{"data":{"id":17416,"title":"Star Citizen Monthly Report: November & December 2019","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/17416-Star-Citizen-Monthly-Report-November-December-2019","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/17416","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/17416","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"Monthly 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a month\u2019s hiatus for the holidays, the Star Citizen monthly report is back with all the behind-the-scenes details from development. November and December saw several exciting releases, so expect to read about the work that went into the very latest ships, locations, patches, and more. 2020 is shaping up to be the most exciting year in the \u2018verse yet, so check back for the latest report from our global studios around this time each month.\n\nAI\nAI (Ships)\nShip AI had a busy couple of months working on NPC planetside traversal:\n\u201cFlying on the surface of a planet is definitely different from open space; the expectation is that ships fly in a straight and level attitude and bank when steering to different headings.\u201d -Ship AI\nThe first iteration involved generating a flight path suitable for the terrain height and local slope. The information generated is then used to correct the path to ensure ships always have a specified minimal clearance to the terrain below while steering according to the inclination of the terrain. For example, a ship will favor a flight path through a valley rather than over a ridge. Hand-placed and procedurally generated objects (rocks, buildings, etc.) are not part of the terrain elevation information and are obtained by a different query. In the next iteration, the team will integrate this information so spaceships can adapt their flight paths accordingly.\nThe same considerations apply to in-atmosphere dogfighting. The prototype of this was shown during the recent CitizenCon playthrough, with three security ships engaging the fugitive Carrack. The team also experimented with a stunt maneuver to add flair and personality to AI behavior.\nWork was also completed on Collision Avoidance. This system runs in the background during AI flight and provides steering correction if a collision is likely to happen within a given time horizon. In the current development version, the system considers the collision resolution of all piloted vehicles, vehicles without a pilot (abandoned vehicles, derelicts), static obstacles, and procedurally generated asteroids.\nRecently, the system was heavily reworked to minimize its impact on the overall performance of AI systems. This includes ensuring all vehicles and obstacles are organized in memory according to their current host zone to make the search for the surrounding participants faster. It also makes sure the collision avoidance update never gets an exclusive lock on the cached information when creating and processing individual AI collision problems. This is a critical aspect, as the updates of all AI entities run concurrently, so having an exclusive lock can heavily impact performance.\nAI (Social)\nThe Social AI Team made several improvements to path following, including the ability to: specify movement speed when following a path edge, add branching paths, wait at a path point continually playing any function until events have fired, trigger a random Subsumption function from a weighted list, and enable\/disable Subsumption secondary activities when following a path edge.\nWork also continued on the bartender, with the first iteration of mixing station tech added. This extends the character\u2019s ability to not only pick up and serve items from the fridge, but to also prepare new drinks at the mixing station. Several other small improvements were also made to make the overall experience smoother.\nFinally for Social AI, the base idle system in the actor state machine was improved by moving all decision-making to the control state. This should make the whole system more robust and stable over the network, potentially avoiding the desync issues seen in the past as well as helping the team debug potential issues more efficiently. Further on the optimization, the usable caching has been updated to now also listen for tile-created events from navigation meshes.\nAI (Character Combat)\nThe team\u2019s primary focus over the past few months was on the player combat experience against NPCs. This involved implementing new behavior tactics for shotgun-wielding NPCs, giving them the tactical choice to get much closer to the target than before to make proper use of the weapon. They also began improving vision perception so that the designers can more easily adjust the size of vision cones and how fast a target is perceived when inside them. The main aim of these changes is to provide a better stealth experience for players.\nThey also made improvements to the system that generates cover locations and usage to enable AI to choose to only partially cover themselves. Small optimizations were also made to AI hearing perception and specific designer movement requests.\n\nArt (Environment)\n\u201cNovember and December were the busiest and most rewarding months of the year for us.\u201d -Environment Team\nThe end of 2019 was a busy but rewarding time for the Environment Art Team, which saw the release of the much anticipated Planet Tech v4 across the PU.\nThe UK team worked tirelessly to ready New Babbage\u2019s exterior for CitizenCon and its subsequent public release. Elsewhere, the Modular Team released 13 new Rest Stop interiors along with new low-orbit space stations around the major planets.\n\n\nArt (Ships)\nShip Art spent the last couple of months pushing hard on the final art for the newly released ARGO MOLE. The Anvil Carrack had and continues to receive significant focus from the team; the exterior received a detail pass and some slight trimming to the rear to improve visual balance. The interior continues towards final art, with several areas not seen at CitizenCon nearing completion.\n\nArt (Weapons)\nThe Weapons Team wrapped up the Behring P6-LR sniper rifle, with the 4x and 8x scopes both completed (with the former being demoed at CitizenCon). A new prop artist joined the team and, after training on the pipeline, began creating an additional set of Behring sights, which will be available in the PU soon. Metrics and guidelines were also established for sights and scopes to aid with future sets and to make sure they all align correctly with art and gameplay.\nWork kicked off on the Gemini C54 submachine gun. The first block-out was created in-engine and is currently with the design and animation teams. Once it\u2019s functional, it\u2019ll be ready for review and full implementation.\nOn the ship weapon side, two Tevarin weapons were taken through the pipeline and will be ready for the release of the upcoming Esperia Prowler. Props were also completed for Alpha 3.8, including mining heads and props for New Babbage.\nAudio\nQuarter four of 2019 was a busy one for the Audio Team. This included supporting the CitizenCon 2949 demo (dialogue, SFX, and music), trailers (Jax McCleary, Carrack, MOLE), ships (Carrack, MOLE, Cutlass Red), weapons (BEHR P6-LR sniper rifle, Animus Missile Launcher), actor status features (FPS close combat, temperature), mining (new mining heads), rest stop interiors, planetary weather effects, and general Planet Tech v4 work.\nBackend Services\nThe end of 2019 saw the Backend Team focusing on cleanup, bug fixing, and scaling out some of the heavy services, such as variables and loadouts. They now have an internal framework that allows them to scale out several services that will greatly reduce backend latency and improve response to the game servers and clients. This cleanup involved tweaking some of the services to reduce memory consumption and address performance and stability issues. Finally, testing was done on the long-term persistence initiative for the inventory and ledger.\nCommunity\nThe Community Team\u2019s highlight of November was CitizenCon 2949 in Manchester, UK.\n\u201cWe were amazed by how many Citizens joined in on the fun, be it at the event itself, via livestream, or at viewing parties all around the globe.\u201d -The Community Team\nFor those that missed out or want to relive the excitement, the team uploaded both keynotes and all the developer panels to the Star Citizen YouTube channel. Now everyone can relive the epic event from the opening keynote to the first-ever jump to Pyro.\nThe day after CitizenCon, the Intergalactic Aerospace Exposition opened its doors at Area18 on ArcCorp. Each day, one or more of Star Citizen\u2019s vehicle manufacturers made their ships available for everyone to fly for free. The team was delighted to welcome many new Citizens to the \u2018verse and added several new guides to the Welcome Hub to help new players explore the \u2018verse.\nThey worked on the new Guide System that helps new players find seasoned pilots to show them the ropes. The new Traveler\u2019s Guide series also provided an inside look on the frozen planet of microTech.\nOn the ship front, community questions on all of the recently announced ships were gathered and put to the devs: Anvil Pisces, Kraken Privateer, Crusader Ares, and ARGO MOLE.\nThe year came to a close with the Alpha 3.8 \u2013 New Frontiers live release and two festive holiday contests. The team invited players to spread the holiday spirit by crafting a Star-Citizen-inspired greeting card or setting up a seasonal scene in-game and snapping a screenshot.\n\n\nDesign\nThe Design Team developed the demo flow for the CitizenCon demo, which included work on the upcoming Pyro system.\nThey converted all existing missions to work with the current and future iterations of Server-side Object Container Streaming (SOCS). This signals a major change, as players are now guided to specific locations before they\u2019re fully loaded.