{"data":{"id":17863,"title":"Squadron 42 Monthly Report: October 2020","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/17863-Squadron-42-Monthly-Report-October-2020","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/17863","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/17863","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"Monthly 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is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We\u2019re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to.\nAttention Recruits,\n\nWhat you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\n\nThanks to the work of dedicated operatives, we\u2019ve uncovered classified information on advanced Vanduul combat techniques, capital ship behaviors, Archon Station, and more. Read on for the full debrief.\n\nRemember, the information within this communication is highly sensitive and must not fall into enemy hands.\n\nUEE Naval High Command AI (Combat)\nWe start with the Character Combat Team, who progressed with Vanduul and Human combat behaviors. Specifically for the Vanduul, the team authored several animations for melee attacks with the direction based on the location of the target. They\u2019re currently adding initial support for \u2018animation warp,\u2019 which will enable the Vanduul to procedurally adjust the rotation and translation of the animation. The first pass on combo attacks was added, which gives a more fluid selection of animation when executing a chain of melee attacks. The first pass of the \u2018surrender\u2019 behavior was completed. This allows NPCs that are under pressure and without ammunition to decide to surrender. During their regular combat behavior, NPCs will try to find lootable ammo boxes (and in the future request help from friendlies and loot available weapons). If no options are available, they\u2019ll try to survive by staying out of dangerous environments.\n\nThe team began implementing support for character traits. This functionality exposes the ability of selected traits in the \u2018Character Skills and Traits Editor.\u2019 The designers can then assign traits to templates that are then assigned to characters. These can be used to either modify or enable specific behaviors in certain characters. For example, a \u2018coward\u2019 NPC won\u2019t try to put pressure on the player.\n\nSeveral bugs were fixed for visual perception, cover usage, and Vanduul dodge reactions, too.\n\nAI (General)\nLast month, the AI Team found and fixed more issues related to characters standing on top of usables. This time, the problem was specific to characters streaming in before their usables. Code was added to handle this particular edge case. Some of the recent AI component updates were also updated with stricter dependency rules to avoid conflicting read\/writes inside the zone system. This prevents contention when reading entity positions.\n\nAI (Ships)\nShip AI began October extending the quantum travel Subsumption task. This will be used in specific scenarios where a behavior needs to queue quantum travel for a ship and then continue with regular duties, which is particularly useful in multi-crew ships. The team continued to iterate on missile targeting, first of all ensuring turrets respond immediately to incoming hostile torpedoes when not in combat mode. They then adjusted targeting priorities to give a better balance when capital ships are fighting multiple targets. This will also improve how seat operators handle burst fire when controlling ship weapons.\n\nTime was also spent improving how collision avoidance handles missiles, with the team figuring out how to filter out missiles in the code due to them not being part of collision avoidance. For the accuracy calculation, the team implemented different convergence speeds towards targets when the AI is hitting or missing the target. This simulates NPCs trying to hit a target faster when they are missing but relaxing slightly when they\u2019re on target.\n\nThe capital ship combat behavior was also improved to allow longer-range combat. NPCs will now react to an enemy starting to charge a weapon, too.\n\nSeveral bugs were fixed and improvements made to the break-away movement request, the patrol-around-position assignment, and the hostility of specific targets.\n\n\n\nAI (Social)\nLast month, the Social AI Team moved the first version of the mess hall scenario into a state that allows other teams to better iterate on animations, props, and the technical setup. At the moment, the scenario supports usables that provide cutlery, food, and drinks. NPCs can iterate on food lines, retrieve anything their sustenance behavior wants, and then take the food to tables and can consume it. This involves both systemic animations and mo-cap created for specific scenarios. All of these usables are item providers, which NPCs can search to obtain specific objects. These objects are actually used by the AI, so consuming food and drink impacts the NPC\u2019s status system. This also expands the use of grip tags in the \u2018take,\u2019 \u2018prepare,\u2019 and \u2018place\u2019 use-channel.\n\nThe team are currently working on several behaviors that will benefit both the PU and Squadron 42, including arcade-machine use and dancing. Playing arcade machines will be one of the available leisure activities, while dancing will likely be a special activity for the patrons of discos and other appropriate areas.