{"data":{"id":18348,"title":"Star Citizen Monthly Report: September 2021","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/transmission\/18348-Star-Citizen-Monthly-Report-September-2021","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/18348","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/18348","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"Monthly 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was a busy month for all teams at Cloud Imperium. Alongside preparing for the excitement of this October\u2019s all-digital CitizenCon, the final touches were added to many features coming in Alpha 3.15, and great progress was made on content coming later in the year.\n\nRead on for all the details, including the latest on the Personal Inventory, various news ships, Pyro, and jump points.\n\n\nAI Content\nIn September, AI Content concluded their work on the new \u2018worker\u2019 behavior, which the designers will use to quickly add life to various environments. This will replace many legacy behaviors until environment-specific AI is added. They also added security \u2018T0\u2019 to outposts. Now, NPCs can find and use usables on their patrols, making their routes feel more believable and less robotic. NPCs can guard entrances by blocking entry or checking IDs too.\nThe bartender (vendor) was expanded with new \u2018cafe\u2019 usables to allow players to order soft drinks at locations in Area18.\nProgress continued on the patron and goods dealer behaviors detailed last month, and doctors and nurses were to New Babbage and Orison\u2019s hospitals. These are progressing well, with a QATR taking place early next month.\nAI Feature\nThe AI Feature team continued to work on perception changes for stealth, including creating a mechanism to tweak the ranges of sound events like weapons firing, bullet impact, footsteps, and vaulting. They also updated the debug renderer to show the type of sound event, enabling designers to identify the sound events they\u2019re working on.\nProgress was made on melee combat, improving the combo system to make it more data-driven so that designers can add new combos quickly and easily. Previously, combo attacks were set up in the Subsumption logic of the melee attack behavior, stringing together multiple single attack tasks. Now a single \u2018combo attack\u2019 task is used to improve responsiveness between the parts of the combo. AI Features also worked with the Actor team to come up with a solution for the AI hitting low or high targets with melee attacks, adjusting the spine bones\u2019 rotation up and down to bend towards the target.\nThe clean-up of motion capture animation assets for cowering, surrendering, perception reactions, and unarmed cover usage continued too. Finally, the team fixed some issues with ships defending a lead ship getting stuck in a loop trying to select a new target.\nAI Tech\nLast month, the AI Tech team focused on optimizing several AI systems to improve performance, including turret behavior.\nFocus was given to making 3D collision avoidance for AI Ships work in complex scenes with narrow spaces where bounding boxes for obstacles aren\u2019t a viable solution. There was a variety of updates to pathing, pathfinding, path execution, and movement alongside continued progress on planetary navigation too.\nFor the Subsumption Editor, they finished implementing the docking system, which will enable them to reorganize the UI.\nBugs were also fixed for Alpha 3.15, and the team continued to write technical documentation related to AI systems and server meshing.\nAnimation\nThe Animation team spent September improving vendors, including adding new items and location-based assets and transitions to give a more life-like result. They also discussed how to best implement emotional state idles to characters to give them life when idling. Work on behavior blockouts and animations for the patron continued \u2013 some of the assets previously shot for patrons sitting at bars is being implemented to give a more robust feel to NPCs at bars and counters.\n\u201cWe dropped in a considerable amount of new idle animations for characters sitting, and are working towards the day when no character looks like a statue but rather a living, breathing person. Some of these animations have not been fully edited yet, but we wanted to get them in so we can feel out the results in the PTU and PU.\u201d Animation Team\nOn the player side, the team began reworking various select and deselect asset sets so that they work well in all instances, including with the new inventory system. Improvements were made to drunk locomotion that will, alongside a new asset drop, significantly improve the visuals.