Star Citizen Alpha 3.18 has had some updates with it’s content and timeline… let’s take a look at what CI had to say with their latest roadmap update.

Alpha 3.18 Update – Before we jump into the Roadmap update, we would like to give an update on the status of Alpha 3.18 as well as an update to our standard release cadence for this year.

As previously mentioned, we are still on track to release Alpha 3.18 to the PTU this month (September). We will start with Evocati and aim to expand to more players soon after. We are eager to get Persistent Entity Streaming (PES) in your hands as quickly as possible, as the more time we have with all of you hammering on this new behemoth of technology, the better.

As communicated in the last Letter From the Chairman, we expect PES to remain in PTU for 2-3 months for robust testing. Our current goal is to release Alpha 3.18 to the live servers in the first half of November, ahead of the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo (IAE).

This means that the 3.18 patch will now also include content related to the IAE, which you will notice in the detailed breakdown below.

As you know, PES and subsequent technologies (Server Meshing) will change the core of Star Citizen forever and provide a giant leap forward in realizing the vision of what our shared universe is meant to be. It is no surprise that we have had an abnormal cadence this year and we are appreciative of all your support as we push through these major milestones.

This is a bit of a surprise to me, I was assuming that 3.18 live was going to be later in the year… December time AND it still could be but the target of 1st half of November is now on the table.

Some other surprises the Drake Corsair is now planned to be ready for Alpha 3.18… and I really didn’t think it wold be… I thought Q1 2023 at the earliest but it’s nice to be surprised.

This a powerful no frills multi-crew exploration ship and is very popular.

The New Interdiction Scenarios & Environmental Space Missions look like they require additional work so are being moved off the release view until they know where they will land, so they are no longer in alpha 3.18.

On the progress tracker the RSI Apollo & Tumbril Ranger have been pushed off at least in the short term as SQ42 features take priority.

The Aopoa San’tok.yāi has returned with work going on Jan – June 2023.

Additional focus from USPU is being placed on the Freight Elevators deliverable for hangars and cargo, and is a pre-requisite for hangars to persist. They will be able to more readily schedule work to Persistent Hangars after they’ve completed this.

There hasn’t been much talk about the Cargo Refactor for Alpha 3.18 is it still there?

Jake Acappella Responsed;

As of today, it’s still on track! If we don’t mention something in the Roundup, it hasn’t moved. 

The team developing this new system has some important reviews during the next two weeks, and if it looks like it needs more time, as always, we’ll update you accordingly in a subsequent Roadmap Roundup.

This was posted by multiple CIG staff and some deleted their responses as others had already answered the question.

In regards to no features actually being “confirmed” on the Roadmap for 3.18 yet Jake went onto say:

Just for clarity, features being confirmed on Release View happen only once their final reviews have been completed. As we’ve mentioned, this is a bit of an abnormal patch cadence for us, so we greatly appreciate your patience and support as we hammer away on 3.18 and PES.

So currently we are expecting

Daymar Crash Site with the 600i and MSR Wrecks and a Settlement all coming together.

Sand Caves on Daymar.

New Rivers on Hurston and microTech.

GreyCat PTV Race Track & Buggy Racing at the Vision Center at Orison.

Also at Orison New Missions and new platforms with various Bounty, Assassinate and other tasks there.

The Cargo System Refactor, expanding cargo to be more interactable tho the full scope is yet to be discussed.

Sandbox Prison Activites, more things to do in prison, more missions, NPCs that you can attack and rob, hunts for problem inmates.

SPK expanding out to be the only place to hack down you CS but also it’s getting defense turrets and guards, you’ll be able to steal and extract valuable loot from there too.

Salvage is coming, it’s hull-stripping that you can do via the multitool (with attachment) and also use that gathered material for sale or repair.

The Vulture will be here, and have it’s larger hull stripping ability and the Reclaimer will be getting it’s turrets being able to do the same.

We also have that newly added Drake Corsair turning up now… that’s going to make a lot of people happy.

And PES, persistent entity streaming… a massive milestone for star citizen… enabling locational information about entities to be tracked at scale and sever states to be saved long term… we need this for SM, Bases, true persistence… and about a million other things.

THAT PATCH IS MASSIVE STILL… We will continue to update you as we know more!

Pirate Week Dynamic Event Schedule

Pirate week starts today… you can expect to see ship / skin sales and some competitions turn up… and CI have said;

It wouldn’t be Pirate Week without the pesky Nine Tails pirates causing mayhem in Crusader space!

Starting Thursday the 15th September the next set of dynamic events are kicking off with Siege of Orison and Nine Tails Lockdown, so warm your engines, grab your gear, and keep an ear open for a Priority mission from the Civilian Defence Force.

Thursday, Saturday and Monday has the Seige of Orison running for 24 hours from 5pm UTC on those days.

Friday, Sunday and Tuesday has the Nine Tails Lockdown running for 6 hour windows fro 5pm on those days.

The Ship Showdown is almost over, at time of recording it’s extremely close between the Carrack and the MSR with the Carrack just having the edge, if it’s not over already make sure you vote today!

Tobii Eye Tracker 5 gives you deeper immersion and control in Star Citizen… go check it out and use code boredgamer to get yourself a discount!

Boom, that’s it for today’s update… The corsair was a real surprise to me… as was a rough estimate of 1st half november for 3.18 live… I just thought the delay there would be longer or features might slip… I suppose we will have to wait and see.