\nNew missions were added, including Claim Jumpers (which introduced a new sentry turret), the Arlington Family bounty chain, Call to Arms, and several new bounties, and FPS cave missions (which will be expanded upon in the future). Bounty missions were also improved to make the targeted enemies more fun to fight against, while crime stats were given to all criminal NPC ships.\nFines are now no longer automatically deducted from player aUEC balances. Instead, terminals must be visited to pay them off when it suits best. These fines escalate if not paid promptly, although they can be hacked away with the proper criminal know-how\u2026\nThe Texas-based team had a busy few months working on, among other things, the Quantum system. Familiar to those who watched the CitizenCon panel, Quantum is the simulator than drives the economy of the game.\n\u201cWe were excited to show you our progress and have since continued to integrate it with our backend services, such as shopping and probability volume. We\u2019ve also spent time improving and developing our internal tools to better deliver content to you in the future.\u201d -Design Team\nThe team also polished a few things for CitizenCon and the IAE, including setting up NPCs, building shops, making sure days transitioned smoothly, and arranging the expo hall. Lastly, they iterated on the shop inventories and layouts for the new rest stops, with a focus towards encouraging players to thoroughly explore each one.\n\u201cWe particularly enjoyed seeing how much more quickly you found the Black Market stands in this iteration.\u201d -Design Team\nEngineering\nOver in Frankfurt, Engineering spent November and December working on game physics \u2013 specifically soft bodies. This including exposing a linear air and water resistance scale, making damping linear (and not step dependent), modifying them to use box pruner to accelerate tri-mesh collisions, and general optimization. Regarding attachment support, they moved boundary brushes and entities to the object container entity and added the ability to query for the attached points during a previous attachment. They also exposed the surface area on geometries and optimized loading times and the calculations while verifying parts.\nThe team continued work on the new graphics pipeline and render interface (Gen12), made robust changes to the Vulkan layer to prepare for use on scene objects, added PSO and layout cache, improved API validation, and ported tiled shading light volume rasterization to the new pipeline. They also continued the parallel refactor of existing render code in support of the new graphics pipeline and APIs and worked on the global render state removal and device texture code refactor.\nFor planet terrain shadows, the team added multi-cascade and blending support to improve detail and range. This will also eliminate various existing shadow artifacts. Regarding fog, the team worked on volumetric terrain shadow support and came up with a multi-scattered ambient lighting solution that ties into unified raymarching.\nMulti-scattering improvements via a specialized sky irradiance LUT was made to improve unified raymarching. Updates were made to the jittered lookup and TSAA to vastly improve quality and reduce the number of raymarching steps. They also made lighting consistent so that a planet\u2019s atmosphere affects ground fog layers and vice versa, experimented with ozone layer support in-atmosphere, and added support for scattering queries (transparent objects).\nFinally, work continued on planetary clouds, ocean rendering, frozen oceans, and wind bending for static brushes.\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nIn the US, the Gameplay Features Team spent the majority of the past couple of months ensuring that all of the features under the USPU umbrella were effectively updated and tested for SOCS. The engineers also made quality-of-life improvements along the way, such as adjusting the physical forces on spawned cargo boxes to stop them destroyed ships. In addition, time was spent concepting and implementing work for the generic rest stop kiosk templates. This will make it easier and quicker to generate assets for future locations.\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nIn the US, the Vehicle Feature Team improved radar and ping detection for better scanning gameplay. They\u2019re currently working on ItemPort despawn optimization, which will help improve general performance. Support was also provided for SOCS and long-range radar scanning.\nDecember for the EU Vehicle Feature Team was mostly about supporting the 3.8.0 release and finishing up the new refactor of the restricted area system (which we\u2019ll see in new features in 3.9 like the spline landing guidance). The team has also been doing some design work for HUD UI updates to come in the future as well.\nGraphics\nThe final few weeks of 2019 were extremely busy for the Graphics Team. A lot of work went into Planet Tech v4 to get it ready for release in Alpha 3.8, which was the culmination of many months of code-side work.\nImprovements were made to the new palette\/paint\/tint system before it was handed to the art teams. This system will likely premier with environments in an upcoming Alpha release and later expand to other assets.\nThe team\u2019s Alpha 3.8 focus was on stability and bug fixing, including fixing one that caused planetary fog to stretch and blur.\nLevel Design\nIn Frankfurt, the Level Design Team spent the last few months on the new Space Station interiors, which is the first step in bringing the interiors in line with the new larger exteriors. There\u2019s still a way to go before they\u2019re considered finished, including adding more spaces to make them feel even more alive.\nWork went into the first iteration of microTech and the upcoming landing zone, New Babbage. While the exterior of the city is only visitable in the PU, the interiors are nearing completion and will be explorable in Alpha 3.9.\nAlongside these major locations, they worked on level design for the IAE, including AI, the expo hall, and the transit loop in Area18. They also worked on items for CitizenCon, such as Jump Points and ground bases.\n\nLighting\nThe Lighting Team\u2019s November was dedicated to lighting the areas seen at CitizenCon, including the ground base mission. This involved working in the location interiors and exteriors and implementing alarm states to assist gameplay. They also supported the expo hall and ships for the IAE event.\nIn December, the primary focus was on finalizing areas for the Alpha 3.8 release, which included three main tasks: Firstly, polishing the Rest Stop Interiors. Secondly, lighting the city, spaceport, and interiors and exteriors of microTech. Lastly, reworking the atmospheres of existing planets and moons following the implementation of Planet Tech v4.\n\n\n\n\n\nNarrative\nAfter CitizenCon, the team hit the ground running and dove back into Alpha 3.8 support. They tried to log as much time as possible in-game to see how the experience was feeling and worked with Design to tweak any missions as needed, making sure that all names and descriptions were displaying properly.\nThe Galactapedia continued to be expanded and the team reviewed player comments and feedback of the system so far.\nLooking to the new year, planning began for Q1 of 2020 along with evergreen work on promotions, game text, and scripting.\nPlayer Relations\nThe Player Relations team had an extremely busy few months supporting new players, releases, and CitizenCon (where the UK-based team manned the merch booth). They worked through tasks for the IAE before moving onto Alpha 3.8 testing with the Evocati.\nProps\nCarrying on from the last report, Props further developed the quantum and jump drives. Both received the final art and game-ready pass and were featured during the CitizenCon demo. The team also worked on several interactive props shown throughout the demo, such as access cards, servers and server modules, security gates, tarps, and flags. They also supported the lockers and crates used throughout the demo that contained the different clothing and armor needed for the player to traverse the hostile environment. On the day of the event, the Props Team gave an access-all-areas demo of their work, created the CitizenCon trophy, the sextant reward, and an in-game scope.\nBreaking from the usual hard surface work, time was spent on the Anvil Carrack and penguin plushies that should be making an appearance at an upcoming landing zone. New stands, signs, and adverts were also created to support the IAE at Area18.\nWork continued on the upcoming prisons, this time mainly focusing on the interactive props, such as oxygen and equipment dispensers and prisoner status consoles. Progress was also made on the hi-tech prop set for New Babbage. The artists finished their work with the Ship Team on the Carrack and ARGO MOLE.\nFinally, support was given to mining gameplay that included supplying five new mining heads.\nQA\nThe Frankfurt-based QA Team spent early November testing AI and microTech. They then moved onto testing on features for CitizenCon, Alpha 3.7.2, and Alpha 3.8. With Planet v4 Tech fully enabled, Live Design were able to complete their re-drop pass on all outposts, UGFs, derelicts, and other points of interest on each of the planets and moons. Once complete, they moved onto completing QA test requests for SOCS. While all the locations have now been tested, due to the size of the planets and moons, tests are ongoing. Regular smoke checks on core functionality continue, as well as sanity art passes on different planet quadrants, to cover as much of the planetary surfaces as possible.\nIn Texas, the team tested SOCS, long-term persistence, the IAE, and many Alpha 3.8 features. They also made sure the keynote and Theatres of War demos were running smoothly for CitizenCon. On the publishing side, focus was on the Alpha 3.7 and 3.8 builds, including pushing out builds to the Evocati and logging bugs and issues.