\nArt (Characters)\nLast month, Character Art prepared assets for Alpha 3.15, and beyond. The tech artists also finished skinning two new armors debuting in the coming patch that will help fill out various gameplay archetypes.\nFor Subscribers, two new helmets scheduled for release at the end of the year were modeled and passed to tech art for skinning. These will be paired with color variants of existing armors, like the recent Star Kitty and Kabuki helmets.\nThey also put the finishing touches on the prize assets based on the Ship Showdown\u2019s final four.\nCharacter Art progressed with Alpha 3.16 content, including a texture update pass on all DNA archetype heads. This will massively improve the quality of the Character Customizer and NPC heads for both the PU and SQ42.\nFor Pyro, the concept artists continued creating costume packs of the frontier-style clothing that will serve as the basis of clothing for the whole system. Multiple armors were also modeled for the XenoThreat gang using the CDS armor as a base.\nArt (Ships)\nIn the US, the Ship team completed final art for the Crusader Ares, which involved implementing the new large-scale glow workflow into the thrusters for improved lighting. They also set up a bifurcated material system to support both the non-armored Ion and armored Inferno branches when applying tints, so each version of the ship will appear slightly differently.\n\nThe Drake Vulture moved into the greybox stage \u2013 the interior is now completed, and the team are focusing on finishing the exterior, including the reclamation arms, nose grinder, body, cockpit, landing gear, and thrusters. They also added a collapsible exterior ladder to allow players to access the cockpit from the arm.\nOne of the previously mentioned unannounced ships is currently in the final art phase, with a focus on polishing materials and nacelles. Attention is currently directed at dynamic animations to give players more feedback when the ship is in motion.\nAnother ship discussed in the last month\u2019s report is now art complete. The team is planning a bug-fixing pass and preparing to set up the final tint range.\nIn the UK, an unannounced ship moved down the pipeline while several others reached the final-art stage. Tasks for the Crusader A2 Hercules were closed out, including minor polishing and bug fixing.\nThe upcoming MISC cargo ships progressed well \u2013 the Hull C had numerous details finalized, while the Hull A is approaching its whitebox review.\nAudio\nThe Audio team spent September closing out goals set in Q3 and supporting the build-up to various events.\nOrison had a final push, with the SFX and dialogue for Cousin Crow\u2019s and the Crusader Showroom completed alongside an ambiance polish, VO tours, and mixing. Plans for Orison Spaceport\u2019s music progressed, and the rest stop and Grim HEX hospital locations received their final SFX and dialogue passes.\n\u201cThe \u2018gruesome treatment VO\u2019 is a particular highlight for Grim HEX now it\u2019s implemented in-game.\u201d Audio Team\nTech Sound Design and SFX worked together to add effects to the medical bed and bomb delivery UI. Finally, Audio worked on SFX and dialogue for IAE.\nCommunity\nCommunity\u2019s month began supporting the returning XenoThreat event, including publishing an infographic detailing various facts and figures. After the event, the team invited the backers to an AMA on dynamic events. Once complete, they posted a comm-link to make it easier to recap.\nOutside the game, the team supported the annual Ship Showdown competition. During phase one, the community was challenged to support their favorite craft by submitting an original creation to the Community Hub or Twitter, with the team rewarding the 10 submissions they felt were particularly outstanding with an Origin 100i. During phase two and the finals, Community supported the accompanying Free Fly and detailed the knockout rounds that ultimately crowned the Argo MPUV-1C as the overall winner.\n\n\nCommunity closed out the month announcing this year\u2019s Digital CitizenCon schedule and the Digital Goodies Pack that all backers will receive for free.\nEngine\nIn August, the Physics team continued to optimize backend code, including for soft body implementation. Various parts of relevant collision detection routines were optimized algorithmically by improving their bounding volume representations and hierarchy. Soft body topology loading and building, baking code, and memory management were improved too.\nAdditionally, terrain meshes are now flagged so that they can be exclusively raycast against along with allowing meshes to cluster with a single raycast. Moreover, kinematic parts are now used as valid moving ground colliders on actor entities.