Roadmap Roundup

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Every two weeks, 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.

With this publish, we’re extending the horizon of the Progress Tracker to Q2 2022. We’re also planning to add a column for Alpha 3.18 soon.

With that said, let’s go ahead and dive into this week’s Roadmap Roundup!

-CIG Community Team

Notable Changes for August 11th, 2021

Progress Tracker

Live Mission Content Team
You’ll notice on the Progress Tracker that there are a few new names on the team roster, and this is indicative of some internal team changes that have occurred recently. Historically, content produced by Star Citizen Location teams (Modular, LZ-1, MTL-Modular) has been comprised of Environment Art and Level Design disciplines. This is changing moving forward, adding the Mission Design discipline as well as additional support from the AI Content team to the locations pipeline. They will be working together with level design and art to bring spaces to life with moment-to-moment gameplay.

This means that the Live Mission Content Team is no longer its own team and is instead integrated into the Locations teams, including their deliverables. The Live Mission Content Team’s data will now end in Q3 2021, but will be maintained on the roadmap as a reference.

Location Teams – New Names
The existing location teams on the roadmap have also gotten new names:

• LZ-1 Content Team – renamed to EU Landing Zone
• MTL Modular – renamed to MTL Sandbox 1
• Modular – renamed to EU Sandbox 1

There will also be a new team added to the roadmap very soon, named EU Sandbox 2. Keep an eye out for them in a future publish.

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Progress Tracker – Newly Added Deliverables:

Targeting v2
Expansion of the Targeting System to support missiles with improved management of targets for both the pilot and crew of the ship.

Plasma Ammunition
Further work on this damage type will cause damage over time to actors, vehicles and ships. Larger weapons of this type will also leave behind a hazard, causing further damage to anything in close proximity to it. This will fulfill the original vision we had for the plasma weapons we already have in-game, and those we have planned for the future.

Incendiary Ammunition
This is a new ballistic projectile that burns on impact, causing the target to take damage over time and potentially causing items in the environment to catch fire.

Disarray Ammunition
This is a new charged ballistic projectile that emits electromagnetic pulses, helping to not only damage the target but also to disrupt power systems.

Space Mines
In space, players in certain ships will gain the ability to release different types of space mines in a coordinated fashion, in an attempt to trap, damage and capture enemies, or set up defensive perimeters.

Save/Load
This feature will handle the creation of the save system across Squadron 42, including player data, checkpoints, and UI. Part of this system will also store and load dynamic entities, NPC positions, and data associated with object containers.

Aerodynamic Control Surfaces
Ships with control surfaces will be able to use them in atmospheres to aid their maneuverability. This will allow for improved performance from ships that have weak maneuvering thrusters in atmosphere, and bring new depth to aerodynamic flight in the game.

Crusader Genesis Starliner
Building, implementing, and balancing Crusader’s passenger transport, the Genesis Star Liner, as a flight-ready vehicle.

RSI Orion
Building, implementing, and balancing RSI’s mining platform, the Orion, as a flight-ready vehicle.

RSI Lynx
Building, implementing, and balancing RSI’s planetary rover, the Lynx, as a game-ready vehicle.

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These deliverables are being temporarily removed from the Progress Tracker as the location teams calibrate their planning after the aforementioned changes:

• Cutting T2
• Charge/Drain T0
• Ground Vehicles V2
• Akiro Cluster
• Ground Scramble Race
• Reputation Gates for Missions
• Counterfeiting / Data Download Mission

These deliverables were previously taken off of the Progress Tracker, and are now returning:

• Dynamic Population
• Ladders T1
• Actor Status T2

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Release View

The following cards have been added to Release View:

3.15

New Babbage Hospital
Implementation of a working hospital located in New Babbage, where players can be healed and revived, as well as purchase medical supplies and life insurance.

Orison Hospital
Implementation of a working hospital located in Orison, where players can be healed and revived, as well as purchase medical supplies and life insurance.

Rest Stops: Space Station Clinics
Implementation of working Clinics throughout the ‘verse, where players can be healed, as well as purchase medical supplies and life insurance.

GrimHex Clinic
Implementation of a working clinic located within GrimHex, where players can be healed, as well as purchase medical supplies and life insurance.

Loot Generation T0
Implementing the systems that generate containers throughout the persistent universe (crates/lockers/boxes) that contain dynamically populated, randomized loot.

Asset Manager mobiGlas app
In support of localized inventories, the Asset Manager keeps track of all player-owned items, where they’re stored, and where they need to go to pick up, transfer, and equip them.

Physical/Local Inventory Support
Adjusting shops and VMA to support the required API changes for players’ local/physical inventory. Some of the transaction code will also be refactored, and several additional debugging options are being added so that we can identify problems and resolve bugs faster. The VMA will be updated so a player can only adjust their ship’s loadout if they are in a location where they are currently storing other ship related items.

Infiltrate and Defend Missions
Underground Facilities are the first place to benefit from the addition of spawn closets, which allow us to expand the suite of missions taking place there. Missions range from all-out assaults to situations where you may be able to complete objectives without the need to engage in combat at all, and include both lawful and unlawful variants.

Updates – Broken Moon Map
Updating Arena Commander’s Broken Moon map by increasing overall size, adding new playable areas, more cover options, and new space assets.

Shops and Patrons
Vastly expand the interactive usables needed for an assortment of shops and patrons. We will be populating dozens of shops with the ‘vendor’ behavior previously seen in the bartender. This will include the Coffee Stand, Pizza Bar, Kiosks, and more.

Doctor, Nurse AI Behaviors
When the player respawns in the medical bed, they will be greeted by a doctor with dialogue, and a nurse can be seen in the background, interacting with various medical-themed usables – The ‘medical tray’ – The ‘IV Drip’ – and inspecting the ‘Medicine Cabinet’. This will add life and movement to the patient’s room when he awakes. Injured players that enter the room will also be greeted by the doctor and encouraged to heal themselves in the medical bed.

Orison V2
This feature, originally slated for a Q4 release window, has been moved up to release during the 3.15 patch cycle.

3.16

Area 18 Hospital
Implementation of a working hospital located in Area 18, where players can be healed and revived, as well as purchase medical supplies and life insurance.

3.17

Lorville Hospital: Maria Pure of Heart
Implementation of a working hospital located in Lorville, where players can be healed and revived, as well as purchase medical supplies and life insurance.

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The following cards have been removed from Release View:

3.15

Ship Interior OC Streaming
This feature is being rescheduled due to other core tech tasks taking a higher priority. For this reason, we’re removing this card from Release View until plans for the feature have been finalized.

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That’s all for this week! Join the discussion on Spectrum