\n\n\n\nAnimation\nLast month, the Animation Team worked on staggering, push\/pull, stance transition improvements, a handful of new weapons, and improvements to the \u2018crouch\u2019 set. Tasks progressed for the \u2018social and life\u2019 animations, including the chowline, mess hall, bartender drinks, bathrooms, armory character, engineer, and exercises. They also added the AI surrender mechanic and continued with Vanduul melee combat.\n\nFacial animation assets were created for the Feature teams, including effort sets, and female-player performances continued. On the motion-capture side, new shoots for the Actor Feature, Social AI, and Combat AI teams were planned. A few outstanding scenes were also completed and improvements were made to the MotionBuilder skeleton\n\n\n\nArt (Characters)\nCharacter Art\u2019s October involved work on major campaign characters. After submitting major changes to Morrow\u2019s head, the team updated his jumpsuit, which will serve as the basis for all related navy uniforms. The team also revisited Vallon, this time focusing on her hair. The quality is now extremely high and will form the basis of a \u2018generic\u2019 hairstyle too. The team is currently updating major assets for a key ship introduction, including bridge officer and deck crew uniforms, engineer outfits, and several heads and hairstyles.\n\nArt (Environment)\nThroughout October, the SQ42 Art Team focused on two key areas of the game, Chop-Shop and Archon Station. They also put the finishing touches on Aciedo Station, which was shown extensively during the first briefing room update. The Chop-Shop contains a mix of hard surface and organic elements, so the team experimented with both scanned data and procedural systems to achieve the final result. They also worked alongside the Design teams to construct the location\u2019s playable spaces, with the organic and hard surface kits being used with the completed whitebox layouts.\n\nArchon Station is the largest location that players visit in the game, so the team who worked on Aciedo have now moved over to form a larger Archon strike-team. They began by closing off the hangar and are now starting to break down a kit of shared library assets for use throughout the station. This is driven by a new style guide that provides clear direction for the interior to keep it consistent with the previously completed exterior. Planetside, progress was made on the Chemline Solutions facility, which was placed among new ground terrain.\n\nSteady progress was made on the Javelin and Idris interiors too, with lighting, material, and geometry polished. The finishing touches were also added to the Javelin\u2019s engine room.\n\nElsewhere, excellent progress with made on the space outpost kit. This station asset is unique to the Odin System and will be used to populate space scenes with believable facilities and stations. They also implemented a hugely important story location.\n\n\n\nAudio (SQ42)\nAudio spent the month finishing editorials for dialogue and implemented improvements into the music system. They also worked alongside the SQ42 composers to create new music.\n\nEngineering\nThe Actor Team started the month continuing their work on force reactions. Now, characters will respond to either sudden effects such as an explosion or sustained effects like wind or g-force. This is being expanded to include staggers, where the force is strong enough to move the player but not enough to knock them down. The team began implementing FPS radar and scanning, accounting for weapon emissions and audio signifiers. Further time was dedicated to cooperative locomotion, with trolly push\/pull polished and the smooth locomotion trajectory code refactored to better integrate into AI path-following. This will result in higher-quality visuals, particularly with character strafing. It will also provide better animation alignment when entering usables, which will also help with the in-development motion-matching tech.\n\nThe SQ42 Feature Team continued to improve camera depth-of-field when in conversation or when following an NPC. They also added TrackView support to better trigger the destruction of ships and added additional polish to the dynamic lighting rig.\n\nThe team also improved mission startup, revising which elements object-container-streaming loads first. The firing-range flowgraph setup was revisited, too.\n\n\n\nGameplay Story\nOctober saw the Gameplay Story Team focus on a key introductory chapter, with the scenes themselves now looking impressive and working as desired. The current goal is to support the Code and Design teams in perfecting the blending of scenes via AI locomotion. Although a difficult process, great progress is being made and the results look promising. They also worked alongside Design to implement scenes for chapter 6, 7, 13, and 18, which are needed by the Gameplay Story team.\n\nGraphics\nThe Graphics Team delivered the iridescent shader, which simulates color shifts based on the camera angle relative to the surface. Shader optimizations and look-up textures were used to reduce the cost of this feature to the point it can be widely used without performance concerns. The light-beam shader was also worked on, which underwent significant quality improvements and bug fixes. This feature helps the team simulate distant beams of light beyond the range that can be simulated by the volumetric fog system.\n\nWork also continued on the Gen12 renderer and the automated testing system.