Welcome to some more Star Citizen Alpha 3.18… we have had a y & z patch recently. I wanted to go over the updates and fixes for those patches and talk about the state of the PTU.

As far as we are aware Alpha 3.18 is still pegged for live release by the end of January.

That said we still don’t have the Open PTU… but that could be literally at any time now.

Star Citizen Alpha 3.18.0y PTU

• Vehicle/Ship Armour has been rebalanced to account for ballistics piercing through shields as a stop gap until the future armour rework
• Made further optimizations to help with slow Inventory

Bug Fixes

• CryAstro services does not offer the option to repair/refuel/restock ships
• VMA active tab indicator can become offset switching between ships with different available tabs
• City window glow is too strong and too frequent for area 18
• Delivery Missions not updating after grabbing package.
• Mining lasers display in the wrong tab and can prevent players from equipping or using mining lasers
• Origin 400i – Applied paints do not apply to the exterior face of the airlock
• Inventory – Equip requests can fail to update in a reasonable / acceptable amount of time, leaving the item in a pending state
• Player customizations to vehicle loadout are permanently lost and reset to default if the ship is claimed
• Users are able to get out of prison instantly after a character reset/repair
• Impounded ships do not finish Transferring to Storage and are no longer Retrievable
• ROC Inventory fills up past the intended capacity
• When saving changes to vehicle loadouts, the ‘Unsaved changes’/’Changes Pending’ markers are not removed until the player revisits that ship loadout
• Infiltrate and Defend Mission – The enemy UI counter is not present when reaching the mission area
• Comm Array Repair missions fail to generate property
• Metals and Minerals are Listed as Inert on the Refinery Terminal and cannot be Refined
• Player and AI can shoot through rock formations 
• Reclaimer has no rear Elevator interaction
• Various Ships are now Salvageable where they are supposed to be.
• Items on Casaba and Cubby Blast shelves can be picked up and carried out of store without paying
• Fixed 7 Client & 11 Server Crashes

Star Citizen Alpha 3.18.0z PTU

• Players were Unable to respawn & were stuck on splash screen
• In Game Console has scaling issues on non 16:9 aspect ratios
• The player suffocates with a helmet on, as the helmet equip appears to be stuck pending
• Various Collision and Visarea issues at a number of locations.
• Quantum entanglement does not mark ships as hostile
• Not all the cargo boxes are spawning in for player to retrieve for missions
• Vehicles purchases through rental are missing from ASOP terminals, preventing access / use of the rented vehicle
• Sell option on item is still present after selling at contraband kiosk
• TMBL Nova – Most of the vehicle cannot be salvaged or damaged
• Increasing the Mining Lasers Power via the Power MFD only increases the Lasers VFX not its Laser Intensity
• Fixed 3 Client Crashes

Remaining Known Issues

• The Constellation snub fighters lack interactions making them unusable
• Any full salvage RMC canister attachment will not attach to a multitool
• Equipped gear can be lost when player dies in armistice zone
• Scanning not showing advanced statistics and details
• Elevators and Trams are “Jittery” during transit of Player Character
• There are some issues with salvaging parts of some ships.
• Once a mission has been completed at the settlement the AI will not respawn for the next mission resulting in it completing upon reaching the location
• If reinforcements do not leave the ship they will be counted towards the hostiles remaining total even once the ship has left.
• Valkyrie bottom turret locks and makes player invisible
• Bounties can persist even after the target has cleared their crimestat.
• Destroyed ship thrusters will still not function after being repaired
• A Fully loaded C2 landed at Area 18 results in Slow Framerates or Crash
• When flying near another ship, ships seems to hit an invisible box that kicks it in random directions
• Users spawn in prison with weapons and armor after dying with crimestat
• Cargo is invisible in multiple ships
• Storing ships at a non-home location will result in a locked state, “Transferring to Storage”

Ballistic Changes V2

As of build 8342974 armor on ships now grants 50% physical resistance, increasing ship durability against incoming ballistic fire. We see this as a short term change pending some further updates down the road and recognize we have more to do to get ballistics into a desirable state. As part of that, we are would like to get your thoughts not only on how this change impacts the current situation but also on how you see ballistics fitting into the flight and combat context of the game longer term.

As always thanks for your input, we pass everything on to the teams!

This is a weird one… because yes I like the idea of resistance with ship armor.. But it needs to be different based on the ship… larger ships having heavier armor… light fighters having very little… small cargo ships having even less… a straight 50% isn’t really great BUT if it means that ballistics aren’t broken in the short term then… that’s fine at least it addresses that a little.

Armor should nullify / mitigate a set amount of damage per shot in my opinion.