\nTech Animation\nNovember and December saw Tech Animation rework Mannequin setups to clean up older usable iterations and address bugs related to the rework. They worked with the animation and code teams on the updated bartender and implemented socket\/attach point tech for props in Maya. They created multiple prop rigs for the usable and cinematics teams, including plates, trays, maintenance ladders, and ship turrets. Support was given to the Weapons Team along with new rigs, updates to older rigs, and in-engine bug fixes. The necessary rig additions for the new real digital acting tech were completed too.\nNew toolsets were authored to help visualize the complex engine-side attachment systems inside Maya. This assists the animators in their daily workflow and makes it infinitely easier to author props too. Development continued on the facial rigging pipelines. This lengthy initiative will ultimately yield great things when the team authors their own in-house face rigs compatible with the DNA systems.\nTech Art\nFrankfurt\u2019s Tech Art Team worked closely together with the UK\u2019s Tech Animation on the design and implementation of the new runtime Rig Logic plugin for Maya. In contrast to previous hard-coded versions, the new plugin is entirely data-driven and utilizes so-called rig definition files that can be changed as needed without the assistance of an engine programmer. The removal of this bottleneck will give more creative freedom to the artists and significantly shorten iteration times. While the Maya runtime node is responsible for driving rigs in Maya based on facial and\/or body animation, a bespoke Maya command was also implemented. This command allows convenient querying and editing of all parts of the rig definition data and forms the foundation of the team\u2019s new rigging pipeline and tools.\nTurbulent\nTurbulent worked extensively on the IAE promotion, including creating and supporting the backend of the Ship Showdown competition, which saw the Drake Caterpillar crowned the community\u2019s favorite ship. All backers were awarded a Caterpillar statue to decorate their ship as a thank you for voting. The team also supported all other promotions and releases over the past few months, including the Alpha 3.8, the IAE Free-Fly, Anvil Pisces, Drake Kraken Privateer, ARGO MOLE, and Crusader Ares.\nTurbulent also developed the Galactapedia, which launched at CitizenCon. A depository for articles on everything in and to do with the world of Star Citizen, it\u2019s an invaluable resource for lore and all things narrative.\nThe Welcome Hub and Guide System went live just before the holidays, both of which are designed to support new players as they get to grips with the ways of the \u2018verse.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUser Interface (UI)\nMuch of the UI team\u2019s November was spent on the features shown at CitizenCon. The UI Tech Team continued to refine their building block system, with a focus on resizable and collapsible menus and the ability to assign different visual styles to one element. This can be seen on the new elevator panel, which has different versions for microTech, the Carrack, and low-tech locations despite using the same base canvas.\nUI also worked heavily on the actor status display, which involved an updated element, which shows the player\u2019s temperature, external temperature, and more. This is planned for release shortly.\nThe graphic artists worked on several screens seen in the CitizenCon demo. These and more will appear in the New Babbage interior spaces in Alpha 3.9.\nVFX\nNovember and December saw the VFX team wrap up work for CitizenCon and Alpha 3.8. Planetary weather effects continue to be authored, with a particular focus on ground storms across all planets and moons.\nJump gate effects were iterated on, including the tunnel effects, which resulted in interesting lore-abiding effects. Effects were also completed for the ARGO MOLE, Animus Rocket Launcher, and the Multi-tool mining beams. An effects pass was also done for the Theatres of War map, including a large Terraformer beam. Ways to improve the fire texture assets were experimented with too.\nThe tech artists also supported the final steps of procedurally generating buildings for New Babbage. This involved exporting meshes with a complete hierarchy that contain the LOD and collision meshes. This is an improvement on the previous manual iteration. WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026","de_DE":"Nach einer einmonatigen Ferienpause ist der Monatsbericht des Star Citizen mit allen Details hinter den Kulissen aus der Entwicklung zur\u00fcck. Im November und Dezember wurden mehrere aufregende Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen ver\u00f6ffentlicht, also erwarten Sie, dass Sie \u00fcber die Arbeit lesen werden, die in die neuesten Schiffe, Standorte, Patches und mehr eingeflossen ist. Das Jahr 2020 wird das bisher aufregendste Jahr in der 'verse' sein, also schauen Sie jeden Monat um diese Zeit nach dem neuesten Bericht aus unseren globalen Studios.\n\nKI\nAI (Schiffe)\nDas Schiff AI hatte einige Monate lang viel zu tun, um die NPC-Planetendurchquerung durchzuf\u00fchren:\n\"Das Fliegen auf der Oberfl\u00e4che eines Planeten unterscheidet sich definitiv vom offenen Raum; es wird erwartet, dass die Schiffe gerade und eben fliegen und sich beim Steuern auf verschiedene Richtungen neigen. -Schiff KI\nIn der ersten Iteration wurde eine der Gel\u00e4ndeh\u00f6he und der lokalen Neigung angepasste Flugbahn generiert. Die generierten Informationen werden dann zur Korrektur des Pfades verwendet, um sicherzustellen, dass die Schiffe immer einen bestimmten Mindestabstand zum darunter liegenden Gel\u00e4nde haben, w\u00e4hrend sie entsprechend der Neigung des Gel\u00e4ndes steuern. So wird ein Schiff beispielsweise eine Flugroute durch ein Tal statt \u00fcber einen Bergr\u00fccken bevorzugen. Von Hand platzierte und prozedural erzeugte Objekte (Felsen, Geb\u00e4ude usw.) sind nicht Teil der Gel\u00e4ndeh\u00f6heninformationen und werden durch eine andere Abfrage ermittelt. In der n\u00e4chsten Iteration wird das Team diese Informationen integrieren, damit die Raumschiffe ihre Flugwege entsprechend anpassen k\u00f6nnen.\nDieselben \u00dcberlegungen gelten f\u00fcr den Luftkampf in der Atmosph\u00e4re. Der Prototyp davon wurde w\u00e4hrend des j\u00fcngsten CitizenCon-Spiels gezeigt, bei dem drei Sicherheitsschiffe den fl\u00fcchtigen Carrack angriffen. Das Team experimentierte auch mit einem Stuntman\u00f6ver, um dem Verhalten der KI Flair und Pers\u00f6nlichkeit zu verleihen.\nAuch die Arbeiten zur Kollisionsvermeidung wurden abgeschlossen. Dieses System l\u00e4uft w\u00e4hrend des KI-Fluges im Hintergrund und sorgt f\u00fcr eine Lenkkorrektur, wenn innerhalb eines bestimmten Zeithorizonts eine Kollision wahrscheinlich ist. In der aktuellen Entwicklungsversion ber\u00fccksichtigt das System die Kollisionsaufl\u00f6sung aller gesteuerten Fahrzeuge, Fahrzeuge ohne Pilot (verlassene Fahrzeuge, Wrackteile), statische Hindernisse und prozedural erzeugte Asteroiden.\nK\u00fcrzlich wurde das System stark \u00fcberarbeitet, um die Auswirkungen auf die Gesamtleistung der KI-Systeme zu minimieren. Dazu geh\u00f6rt auch, dass alle Fahrzeuge und Hindernisse im Speicher entsprechend ihrer aktuellen Gastgeberzone organisiert werden, um die Suche nach den umliegenden Teilnehmern zu beschleunigen. Au\u00dferdem wird sichergestellt, dass die Aktualisierung der Kollisionsvermeidung bei der Erstellung und Verarbeitung einzelner KI-Kollisionsprobleme niemals eine exklusive Sperre auf die zwischengespeicherten Informationen erh\u00e4lt. Dies ist ein kritischer Aspekt, da die Aktualisierungen aller KI-Einheiten gleichzeitig laufen, so dass eine exklusive Sperre die Leistung stark beeintr\u00e4chtigen kann.\nKI (sozial)\nDas Team f\u00fcr soziale KI hat mehrere Verbesserungen an der Pfadverfolgung vorgenommen, darunter die M\u00f6glichkeit, die Bewegungsgeschwindigkeit beim Verfolgen einer Pfadkante zu spezifizieren, Verzweigungspfade hinzuzuf\u00fcgen, an einem Pfadpunkt zu warten und kontinuierlich eine beliebige Funktion abzuspielen, bis Ereignisse ausgel\u00f6st wurden, eine zuf\u00e4llige Subsumtionsfunktion aus einer gewichteten Liste auszul\u00f6sen und Nebenaktivit\u00e4ten der Subsumtion zu aktivieren\/deaktivieren, wenn man einer Pfadkante folgt.\nAuch die Arbeit am Barkeeper wurde fortgesetzt, wobei die erste Iteration der Mischstationstechnik hinzugef\u00fcgt wurde. Dies erweitert die F\u00e4higkeit der Figur, nicht nur Gegenst\u00e4nde aus dem K\u00fchlschrank zu holen und zu servieren, sondern auch neue Getr\u00e4nke an der Mischstation zuzubereiten. Es wurden auch mehrere andere kleine Verbesserungen vorgenommen, um die Erfahrung insgesamt reibungsloser zu gestalten.\nSchlie\u00dflich wurde f\u00fcr die soziale KI das grundlegende Leerlaufsystem im Akteurszentralstaat verbessert, indem alle Entscheidungen in den Kontrollstaat verlagert wurden. Dies sollte das gesamte System im Netzwerk robuster und stabiler machen, wodurch die in der Vergangenheit aufgetretenen Desynchronisationsprobleme vermieden werden k\u00f6nnten und das Team potenzielle Probleme effizienter debuggen kann. Im Zuge der weiteren Optimierung wurde das nutzbare Caching aktualisiert, um nun auch auf von Kacheln erzeugte Ereignisse aus Navigationsnetzen zu h\u00f6ren.\nAI (Charakterkampf)\nIn den letzten Monaten lag der Schwerpunkt der Mannschaft auf der Erfahrung der Spieler im Kampf gegen die NSCs. Dies beinhaltete die Einf\u00fchrung neuer Verhaltenstaktiken f\u00fcr Schrotflinten schwingende NSCs, die die taktische Wahl haben, viel n\u00e4her an das Ziel heranzukommen als bisher, um die Waffe richtig einzusetzen. Sie begannen auch, die Sehwahrnehmung zu verbessern, so dass die Designer die Gr\u00f6\u00dfe der Sehkegel und die Geschwindigkeit, mit der ein Ziel in ihrem Inneren wahrgenommen wird, leichter einstellen k\u00f6nnen. Das Hauptziel dieser \u00c4nderungen besteht darin, den Spielern eine bessere Tarnung zu erm\u00f6glichen.