\n\n\n\nLevel Design\nThe Social Design Team brought a number of scenes up to their \u201cgold standard,\u201d which include completed behaviors, usables, interrupts, and abandons. The Level Design Team moved several FPS sections to a near-complete state. This will highlight any additional mo-cap required to extend the narrative and support the multiple approaches supported across most of the environments.\n\nThe Space\/Dogfight Team supported the various feature teams. For example, AI and Flight Gameplay are working on enhanced path-following and hazard awareness behaviors. They also continued to space-scape the Odin System alongside the Art teams.\n\n\n\nNarrative\nThroughout the month, Narrative met with Design to plan out additional dialogue needed across the campaign. They then scripted lines and made placeholder recordings to enable Design to see how the additions sound in situ. As the various environments continue to develop, the Art teams asked for support on additional props or environmental set dressing. These include additional story indicators that reward players who dig a little deeper and explore the game\u2019s locations.\n\nAs mentioned in last month\u2019s report, Narrative continued to work with Audio and Combat AI to develop the Vanduul culture and behavior, while the team\u2019s xenolinguist further developed the language.\n\n\n\nQA\nQA supported Cinematics with recordings of each level, enabled them to review each chapter to ensure scenes are working and appearing as intended.\n\nTech Animation\nThroughout October, Tech Animation focused heavily on upgrading the head assets in the character pipeline. A huge amount of technical detail goes into every head asset that will be accounted for and restructured throughout the overhaul. The team also began overhauling combat animations to remove technical glitches in AI weapon holding, ships were rigged for the Animation Team, and support was given to Social AI.\n\n\n\nUI\nMuch of the UI team\u2019s SQ42-specific work was focused on new tech, including a new system to allow animators to move and position UI within cutscenes. They also further iterated on the 3D lighting system to improve the appearance of ships and items on UI screens and holograms. On the art side, visual target concepts for the Aegis Gladius UI were finalized, including the visuals for the MFD screens.\n\n\n\nVFX\nLast month, VFX continued to improve the destruction pipeline, focusing on a couple of specific sequences with varying degrees of complexity. They also worked on effects for the Multi-Tool tractor beam attachment.","de_DE":"Dies ist ein Cross-Post des Berichts, der k\u00fcrzlich \u00fcber den monatlichen Squadron 42 Newsletter verschickt wurde. Wir ver\u00f6ffentlichen ihn ein zweites Mal als Comm-Link, um es f\u00fcr die Community einfacher zu machen, darauf zur\u00fcckzugreifen.\nAchtung Rekruten,\n\nWas ihr gleich lesen werdet, sind die neuesten Informationen \u00fcber die Weiterentwicklung von Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\n\nDank der Arbeit engagierter Agenten haben wir geheime Informationen \u00fcber fortgeschrittene Vanduul-Kampftechniken, das Verhalten von Gro\u00dfkampfschiffen, die Archon-Station und vieles mehr aufgedeckt. Lies weiter f\u00fcr die vollst\u00e4ndige Nachbesprechung.\n\nDenkt daran, dass die Informationen in dieser Kommunikation hochsensibel sind und nicht in feindliche H\u00e4nde fallen d\u00fcrfen.\n\nUEE Marine-Oberkommando\n\nKI (Kampf)\n\nWir beginnen mit dem Character Combat Team, das sich mit Vanduul und menschlichem Kampfverhalten weiterentwickelt hat. Speziell f\u00fcr den Vanduul hat das Team mehrere Animationen f\u00fcr Nahkampfangriffe erstellt, deren Richtung von der Position des Ziels abh\u00e4ngt. Derzeit wird die anf\u00e4ngliche Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr 'Animation Warp' hinzugef\u00fcgt, die es dem Vanduul erm\u00f6glicht, die Rotation und die \u00dcbersetzung der Animation prozedural anzupassen. Der erste Pass on Combo-Angriffe wurde hinzugef\u00fcgt, was eine fl\u00fcssigere Auswahl der Animation bei der Ausf\u00fchrung einer Kette von Nahkampfangriffen erm\u00f6glicht. Der erste Durchgang des 'Aufgeben'-Verhaltens wurde abgeschlossen. Dies erm\u00f6glicht es NSCs, die unter Druck und ohne Munition sind, sich zur Kapitulation zu entschlie\u00dfen. W\u00e4hrend ihres regul\u00e4ren Kampfverhaltens werden die NSCs versuchen, pl\u00fcnderbare Munitionskisten zu finden (und in Zukunft von befreundeten NSCs Hilfe anfordern und verf\u00fcgbare Waffen pl\u00fcndern). Wenn keine Optionen verf\u00fcgbar sind, werden sie versuchen, zu \u00fcberleben, indem sie sich aus gef\u00e4hrlichen Umgebungen fernhalten.\n\nDas Team begann damit, Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Charaktereigenschaften zu implementieren. Diese Funktionalit\u00e4t zeigt die F\u00e4higkeit ausgew\u00e4hlter Eigenschaften im 'Editor f\u00fcr Charakterfertigkeiten und -eigenschaften' an. Die Designer k\u00f6nnen dann den Vorlagen Eigenschaften zuweisen, die dann den Charakteren zugeordnet werden. Diese k\u00f6nnen dazu verwendet werden, bestimmte Verhaltensweisen bestimmter Charaktere zu modifizieren oder zu aktivieren. Zum Beispiel wird ein 'feiger' NSC nicht versuchen, Druck auf den Spieler auszu\u00fcben.\n\nEs wurden auch einige Fehler bei der visuellen Wahrnehmung, der Benutzung der Tarnung und den Vanduul-Ausweichreaktionen behoben.