\nFor the renderer, work continued on the global draw packet cache. A mechanism was added to rebuild the cache when necessary. Its logic was also refined to prevent the unnecessary recreation of draw packets with identical arguments, which is important for brushes.\nOn a higher level, the Gen12 render interface is now used for stat OBJs and render proxies throughout the engine, which marks another step in the transition to the new render paradigm. The shader system saw several changes too \u2013 shader parser initialization was streamlined, and the user cache was moved to the \u2018Window\u2019s APPDATA folder\u2019. This will be rolled out post Alpha 3.15 and should fix a long-standing issue for some users. There were also various changes to refactor and transition code to Gen12.\nRegarding atmosphere and volumetric clouds, there have been various improvements to cloud shadows. The stepping code for local cloud shadows has been refined to be easier to control by artists as well as optimized so that it\u2019s not evaluated unless necessary. Aside from self-shadowing, clouds now also cast their shadows onto the entire scene which has become important for proper scene integration as the team start to use them on planets as well. Additionally, work to improve the rendering of cloud edges has been completed, and parameters exposed to artists, to give them a more volumetric look. Research went into various topics: 1) a quick prototype for better rendering of rain clouds was implemented, 2) integration of cloud shadows into the atmosphere has been implemented (among other things will allow for light shafts from clouds), and 3) because of these shadows in the atmosphere a prototype for improved rendering of multi scattering in clouds and atmosphere was implemented. It acknowledges the presence of clouds in the atmosphere when it comes to indirect lighting and will help shading clouds (brighter, more natural white tones in shadows) as well as the ambiance of overcast skies on ground (less hazy and blueish \u2013 in case of earth like planets). These research items are still WIP and will hopefully mature enough to be shipped in the coming months with other improvements to rendering quality and performance.\nOn the core engine side, support for \u2018APPDATA\u2019 access was added to the P4K system. Aside from now storing the user shader cache folder there, the team plan to eventually move all temporary game-client files to this new location. The P4K file system was also improved to properly deal with Unicode paths.\nWork on the performance regression system picked up again with numerous supporting changes, as it\u2019s becoming important to daily progress and development stability.\nThe team also supported server meshing by decoupling code so that it can run as a standalone service. They started focusing more on optimization too, with certain game scenarios frequently analyzed, reported, and updated. This brought various improvements that will be rolled out post Alpha 3.15. For example, entity-component wakeup was improved by keeping components active for some time. Server Object Container Streaming code was heavily optimized, and memory allocation when using CigFunction (lambdas) was improved. There were various other amends too, such as moving runtime GPU buffer updates to background threads.\n\nFeatures (Characters & Weapons)\nThe Feature team continued focusing on bug fixing and quality-of-life improvements for the new Player Inventory and Actor Status features. In particular, the inventory was running slower than experienced on internal playtests, so significant effort was put into making it more responsive wherever possible. Item filtering is at the top of the list of quality-of-life improvements.\nThe Greycat Multi-Tool is now the first weapon\/gadget with two types of reloading action \u2013 one for the healing attachment vial and one for its battery. This means the user has to manage two different resources to get the best from it.\nThe first iteration of the new underlying logic for the actor-control state machine began testing this month. This logic is purpose-built based on the use of the old state machine and should scale significantly better with project size and complexity. It will also offer better debugging tools, reducing the time it takes to find and fix bugs.\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nGameplay Features continued supporting local inventories and getting the NikNax app ready for Alpha 3.15, with bug fixing and UI polishing taking a majority of the team\u2019s time.\nThey also supported various mission teams in connecting content to the reputation system, set up shops and bartenders in Orison, and prepared for IAE.\nLooking further ahead, work began on allowing items to be sold at shops, the future cargo rework, and Jumptown v2.