New Star Citizen Ships & Ship Features That CIG Are Working On Now

Star Citizen has a lot of Ships & Vehicles that are planned to be added to the game… so I wanted to talk about some Ship Updates that CI are working on and look to be trying to get into the game over the next few quarters as well as some ship / gameplay features that are also seeing development too.

The Drake Corsair is now planned for release with the alpha 3.18 patch. This highly anticipated asymmetrical no frills multi-crew exploration ship is very popular and was a bit of a surprise to me that it was going to be ready in 3.18. I am a little concerned that it might not have any suitable medical facilities… tho that might of changed thru it’s development OR it might be more suitable for shorter range scanning, exploration and surveying rather than being an expedition ship.

We also have the Drake Vulture which is that small salvage ship that will come with hull stripping salvage along with the reclaimer in 3.18… however…

Salvage will be evolving from that tho… Vehicle Munching which will be the next stage to salvage’s gameplay & is getting work that will start in October and go into June 2023… giving you to the ability to transform large chunks of metal salvaged from ships into a refinable material. This will use the grinder systems aboard salvage ships like the Vulture and Reclaimer.

Cutting T-2 is planned to wrap up in May 2023 – updating the cutting feature for the multi-tool that will be used in future location and mission updates. The continued development of the existing Multi-Tool technology will allow players to cut through specific objects. This will primarily include the ability to free-form cut on specific surfaces. I am expecting to see this used for missions, looting and salvage (removing components).

We know that CI are working on some unannounced ships and vehicles some of which will be unveiled between CitizenCon and the IAE… it’s likely that it will be a mixture of concept and straight to flyable too. In fact there is a Ship Focused panel at CitizenCon on the 8th of October. TALKING SHIP 2952 – Our annual presentation from the ship teams. Discover the latest vehicles throughout the pipeline, from concept to newly flyable and a new twist to this year’s voting on a new ship to come.

CIG have also teased a New Argo Ship OR Argo SRV… either would make sense… more Argo cargo and utility ships would be useful especially with the Cargo Refactor planned for 3.18. We know that CI have been working on ship scale tractor beams and larger cargo containers so getting the SRV in game would be sensible for that. It’s more likely something for 3.19 tho imo. As work is scheduled on the Progress Tracker into Feb 2023.

Work on vehicle tractor beams goes on into June 2023… but it’s possible an early implementation might be tested before that?

We also know that CI are very close to releasing the Hull-C again as the Cargo refactor is a big part of 3.18 it makes sense that CI want it out with the patch or soon after again more likely in 3.19 just due to the amount of content and ships already part of the 3.18 cycle and the fact that work is schedule for the ship going into December of this year.

The Banu Merchantman is in active development currently and is receiving work for a whole host of teams, current work goes into June 2023 and it looks like CI want to release the ship that year. Last time they showed off the merchantman we saw the exterior from a better less duckfaced angle as well as some of the interior of the ship, social areas with a shrine room, a small hangar bay, cargo area, private meeting room, lift network… its such a massive floating marketplace and is getting the dedicated focus it deserves.

The Origin X-1 luxury hover bike has been getting some love and various teams are working on it into June 2023… It shouldn’t be too hard to get into the game, we already have a few hover vehicles and bikes and it’s small.

You want a Luxury version of the Ursa Rover… well the Lynx has worked planned on it ending Feb 2023… 

The Aopoa San’Tok Yai or Xi’an Medium Fighter is getting some work done starting Jan 2023 from the US Vehicle Content Team that goes into June, this looks to me like CI will get the ship out at some point in 2023. Again once CI work on a ship now they like to try and schedule the time in to get them all the way thru the pipeline where possible… tho we will still see concept sales and sometimes things will get reprioritized half way thru somethings development.

The Anvil Crucible (Repair Ship) looks to be getting a Concept Update that could then see it go thru the pipeline all the way to completion, that concept work starts October and goes into Feb 2023 but then there will be a whole host of other work from multiple teams before it’s complete which aren’t scheduled yet. As there is some repairing by hand now in 3.18 with Salvage and RMC this could do that on a larger scale in the first implementation.

A Hugely exciting set of features is the Resource management system that will make damage control, physical components, physical damage, disabling ships, engineering and muli-crew gameplay more of a reality. We know that CI have started to prototype this on the Hammerhead already and it’s actively  being worked on going on into June 2023. I believe CI want it in our hands in 2023 and it’s one of the most important milestone features.

I’ll read you the actual feature description too:

This system will handle resources for stations, settlements, cities, and all other locations. It will also unlock Engineering Station gameplay for ships, letting players manage power, CPU, fuel, shields, coolant, etc.

Ship CPU is in active development with work ending in December. implementing computer blades for ships. Includes various blades that can be used to modify or improve certain aspects of a ship’s functionality, such as unlocking more complex targeting abilities. You want AI Crew / NPCs… well this is a good step towards that and alternative as some of those functionalities will be automated turrets. This will make a huge difference to the game if you can have 1 person in a hammerhead but have all the turrets still firing for example.

Life Support T0 is currently in development too, with it’s work currently expected to wrap up at the end of Q2 2023. This will focus on a ship component that generates air when turned on, and management of said life support component within the vehicle loadout manager. This makes use of the Room System and survival mechanics to basically have an appropriate atmosphere in areas that you’d like to breathe in.

Artificial Gravity has just started a work sprint that ends in June 2023 – dedicated functionality for items controlling the gravity per room for ships, outposts and stations. This also includes player controls as part of engineering gameplay. That’s going to make ship boarding and traversal very interesting. Some ships will have dedicated gravity generator components that can be damaged.

Something I do want to mention as well is that a Map & Radar Rework sprint has just finished according to the Progress Tracker… so we might be seeing some much needed updates to those soon?

There is currently more work on Ship Derelicts and Settlements that goes on into December… that could be CI making more 600i / MSR sites or adding ships to the derelicts that appear.

Expect some surprises at CitizenCon, the IAE, 3.18 & 3.19s too… as CI like to just release some ships and vehicles straight to flyable just because they can… what do you think we could see there?

Boom, that’s it for today’s ship update…