\n\n\n\nKI (Allgemein)\nLetzten Monat hat das KI-Team weitere Probleme gefunden und behoben, die mit Charakteren zu tun haben, die oben auf den Nutzbaren stehen. Dieses Mal war das Problem spezifisch f\u00fcr Charaktere, die vor ihren Usables hereinstr\u00f6mten. Es wurde Code hinzugef\u00fcgt, um diesen speziellen Edge-Fall zu behandeln. Einige der letzten KI-Komponenten-Updates wurden auch mit strengeren Abh\u00e4ngigkeitsregeln aktualisiert, um widerspr\u00fcchliche Lese-\/Schreibvorg\u00e4nge innerhalb des Zonensystems zu vermeiden. Dies verhindert Streitigkeiten beim Lesen der Entity-Positionen.\nKI (Schiffe)\nSchiff KI begann im Oktober mit der Erweiterung der Aufgabe der Quantenreise Subsumption. Diese wird in bestimmten Szenarien verwendet werden, in denen ein Verhalten Quantenreisen f\u00fcr ein Schiff in die Warteschlange stellen und dann mit den regul\u00e4ren Aufgaben fortfahren muss, was besonders in Schiffen mit mehreren Besatzungen n\u00fctzlich ist. Das Team setzte die Wiederholung der Raketenziele fort und stellte zun\u00e4chst sicher, dass die Gesch\u00fctzt\u00fcrme sofort auf ankommende feindliche Torpedos reagieren, wenn sie sich nicht im Kampfmodus befinden. Dann passten sie die Zielpriorit\u00e4ten an, um eine bessere Balance zu erreichen, wenn Gro\u00dfkampfschiffe gegen mehrere Ziele k\u00e4mpfen. Dies wird auch die Art und Weise verbessern, wie Sitzbediener bei der Kontrolle von Schiffswaffen mit Feuerst\u00f6\u00dfen umgehen.\n\nEs wurde auch Zeit damit verbracht, die Handhabung der Kollisionsvermeidung von Raketen zu verbessern, wobei das Team herausfand, wie man Raketen im Code herausfiltern kann, da sie nicht Teil der Kollisionsvermeidung sind. F\u00fcr die Genauigkeitsberechnung implementierte das Team unterschiedliche Konvergenzgeschwindigkeiten in Richtung der Ziele, wenn die KI das Ziel trifft oder verfehlt. Dies simuliert NSCs, die versuchen, ein Ziel schneller zu treffen, wenn sie das Ziel verfehlen, sich aber leicht entspannen, wenn sie auf dem Ziel sind.\n\nDas Kampfverhalten des Gro\u00dfkampfschiffs wurde ebenfalls verbessert, um einen Kampf \u00fcber gr\u00f6\u00dfere Entfernungen zu erm\u00f6glichen. NPCs reagieren nun auch, wenn ein Feind beginnt, eine Waffe aufzuladen.\n\nMehrere Fehler wurden behoben und Verbesserungen an der Aufforderung zur Ausrei\u00dferbewegung, der Zuweisung von Patrouillenpositionen und der Feindseligkeit bestimmter Ziele vorgenommen.\n\n\nKI (sozial)\nLetzten Monat hat das soziale KI-Team die erste Version des Messehallen-Szenarios in einen Zustand versetzt, der es anderen Teams erm\u00f6glicht, besser an Animationen, Requisiten und dem technischen Setup zu arbeiten. Im Moment unterst\u00fctzt das Szenario Usables, die Besteck, Essen und Getr\u00e4nke bereitstellen. NSCs k\u00f6nnen an Essenslinien iterieren, alles abrufen, was ihr Ern\u00e4hrungsverhalten w\u00fcnscht, und dann das Essen an Tische bringen und verzehren. Dies beinhaltet sowohl systemische Animationen als auch Mo-Cap, die f\u00fcr bestimmte Szenarien erstellt wurden. All diese Gebrauchsgegenst\u00e4nde sind Item-Provider, die NSCs suchen k\u00f6nnen, um bestimmte Objekte zu erhalten. Diese Objekte werden tats\u00e4chlich von der KI benutzt, so dass der Konsum von Essen und Trinken das Statussystem des NSCs beeinflusst. Dadurch wird auch die Verwendung von Grip-Tags im 'Nehmen', 'Vorbereiten' und 'Platzieren' des Nutzungskanals erweitert.\n\nDas Team arbeitet derzeit an verschiedenen Verhaltensweisen, die sowohl der PU als auch der Squadron 42 zugute kommen werden, darunter der Einsatz von Arcade-Maschinen und das Tanzen. Das Spielen von Spielautomaten wird eine der verf\u00fcgbaren Freizeitaktivit\u00e4ten sein, w\u00e4hrend das Tanzen wahrscheinlich eine besondere Aktivit\u00e4t f\u00fcr die Besucher von Diskotheken und anderen geeigneten Bereichen sein wird.\n\n\nAnimation\nLetzten Monat hat das Animationsteam an Torkeln, Push\/Pull, Verbesserungen der Haltungs\u00fcberg\u00e4nge, einer Handvoll neuer Waffen und Verbesserungen am 'Hocke'-Set gearbeitet. Die Aufgaben f\u00fcr die 'Sozial- und Lebensanimationen' gingen voran, einschlie\u00dflich der Essensgrenze, der Kantine, der Barkeeper-Drinks, der Toiletten, des Waffencharakters, des Ingenieurs und der \u00dcbungen. Au\u00dferdem wurde der KI-Kapitulierungs-Mechaniker hinzugef\u00fcgt und der Vanduul-Nahkampf fortgesetzt.\n\nEs wurden Gesichtsanimationen f\u00fcr die Feature-Teams erstellt, einschlie\u00dflich Effektsets, und die Leistungen der weiblichen Spieler wurden fortgesetzt. Auf der Motion-Capture-Seite wurden neue Shootings f\u00fcr die Schauspieler-Feature-, Sozial-KI- und Kampf-KI-Teams geplant. Au\u00dferdem wurden einige herausragende Szenen fertiggestellt und Verbesserungen am MotionBuilder-Skelett vorgenommen\n\n\nKunst (Charaktere)\nDer Character Art's Oktober beinhaltete die Arbeit an den Hauptcharakteren der Kampagne. Nachdem gr\u00f6\u00dfere \u00c4nderungen an Morrows Kopf vorgenommen wurden, aktualisierte das Team seinen Overall, der als Basis f\u00fcr alle zugeh\u00f6rigen Marine-Uniformen dienen wird. Das Team besuchte auch Vallon erneut, diesmal konzentrierte sich das Team auf ihre Haare. Die Qualit\u00e4t ist jetzt extrem hoch und wird auch die Grundlage f\u00fcr eine 'generische' Frisur bilden. Das Team ist gerade dabei, die wichtigsten Elemente f\u00fcr eine wichtige Schiffseinf\u00fchrung zu aktualisieren, einschlie\u00dflich der Uniformen der Br\u00fcckenoffiziere und der Decksmannschaft, der Uniformen der Ingenieure und verschiedener K\u00f6pfe und Frisuren.