\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nSeptember saw the Vehicle Feature team progress with jump points, significantly progressing with party jumping. In addition, the team further developed new animation techniques for the Hull C, and supported VFX with improvements to ground effects. The remaining time was spent on ship data debug improvements to further support development processes.\nVehicle Experience tested the bombing mechanic in QA after a successful review and polish period last month. They\u2019re now in the final bug-fixing and optimization stage leading up to release and are awaiting feedback from the Evocati and PTU phases.\nImprovements were also made to turrets for a future release, and experiments were done on missile tuning and balance across the game. The team are also exploring how to further build on operator modes.\nVehicle Features also prepared for Alpha 3.15\u2019s ship releases, supported Actor Features with the intoxication mode for piloting and driving, completed general bug fixing and improvements.\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nThe Graphics team made further performance improvements to the render profile as well as optimizations to post effects (depth of field and motion blur), terrain rendering, and fog to maintain the same performance at higher resolutions.\nAlongside this, they improved the water shader. These changes allow shading to be based on available tiled-lighting data rather than the nearest environment probe to create more consistent lighting in scenes involving water volumes. They also changed water volume lighting to take into account volumetrics, such as clouds and fog, avoiding previous issues where water volumes would ignore local fog volumes when shading.\nThey also progressed on the render-to-texture refactor by implementing region copy for static RTTOs to reuse the existing content instead of re-rendering it. This will ultimately increase performance and save on scene pass usage. They also re-wrote the RTT atlas packing algorithm to support the new region copy feature, making it more robust and easier to maintain.\nFinally, Graphics looked into validation errors and collated captured Vulkan analytical information for future extensions.\nLighting\nThe Lighting team polished and optimized Orison\u2019s new shops; Cousin Crow\u2019s, Providence Surplus, and the Crusader Showroom.\n\n\n\n\u201cA lot of effort went into ensuring these new locations thematically fit within the style of Orison but that each has a unique style and flavor. To help support the addition of these locations, we made further lighting optimization work around their respective platforms.\u201d Lighting Team\nThey also continued to finalize the upcoming hospitals and clinics, implementing feedback from the art directors and fixing visual bugs.\nSupport continued for colonialism outposts, with lighting passes almost complete on all current modules and components. Optimization and polish work is ongoing and new dynamic lighting was added to support airlock cycling.\nNarrative\nAs the release of Alpha 3.15 draws closer, Narrative worked to ensure all final elements and last details are in place before it goes live. This included a pass of the hints added in support of the new gameplay features and journal entries to help explain some of the more complex systems. For NikNax, the team adjusted item names and stats, specifically changing all armor capacity amounts from Storage Points (SP) to microSCU (\u00b5SCU).\nThe Delphi reputation app also received attention to ensure everything is as clear as possible now that organizations can have multiple scopes for players to earn ranks in. The team also spent time playtesting to identify and resolve as many bugs as possible.\nBeyond Alpha 3.15, time was spent discussing details about the in-development hacking gameplay, Pyro\u2019s space stations, and non-water-based oceans. A recording session to capture mission and public address system dialogue was also completed, and work continued with AI, Design, and Audio on new NPC behaviors.\n\u201cFor the lore lovers out there, September brought a whole host of new narrative posts to the website. This quarter\u2019s Loremakers: Community Questions went out with some tasty tidbits regarding military ranks. A book excerpt from Always Forward: A UEE Marine History, originally featured in Jump Point magazine, was released to non-subscribers. (For those of you who might not be aware, every month Subscribers receive a new issue of Jump Point magazine that features new lore, in-depth interviews, dives into design, and a delightful forward from editor Benjamin Lesnick. Definitely worth checking out!) We also released a deep dive into the new medical lore behind regeneration. Last but not least, a new batch of fascinating entries were added to the continually growing Galactapedia.