\nSie haben auch Verbesserungen am System vorgenommen, das die Standorte und die Nutzung von Deckungen generiert, um der KI die M\u00f6glichkeit zu geben, sich nur teilweise selbst zu decken. Kleine Optimierungen wurden auch an der KI-H\u00f6rwahrnehmung und an spezifischen Bewegungsw\u00fcnschen der Designer vorgenommen.\n\nKunst (Umwelt)\n\"November und Dezember waren f\u00fcr uns die gesch\u00e4ftigsten und lohnendsten Monate des Jahres. -Umwelt-Team\nEnde 2019 war eine arbeitsreiche, aber lohnende Zeit f\u00fcr das Environment Art Team, das die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung des lang erwarteten Planet Tech v4 in der gesamten PU erlebte.\nDas britische Team arbeitete unerm\u00fcdlich daran, das \u00c4u\u00dfere von New Babbage f\u00fcr die CitizenCon und ihre anschlie\u00dfende \u00f6ffentliche Ver\u00f6ffentlichung vorzubereiten. An anderer Stelle hat das Modulare Team 13 neue Rastst\u00e4tten-Innenr\u00e4ume zusammen mit neuen Raumstationen in niedriger Umlaufbahn um die gro\u00dfen Planeten herausgebracht.\n\n\nKunst (Schiffe)\nShip Art verbrachte die letzten paar Monate damit, hart an der endg\u00fcltigen Kunst f\u00fcr die neu ver\u00f6ffentlichte ARGO MOLE zu arbeiten. Der Anvil Carrack wurde und wird vom Team stark fokussiert; das \u00c4u\u00dfere erhielt einen Detailpass und eine leichte Verkleidung nach hinten, um die visuelle Balance zu verbessern. Das Interieur geht weiter in Richtung endg\u00fcltiger Kunst, wobei einige Bereiche, die auf der CitizenCon nicht zu sehen waren, kurz vor der Fertigstellung stehen.\n\nKunst (Waffen)\nDas Waffenteam hat das Behring-Scharfsch\u00fctzengewehr P6-LR eingepackt, wobei sowohl das 4fach- als auch das 8fach-Zielfernrohr fertiggestellt wurden (das erstere wurde auf der CitizenCon vorgef\u00fchrt). Ein neuer Requisiteur trat dem Team bei und begann nach der Ausbildung an der Pipeline mit der Erstellung eines zus\u00e4tzlichen Satzes von Behring-Visierelementen, die bald in der PU erh\u00e4ltlich sein werden. Es wurden auch Metriken und Richtlinien f\u00fcr Sehensw\u00fcrdigkeiten und Zielfernrohre festgelegt, um bei zuk\u00fcnftigen Sets zu helfen und sicherzustellen, dass sie alle korrekt mit Kunst und Spiel \u00fcbereinstimmen.\nDie Arbeiten an der Maschinenpistole Gemini C54 haben begonnen. Der erste Block-Out wurde in der Maschine erstellt und befindet sich derzeit bei den Design- und Animationsteams. Sobald es funktionsf\u00e4hig ist, wird es zur \u00dcberpr\u00fcfung und vollst\u00e4ndigen Umsetzung bereit sein.\nAuf der Seite der Schiffswaffen wurden zwei Tevarin-Waffen durch die Pipeline gebracht und werden f\u00fcr die Freilassung des bevorstehenden Esperia Prowlers bereit sein. Au\u00dferdem wurden Requisiten f\u00fcr Alpha 3.8 fertiggestellt, darunter auch Abbauk\u00f6pfe und Requisiten f\u00fcr New Babbage.\nAudio\nDas vierte Quartal des Jahres 2019 war f\u00fcr das Audio-Team ein arbeitsreiches Quartal. Dazu geh\u00f6rte die Unterst\u00fctzung der CitizenCon 2949-Demo (Dialog, SFX und Musik), Trailer (Jax McCleary, Carrack, MOLE), Schiffe (Carrack, MOLE, Cutlass Red), Waffen (BEHR P6-LR-Scharfsch\u00fctzengewehr, Animus-Raketenwerfer), Schauspieler-Statusfunktionen (FPS-Nahkampf, Temperatur), Bergbau (neue Minenk\u00f6pfe), Rastst\u00e4tten-Innenr\u00e4ume, planetarische Wettereffekte und allgemeine Planet Tech v4-Arbeiten.\nBackend-Dienste\nEnde 2019 konzentrierte sich das Backend-Team auf die Bereinigung, Fehlerbehebung und die Auslagerung einiger der schwerf\u00e4lligen Dienste, wie z.B. Variablen und Auslastungen. Sie verf\u00fcgen nun \u00fcber einen internen Rahmen, der es ihnen erm\u00f6glicht, verschiedene Dienste zu skalieren, was die Latenzzeiten im Backend erheblich reduziert und die Reaktion auf die Spielserver und Clients verbessert. Diese Bereinigung beinhaltete die Anpassung einiger Dienste, um den Speicherverbrauch zu reduzieren und Leistungs- und Stabilit\u00e4tsprobleme anzugehen. Schlie\u00dflich wurden Tests zur langfristigen Persistenzinitiative f\u00fcr das Inventar und das Hauptbuch durchgef\u00fchrt.\nGemeinschaft\nDer H\u00f6hepunkt des Community Teams im November war die CitizenCon 2949 in Manchester, Gro\u00dfbritannien.\n\"Wir waren erstaunt, wie viele B\u00fcrgerinnen und B\u00fcrger sich an dem Spa\u00df beteiligt haben, sei es bei der Veranstaltung selbst, per Livestream oder bei Viewing-Partys rund um den Globus. -Das Gemeinschaftsteam\nF\u00fcr diejenigen, die das Ereignis verpasst haben oder die Aufregung noch einmal erleben wollen, hat das Team sowohl die Keynotes als auch alle Entwickler-Panels auf den YouTube-Kanal f\u00fcr Sternenb\u00fcrger hochgeladen. Jetzt kann jeder das epische Ereignis von der Er\u00f6ffnungsrede bis zum ersten Sprung nach Pyro noch einmal erleben.\nAm Tag nach der CitizenCon \u00f6ffnete die Intergalactic Aerospace Exposition in Area18 auf der ArcCorp ihre Tore. Jeden Tag stellten einer oder mehrere der Fahrzeughersteller der Star Citizen ihre Schiffe f\u00fcr alle kostenlos zur Verf\u00fcgung. Das Team freute sich, viele neue B\u00fcrgerinnen und B\u00fcrger in der 'Strophe' willkommen zu hei\u00dfen, und f\u00fcgte dem Welcome Hub mehrere neue Leitf\u00e4den hinzu, um neuen Spielern die Erkundung der 'Strophe' zu erleichtern.\nSie arbeiteten an einem neuen Leitsystem, das neuen Spielern hilft, erfahrene Piloten zu finden, die ihnen die Grundlagen vermitteln. Die neue Traveler's Guide-Serie bot auch einen Einblick in den gefrorenen Planeten der Mikrotechnik.\nAn der Schiffsfront wurden Gemeinschaftsfragen zu allen k\u00fcrzlich angek\u00fcndigten Schiffen gesammelt und den Entwicklern vorgelegt: Amboss Fische, Kraken-Privatmann, Kreuzritter Ares und ARGO MOLE.\nDas Jahr ging mit der Live-Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von Alpha 3.8 - New Frontiers und zwei festlichen Feiertagswettbewerben zu Ende. Das Team lud die Spieler ein, den Feiertagsgeist zu verbreiten, indem sie eine vom Sternenb\u00fcrger inspirierte Gru\u00dfkarte entwarfen oder eine saisonale Szene im Spiel einrichten und einen Screenshot machen.\n\n\nGestaltung\nDas Design-Team entwickelte den Demo-Flow f\u00fcr die CitizenCon-Demo, die die Arbeit am kommenden Pyro-System umfasste.\nSie konvertierten alle bestehenden Missionen, um mit den aktuellen und zuk\u00fcnftigen Iterationen des serverseitigen Objekt-Container-Streaming (SOCS) zu arbeiten. Dies signalisiert eine gro\u00dfe Ver\u00e4nderung, da die Spieler jetzt an bestimmte Orte gef\u00fchrt werden, bevor sie voll ausgelastet sind.\nEs wurden neue Missionen hinzugef\u00fcgt, darunter Claim Jumpers (die einen neuen Wachturm einf\u00fchrten), die Kopfgeldkette der Familie Arlington, Call to Arms und mehrere neue Kopfgelder sowie die H\u00f6hlenmissionen des FPS (die in Zukunft noch erweitert werden sollen). Auch die Kopfgeld-Missionen wurden verbessert, um den Kampf gegen die Zielpersonen unterhaltsamer zu gestalten, und alle Schiffe der kriminellen NPCs erhielten eine Kriminalit\u00e4tsstatistik.\nBu\u00dfgelder werden nun nicht mehr automatisch von den Guthaben der Spieler in der EUEC abgezogen. Stattdessen m\u00fcssen die Terminals besucht werden, um sie dann auszuzahlen, wenn es am besten passt. Diese Geldstrafen eskalieren, wenn sie nicht sofort bezahlt werden, obwohl sie mit dem richtigen kriminellen Know-how abgehackt werden k\u00f6nnen...\nDas in Texas ans\u00e4ssige Team hatte einige Monate lang viel zu tun, unter anderem mit der Arbeit am Quantum-System. Denjenigen, die das CitizenCon-Panel gesehen haben, ist Quantum der Simulator, der die Wirtschaft des Spiels vorantreibt.\n\"Wir haben uns sehr gefreut, Ihnen unsere Fortschritte zu zeigen, und haben sie seither weiter in unsere Backend-Dienste, wie z.B. Einkaufen und Wahrscheinlichkeitsvolumen, integriert. Wir haben auch Zeit damit verbracht, unsere internen Instrumente zu verbessern und weiterzuentwickeln, um Ihnen in Zukunft bessere Inhalte zu liefern. -Konstruktionsteam\nDas Team polierte auch einige Dinge f\u00fcr die CitizenCon und die IAE, darunter die Einrichtung von NPCs, den Bau von Gesch\u00e4ften, die Gew\u00e4hrleistung eines reibungslosen \u00dcbergangs der Tage und die Organisation der Expo-Halle. Schlie\u00dflich wurden die Inventarlisten und die Layouts der neuen Rastst\u00e4tten wiederholt, wobei der Schwerpunkt darauf gelegt wurde, die Spieler zu ermutigen, jede einzelne Rastst\u00e4tte gr\u00fcndlich zu erkunden.\n\"Wir haben uns besonders gefreut zu sehen, wie viel schneller Sie in dieser Iteration die Schwarzmarktst\u00e4nde gefunden haben. -Konstruktionsteam\nTechnik\nDr\u00fcben in Frankfurt verbrachte die Technik die Monate November und Dezember damit, an der Spielphysik zu arbeiten - insbesondere an weichen K\u00f6rpern. Dazu geh\u00f6ren die Belichtung einer linearen Luft- und Wasserwiderstands-Skala, die Linearisierung der D\u00e4mpfung (und nicht stufenweise), die Modifizierung der D\u00e4mpfung durch den Einsatz eines Kastenbeschneiders zur Beschleunigung von Dreimaschen-Kollisionen und die allgemeine Optimierung. Was die Unterst\u00fctzung von Anh\u00e4ngen betrifft, so wurden Grenzb\u00fcrsten und Entit\u00e4ten zur Objektcontainerentit\u00e4t verschoben und die M\u00f6glichkeit hinzugef\u00fcgt, nach den angeh\u00e4ngten Punkten w\u00e4hrend einer vorherigen Anlage zu fragen. Sie setzten auch die Oberfl\u00e4che auf Geometrien aus und optimierten die Ladezeiten und die Berechnungen bei der Verifizierung der Teile.\nDas Team setzte die Arbeit an der neuen Grafik-Pipeline und der Rendering-Schnittstelle (Gen12) fort, nahm robuste \u00c4nderungen an der Vulkan-Ebene vor, um sie f\u00fcr die Verwendung bei Szenenobjekten vorzubereiten, f\u00fcgte PSO und Layout-Cache hinzu, verbesserte die API-Validierung und portierte die Rasterung des Lichtvolumens der neuen Pipeline in Kacheln. Sie setzten auch die parallele \u00dcberarbeitung des bestehenden Rendering-Codes zur Unterst\u00fctzung der neuen Grafik-Pipeline und APIs fort und arbeiteten an der globalen Entfernung des Render-Status und dem Refactoring des Ger\u00e4tetextur-Codes.