\nKunst (Umwelt)\nDen ganzen Oktober \u00fcber konzentrierte sich das SQ42 Art Team auf zwei Schl\u00fcsselbereiche des Spiels, Chop-Shop und Archon Station. Au\u00dferdem gaben sie der Aciedo Station den letzten Schliff, die w\u00e4hrend des ersten Briefing Room Updates ausgiebig gezeigt wurde. Der Chop-Shop enth\u00e4lt eine Mischung aus harten Oberfl\u00e4chen und organischen Elementen, also experimentierte das Team sowohl mit gescannten Daten als auch mit Verfahrenssystemen, um das Endergebnis zu erreichen. Sie arbeiteten auch mit den Design-Teams zusammen, um die spielbaren R\u00e4ume der Station zu konstruieren, wobei die Baus\u00e4tze mit organischer und harter Oberfl\u00e4che mit den fertigen Whitebox-Layouts verwendet wurden.\n\nDie Archon-Station ist der gr\u00f6\u00dfte Ort, den die Spieler im Spiel besuchen, daher ist das Team, das an Aciedo gearbeitet hat, jetzt zu einem gr\u00f6\u00dferen Archon-Streikteam \u00fcbergegangen. Sie haben mit der Schlie\u00dfung des Hangars begonnen und sind nun dabei, ein Set von gemeinsamen Bibliotheksbest\u00e4nden zur Nutzung in der gesamten Station abzubauen. Dies wird durch einen neuen Styleguide vorangetrieben, der eine klare Richtung f\u00fcr das Innere vorgibt, um es im Einklang mit dem zuvor fertiggestellten \u00c4u\u00dferen zu halten. Auf dem Planeten wurden Fortschritte bei der Chemline-Einrichtung gemacht, die inmitten des neuen Gel\u00e4ndes platziert wurde.\n\nAuch bei der Innenausstattung von Javelin und Idris wurden stetige Fortschritte gemacht, Beleuchtung, Material und Geometrie wurden auf Hochglanz gebracht. Auch der Maschinenraum des Javelin erhielt den letzten Schliff.\n\nAn anderer Stelle wurden ausgezeichnete Fortschritte mit dem Weltraum-Au\u00dfenposten-Kit gemacht. Dieser Stations-Au\u00dfenposten ist einzigartig im Odin-System und wird dazu verwendet werden, Weltraumszenen mit glaubw\u00fcrdigen Einrichtungen und Stationen zu best\u00fccken. Sie haben auch einen \u00e4u\u00dferst wichtigen Schauplatz f\u00fcr die Story implementiert.\n\n\nTon (SQ42)\nAudio hat den Monat damit verbracht, die Editorials f\u00fcr die Dialoge fertigzustellen und Verbesserungen im Musiksystem zu implementieren. Sie arbeiteten auch mit den SQ42-Komponisten zusammen, um neue Musik zu kreieren.\nTechnik\nDas Schauspieler-Team begann den Monat damit, seine Arbeit an den Reaktionen der Kr\u00e4fte fortzusetzen. Jetzt werden die Charaktere entweder auf pl\u00f6tzliche Effekte wie eine Explosion oder auf anhaltende Effekte wie Wind oder G-Kraft reagieren. Dies wird erweitert und beinhaltet nun auch Torkeln, bei dem die Kraft stark genug ist, um den Spieler zu bewegen, aber nicht genug, um ihn zu Fall zu bringen. Das Team hat damit begonnen, FPS-Radar und Scanning zu implementieren, wobei Waffenemissionen und Audio-Signifikanten ber\u00fccksichtigt werden. Weitere Zeit wurde der kooperativen Fortbewegung gewidmet, wobei der Trolly Push\/Pull poliert und der Code der glatten Fortbewegungsbahn \u00fcberarbeitet wurde, um sich besser in die KI-Pfadfindung zu integrieren. Dies wird zu qualitativ hochwertigeren visuellen Darstellungen f\u00fchren, insbesondere beim Charakter-Strafing. Es wird auch eine bessere Ausrichtung der Animationen bei der Eingabe von Usables erm\u00f6glichen, was auch bei der in der Entwicklung befindlichen Motion-Matching-Technologie hilfreich sein wird.\n\nDas SQ42 Feature Team hat die Sch\u00e4rfentiefe der Kamera weiter verbessert, wenn sie im Gespr\u00e4ch sind oder einem NPC folgen. Sie f\u00fcgten auch TrackView-Unterst\u00fctzung hinzu, um die Zerst\u00f6rung von Schiffen besser ausl\u00f6sen zu k\u00f6nnen und gaben der dynamischen Beleuchtungsanlage zus\u00e4tzlichen Glanz.\n\nDas Team hat auch den Missionsstart verbessert, indem es \u00fcberarbeitet hat, welche Elemente beim Objekt-Container-Streaming zuerst geladen werden. Das Schie\u00dfstand-Flowgraph-Setup wurde ebenfalls \u00fcberarbeitet.\n\n\nGameplay-Geschichte\nIm Oktober konzentrierte sich das Gameplay-Story-Team auf ein wichtiges Einf\u00fchrungskapitel, wobei die Szenen selbst nun beeindruckend aussehen und wie gew\u00fcnscht funktionieren. Das aktuelle Ziel ist es, die Code- und Design-Teams bei der Perfektionierung der \u00dcberblendung von Szenen mittels KI-Lokomotion zu unterst\u00fctzen. Obwohl es ein schwieriger Prozess ist, werden gro\u00dfe Fortschritte gemacht und die Ergebnisse sehen vielversprechend aus. Sie arbeiteten auch mit dem Design zusammen, um Szenen f\u00fcr die Kapitel 6, 7, 13 und 18 zu implementieren, die vom Gameplay-Story-Team ben\u00f6tigt werden.\nGrafiken\nDas Grafikteam lieferte den irisierenden Shader, der Farbverschiebungen basierend auf dem Kamerawinkel relativ zur Oberfl\u00e4che simuliert. Es wurden Shader-Optimierungen und Look-Up-Texturen verwendet, um die Kosten f\u00fcr dieses Feature so weit zu reduzieren, dass es ohne Leistungseinbu\u00dfen weit verbreitet werden kann. Es wurde auch am Lichtstrahl-Shader gearbeitet, der erhebliche Qualit\u00e4tsverbesserungen und Fehlerbehebungen erfahren hat. Dieses Feature hilft dem Team, entfernte Lichtstrahlen jenseits der Reichweite zu simulieren, die durch das volumetrische Nebelsystem simuliert werden kann.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurde die Arbeit am Gen12-Renderer und dem automatischen Testsystem fortgesetzt.\n\n\nLevel-Design\nDas Social Design Team hat eine Reihe von Szenen auf ihren \"Goldstandard\" gebracht, darunter abgeschlossene Verhaltensweisen, Brauchbares, Unterbrechungen und Abbr\u00fcche. Das Leveldesign-Team hat mehrere FPS-Abschnitte in einen fast vollst\u00e4ndigen Zustand gebracht. Dies wird alle zus\u00e4tzlichen mo-cap hervorheben, die erforderlich sind, um die Erz\u00e4hlung zu erweitern und die vielf\u00e4ltigen Ans\u00e4tze zu unterst\u00fctzen, die in den meisten Umgebungen unterst\u00fctzt werden.