\u201d Narrative Team\nQA\nQA\u2019s primary publishing focus was on preparation for the Alpha 3.15 cycle, specifically ensuring they have proper coverage for Evocati and wave one PTU.\nFor development, the team predominantly worked through QA Test Requests (QATR) as they arrived. Many needed significant testing as they included interconnected features that fundamentally change how the game is played.\nA new publishing checklist was created to manage the inevitable requests for daily publishes, and the team\u2019s training path was reworked to better align with wider development.\nFor embedded testing, the AI-based team focused on movement fixes for NPCs, which has far-reaching implications. They also tested turrets, targeting, and general functionality in response to player threats.\nFor the Engine team, support continued with minimum-spec PC stress testing along with continued PageHeap testing to catch memory leaks. Furthermore, automation training continued, with the aim to ultimately create automated test cases for different departments.\nQA also continued to support the Tools team with DataForge, StarWords, ExcelCore, CopyBuild, and the sandbox editor.\nSystemic Services & Tools\nThroughout September, Systemic Services & Tools (SST) continued to work on the economy, tools, and Quantum (the AI simulation). Edge cases were also wrapped up for easier use and recording.\nSST wrapped up some foundational adjustments to diffusion and how it communicates with the DGS in the form of adjustments to the DirectConnect DGS Thread Bridge. The service engineers are now working with their Gameplay Engineering counterparts on a new gameplay system \u201cfor the mercantilely minded player.\u201d\nWork continues in earnest on intelligent NPC spawning, with an impressive internal milestone hit by the team.\nFinally, in preparation for Alpha 3.15, new edge cases in the inventory system and backend services were addressed.\nTurbulent (Services)\nLast month, Turbulent\u2019s Live Tools team deployed a new launcher. This contains updated logic for the verify feature, extending the time of the warning message on game launch and updating bindings with a new loading sequence.\nThe Game Services team progressed with the discipline service, with most critical calls being delivered. The launcher and in-game work for this is done too, with the QA phase beginning soon. The team continued to refactor the entity graph and worked on the matchmaking service.\nThe Web team worked on pages for CitizenCon and IAE and created a new backend tool to improve the appearance and functionality of all website content.\nUI\nLast month, the UI team focused on performance improvements, optimizing some of the more costly areas of the user interface.\n\u201cWe made more progress on the underlying code work of the Starmap, and started to get some placeholder UI into development builds so we can really start playing around with it, as you will eventually!\u201d UI Team\nUI also worked on screens for the upcoming infiltrate and defend mission archetypes, and finished the screens for hospitals and the personal inventory.\nVehicle Tech\nVehicle Tech put the finishing touches on a Squadron 42-specific vehicle mechanic, with the aim of expanding it into the PU. Alongside this, bugs for Alpha 3.15 were fixed, and the groundwork for incorporating radar and scanning into FPS gameplay progressed. Some functional radar and scanning design changes are in the works too.\nMajor improvements in how players control doors and other room-related interactions (such as lights, atmosphere, and communication systems) are in the prototyping stages. The aim is to fully immerse players by allowing them to control their environment while exploring on foot.\n\u201cExpect more door control panel interactions to come soon!\u201d Vehicle Tech\nVFX\nVFX finished off their work on the new vehicle wakes, which was done alongside the Vehicle Feature team, and effects were completed for an unannounced ship.\nFinally, further development work was done on Theaters of War.\nWE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026","de_DE":"Der September war ein arbeitsreicher Monat f\u00fcr alle Teams bei Cloud Imperium. Neben den Vorbereitungen f\u00fcr die aufregende, komplett digitale CitizenCon im Oktober dieses Jahres wurden die letzten Handgriffe an vielen Funktionen der Alpha 3.15 vorgenommen und gro\u00dfe Fortschritte bei den Inhalten gemacht, die sp\u00e4ter im Jahr erscheinen werden.\n\nLies weiter, um alle Details zu erfahren, einschlie\u00dflich der neuesten Informationen \u00fcber das pers\u00f6nliche Inventar, verschiedene neue Schiffe, Pyro und Sprungpunkte.