Roadmap Roundup

Hi everyone,

Each and every week, we accompany the Roadmap update with a brief explanatory note to give you insight into the decision-making that led to any changes. This is part of an effort to make our communications more transparent, more specific, and more insightful for all of you who help to make Star Citizen and Squadron 42 possible.

We’ve used terms like quality of life and playability a lot in the last few weeks – most notably in a recently released Roadmap Roundup. While we still have a lot of work to do, we’re very happy with the improvements introduced to the ‘verse in Alpha 3.7, and we plan on maintaining this momentum and pushing for a greater breadth of quality of life changes/fixes in the patches to come. As mentioned in a previous Roundup, it’s time to squash some of those longstanding bugs and clean up the overall gameplay experience, so that you can enjoy Star Citizen even more while we continue development.

You’ll find a lengthier update than usual this week, as we’ve made great progress on our re-prioritization. We’ve made several changes this week as a result of the quality efforts mentioned above, but also because of a condensed Q4 due to both CitizenCon, and the upcoming holiday break for our developers. We’re currently aiming to release Alpha 3.8 earlier in December so that we have time to monitor stability and deliver any needed fixes so that you all can have a great experience over the holiday break.

-CIG Community Team

Notable Changes for November 15th, 2019

Persistent Universe
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Prison Missons
This card introduces various missions set within in-game prisons around the universe and has been added to the Roadmap for Alpha 3.9.

Klescher Automated Prison
This card introduces the Klescher Automated Prison, which is owned and operated by Klescher Rehabilitation Facilities, a private corrections provider. This fully automated corrections site includes housing, security, and work release opportunities to allow prisoners to be productive while paying their debt to society. This card has been added to the Roadmap for Alpha 3.9.

Prison Uniform
This card introduces the Prison Uniform wearable, which has been added to the Roadmap for Alpha 3.9.

Rescue Hijacked 890 Jump
This card introduces a new mission that takes place on an 890 Jump that has been hijacked by ship-jackers intent on hacking into the ship’s computer. Work on this mission is nearing completion, resulting in the Rescue Hijacked 890 Jump card being added to the Roadmap for Alpha 3.8.

Law System v2 – Fines
This card introduces the ability for you to be able to pay off your fines at a terminal in your own time, rather than automatic fines. Work on this is nearing completion, resulting in Law System v2 – Fines being added to the Roadmap for Alpha 3.8.

Vehicle Look Ahead Camera
This card introduces revised look ahead camera implementation that allows you to look towards the direction you are moving for both space and ground vehicles. In addition the mode can also look towards selected targets to keep them in view and provide some horizon levelling when in atmosphere. Work on this new camera functionality is nearing completion, resulting in the Vehicle Look Ahead Camera card being added to the Roadmap for Alpha 3.8.

Vehicle Third Person Camera
This card introduces improvements to the third-person camera system for vehicles to provide a more immersive experience by ensuring the camera can orbit cleanly around vehicles, snap towards your movement direction, and react to collisions better. Work on this new camera functionality is nearing completion, resulting in the Vehicle Third Person Camera card being added to the Roadmap for Alpha 3.8.

Mining Heads
This card introduces 5 new mining lasers to the game, all with different stats ±. Some will transfer power faster but induce a lot more instability into the rock, while others will make mining more stable but slow down transfer. Some mining lasers will reduce the resistance levels of the rocks, making them ideal for cooperative gameplay, or will be incredibly powerful but more expensive. Work on these new components is nearing completion, resulting in the Mining Heads card being added to the Roadmap for Alpha 3.8.

Planet Tech v4
This card introduces new planetary improvements: improved tools, workflows, planet surface blending, objects scattering and transitions, generation driven by climate data, and more. Work on this new tech is nearing completion, resulting in the Planet Tech v4 card being added to the Roadmap for Alpha 3.8.

microTech Moons: Clio, Euterpe, Calliope
The team working on these moons is spending additional time polishing the v4 Planet Tech, which will debut in Alpha 3.8. This additional time will result in Clio, Euterpe, and Calliope moving on the Roadmap to Alpha 3.9.

Death Animation Improvements
While great progress has been made on this feature, and it’s still on track to be completed by the end of Q4, it will just miss the cut-off date for go/no-go reviews, resulting in this card moving on the Roadmap to Alpha 3.9.

NPC Healing
After re-evaluating priorities, the team working on this card will focus on improving the Personal Inner Thought and Personal Interaction System before moving on to improving medpens, grenades, and throwing t1 functionality. This shift in focus will result in this card moving back one quarter to Q2, 2020.

Player Status System v2
After re-evaluating priorities, Tier 2 EVA functionality has been prioritized over the Player Status System v2 that’s currently slated for 4.0, resulting in this card temporarily moving off of the Roadmap until discussions wrap up and a new target date is decided upon.

Cockpit Experience
After re-evaluating priorities, the decision was made to shift focus onto the previously mentioned camera improvements, which we feel will deliver more impactful improvements. The result is that this card will be temporarily moving off of the Roadmap until discussions wrap up and a new target date is decided upon.

NPC Improvements: Shopkeeper & Bartender
After re-evaluating priorities, the decision was made to temporarily remove these off of the Roadmap until discussions wrap up and a new target date is decided upon.

FPS Combat: Weapon Types
The developers focused on this task were pulled to assist with AI Perception for Squadron 42. Additionally, the development work for this card involved more feedback and adjustments than originally anticipated. For both of these reasons, after additional evaluation, this card has been moved back on quarter to Alpha 3.9.

Procedural Asteroids
This card has since become fairly legacy as it contained a lot of general subtasks that have since been duplicated into new tasks. The Graphics team is still looking to make further progress on this in the new year, however that would be subject to planning in Q1. For these reasons, this card has been temporarily removed from the Roadmap while we work out the best way to represent the work that will be completed.

Planetary Ground Fog Tech and Improved Terrain Shadows
While great progress has been made on these features, and work will continue on them both, they will not be ready in time for Alpha 3.8; therefore they are temporarily being removed from the Roadmap until discussions wrap up and a new target date is decided upon.

Squadron 42
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Body Dragging
Now that previously mentioned discussions have concluded, this card has been re-added to the Roadmap for Q1, 2020.

FPS: Realistic Firing v2
After re-evaluating priorities, this will now be completed one quarter earlier than originally planned, resulting in the card moving up to Q1, 2020.

Cockpit Interaction
After re-evaluating priorities, the team working on this card will focus on improving the Personal Inner Thought and Personal Interaction System, before moving on to improving medpens, grenades, and throwing t1 functionality. This shift in focus will result in this card moving back one quarter to Q2, 2020.

Locomotion v2
This card consists of general improvement, polish, and tweaking tasks for locomotion, which is lower priority than previous tasks which still focus on core locomotion functionality and needs. In an effort to put more focus on core functionality, this card will move back one quarter to Q2, 2020.

That’s all for this week’s Roundup – join the discussion on Spectrum