\n\nDas Space\/Dogfight-Team unterst\u00fctzte die verschiedenen Feature-Teams. Zum Beispiel arbeiten KI und Flight Gameplay an verbesserten Verhaltensweisen f\u00fcr Pfadfindung und Gefahrenbewusstsein. Au\u00dferdem setzten sie gemeinsam mit den Art-Teams die Weltraumfahrt durch das Odin-System fort.\n\n\nErz\u00e4hlung\nIm Laufe des Monats traf sich Narrative mit Design, um zus\u00e4tzliche Dialoge zu planen, die f\u00fcr die gesamte Kampagne ben\u00f6tigt werden. Sie schrieben dann Zeilen und machten Aufnahmen von Platzhaltern, damit Design sehen konnte, wie die Erg\u00e4nzungen vor Ort klingen. Da sich die verschiedenen Umgebungen st\u00e4ndig weiterentwickeln, baten die Art-Teams um Unterst\u00fctzung bei zus\u00e4tzlichen Requisiten oder bei der Ausstattung der Umgebung. Dazu geh\u00f6ren zus\u00e4tzliche Story-Indikatoren, die Spieler belohnen, die ein wenig tiefer graben und die Schaupl\u00e4tze des Spiels erkunden.\n\nWie im Bericht des letzten Monats erw\u00e4hnt, arbeitete Narrative weiterhin mit Audio und Kampf-KI zusammen, um die Vanduul-Kultur und das Verhalten zu entwickeln, w\u00e4hrend der Xenolinguist des Teams die Sprache weiterentwickelte.\n\n\nQA\nQA unterst\u00fctzte Cinematics mit Aufnahmen jedes Levels und erm\u00f6glichte es ihnen, jedes Kapitel zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen, um sicherzustellen, dass die Szenen funktionieren und wie beabsichtigt erscheinen.\nTechnische Animation\nW\u00e4hrend des gesamten Oktobers konzentrierte sich Tech Animation stark auf die Verbesserung der Head Assets in der Charakter-Pipeline. Eine riesige Menge an technischen Details steckt in jedem Head-Asset, das w\u00e4hrend der \u00dcberholung ber\u00fccksichtigt und umstrukturiert wird. Das Team begann auch mit der \u00dcberholung der Kampfanimationen, um technische Pannen in der KI-Waffenhaltung zu beseitigen, Schiffe wurden f\u00fcr das Animationsteam ausger\u00fcstet und die soziale KI wurde unterst\u00fctzt.\n\n\nBENUTZEROBERFL\u00c4CHE\nEin Gro\u00dfteil der SQ42-spezifischen Arbeit des UI-Teams konzentrierte sich auf neue Technologien, einschlie\u00dflich eines neuen Systems, das es den Animatoren erlaubt, die UI innerhalb der Cutscenes zu bewegen und zu positionieren. Au\u00dferdem wurde das 3D-Beleuchtungssystem weiterentwickelt, um das Aussehen von Schiffen und Gegenst\u00e4nden auf den UI-Bildschirmen und Hologrammen zu verbessern. Auf der k\u00fcnstlerischen Seite wurden die visuellen Zielkonzepte f\u00fcr die Aegis Gladius UI fertiggestellt, einschlie\u00dflich der Visuals f\u00fcr die MFD-Bildschirme.\nVFX\nLetzten Monat hat VFX die Zerst\u00f6rungspipeline weiter verbessert und sich dabei auf ein paar spezifische Sequenzen mit unterschiedlichem Komplexit\u00e4tsgrad konzentriert. Sie arbeiteten auch an Effekten f\u00fcr die Multi-Tool Traktorstrahlbefestigung.","zh_CN":"This is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We\u2019re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to.\nAttention Recruits,\n\nWhat you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).\n\nThanks to the work of dedicated operatives, we\u2019ve uncovered classified information on advanced Vanduul combat techniques, capital ship behaviors, Archon Station, and more. Read on for the full debrief.\n\nRemember, the information within this communication is highly sensitive and must not fall into enemy hands.\n\nUEE Naval High Command AI (Combat)\nWe start with the Character Combat Team, who progressed with Vanduul and Human combat behaviors. Specifically for the Vanduul, the team authored several animations for melee attacks with the direction based on the location of the target. They\u2019re currently adding initial support for \u2018animation warp,\u2019 which will enable the Vanduul to procedurally adjust the rotation and translation of the animation. The first pass on combo attacks was added, which gives a more fluid selection of animation when executing a chain of melee attacks. The first pass of the \u2018surrender\u2019 behavior was completed. This allows NPCs that are under pressure and without ammunition to decide to surrender. During their regular combat behavior, NPCs will try to find lootable ammo boxes (and in the future request help from friendlies and loot available weapons). If no options are available, they\u2019ll try to survive by staying out of dangerous environments.\n\nThe team began implementing support for character traits. This functionality exposes the ability of selected traits in the \u2018Character Skills and Traits Editor.\u2019 The designers can then assign traits to templates that are then assigned to characters. These can be used to either modify or enable specific behaviors in certain characters. For example, a \u2018coward\u2019 NPC won\u2019t try to put pressure on the player.\n\nSeveral bugs were fixed for visual perception, cover usage, and Vanduul dodge reactions, too.\n\nAI (General)\nLast month, the AI Team found and fixed more issues related to characters standing on top of usables. This time, the problem was specific to characters streaming in before their usables. Code was added to handle this particular edge case. Some of the recent AI component updates were also updated with stricter dependency rules to avoid conflicting read\/writes inside the zone system. This prevents contention when reading entity positions.