Star Citizen Alpha 3.18 Now Open PTU
Star Citizen Alpha 3.18 is now in Open PTU so any Star Citizen players can try it… But what’s new in the patch and how do we access or get to that new content? Well that’s what this video will tell you be you on the Open PTU or Live Build!
To Access The Open PTU you need a SC game package then
Copy you Account Onto PTU via RSI Website – Account – Settings – Public Test Universe
After that you can Access the PTU via the Game Launcher
So What’s New in Game?!
Salvage both by hand and in ship is new in Alpha 3.18:
You can use a multi-tool & salvage attachment to strip the hulls of ships.
The only requirement is that their shields are down.
You can also use this to repair holes in hulls too.
Most places that sell a multi-tool will sell the attachments.
The Reclaimer & Newly added Vulture can both do hull stripping at a larger scale in a similar way to mining. Find Wrecks at Lagrange Points or from battles. Ping to detect them.
Go into Mining Mode (toggle it with M) and powerwash the hull… (you can press G to toggle how the beams move, you can also use left alt and left/right click to change the convergence)
You will need to dispense the Salvage into 1SCU boxes and then move them with a tractorbeam attachment and place them in your ships cargo grid to continue to salvage.
Also you can craft multi-tools as well as salvage / tractor attachments in the back of the Vulture / Reclaimer from the filler stations using salvaged materials (also you can use these to make RMC canisters for repairing).
Ships in 3.18 will often just be Permanently Disabled rather than EXPLODE, you can salvage them or Boarding ships and their cargo will be intact if they didn’t explode.
NPCs will be killed when in this state BUT player crews will survive… just remember that as you might have to fight. Also you can shoot a ship more to make it explode.
Also now if an NPC ship gets the better of you, then you’ll still be alive in the wreck of your ship.
The Cargo Refactor in 3.18 means that Commodity Cargo is now Moveable via the Tractor Beam and is in 1 SCU boxes. It’s also now a bit easier to buy and sell. This also adds to the appeal of looting but also recovering cargo.
PES or Persistent Entity Streaming in 3.18 means that objects placed or wrecks will persist on a server between sessions and server states are saved. So you could pile up a load of wrecks somewhere or a cache of weapons. Unfortunately you might not get back on the same server you were on before… you will see lots of things that make the verse feel more lived in and alive or surprises but we are waiting on shard affinity and some more tech towards SMing before this is fully utilised BUT you can expect to see a lot of wrecks and interesting situations because of it in 3.18.
Complete a Crusader Security Mission (The assessment mission is probably the one most peeps will have at wipe) then you’ll have access to the New Orison Platform Missions, they will start appearing in your contracts manager.
These are on the same platforms as the SoO but you can actually fly your ship all the way there and land where you want without the threat of all the defences in the world shooting you. The missions have different types of objectives, clear a certain amount of enemies or a boss. You can run them solo… but these are best done in a pair or small group imo as the NPCs are sometimes deadly. More difficult versions of the mission will appear as your gain rep with Crusader.
Racing is a big thing in 3.18, there are a load of race tracks and time trail missions for them that appear on your contracts manager. The first track is at Hurston on the outskirts of Lorville.
Complete a track with a good time and you’ll get access to the next one. Or you can keep trying to beat your previous best time. There are 7 tracks in total to compete in.
If you want something a little more light hearted anyone can go to the Vision Center on Orison via the shuttle and take part in freeform PTV buggy races.
SPK (Security Post Kareah) is now off limits to lawful folk… well and criminals I suppose. But crims can go there to hack down their criminal rating (infact it’s now the only place you can hack down). You can kill guards there until a boss spawns, kill them and use the code they drop to access the security room and dispense high value items. Be too disruptive for too long and Players will get bounty Missions to come take you out tho and this gives them legal access to the area.
Prison Gameplay is expanded, there are NPCs running around the tunnels you can mug.
There is also a mission you can take while in the caves a “dark zone” that tasks you with escaping the prison and finding a body on the way… you can actually also now find security outside the prison and steal one of their ships too.
Tourism
Whistler’s Crypt / Daymar Crash Site (600i, MSR & Settlement) 9Tails
There are missions that appear there like Retrieval Ops while you are around Crusader just check the mission text and it will say if it’s at whistlers crypt.
Daymar Crash – Quantyum to NT-999 on Daymar, then set Heading to 47 on your HUD Compass for 132KM. You’ll see the location!
There are loads of New Rivers / Lakes 40 in fact across Hurston and microTech.
Sand Caves are around various moons in the game like Daymar they also are home to the stone bug which is a harvestable.
There are 30+ New Derelicts / Outpost Locations
A few other things
Oh a fantastic hotkey addition is left Alt + N for takeoff / landing requests.
A load more ships & vehicles are purchasable in game.
CS’s of 2 or less don’t mark you as a criminal and you can pay them off at fine terminals.
Gen12 Renderer is here too it should give you a couple of extra frames maybe but it’s more beneficial for players that were CPU bottlenecked.
Ballistics now almost entirely pass thru shields but ships have damage mitigation against it.
Arena Commander has had some QoL Improvements
There are a load of new missions making use of the denser gameplay area & features.
Jumtpown 2.1 which is an updated version of the event as well as XenoThreat and SoO will also be running during the patch cycle… CI will announce this on their site when these events are up!
I will be going over some of the lesser known and minor features of 3.18 in another video in a lot more detail so look out for that.
Boom, that’s it for your what’s new in 3.18 and how to access that new content!
If you have any questions or tips for 3.18 I’d love to hear them in the comments below.
What are your experiences of 3.18 so far? What do you think of salvage, has PES, Cargo Update or Soft Destruction improved the game for you? Whatever your thoughts I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.