\n\nKI-Inhalte\nIm September beendete AI Content die Arbeit am neuen \"Arbeiter\"-Verhalten, mit dem die Designer den verschiedenen Umgebungen schnell Leben einhauchen werden. Dieses Verhalten wird viele alte Verhaltensweisen ersetzen, bis eine umgebungsspezifische KI hinzugef\u00fcgt wird. Au\u00dferdem wurde die Sicherheit \"T0\" f\u00fcr Au\u00dfenposten hinzugef\u00fcgt. Jetzt k\u00f6nnen NSCs auf ihren Patrouillen n\u00fctzliche Gegenst\u00e4nde finden und benutzen, wodurch sich ihre Routen glaubw\u00fcrdiger und weniger roboterhaft anf\u00fchlen. NSCs k\u00f6nnen auch Eing\u00e4nge bewachen, indem sie den Zutritt blockieren oder Ausweise kontrollieren.\nDer Barkeeper (Verk\u00e4ufer) wurde um neue \"Cafe\"-Usables erweitert, die es den Spielern erm\u00f6glichen, Getr\u00e4nke an Orten in der Area18 zu bestellen.\nDie im letzten Monat beschriebenen Verhaltensweisen der G\u00f6nner und Warenh\u00e4ndler wurden weiter ausgebaut, und die Krankenh\u00e4user in New Babbage und Orison wurden mit \u00c4rzten und Krankenschwestern ausgestattet. Die Arbeiten kommen gut voran, und Anfang n\u00e4chsten Monats findet ein QATR statt.\nKI-Funktion\nDas KI-Team hat weiter an den Wahrnehmungs\u00e4nderungen f\u00fcr Stealth gearbeitet und einen Mechanismus entwickelt, mit dem die Reichweite von Ger\u00e4uschereignissen wie Waffensch\u00fcssen, Geschosseinschl\u00e4gen, Schritten und Spr\u00fcngen angepasst werden kann. Au\u00dferdem wurde der Debug-Renderer so aktualisiert, dass er die Art des Ger\u00e4uschevents anzeigt, damit die Designer die Ger\u00e4usche identifizieren k\u00f6nnen, an denen sie gerade arbeiten.\nDas Combosystem wurde verbessert, um es datengesteuerter zu machen, damit die Designer\/innen schnell und einfach neue Combos hinzuf\u00fcgen k\u00f6nnen. Bisher wurden Combo-Angriffe in der Subsumptionslogik des Nahkampfverhaltens eingerichtet, indem mehrere Einzelangriffe aneinandergereiht wurden. Jetzt wird eine einzige Aufgabe \"Kombo-Angriff\" verwendet, um die Reaktionsf\u00e4higkeit zwischen den einzelnen Teilen der Kombo zu verbessern. Die KI-Features arbeiteten auch mit dem Actor-Team zusammen, um eine L\u00f6sung f\u00fcr die KI zu finden, die mit Nahkampfangriffen niedrige oder hohe Ziele trifft, indem sie die Drehung der Wirbels\u00e4ulenknochen nach oben und unten anpasst, um sich zum Ziel hin zu beugen.\nDie Bereinigung der Motion-Capture-Animationen f\u00fcr das Kauern, die Kapitulation, die Wahrnehmungsreaktionen und die Verwendung von unbewaffneter Deckung wurde ebenfalls fortgesetzt. Schlie\u00dflich hat das Team einige Probleme mit Schiffen behoben, die ein f\u00fchrendes Schiff verteidigten und beim Versuch, ein neues Ziel auszuw\u00e4hlen, in einer Schleife stecken blieben.\nKI-Technik\nIm letzten Monat konzentrierte sich das KI-Tech-Team auf die Optimierung verschiedener KI-Systeme, um die Leistung zu verbessern, einschlie\u00dflich des Verhaltens der Gesch\u00fctzt\u00fcrme.\nDer Schwerpunkt lag darauf, dass die 3D-Kollisionsvermeidung f\u00fcr KI-Schiffe in komplexen Szenen mit engen R\u00e4umen funktioniert, in denen Bounding Boxes f\u00fcr Hindernisse keine praktikable L\u00f6sung sind. Es gab eine Reihe von Aktualisierungen f\u00fcr Pfadfindung, Pfadausf\u00fchrung und Bewegung sowie weitere Fortschritte bei der Planetennavigation.\nF\u00fcr den Subsumption Editor wurde die Implementierung des Andocksystems abgeschlossen, wodurch die Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che umgestaltet werden kann.\nAu\u00dferdem wurden Bugs f\u00fcr Alpha 3.15 behoben und das Team schrieb weiter an der technischen Dokumentation zu KI-Systemen und Server-Meshing.\nAnimation\nDas Animationsteam verbrachte den September damit, die Verk\u00e4ufer zu verbessern. Dazu geh\u00f6rten das Hinzuf\u00fcgen von neuen Gegenst\u00e4nden und ortsabh\u00e4ngigen Objekten sowie \u00dcberg\u00e4nge, um ein noch lebensechteres Ergebnis zu erzielen. Au\u00dferdem wurde besprochen, wie man den emotionalen Zustand der Charaktere am besten implementieren kann, um ihnen im Leerlauf Leben einzuhauchen. Die Arbeit an den Verhaltensblockaden und Animationen f\u00fcr die G\u00e4ste wurde fortgesetzt - einige der Assets, die zuvor f\u00fcr die G\u00e4ste an den Bars gedreht wurden, werden nun implementiert, um den NSCs an den Bars und Theken mehr Leben einzuhauchen.\n\"Wir haben eine betr\u00e4chtliche Menge an neuen Leerlauf-Animationen f\u00fcr sitzende Charaktere eingebaut und arbeiten auf den Tag hin, an dem kein Charakter mehr wie eine Statue aussieht, sondern wie eine lebende, atmende Person. Einige dieser Animationen sind noch nicht vollst\u00e4ndig bearbeitet, aber wir wollten sie einbauen, damit wir das Ergebnis in der PTU und PU ausprobieren k\u00f6nnen.\" Animationsteam\nAuf der Spielerseite hat das Team damit begonnen, verschiedene Auswahl- und Abwahl-Assets zu \u00fcberarbeiten, damit sie in allen Situationen gut funktionieren, auch mit dem neuen Inventarsystem. Es wurden Verbesserungen an der Fortbewegung der Betrunkenen vorgenommen, die zusammen mit einem neuen Asset-Drop die Optik deutlich verbessern werden.