\nF\u00fcr die Schatten des Planetengel\u00e4ndes f\u00fcgte das Team die Unterst\u00fctzung von Mehrkaskaden- und \u00dcberblendungen hinzu, um Details und Reichweite zu verbessern. Dadurch werden auch verschiedene vorhandene Schattenartefakte beseitigt. In Bezug auf Nebel arbeitete das Team an der volumetrischen Unterst\u00fctzung der Gel\u00e4ndeschatten und entwickelte eine mehrfach gestreute Umgebungsbeleuchtung, die in ein einheitliches Raymarching eingebunden ist.\nVerbesserungen der Mehrfachstreuung durch eine spezialisierte Himmelsbestrahlungs-LUT wurden vorgenommen, um das einheitliche Raymarching zu verbessern. Es wurden Aktualisierungen des jittered lookup und TSAA vorgenommen, um die Qualit\u00e4t erheblich zu verbessern und die Anzahl der Raymarching-Schritte zu reduzieren. Sie machten auch die Beleuchtung konsistent, so dass die Atmosph\u00e4re eines Planeten die Bodennebelschichten beeinflusst und umgekehrt, experimentierten mit der Unterst\u00fctzung der Ozonschicht in der Atmosph\u00e4re und f\u00fcgten die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Streuungsabfragen (transparente Objekte) hinzu.\nSchlie\u00dflich wurde die Arbeit an den Themen Planetenwolken, Ozean-Rendering, gefrorene Ozeane und Windverbiegung f\u00fcr statische Pinsel fortgesetzt.\nFunktionen (Spielablauf)\nIn den USA hat das Gameplay-Features-Team die meisten der vergangenen Monate damit verbracht, sicherzustellen, dass alle Features unter dem Dach der USPU effektiv aktualisiert und f\u00fcr SOCS getestet wurden. Die Ingenieure haben auf dem Weg auch Verbesserungen der Lebensqualit\u00e4t vorgenommen, wie z.B. die Anpassung der physikalischen Kr\u00e4fte auf abgelaute Frachtkisten, um die zerst\u00f6rten Schiffe zu stoppen. Dar\u00fcber hinaus wurde Zeit f\u00fcr die Konzeption und Implementierung der allgemeinen Vorlagen f\u00fcr Rastst\u00e4tten-Kioske aufgewendet. Dadurch wird es einfacher und schneller m\u00f6glich sein, Verm\u00f6genswerte f\u00fcr zuk\u00fcnftige Standorte zu generieren.\nMerkmale (Fahrzeuge)\nIn den USA hat das Vehicle Feature Team die Radar- und Ping-Erkennung f\u00fcr ein besseres Scannen des Spiels verbessert. Sie arbeiten derzeit an der ItemPort-Despawn-Optimierung, die zur Verbesserung der allgemeinen Leistung beitragen wird. Unterst\u00fctzung wurde auch f\u00fcr SOCS und Langstreckenradar-Scanning geleistet.\nIm Dezember ging es f\u00fcr das EU Vehicle Feature Team vor allem um die Unterst\u00fctzung der Version 3.8.0 und die Fertigstellung des neuen Refactors des Sperrgebietssystems (was wir an neuen Funktionen in 3.9 wie der Spline-Landef\u00fchrung sehen werden). Das Team hat auch einige Designarbeiten f\u00fcr zuk\u00fcnftige HUD-UI-Updates durchgef\u00fchrt.\nGrafiken\nDie letzten Wochen des Jahres 2019 waren f\u00fcr das Grafikteam \u00e4u\u00dferst arbeitsreich. Eine Menge Arbeit wurde in Planet Tech v4 investiert, um es f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung in Alpha 3.8 vorzubereiten, was der H\u00f6hepunkt vieler Monate der Arbeit am Code war.\nDas neue Paletten-\/Farben-\/Farbsystem wurde verbessert, bevor es den Kunstteams \u00fcbergeben wurde. Dieses System wird wahrscheinlich mit Umgebungen in einer bevorstehenden Alpha-Ver\u00f6ffentlichung Premiere haben und sp\u00e4ter auf andere Anlagen ausgeweitet werden.\nDer Schwerpunkt des Teams bei Alpha 3.8 lag auf Stabilit\u00e4t und Fehlerbehebung, einschlie\u00dflich der Behebung eines Fehlers, der dazu f\u00fchrte, dass sich der planetarische Nebel dehnte und verschwamm.\nLevel-Entwurf\nIn Frankfurt verbrachte das Level Design Team die letzten Monate mit den neuen Innenr\u00e4umen der Raumstation, was der erste Schritt ist, um die Innenr\u00e4ume mit den neuen, gr\u00f6\u00dferen Au\u00dfenbereichen in Einklang zu bringen. Es gibt noch einen Weg, bis sie als fertig angesehen werden, einschlie\u00dflich der Hinzuf\u00fcgung weiterer R\u00e4ume, um sie noch lebendiger zu machen.\nDie Arbeiten gingen in die erste Iteration von microTech und die bevorstehende Landezone New Babbage. W\u00e4hrend das \u00c4u\u00dfere der Stadt nur in der PU besichtigt werden kann, stehen die Innenr\u00e4ume kurz vor der Fertigstellung und werden in Alpha 3.9 erforscht werden k\u00f6nnen.\nNeben diesen Hauptstandorten arbeiteten sie an der Gestaltung von Ebenen f\u00fcr die IAE, einschlie\u00dflich der KI, der Expo-Halle und der Transitschleife in Area18. Sie arbeiteten auch an Themen f\u00fcr die CitizenCon, wie z.B. Jump Points und Bodenstationen.\n\nBeleuchtung\nDer November des Beleuchtungsteams war der Beleuchtung der Bereiche gewidmet, die auf der CitizenCon zu sehen waren, einschlie\u00dflich der Bodenbasis-Mission. Dies beinhaltete die Arbeit an den Innen- und Au\u00dfenbereichen des Standorts und die Implementierung von Alarmzust\u00e4nden zur Unterst\u00fctzung des Spielverlaufs. Sie unterst\u00fctzten auch die Expo-Halle und die Schiffe f\u00fcr die IAE-Veranstaltung.\nIm Dezember lag der Hauptschwerpunkt auf der Fertigstellung der Bereiche f\u00fcr die Version Alpha 3.8, die drei Hauptaufgaben umfasste: Erstens, das Polieren der Rastst\u00e4tten-Innenr\u00e4ume. Zweitens die Beleuchtung der Stadt, des Weltraumbahnhofs sowie der Innen- und Au\u00dfenbereiche von microTech. Und schlie\u00dflich die \u00dcberarbeitung der Atmosph\u00e4ren bestehender Planeten und Monde nach der Implementierung von Planet Tech v4.\n\n\n\nErz\u00e4hlung\nNach der CitizenCon machte das Team sofort N\u00e4gel mit K\u00f6pfen und tauchte wieder in die Unterst\u00fctzung von Alpha 3.8 ein. Sie versuchten, so viel Zeit wie m\u00f6glich im Spiel zu protokollieren, um zu sehen, wie sich die Erfahrung anf\u00fchlt, und arbeiteten mit dem Design zusammen, um alle Missionen nach Bedarf zu optimieren und sicherzustellen, dass alle Namen und Beschreibungen korrekt angezeigt werden.\nDie Galactapedia wurde weiter ausgebaut, und das Team \u00fcberpr\u00fcfte die bisherigen Kommentare der Spieler und das Feedback des Systems.\nMit Blick auf das neue Jahr begannen die Planungen f\u00fcr das 1. Quartal 2020 zusammen mit der immergr\u00fcnen Arbeit an Werbeaktionen, Spieltexten und Skripten.\nSpieler-Beziehungen\nDas Player-Relations-Team hatte ein paar Monate lang extrem viel zu tun, um neue Spieler, Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen und die CitizenCon (wo das in Gro\u00dfbritannien ans\u00e4ssige Team den Verkaufsstand besetzte) zu unterst\u00fctzen. Sie arbeiteten Aufgaben f\u00fcr die IAE ab, bevor sie mit den Evocati zu den Alpha 3.8-Tests \u00fcbergingen.\nRequisiten\nIn Fortf\u00fchrung des letzten Berichts hat Props die Quanten- und Sprungantriebe weiterentwickelt. Beide erhielten den endg\u00fcltigen Kunst- und Spielpass und wurden w\u00e4hrend der CitizenCon-Demo vorgestellt. Das Team arbeitete auch an mehreren interaktiven Requisiten, die w\u00e4hrend der gesamten Demo gezeigt wurden, wie z.B. Zugangskarten, Server und Servermodule, Sicherheitstore, Planen und Flaggen. Sie unterst\u00fctzten auch die w\u00e4hrend der gesamten Demo verwendeten Schlie\u00dff\u00e4cher und Kisten, die die verschiedenen Kleidungsst\u00fccke und R\u00fcstungen enthielten, die der Spieler f\u00fcr die Durchquerung der feindlichen Umgebung ben\u00f6tigte. Am Tag der Veranstaltung gab das Requisiten-Team eine Demonstration ihrer Arbeit in allen Bereichen, schuf die CitizenCon-Troph\u00e4e, die Sextanten-Belohnung und einen In-Game-Bereich.\nNach der \u00fcblichen harten Arbeit an der Oberfl\u00e4che wurde die Zeit mit der Ambosskarre und den Pinguin-Pl\u00fcschtieren verbracht, die an einer bevorstehenden Landezone auftauchen sollten. Neue St\u00e4nde, Schilder und Anzeigen wurden ebenfalls zur Unterst\u00fctzung der IAE in Area18 geschaffen.\nDie Arbeit an den bevorstehenden Gef\u00e4ngnissen wurde fortgesetzt, diesmal vor allem an den interaktiven Requisiten, wie Sauerstoff- und Ausr\u00fcstungsspendern und Gefangenenstatus-Konsolen. Fortschritte wurden auch bei den High-Tech-Requisiten f\u00fcr New Babbage erzielt. Die K\u00fcnstler beendeten ihre Arbeit mit dem Schiffsteam auf der Carrack und der ARGO MOLE.\nSchlie\u00dflich wurde auch das Bergbau-Gameplay unterst\u00fctzt, das die Lieferung von f\u00fcnf neuen Bergbauf\u00fchrern umfasste.\nQA\nDas in Frankfurt ans\u00e4ssige QA-Team verbrachte Anfang November damit, KI und MicroTech zu testen. Anschlie\u00dfend gingen sie zu Tests von Funktionen f\u00fcr CitizenCon, Alpha 3.7.2 und Alpha 3.8 \u00fcber. Da die Planet v4 Tech vollst\u00e4ndig aktiviert ist, konnte Live Design den Re-Drop-Pass auf allen Au\u00dfenposten, UGFs, Wracks und anderen Sehensw\u00fcrdigkeiten auf jedem der Planeten und Monde abschlie\u00dfen. Sobald sie abgeschlossen waren, gingen sie dazu \u00fcber, die QA-Testanforderungen f\u00fcr SOCS abzuschlie\u00dfen. W\u00e4hrend alle Standorte inzwischen getestet wurden, laufen aufgrund der Gr\u00f6\u00dfe der Planeten und Monde noch Tests. Regelm\u00e4\u00dfige Rauchkontrollen der Kernfunktionalit\u00e4t werden fortgesetzt, ebenso wie die Durchl\u00e4ufe der Vernunftkunst auf verschiedenen Planetenquadranten, um m\u00f6glichst viele der Planetenoberfl\u00e4chen abzudecken.\nIn Texas testete das Team SOCS, Langzeitpersistenz, die IAE und viele Alpha 3.8-Features. Sie sorgten auch daf\u00fcr, dass die Keynote und die Theatres of War-Demos f\u00fcr die CitizenCon reibungslos liefen. Auf der Ver\u00f6ffentlichungsseite lag der Schwerpunkt auf den Alpha 3.7- und 3.8-Builds, einschlie\u00dflich der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von Builds f\u00fcr die Evocati und der Protokollierung von Fehlern und Problemen.