items, armor or components things like that.
Typically CI will make some patch watch posts on spectrum during testing that go into details of some of these minor features in more detail.
We do know that CI want to slow down ships, so that combat is in closer proximity of the dogfighters and there is less jousting… this level of Combat Rework or steps towards it isn’t entirely off the cards… but it might be something for later in the year.
We know that CI have been working on Gen12 Updates for improved CPU & resource usage but also generally a more optimized set of visuals and engine. It’s likely that we will see some more bits for that turn up in 3.17.2.
It’s also very possible we will see Jumptown, the Nine Tails Lockdown and or XenoThreat turn up during the 3.17.2 cycle,
Boom that’s it for your Star Citizen Alpha 3.17.2 Release Plans and Update.