Star Citizen News for the 3rd of May 2023
Welcome to some more Star Citizen News for the 3rd of May 2023. We have 3.19 on the PTU and a new mini patch for that too.
Some Updates and Dev Responses on the new Tractor Beam Attach / Detach Feature.
New Backpacks for RSI Subs and a schedule of what else is coming this week with Roadmap Updates and Monthly Reports!
In the world of 3.18.2, the team has been tirelessly gathering data and rapidly implementing hotfixes (often several times a day!) to tackle the interaction delay issue. We are pleased to report that we have identified the root cause and are already working on some fixes to improve the experience. Your efforts in playing and reporting have greatly accelerated our time-to-fix, and we are truly grateful for your recent activity. Though the journey has been bumpy, we have made significant progress. However, we recognize that there is still much work to be done, and we will remain vigilant in monitoring, adjusting, and implementing further fixes as needed. Thank you!
In case you missed it over the weekend, Alpha 3.19 is now available to the Wave 1 testing group on PTU! Salvage Contracts, new encounters at Ghost Hollow, and more are available to test as we lead up to Invictus Launch Week. For more information on PTU Testing and how to jump in, check out our PTU FAQ on the Knowledge Base.
Our next stops on the Bar Citizen World Tour are upon us! Join your fellow citizens for good beverages, good times, and good….goodies to be won! We’ll be visiting Sacramento, California on May 14, as well as Belgium for the Be@Con event on May 20. For details on these as well as additional upcoming events, check out our 2023 Bar Citizen landing page.
Later Wednesday, we’ve got the latest Roadmap update alongside its companion Roadmap Roundup. Plus, catch up on the latest development updates in April’s Monthly Report, both for Star Citizen and Squadron 42.
Thursday Inside Star Citizen, where we explore more aspects of our continuing development than you can shake a stick at.
On Friday, we have Star Citizen Live, which is LIVE at 3pm UTC.
- Updated Building Blocks Shop UI Casaba, Dumpers Depot style BB implementation
- Lorville LOD and Collisions Polish Pass
- Added Default Port unlock keybind (r-alt+K)
- Removed the Old Hint System and Added the Newly Revamped Dynamic Hints UI
They Fixed Various More bugs here too
- Players in a given instance could experience a response latency of up to dozens of seconds for interactions
- When players stream out an area and an owned vehicle unstreams, the vehicle didn’t not stream back in and is shown on the ASOP status as “Destroyed”
- Most of the landing pads on Lorville Skyscrapers were missing collision
- Enemy combat AI was slow to respond or react
- Players could be injured or killed when getting out of the chair in the Area 18 HAB
- Buying Pharmacy Items at Empire Health resulted in “Invalid Location” error
- Redeemer was missing collision on its floor
- On the Hull A there was a collision wall is blocking the Player from removing Internal components with the tractor beam
- All shopping kiosks had misaligned / offset interaction space
- Detached Components Costs 1 aUEC to Repair (on the ship that had them detached), Allowing Cheap Duplication and Selling of Non-Stock Components.
- It was Difficult/impossible to remove internal components of the Vulture due to geometry
- AI Cutlass Blacks would infinitely spawn at Ghost Hollow
- The AC Find match button was greyed out until player switches game modes
- Fixed 1 Client & 3 Server Crashes
[3.19 PTU Feedback] Tractor Beam – Item Attaching and Detaching
We have released a new update to tractor beam functionality that allows you to detach ship components including weapons, internal components (power plants, coolers, etc where applicable to the ship), and mining laser heads. You can then place those components on your own ship in compatible hardpoints and/or place those components within the cargo hold for sale to shops that carry those items. This significantly expands the kind and style of available salvage from disabled ships. In addition, this can be done on intact ships though the ability to detach is link to the port lock/unlock functionality (new keybind in cockpit menu) for security reasons. For more details on how this feature functions, please reference the patch notes.
We are especially interested in learning:
- Core functionality such as interaction issues removing and placing weapons
- Exploits and loopholes that allow easy sales
- Balance of component salvage to hull scraping salvage
- How these changes interact with claims/insurance
Destroying or soft-death of a target should unlock item ports by default just like doors and elevators are, would also make work on Reliant salvage claims easier by default as you no longer need to enter the cockpit, which is impossible when the ship is in it’s flight configuration.
Savrals-CIG – Soft death and destroyed should indeed unlock the components automatically. We are aware of an issue with the “destroyed” state, but soft death should already work.
Be aware tough that the ships spawned through the salvage missions currently are not in a soft death state and therefore it requires you to enter those and unlock the items manually.
Tractor Beams are currently disabled in AZs this makes it a lot harder to test some of these features AND very long winded. As you have to get your ship out of the AZ first… and aren’t able to just move items around in hangar.
Sadly we will have to stick with that flow for this release.
Yes, we are aware that this flow is indeed not optimal or even torturous.
We still have to wait for the freight elevators to make their way to allow you to have a direct interaction with your inventories and the physical spaces like your cargo hold.
So good news: we plan to do it
Bad news: Not for 3.19
The RSI Launcher also had an update to 1.6.6
This is a hot-fix version in order to correct an issue related to the acknowledge modal and detect Linux users.
May 2023 Subscriber Promotions
Welcome to an action-packed May! It’s nearly Invictus Launch Week, the annual military event that lets you try out some of the deadliest vehicles in the ‘verse. So, in keeping with the naval theme, this month’s Flair is a selection of Clark Defense Systems combat backpacks, each with a unique camo-inspired design.
If you’re looking for a break from all the naval action, May’s Ship of the Month has you covered. The Argo MOLE is a multi-crew miner that’s far more efficient than several ships working together, so gather a crew and make a fortune ripping rocks apart! As usual, the MOLE is available with enhanced insurance for all Subscribers until the end of the month.
Originally designed for the rigors of combat support, Clark Defense Systems’ CSP-68L backpack is now popular thanks to its durability and patented core connector that helps it sit comfortably and balanced on the back. Each has a maximum capacity of 40 mSCU, so there’s plenty of space for vital supplies in the field.
Night Camo – Centurion
Cayman – Imperator
Forest – Sub Store
If you would like to receive this flair as part of a subscription, you can subscribe before May 9th, 2023, 20:00 UTC.
If you subscribe after May 9th, 2023, you can pick up these and previous months’ flair (going back to 2014) in the Subscriber-Exclusive Store. You can fill in any gaps in your collection and pick up extras to gift to non-Subscribers.
Our goal is to make most items earnable in-game. For this reason, many Subscriber Flair items have been added to the in-game loot table as rare drops from Alpha 3.17. Most pre-2023 items that can be carried by players are available now, with new and future flair being added after a three-month exclusivity window.
NOTE: Some exclusive digital event items, such as those from CitizenCon Goodies Packs, will not be discoverable via the in-game loot system.