\nTechnische Animation\nIm November und Dezember \u00fcberarbeitete Tech Animation die Mannequin-Setups, um \u00e4ltere nutzbare Iterationen zu bereinigen und Fehler im Zusammenhang mit der \u00dcberarbeitung zu beheben. Sie arbeiteten mit den Animations- und Code-Teams an der Aktualisierung des Barkeepers und implementierten Steckdosen- und Befestigungstechnik f\u00fcr Requisiten in Maya. Sie schufen mehrere Requisiten f\u00fcr die Nutz- und Filmteams, einschlie\u00dflich Platten, Ablagen, Wartungsleitern und Schiffst\u00fcrme. Das Waffenteam erhielt Unterst\u00fctzung, zusammen mit neuen Anlagen, Aktualisierungen \u00e4lterer Anlagen und Fehlerbehebungen in der Maschine. Auch die notwendigen Rigg-Erg\u00e4nzungen f\u00fcr die neue echte digitale Schauspieltechnik wurden abgeschlossen.\nEs wurden neue Werkzeugs\u00e4tze erstellt, um die komplexen motorseitigen Befestigungssysteme innerhalb der Maya zu visualisieren. Dies unterst\u00fctzt die Animateure in ihrem t\u00e4glichen Arbeitsablauf und macht es unendlich einfach, auch Requisiten zu erstellen. Die Entwicklung der Pipelines f\u00fcr die Gesichtsmanipulation wurde fortgesetzt. Diese langwierige Initiative wird letztendlich gro\u00dfe Dinge hervorbringen, wenn das Team ihre eigenen, mit den DNA-Systemen kompatiblen Gesichtsger\u00e4te entwickelt.\nTechnische Kunst\nDas Frankfurter Tech-Art-Team arbeitete eng mit der britischen Tech-Animation bei der Entwicklung und Implementierung des neuen Rig-Logic-Plugins f\u00fcr Maya zusammen. Im Gegensatz zu fr\u00fcheren, fest programmierten Versionen ist das neue Plugin vollst\u00e4ndig datengesteuert und verwendet so genannte Rig-Definitionsdateien, die bei Bedarf ohne die Hilfe eines Engine-Programmierers ge\u00e4ndert werden k\u00f6nnen. Die Beseitigung dieses Engpasses wird den K\u00fcnstlern mehr kreative Freiheit geben und die Iterationszeiten deutlich verk\u00fcrzen. W\u00e4hrend der Maya-Laufzeitknoten f\u00fcr das Fahren von Rigs in Maya auf der Grundlage von Gesichts- und\/oder K\u00f6rperanimation verantwortlich ist, wurde auch ein ma\u00dfgeschneiderter Maya-Befehl implementiert. Dieser Befehl erm\u00f6glicht das bequeme Abfragen und Bearbeiten aller Teile der Rig-Definitionsdaten und bildet die Grundlage der neuen Rigging-Pipeline und der Werkzeuge des Teams.\nTurbulent\nTurbulent arbeitete ausgiebig an der IAE-Werbung, einschlie\u00dflich der Schaffung und Unterst\u00fctzung des Backend des Schiffs-Showdown-Wettbewerbs, bei dem die Drake Caterpillar zum Lieblingsschiff der Gemeinde gekr\u00f6nt wurde. Alle Unterst\u00fctzer erhielten eine Raupenstatue, die ihr Schiff als Dank f\u00fcr die Abstimmung schm\u00fcckt. Das Team unterst\u00fctzte auch alle anderen Bef\u00f6rderungen und Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen in den letzten Monaten, einschlie\u00dflich der Alpha 3.8, der IAE Freefly, Anvil Pisces, Drake Kraken Privateer, ARGO MOLE und Crusader Ares.\nTurbulent entwickelte auch die Galactapedia, die auf der CitizenCon vorgestellt wurde. Ein Aufbewahrungsort f\u00fcr Artikel \u00fcber alles, was mit der Welt des Sternenb\u00fcrgers zu tun hat, ist eine unsch\u00e4tzbare Quelle f\u00fcr \u00dcberlieferungen und alle Dinge, die erz\u00e4hlenswert sind.\nDas Welcome Hub und das Guide System wurden kurz vor den Feiertagen live geschaltet. Beide sollen neue Spieler dabei unterst\u00fctzen, sich mit den Wegen des \"Verses\" vertraut zu machen.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBenutzerschnittstelle (UI)\nEin gro\u00dfer Teil des Novembers des UI-Teams wurde mit den auf der CitizenCon gezeigten Features verbracht. Das UI Tech Team hat sein Bausteinsystem weiter verfeinert, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf gr\u00f6\u00dfenver\u00e4nderbaren und zusammenklappbaren Men\u00fcs und der M\u00f6glichkeit, einem Element verschiedene visuelle Stile zuzuweisen, lag. Dies ist auf dem neuen Aufzugspaneel zu sehen, das trotz der Verwendung derselben Grundplatte verschiedene Versionen f\u00fcr microTech, den Carrack und Low-Tech-Standorte aufweist.\nDie Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che arbeitete auch intensiv an der Anzeige des Schauspielerstatus, die ein aktualisiertes Element beinhaltet, das die Temperatur des Spielers, die Au\u00dfentemperatur und mehr anzeigt. Diese soll in K\u00fcrze ver\u00f6ffentlicht werden.\nDie Grafiker arbeiteten an mehreren Bildschirmen, die in der CitizenCon-Demo zu sehen sind. Diese und weitere werden in den Innenr\u00e4umen von New Babbage in Alpha 3.9 erscheinen.\nVFX\nIm November und Dezember beendete das VFX-Team die Arbeit f\u00fcr CitizenCon und Alpha 3.8. Es wird weiterhin \u00fcber planetarische Wettereffekte berichtet, wobei ein besonderer Schwerpunkt auf Bodenst\u00fcrmen auf allen Planeten und Monden liegt.\nDie Sprungtoreffekte wurden wiederholt, einschlie\u00dflich der Tunneleffekte, was zu interessanten \"Lore-Tabing\"-Effekten f\u00fchrte. Die Effekte wurden auch f\u00fcr die ARGO MOLE, den Animus-Raketenwerfer und die Multi-Tool-Mining-Tr\u00e4ger abgeschlossen. Ein Effekt-Pass wurde auch f\u00fcr die Karte der Kriegsschaupl\u00e4tze erstellt, einschlie\u00dflich eines gro\u00dfen Terraformer-Balkens. Es wurde auch mit M\u00f6glichkeiten zur Verbesserung der Feuertextur experimentiert.\nDie Tech-K\u00fcnstler unterst\u00fctzten auch die letzten Schritte der prozessualen Erstellung von Geb\u00e4uden f\u00fcr New Babbage. Dazu geh\u00f6rte der Export von Netzen mit einer vollst\u00e4ndigen Hierarchie, die die LOD- und Kollisionsnetze enthalten. Dies ist eine Verbesserung gegen\u00fcber der vorherigen manuellen Iteration. WIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT...","zh_CN":"After a month\u2019s hiatus for the holidays, the Star Citizen monthly report is back with all the behind-the-scenes details from development. November and December saw several exciting releases, so expect to read about the work that went into the very latest ships, locations, patches, and more. 2020 is shaping up to be the most exciting year in the \u2018verse yet, so check back for the latest report from our global studios around this time each month.\n\nAI\nAI (Ships)\nShip AI had a busy couple of months working on NPC planetside traversal:\n\u201cFlying on the surface of a planet is definitely different from open space; the expectation is that ships fly in a straight and level attitude and bank when steering to different headings.\u201d -Ship AI\nThe first iteration involved generating a flight path suitable for the terrain height and local slope. The information generated is then used to correct the path to ensure ships always have a specified minimal clearance to the terrain below while steering according to the inclination of the terrain. For example, a ship will favor a flight path through a valley rather than over a ridge. Hand-placed and procedurally generated objects (rocks, buildings, etc.) are not part of the terrain elevation information and are obtained by a different query. In the next iteration, the team will integrate this information so spaceships can adapt their flight paths accordingly.\nThe same considerations apply to in-atmosphere dogfighting. The prototype of this was shown during the recent CitizenCon playthrough, with three security ships engaging the fugitive Carrack. The team also experimented with a stunt maneuver to add flair and personality to AI behavior.\nWork was also completed on Collision Avoidance. This system runs in the background during AI flight and provides steering correction if a collision is likely to happen within a given time horizon. In the current development version, the system considers the collision resolution of all piloted vehicles, vehicles without a pilot (abandoned vehicles, derelicts), static obstacles, and procedurally generated asteroids.\nRecently, the system was heavily reworked to minimize its impact on the overall performance of AI systems. This includes ensuring all vehicles and obstacles are organized in memory according to their current host zone to make the search for the surrounding participants faster. It also makes sure the collision avoidance update never gets an exclusive lock on the cached information when creating and processing individual AI collision problems. This is a critical aspect, as the updates of all AI entities run concurrently, so having an exclusive lock can heavily impact performance.\nAI (Social)\nThe Social AI Team made several improvements to path following, including the ability to: specify movement speed when following a path edge, add branching paths, wait at a path point continually playing any function until events have fired, trigger a random Subsumption function from a weighted list, and enable\/disable Subsumption secondary activities when following a path edge.\nWork also continued on the bartender, with the first iteration of mixing station tech added. This extends the character\u2019s ability to not only pick up and serve items from the fridge, but to also prepare new drinks at the mixing station. Several other small improvements were also made to make the overall experience smoother.\nFinally for Social AI, the base idle system in the actor state machine was improved by moving all decision-making to the control state. This should make the whole system more robust and stable over the network, potentially avoiding the desync issues seen in the past as well as helping the team debug potential issues more efficiently. Further on the optimization, the usable caching has been updated to now also listen for tile-created events from navigation meshes.\nAI (Character Combat)\nThe team\u2019s primary focus over the past few months was on the player combat experience against NPCs. This involved implementing new behavior tactics for shotgun-wielding NPCs, giving them the tactical choice to get much closer to the target than before to make proper use of the weapon. They also began improving vision perception so that the designers can more easily adjust the size of vision cones and how fast a target is perceived when inside them. The main aim of these changes is to provide a better stealth experience for players.