Star Citizen Alpha 3.18 – Big Bugs Little Time – Jumptown 2.1 Incoming
Welcome to some more Star Citizen… we have a lot of movement on Alpha 3.18… new updates, and playtests… let’s check in with the state of the PTU.
A New 3.18 PTU Patch & A Hotfix were released over the last couple of days…
With the Hotfix CI said – a 3.18 PTU hotfix has been rolled out non-destructively to new servers to address the top DGS (Dedicated Game Server) crashes.
CI are also planning on running Jumptown 2.1 later today on the 3.18 PTU.
The Jumptown 2.1 event expands out the POI doubling them in size… making a huge amount of changes to the structures there and there are 2 dispensaries at those facilities now too.
Also the PTU Account Copy is now enabled for 48 hours for Wave 1 testers!
So if you are in wave one and have yet to copy your account across DO IT NOW!
Prison Kiosk Location change – Moved ore and contraband kiosks into mines. There is now three in the first chamber of each mining route rather than at the entrance to the hub. This is to reduce ganking at the one chokepoint where players can drop off goods
Re-added Racing Time-Trial reputation progression. This progression starts at the Lorville Outskirts Racetrack and unlocks subsequent racetracks as you gain reputation. Reputation earned increases based on medal bracket.
Bug Fixes
- Equipped gear was lost when player dies in armistice zone
- After a player bedloged and then initiated a character repair it created duplicate starship components in your inventory.
- Mission NPC kills were not always recorded
- There were ReplaceMe textures present across on the Esperia Blade
- Players spawned in prison with weapons and armor after dying with crimestat
- Ship beds didn’t have PIT options to interact with.
- Players were unable to complete Bunker Missions
- Stormwal Plushies were in the Kel-To shop’s cooled food shelves
- Once a derelict mission had been completed at the settlement the AI will not respawn for the next mission resulting in it completing upon reaching the location.
- Players could get stuck between the inner corner of a wall and the foliage of a plant pot.
- There was an empty food rack on the counter of Cubby blast
- The Player couldn’t Activate Mining Consumables in the Prospector
- The Security Kareah Boss AI was able to spawn at UGFs
- The Anvil Valkyrie was missing ballistic damage armour reduction
- Cargo snapping box UI helper was invisible when outside of Ship
- They also Fixed 2 Client Crashes
I am in 2 minds about Alpha 3.18… it’s been a long road and the delays with the patch have been disappointing… I want CIG to move quickly with getting more content out and be more accurate with plans / targets BUT also I don’t want them to rush to finish getting a live patch out, especially right at the end… it is integral that Live patches are in as good a state as possible, no-one wants them to be a step backwards in terms of stability and accessibility!
All those fixes leaves the known issues in a much better state now:
- The snub fighters lack interaction prompts in the Connie.
- Full salvage RMC canisters won’t attach to the multi-tool
- Scanning not showing advanced statistics and details
- Elevators and Trams are “Jittery” during transit of Player Character
- Salvage / Hull Scraping Issues with the Nomad, Carrack and C2 Hercules
- Salvaging – Some ship wreckages erroneously give “No Material” text and do not let you salvage
- Valkyrie bottom turret locks and makes player invisible
- Quantum Interdiction does not mark ships as hostile
- Destroyed ship thrusters will still not function after being repaired
- Fully loaded C2 landed at Area 18 results in Slow Framerates or Crash
- When flying near another ship, ship seems to hit an invisible box that kicks it in random directions
- Cargo is invisible in multiple ships after being purchased
That is a much more manageable set of issues… and only a few of them are actually major.
So we might be getting that Open PTU for 3.18 any time now… it looks like that’s what CI are going to have for us by the end of January… because we only have a few days left of the month, it’s very unlikely now that we will have the live build out in the next few days… so expect it by mid February? Damn your eyes CIG… if you want accurate dates for releases listen to my editor zin, she seems to be have that nailed down.
We’ve got a lot of look forward to over the next couple of days & weekend!
So beyond a possible 3.18 Open PTU and Jumptown 2.1 being run on the servers we also have the Red Festival and the Siege Of Orison on the 3.17.5 live servers AND…
Inside Star Citizen returns today with the Turbulent Environment team looking at new derelict locations coming to Alpha 3.19, plus a check-in with current progress on the upcoming Lorville 2.0 Updates.
Friday has Star Citizen Live with SC heavy hitters like Todd Pappy to talk All About Alpha 3.18… these episodes normally also reveal what CI are working on for the next major patches too.
CI are still Looking For Questions for that Star Citizen Live, I’ll link the thread below.
The top questions currently are:
Right now service beacons seem to be used mainly for ambushing unsuspecting players. With the introduction of physicalized cargo and soft death in 3.18, it brings some new gameplay for piracy as well. Will we see some updates to the service beacon and rating system to help make security and medical beacons more reliable? (And what can we expect next?)
What are some of the PES cleanup rules?
any special cases around cities/bunkers/stations?
does it work like we’ve assumed and prioritise keeping more relevant/bigger items like ships, then armor or armor and weapons, then stuff like food… does care about details like prioritising keeping full bottles/cans over empty ones?
We see the beginning of crafting in the Drake Vulture as a placeholder for future crafting. What are your ideas to what crafting will look like in the very near future?
With the Reclaimer now being a useful ship in 3.18, were/are there any plans to add its much needed docking capability in the near future?
What has been the biggest challenge in getting PES out the door?
Could we get a breakdown of the new Armor and shield system, and the thoughts behind that?
Will PES enable Players to continue exactly where they left the game the last time they played ?
Boom, that’s it for your Star Citizen 3.18 updates and what’s coming up later this week.