15017
502
October 17th 2015
Welcome to the first Star Citizen Alpha 2.0.0 Status update! We want you to know that we haven’t taken our foot off the pedal, and so we are expanding the weekly Star Marine update to include what the team is doing to prepare for the Alpha 2.0.0 launch.
It feels like June 2014 again when the whole company pushed together to get the very first “Arena Commander – Dogfighting Module v0.8” release out to the fans. Every department has been working flat out to get all of the exciting new content and gameplay in there, whilst making our systems robust enough to build a whole universe upon!
It’s a really exciting time for the project and as always we have been pushing the fidelity, improving the performance, fixing up bugs and iterating on new and existing gameplay features around the clock to make this a really enjoyable and solid release… and what we think will be our best yet!
As you will have seen from our CitizenCon demo, the Planet Crusader map is huge! We placed several new points of interest for you to explore around in your ship and on foot, introducing several basic missions and AI encounters for you to experience a variety of encounters in this beautiful star system. All of these encounters will have a random element to keep you guessing and should give players a taste of what Star Citizen is becoming with unique experiences every time you play, and layers of immersion such as one mission that asks the player to seek out Audio Datalogs from the space stations. It’s moments like this that will help build a story behind the environment and add a rich social history to our Universe.
Brace yourselves for some brand new gameplay elements! We’ve now got our basic implementation of the refuel, repair and restock systems in-game so pay attention to your Quantum Fuel Tank reserves and choose your Jump Points wisely to make sure you don’t get stranded out there! Then when you’re not busy hurtling around at 0.2c, or fighting pirates in asteroid fields, you can also experience the first taste of “rules and regulations” in the Universe with the introduction of our first “Green Zone” that enforces a non-combat area on all players. This is an important step towards building the bigger picture.
As I’m sure you’re all aware, the FPS team are working hard at getting the basic movement and gunplay feeling good so that we have a solid foundation to build on from, just like we did with our IFCS system for ships. The new additions of IFCS systems have been in test for the past few days so we’re balancing all of that out with Design and QA. Super Cruise, SCM (Space Combat Manoeuvring) and Precision Mode will soon be ready for you to hone your space flight skills even further; and we’ve even given EVA the “IFCS makeover” to harness all the hard work that went in to that system which will give us a much more natural and precise version of EVA manoeuvring.
Meanwhile, work on Star Marine proper continues. Some of the deeper features are taking a back seat this week we roll out the basic movement and gunplay that will be available to all players on the Crusader map. This allows us to focus our attention on making the time players are outside their ships a good experience. What’s not included in Star Citizen Alpha 2.0? Game systems such as the score screen and Star Marine lobby UI, as well as some gameplay engineering and design work that is needed for Headquarters game mode. Have no fear, though, for Star Marine will return and your appetite for first person combat will be whetted by the action on Bravo station in the Crusader map. We will continue developing features and gameplay modes that are ultimately for use within Star Citizen, and we will continue to use Arena Commander and the Star Marine modes as a test bed for them. For now, and into the future, the FPS experience will be an integral part of Star Citizen Alpha, and we can’t be more happy about that!
We hope you like the sound of what is to come in this huge release for Star Citizen and the team will keep you posted every week of how it’s all coming along. Thanks for your amazing support as ever, we’re confident that this will be a release for everyone to remember!
Here’s a high level breakdown of action from the different departments…