\nThey also made improvements to the system that generates cover locations and usage to enable AI to choose to only partially cover themselves. Small optimizations were also made to AI hearing perception and specific designer movement requests.\n\nArt (Environment)\n\u201cNovember and December were the busiest and most rewarding months of the year for us.\u201d -Environment Team\nThe end of 2019 was a busy but rewarding time for the Environment Art Team, which saw the release of the much anticipated Planet Tech v4 across the PU.\nThe UK team worked tirelessly to ready New Babbage\u2019s exterior for CitizenCon and its subsequent public release. Elsewhere, the Modular Team released 13 new Rest Stop interiors along with new low-orbit space stations around the major planets.\n\n\nArt (Ships)\nShip Art spent the last couple of months pushing hard on the final art for the newly released ARGO MOLE. The Anvil Carrack had and continues to receive significant focus from the team; the exterior received a detail pass and some slight trimming to the rear to improve visual balance. The interior continues towards final art, with several areas not seen at CitizenCon nearing completion.\n\nArt (Weapons)\nThe Weapons Team wrapped up the Behring P6-LR sniper rifle, with the 4x and 8x scopes both completed (with the former being demoed at CitizenCon). A new prop artist joined the team and, after training on the pipeline, began creating an additional set of Behring sights, which will be available in the PU soon. Metrics and guidelines were also established for sights and scopes to aid with future sets and to make sure they all align correctly with art and gameplay.\nWork kicked off on the Gemini C54 submachine gun. The first block-out was created in-engine and is currently with the design and animation teams. Once it\u2019s functional, it\u2019ll be ready for review and full implementation.\nOn the ship weapon side, two Tevarin weapons were taken through the pipeline and will be ready for the release of the upcoming Esperia Prowler. Props were also completed for Alpha 3.8, including mining heads and props for New Babbage.\nAudio\nQuarter four of 2019 was a busy one for the Audio Team. This included supporting the CitizenCon 2949 demo (dialogue, SFX, and music), trailers (Jax McCleary, Carrack, MOLE), ships (Carrack, MOLE, Cutlass Red), weapons (BEHR P6-LR sniper rifle, Animus Missile Launcher), actor status features (FPS close combat, temperature), mining (new mining heads), rest stop interiors, planetary weather effects, and general Planet Tech v4 work.\nBackend Services\nThe end of 2019 saw the Backend Team focusing on cleanup, bug fixing, and scaling out some of the heavy services, such as variables and loadouts. They now have an internal framework that allows them to scale out several services that will greatly reduce backend latency and improve response to the game servers and clients. This cleanup involved tweaking some of the services to reduce memory consumption and address performance and stability issues. Finally, testing was done on the long-term persistence initiative for the inventory and ledger.\nCommunity\nThe Community Team\u2019s highlight of November was CitizenCon 2949 in Manchester, UK.\n\u201cWe were amazed by how many Citizens joined in on the fun, be it at the event itself, via livestream, or at viewing parties all around the globe.\u201d -The Community Team\nFor those that missed out or want to relive the excitement, the team uploaded both keynotes and all the developer panels to the Star Citizen YouTube channel. Now everyone can relive the epic event from the opening keynote to the first-ever jump to Pyro.\nThe day after CitizenCon, the Intergalactic Aerospace Exposition opened its doors at Area18 on ArcCorp. Each day, one or more of Star Citizen\u2019s vehicle manufacturers made their ships available for everyone to fly for free. The team was delighted to welcome many new Citizens to the \u2018verse and added several new guides to the Welcome Hub to help new players explore the \u2018verse.\nThey worked on the new Guide System that helps new players find seasoned pilots to show them the ropes. The new Traveler\u2019s Guide series also provided an inside look on the frozen planet of microTech.\nOn the ship front, community questions on all of the recently announced ships were gathered and put to the devs: Anvil Pisces, Kraken Privateer, Crusader Ares, and ARGO MOLE.\nThe year came to a close with the Alpha 3.8 \u2013 New Frontiers live release and two festive holiday contests. The team invited players to spread the holiday spirit by crafting a Star-Citizen-inspired greeting card or setting up a seasonal scene in-game and snapping a screenshot.\n\n\nDesign\nThe Design Team developed the demo flow for the CitizenCon demo, which included work on the upcoming Pyro system.\nThey converted all existing missions to work with the current and future iterations of Server-side Object Container Streaming (SOCS). This signals a major change, as players are now guided to specific locations before they\u2019re fully loaded.\nNew missions were added, including Claim Jumpers (which introduced a new sentry turret), the Arlington Family bounty chain, Call to Arms, and several new bounties, and FPS cave missions (which will be expanded upon in the future). Bounty missions were also improved to make the targeted enemies more fun to fight against, while crime stats were given to all criminal NPC ships.\nFines are now no longer automatically deducted from player aUEC balances. Instead, terminals must be visited to pay them off when it suits best. These fines escalate if not paid promptly, although they can be hacked away with the proper criminal know-how\u2026\nThe Texas-based team had a busy few months working on, among other things, the Quantum system. Familiar to those who watched the CitizenCon panel, Quantum is the simulator than drives the economy of the game.\n\u201cWe were excited to show you our progress and have since continued to integrate it with our backend services, such as shopping and probability volume. We\u2019ve also spent time improving and developing our internal tools to better deliver content to you in the future.\u201d -Design Team\nThe team also polished a few things for CitizenCon and the IAE, including setting up NPCs, building shops, making sure days transitioned smoothly, and arranging the expo hall. Lastly, they iterated on the shop inventories and layouts for the new rest stops, with a focus towards encouraging players to thoroughly explore each one.\n\u201cWe particularly enjoyed seeing how much more quickly you found the Black Market stands in this iteration.\u201d -Design Team\nEngineering\nOver in Frankfurt, Engineering spent November and December working on game physics \u2013 specifically soft bodies. This including exposing a linear air and water resistance scale, making damping linear (and not step dependent), modifying them to use box pruner to accelerate tri-mesh collisions, and general optimization. Regarding attachment support, they moved boundary brushes and entities to the object container entity and added the ability to query for the attached points during a previous attachment. They also exposed the surface area on geometries and optimized loading times and the calculations while verifying parts.\nThe team continued work on the new graphics pipeline and render interface (Gen12), made robust changes to the Vulkan layer to prepare for use on scene objects, added PSO and layout cache, improved API validation, and ported tiled shading light volume rasterization to the new pipeline. They also continued the parallel refactor of existing render code in support of the new graphics pipeline and APIs and worked on the global render state removal and device texture code refactor.\nFor planet terrain shadows, the team added multi-cascade and blending support to improve detail and range. This will also eliminate various existing shadow artifacts. Regarding fog, the team worked on volumetric terrain shadow support and came up with a multi-scattered ambient lighting solution that ties into unified raymarching.\nMulti-scattering improvements via a specialized sky irradiance LUT was made to improve unified raymarching. Updates were made to the jittered lookup and TSAA to vastly improve quality and reduce the number of raymarching steps. They also made lighting consistent so that a planet\u2019s atmosphere affects ground fog layers and vice versa, experimented with ozone layer support in-atmosphere, and added support for scattering queries (transparent objects).\nFinally, work continued on planetary clouds, ocean rendering, frozen oceans, and wind bending for static brushes.\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nIn the US, the Gameplay Features Team spent the majority of the past couple of months ensuring that all of the features under the USPU umbrella were effectively updated and tested for SOCS. The engineers also made quality-of-life improvements along the way, such as adjusting the physical forces on spawned cargo boxes to stop them destroyed ships. In addition, time was spent concepting and implementing work for the generic rest stop kiosk templates. This will make it easier and quicker to generate assets for future locations.\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nIn the US, the Vehicle Feature Team improved radar and ping detection for better scanning gameplay. They\u2019re currently working on ItemPort despawn optimization, which will help improve general performance. Support was also provided for SOCS and long-range radar scanning.\nDecember for the EU Vehicle Feature Team was mostly about supporting the 3.8.0 release and finishing up the new refactor of the restricted area system (which we\u2019ll see in new features in 3.9 like the spline landing guidance). The team has also been doing some design work for HUD UI updates to come in the future as well.