\n\nAI (Ships)\nShip AI began October extending the quantum travel Subsumption task. This will be used in specific scenarios where a behavior needs to queue quantum travel for a ship and then continue with regular duties, which is particularly useful in multi-crew ships. The team continued to iterate on missile targeting, first of all ensuring turrets respond immediately to incoming hostile torpedoes when not in combat mode. They then adjusted targeting priorities to give a better balance when capital ships are fighting multiple targets. This will also improve how seat operators handle burst fire when controlling ship weapons.\n\nTime was also spent improving how collision avoidance handles missiles, with the team figuring out how to filter out missiles in the code due to them not being part of collision avoidance. For the accuracy calculation, the team implemented different convergence speeds towards targets when the AI is hitting or missing the target. This simulates NPCs trying to hit a target faster when they are missing but relaxing slightly when they\u2019re on target.\n\nThe capital ship combat behavior was also improved to allow longer-range combat. NPCs will now react to an enemy starting to charge a weapon, too.\n\nSeveral bugs were fixed and improvements made to the break-away movement request, the patrol-around-position assignment, and the hostility of specific targets.\n\n\n\nAI (Social)\nLast month, the Social AI Team moved the first version of the mess hall scenario into a state that allows other teams to better iterate on animations, props, and the technical setup. At the moment, the scenario supports usables that provide cutlery, food, and drinks. NPCs can iterate on food lines, retrieve anything their sustenance behavior wants, and then take the food to tables and can consume it. This involves both systemic animations and mo-cap created for specific scenarios. All of these usables are item providers, which NPCs can search to obtain specific objects. These objects are actually used by the AI, so consuming food and drink impacts the NPC\u2019s status system. This also expands the use of grip tags in the \u2018take,\u2019 \u2018prepare,\u2019 and \u2018place\u2019 use-channel.\n\nThe team are currently working on several behaviors that will benefit both the PU and Squadron 42, including arcade-machine use and dancing. Playing arcade machines will be one of the available leisure activities, while dancing will likely be a special activity for the patrons of discos and other appropriate areas.\n\n\n\nAnimation\nLast month, the Animation Team worked on staggering, push\/pull, stance transition improvements, a handful of new weapons, and improvements to the \u2018crouch\u2019 set. Tasks progressed for the \u2018social and life\u2019 animations, including the chowline, mess hall, bartender drinks, bathrooms, armory character, engineer, and exercises. They also added the AI surrender mechanic and continued with Vanduul melee combat.\n\nFacial animation assets were created for the Feature teams, including effort sets, and female-player performances continued. On the motion-capture side, new shoots for the Actor Feature, Social AI, and Combat AI teams were planned. A few outstanding scenes were also completed and improvements were made to the MotionBuilder skeleton\n\n\n\nArt (Characters)\nCharacter Art\u2019s October involved work on major campaign characters. After submitting major changes to Morrow\u2019s head, the team updated his jumpsuit, which will serve as the basis for all related navy uniforms. The team also revisited Vallon, this time focusing on her hair. The quality is now extremely high and will form the basis of a \u2018generic\u2019 hairstyle too. The team is currently updating major assets for a key ship introduction, including bridge officer and deck crew uniforms, engineer outfits, and several heads and hairstyles.\n\nArt (Environment)\nThroughout October, the SQ42 Art Team focused on two key areas of the game, Chop-Shop and Archon Station. They also put the finishing touches on Aciedo Station, which was shown extensively during the first briefing room update. The Chop-Shop contains a mix of hard surface and organic elements, so the team experimented with both scanned data and procedural systems to achieve the final result. They also worked alongside the Design teams to construct the location\u2019s playable spaces, with the organic and hard surface kits being used with the completed whitebox layouts.\n\nArchon Station is the largest location that players visit in the game, so the team who worked on Aciedo have now moved over to form a larger Archon strike-team. They began by closing off the hangar and are now starting to break down a kit of shared library assets for use throughout the station. This is driven by a new style guide that provides clear direction for the interior to keep it consistent with the previously completed exterior. Planetside, progress was made on the Chemline Solutions facility, which was placed among new ground terrain.\n\nSteady progress was made on the Javelin and Idris interiors too, with lighting, material, and geometry polished. The finishing touches were also added to the Javelin\u2019s engine room.\n\nElsewhere, excellent progress with made on the space outpost kit. This station asset is unique to the Odin System and will be used to populate space scenes with believable facilities and stations. They also implemented a hugely important story location.