\nKunst (Charaktere)\nIm letzten Monat hat Character Art die Assets f\u00fcr Alpha 3.15 und dar\u00fcber hinaus vorbereitet. Die Techniker haben au\u00dferdem zwei neue R\u00fcstungen fertiggestellt, die mit dem kommenden Patch eingef\u00fchrt werden und verschiedene Gameplay-Archetypen abrunden werden.\nF\u00fcr die Abonnenten wurden zwei neue Helme, die Ende des Jahres erscheinen sollen, modelliert und zum Skinning an die Tech Artists \u00fcbergeben. Diese werden mit Farbvarianten bestehender R\u00fcstungen gepaart, wie den neuen Helmen Star Kitty und Kabuki.\nAu\u00dferdem haben sie den letzten Schliff an den Preis-Assets f\u00fcr die vier Finalisten des Ship Showdowns vorgenommen.\nDie Charaktergestaltung wurde mit den Inhalten der Alpha 3.16 vorangetrieben, einschlie\u00dflich eines Textur-Updates f\u00fcr alle K\u00f6pfe des DNA-Archetyps. Dies wird die Qualit\u00e4t der Charakteranpassung und der NSC-K\u00f6pfe sowohl f\u00fcr PU als auch f\u00fcr SQ42 erheblich verbessern.\nF\u00fcr Pyro setzten die Konzeptk\u00fcnstler die Erstellung von Kost\u00fcmpaketen mit Kleidung im Frontier-Stil fort, die als Grundlage f\u00fcr die Kleidung des gesamten Systems dienen wird. Au\u00dferdem wurden mehrere R\u00fcstungen f\u00fcr die XenoThreat-Gang modelliert, wobei die CDS-R\u00fcstung als Grundlage diente.\nKunst (Schiffe)\nIn den USA hat das Schiffsteam die endg\u00fcltigen Entw\u00fcrfe f\u00fcr die Crusader Ares fertiggestellt. Dabei wurde der neue gro\u00dffl\u00e4chige Glow-Workflow in die Triebwerke implementiert, um die Beleuchtung zu verbessern. Au\u00dferdem wurde ein zweigeteiltes Materialsystem eingerichtet, das sowohl die ungepanzerten Ionen- als auch die gepanzerten Inferno-Zweige bei der Anwendung von T\u00f6nungen unterst\u00fctzt, so dass jede Version des Schiffes etwas anders aussehen wird.\n\nDer Drake Vulture befindet sich nun in der Greybox-Phase - das Innere ist nun fertig und das Team konzentriert sich auf die Fertigstellung des \u00c4u\u00dferen, einschlie\u00dflich der R\u00fcckgewinnungsarme, des Nasenschleifers, des Rumpfes, des Cockpits, des Fahrwerks und der Triebwerke. Au\u00dferdem haben sie eine klappbare Au\u00dfenleiter hinzugef\u00fcgt, \u00fcber die die Spieler\/innen vom Arm aus ins Cockpit gelangen k\u00f6nnen.\nEines der bereits erw\u00e4hnten unangek\u00fcndigten Schiffe befindet sich derzeit in der finalen Entwurfsphase, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf dem Polieren von Materialien und Gondeln liegt. Das Augenmerk liegt derzeit auf dynamischen Animationen, um den Spieler\/innen mehr Feedback zu geben, wenn das Schiff in Bewegung ist.\nEin weiteres Schiff, das im letzten Monatsbericht besprochen wurde, ist nun fertiggestellt. Das Team plant einen Durchgang zur Fehlerbehebung und bereitet sich auf die Einrichtung der endg\u00fcltigen Farbpalette vor.\nIn Gro\u00dfbritannien wurde ein unangek\u00fcndigtes Schiff in die Pipeline aufgenommen, w\u00e4hrend mehrere andere das Stadium der Fertigstellung erreichten. Die Aufgaben f\u00fcr die Crusader A2 Hercules wurden abgeschlossen, einschlie\u00dflich kleinerer Polierarbeiten und Fehlerbehebungen.\nDie kommenden MISC-Frachtschiffe kamen gut voran - an der H\u00fclle C wurden zahlreiche Details fertiggestellt, w\u00e4hrend sich die H\u00fclle A der Whitebox-\u00dcberpr\u00fcfung n\u00e4hert.\nAudio\nDas Audio-Team verbrachte den September damit, die im dritten Quartal gesetzten Ziele abzuschlie\u00dfen und die Vorbereitungen f\u00fcr verschiedene Events zu unterst\u00fctzen.\nIn Orison wurden die SFX und Dialoge f\u00fcr das Cousin Crow's und den Crusader Showroom fertiggestellt und das Ambiente aufpoliert, die Stimmen abgemischt und gemischt. Die Pl\u00e4ne f\u00fcr die Musik im Raumhafen von Orison schritten voran, und die Rastst\u00e4tte und das Krankenhaus von Grim HEX erhielten ihre letzten SFX- und Dialogdurchl\u00e4ufe.\n\"Die 'grausame Behandlung VO' ist ein besonderes Highlight f\u00fcr Grim HEX, da sie nun im Spiel implementiert ist. Audio-Team\nTech Sound Design und SFX arbeiteten gemeinsam an den Effekten f\u00fcr das Krankenbett und die Bombenabwurfstelle. Schlie\u00dflich arbeitete Audio an den SFX und Dialogen f\u00fcr IAE.\nCommunity\nDer Monat der Community begann mit der Unterst\u00fctzung des zur\u00fcckkehrenden XenoThreat-Events, einschlie\u00dflich der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung einer Infografik, die verschiedene Fakten und Zahlen enth\u00e4lt. Nach dem Event lud das Team die Unterst\u00fctzer zu einem AMA \u00fcber dynamische Events ein. Nach der Veranstaltung wurde ein Comm-Link gepostet, um die Zusammenfassung zu erleichtern.