\nGraphics\nThe final few weeks of 2019 were extremely busy for the Graphics Team. A lot of work went into Planet Tech v4 to get it ready for release in Alpha 3.8, which was the culmination of many months of code-side work.\nImprovements were made to the new palette\/paint\/tint system before it was handed to the art teams. This system will likely premier with environments in an upcoming Alpha release and later expand to other assets.\nThe team\u2019s Alpha 3.8 focus was on stability and bug fixing, including fixing one that caused planetary fog to stretch and blur.\nLevel Design\nIn Frankfurt, the Level Design Team spent the last few months on the new Space Station interiors, which is the first step in bringing the interiors in line with the new larger exteriors. There\u2019s still a way to go before they\u2019re considered finished, including adding more spaces to make them feel even more alive.\nWork went into the first iteration of microTech and the upcoming landing zone, New Babbage. While the exterior of the city is only visitable in the PU, the interiors are nearing completion and will be explorable in Alpha 3.9.\nAlongside these major locations, they worked on level design for the IAE, including AI, the expo hall, and the transit loop in Area18. They also worked on items for CitizenCon, such as Jump Points and ground bases.\n\nLighting\nThe Lighting Team\u2019s November was dedicated to lighting the areas seen at CitizenCon, including the ground base mission. This involved working in the location interiors and exteriors and implementing alarm states to assist gameplay. They also supported the expo hall and ships for the IAE event.\nIn December, the primary focus was on finalizing areas for the Alpha 3.8 release, which included three main tasks: Firstly, polishing the Rest Stop Interiors. Secondly, lighting the city, spaceport, and interiors and exteriors of microTech. Lastly, reworking the atmospheres of existing planets and moons following the implementation of Planet Tech v4.\n\n\n\n\n\nNarrative\nAfter CitizenCon, the team hit the ground running and dove back into Alpha 3.8 support. They tried to log as much time as possible in-game to see how the experience was feeling and worked with Design to tweak any missions as needed, making sure that all names and descriptions were displaying properly.\nThe Galactapedia continued to be expanded and the team reviewed player comments and feedback of the system so far.\nLooking to the new year, planning began for Q1 of 2020 along with evergreen work on promotions, game text, and scripting.\nPlayer Relations\nThe Player Relations team had an extremely busy few months supporting new players, releases, and CitizenCon (where the UK-based team manned the merch booth). They worked through tasks for the IAE before moving onto Alpha 3.8 testing with the Evocati.\nProps\nCarrying on from the last report, Props further developed the quantum and jump drives. Both received the final art and game-ready pass and were featured during the CitizenCon demo. The team also worked on several interactive props shown throughout the demo, such as access cards, servers and server modules, security gates, tarps, and flags. They also supported the lockers and crates used throughout the demo that contained the different clothing and armor needed for the player to traverse the hostile environment. On the day of the event, the Props Team gave an access-all-areas demo of their work, created the CitizenCon trophy, the sextant reward, and an in-game scope.\nBreaking from the usual hard surface work, time was spent on the Anvil Carrack and penguin plushies that should be making an appearance at an upcoming landing zone. New stands, signs, and adverts were also created to support the IAE at Area18.\nWork continued on the upcoming prisons, this time mainly focusing on the interactive props, such as oxygen and equipment dispensers and prisoner status consoles. Progress was also made on the hi-tech prop set for New Babbage. The artists finished their work with the Ship Team on the Carrack and ARGO MOLE.\nFinally, support was given to mining gameplay that included supplying five new mining heads.\nQA\nThe Frankfurt-based QA Team spent early November testing AI and microTech. They then moved onto testing on features for CitizenCon, Alpha 3.7.2, and Alpha 3.8. With Planet v4 Tech fully enabled, Live Design were able to complete their re-drop pass on all outposts, UGFs, derelicts, and other points of interest on each of the planets and moons. Once complete, they moved onto completing QA test requests for SOCS. While all the locations have now been tested, due to the size of the planets and moons, tests are ongoing. Regular smoke checks on core functionality continue, as well as sanity art passes on different planet quadrants, to cover as much of the planetary surfaces as possible.\nIn Texas, the team tested SOCS, long-term persistence, the IAE, and many Alpha 3.8 features. They also made sure the keynote and Theatres of War demos were running smoothly for CitizenCon. On the publishing side, focus was on the Alpha 3.7 and 3.8 builds, including pushing out builds to the Evocati and logging bugs and issues.\nTech Animation\nNovember and December saw Tech Animation rework Mannequin setups to clean up older usable iterations and address bugs related to the rework. They worked with the animation and code teams on the updated bartender and implemented socket\/attach point tech for props in Maya. They created multiple prop rigs for the usable and cinematics teams, including plates, trays, maintenance ladders, and ship turrets. Support was given to the Weapons Team along with new rigs, updates to older rigs, and in-engine bug fixes. The necessary rig additions for the new real digital acting tech were completed too.\nNew toolsets were authored to help visualize the complex engine-side attachment systems inside Maya. This assists the animators in their daily workflow and makes it infinitely easier to author props too. Development continued on the facial rigging pipelines. This lengthy initiative will ultimately yield great things when the team authors their own in-house face rigs compatible with the DNA systems.\nTech Art\nFrankfurt\u2019s Tech Art Team worked closely together with the UK\u2019s Tech Animation on the design and implementation of the new runtime Rig Logic plugin for Maya. In contrast to previous hard-coded versions, the new plugin is entirely data-driven and utilizes so-called rig definition files that can be changed as needed without the assistance of an engine programmer. The removal of this bottleneck will give more creative freedom to the artists and significantly shorten iteration times. While the Maya runtime node is responsible for driving rigs in Maya based on facial and\/or body animation, a bespoke Maya command was also implemented. This command allows convenient querying and editing of all parts of the rig definition data and forms the foundation of the team\u2019s new rigging pipeline and tools.\nTurbulent\nTurbulent worked extensively on the IAE promotion, including creating and supporting the backend of the Ship Showdown competition, which saw the Drake Caterpillar crowned the community\u2019s favorite ship. All backers were awarded a Caterpillar statue to decorate their ship as a thank you for voting. The team also supported all other promotions and releases over the past few months, including the Alpha 3.8, the IAE Free-Fly, Anvil Pisces, Drake Kraken Privateer, ARGO MOLE, and Crusader Ares.\nTurbulent also developed the Galactapedia, which launched at CitizenCon. A depository for articles on everything in and to do with the world of Star Citizen, it\u2019s an invaluable resource for lore and all things narrative.\nThe Welcome Hub and Guide System went live just before the holidays, both of which are designed to support new players as they get to grips with the ways of the \u2018verse.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nUser Interface (UI)\nMuch of the UI team\u2019s November was spent on the features shown at CitizenCon. The UI Tech Team continued to refine their building block system, with a focus on resizable and collapsible menus and the ability to assign different visual styles to one element. This can be seen on the new elevator panel, which has different versions for microTech, the Carrack, and low-tech locations despite using the same base canvas.\nUI also worked heavily on the actor status display, which involved an updated element, which shows the player\u2019s temperature, external temperature, and more. This is planned for release shortly.\nThe graphic artists worked on several screens seen in the CitizenCon demo. These and more will appear in the New Babbage interior spaces in Alpha 3.9.\nVFX\nNovember and December saw the VFX team wrap up work for CitizenCon and Alpha 3.8. Planetary weather effects continue to be authored, with a particular focus on ground storms across all planets and moons.\nJump gate effects were iterated on, including the tunnel effects, which resulted in interesting lore-abiding effects. Effects were also completed for the ARGO MOLE, Animus Rocket Launcher, and the Multi-tool mining beams. An effects pass was also done for the Theatres of War map, including a large Terraformer beam. Ways to improve the fire texture assets were experimented with too.\nThe tech artists also supported the final steps of procedurally generating buildings for New Babbage. This involved exporting meshes with a complete hierarchy that contain the LOD and collision meshes. This is an improvement on the previous manual iteration. WE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":13,"comment_count":27,"created_at":"2020-01-18T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"6 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-04-25 09:17:01","valid_relations":["images","links","translations"],"prev_id":17414,"next_id":17417}}