\n\n\n\nAudio (SQ42)\nAudio spent the month finishing editorials for dialogue and implemented improvements into the music system. They also worked alongside the SQ42 composers to create new music.\n\nEngineering\nThe Actor Team started the month continuing their work on force reactions. Now, characters will respond to either sudden effects such as an explosion or sustained effects like wind or g-force. This is being expanded to include staggers, where the force is strong enough to move the player but not enough to knock them down. The team began implementing FPS radar and scanning, accounting for weapon emissions and audio signifiers. Further time was dedicated to cooperative locomotion, with trolly push\/pull polished and the smooth locomotion trajectory code refactored to better integrate into AI path-following. This will result in higher-quality visuals, particularly with character strafing. It will also provide better animation alignment when entering usables, which will also help with the in-development motion-matching tech.\n\nThe SQ42 Feature Team continued to improve camera depth-of-field when in conversation or when following an NPC. They also added TrackView support to better trigger the destruction of ships and added additional polish to the dynamic lighting rig.\n\nThe team also improved mission startup, revising which elements object-container-streaming loads first. The firing-range flowgraph setup was revisited, too.\n\n\n\nGameplay Story\nOctober saw the Gameplay Story Team focus on a key introductory chapter, with the scenes themselves now looking impressive and working as desired. The current goal is to support the Code and Design teams in perfecting the blending of scenes via AI locomotion. Although a difficult process, great progress is being made and the results look promising. They also worked alongside Design to implement scenes for chapter 6, 7, 13, and 18, which are needed by the Gameplay Story team.\n\nGraphics\nThe Graphics Team delivered the iridescent shader, which simulates color shifts based on the camera angle relative to the surface. Shader optimizations and look-up textures were used to reduce the cost of this feature to the point it can be widely used without performance concerns. The light-beam shader was also worked on, which underwent significant quality improvements and bug fixes. This feature helps the team simulate distant beams of light beyond the range that can be simulated by the volumetric fog system.\n\nWork also continued on the Gen12 renderer and the automated testing system.\n\n\n\nLevel Design\nThe Social Design Team brought a number of scenes up to their \u201cgold standard,\u201d which include completed behaviors, usables, interrupts, and abandons. The Level Design Team moved several FPS sections to a near-complete state. This will highlight any additional mo-cap required to extend the narrative and support the multiple approaches supported across most of the environments.\n\nThe Space\/Dogfight Team supported the various feature teams. For example, AI and Flight Gameplay are working on enhanced path-following and hazard awareness behaviors. They also continued to space-scape the Odin System alongside the Art teams.\n\n\n\nNarrative\nThroughout the month, Narrative met with Design to plan out additional dialogue needed across the campaign. They then scripted lines and made placeholder recordings to enable Design to see how the additions sound in situ. As the various environments continue to develop, the Art teams asked for support on additional props or environmental set dressing. These include additional story indicators that reward players who dig a little deeper and explore the game\u2019s locations.\n\nAs mentioned in last month\u2019s report, Narrative continued to work with Audio and Combat AI to develop the Vanduul culture and behavior, while the team\u2019s xenolinguist further developed the language.\n\n\n\nQA\nQA supported Cinematics with recordings of each level, enabled them to review each chapter to ensure scenes are working and appearing as intended.\n\nTech Animation\nThroughout October, Tech Animation focused heavily on upgrading the head assets in the character pipeline. A huge amount of technical detail goes into every head asset that will be accounted for and restructured throughout the overhaul. The team also began overhauling combat animations to remove technical glitches in AI weapon holding, ships were rigged for the Animation Team, and support was given to Social AI.\n\n\n\nUI\nMuch of the UI team\u2019s SQ42-specific work was focused on new tech, including a new system to allow animators to move and position UI within cutscenes. They also further iterated on the 3D lighting system to improve the appearance of ships and items on UI screens and holograms. On the art side, visual target concepts for the Aegis Gladius UI were finalized, including the visuals for the MFD screens.\n\n\n\nVFX\nLast month, VFX continued to improve the destruction pipeline, focusing on a couple of specific sequences with varying degrees of complexity. They also worked on effects for the Multi-Tool tractor beam attachment."},"links_count":1,"comment_count":16,"created_at":"2020-11-11T22:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"5 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 20:43:19","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":17862,"next_id":17866}}