\nAu\u00dferhalb des Spiels unterst\u00fctzte das Team den j\u00e4hrlichen Ship Showdown Wettbewerb. In der ersten Phase war die Community aufgefordert, ihr Lieblingsschiff zu unterst\u00fctzen, indem sie eine originelle Kreation im Community Hub oder auf Twitter einreichte. Das Team belohnte die 10 Einsendungen, die es f\u00fcr besonders herausragend hielt, mit einem Origin 100i. In der zweiten Phase und im Finale unterst\u00fctzte die Community den begleitenden Free Fly und berichtete ausf\u00fchrlich \u00fcber die K.O.-Runden, aus denen schlie\u00dflich die Argo MPUV-1C als Gesamtsieger hervorging.\n\nZum Abschluss des Monats gab Community den Zeitplan f\u00fcr die diesj\u00e4hrige Digital CitizenCon und das Digital Goodies Pack bekannt, das alle Unterst\u00fctzer kostenlos erhalten werden.\nMotor\nIm August hat das Physik-Team den Backend-Code weiter optimiert, unter anderem f\u00fcr die Implementierung von Soft Bodies. Verschiedene Teile der relevanten Kollisionserkennungsroutinen wurden algorithmisch optimiert, indem ihre Bounding-Volumen-Darstellungen und die Hierarchie verbessert wurden. Auch das Laden und Erstellen der Softbody-Topologie, der Backcode und die Speicherverwaltung wurden verbessert.\nAu\u00dferdem werden Gel\u00e4ndemeshes jetzt so gekennzeichnet, dass sie ausschlie\u00dflich mit einem Raycast beschossen werden k\u00f6nnen und dass Meshes mit einem einzigen Raycast geb\u00fcndelt werden k\u00f6nnen. Au\u00dferdem werden kinematische Teile jetzt als g\u00fcltige bewegliche Bodenkollider f\u00fcr Actor-Entities verwendet.\nBeim Renderer wurde die Arbeit am globalen Draw Packet Cache fortgesetzt. Es wurde ein Mechanismus hinzugef\u00fcgt, um den Cache bei Bedarf neu zu erstellen. Die Logik wurde au\u00dferdem verfeinert, um zu verhindern, dass Zeichnungspakete mit identischen Argumenten unn\u00f6tig neu erstellt werden, was f\u00fcr Pinsel wichtig ist.\nAuf einer h\u00f6heren Ebene wird die Gen12-Renderschnittstelle jetzt f\u00fcr stat OBJs und Render-Proxys in der gesamten Engine verwendet, was einen weiteren Schritt beim \u00dcbergang zum neuen Renderparadigma darstellt. Auch am Shader-System wurden einige \u00c4nderungen vorgenommen: Die Initialisierung des Shader-Parsers wurde vereinfacht und der Benutzer-Cache wurde in den APPDATA-Ordner des Fensters verschoben. Dies wird nach der Alpha 3.15 eingef\u00fchrt und sollte ein langj\u00e4hriges Problem f\u00fcr einige Nutzer\/innen beheben. Au\u00dferdem gab es verschiedene \u00c4nderungen, um den Code zu \u00fcberarbeiten und auf Gen12 umzustellen.\nDer Stepping-Code f\u00fcr lokale Wolkenschatten wurde verfeinert, damit er von den K\u00fcnstlern leichter zu kontrollieren ist, und so optimiert, dass er nur bei Bedarf ausgewertet wird. Neben dem Eigenschatten werfen die Wolken nun auch ihren Schatten auf die gesamte Szene, was f\u00fcr die korrekte Szenenintegration wichtig ist, wenn das Team beginnt, sie auch auf Planeten zu verwenden. Au\u00dferdem wurde das Rendering der Wolkenr\u00e4nder verbessert und den K\u00fcnstlern wurden Parameter zur Verf\u00fcgung gestellt, um ihnen ein volumetrischeres Aussehen zu verleihen.\nAuf der Seite der Core-Engine wurde dem P4K-System die Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr den Zugriff auf APPDATA hinzugef\u00fcgt. Das Team hat vor, nicht nur den Shader-Cache-Ordner dort zu speichern, sondern auch alle tempor\u00e4ren Dateien des Spielclients dorthin zu verschieben. Das P4K-Dateisystem wurde au\u00dferdem verbessert, damit es mit Unicode-Pfaden richtig umgehen kann.\nDie Arbeit am System zur Leistungsreduzierung wurde mit zahlreichen unterst\u00fctzenden \u00c4nderungen wieder aufgenommen, da es f\u00fcr den t\u00e4glichen Fortschritt und die Stabilit\u00e4t der Entwicklung immer wichtiger wird.\nDas Team unterst\u00fctzte auch das Server-Meshing, indem es den Code entkoppelte, damit er als eigenst\u00e4ndiger Dienst laufen kann. Das Team konzentrierte sich auch mehr auf die Optimierung, indem es bestimmte Spielszenarien h\u00e4ufig analysierte, berichtete und aktualisierte. Dies brachte verschiedene Verbesserungen mit sich, die nach der Alpha 3.15 ausgerollt werden. Zum Beispiel wurde das Aufwecken von Entit\u00e4tskomponenten verbessert, indem die Komponenten eine Zeit lang aktiv gehalten wurden. Der Server Object Container Streaming Code wurde stark optimiert und die Speicherzuweisung bei der Verwendung von CigFunction (Lambdas) wurde verbessert. Es gab auch verschiedene andere \u00c4nderungen, wie z. B. die Verlagerung von GPU-Pufferaktualisierungen zur Laufzeit in Hintergrund-Threads.\nSchlie\u00dflich wurde der Code der Engine weiter bereinigt, um die Unterst\u00fctzung von Legacy-Code f\u00fcr Konsolen der letzten Generation zu entfernen, und die Kernspeicherzuweisungen wurden angepasst, um den Entwicklern zu Debugging-Zwecken mehr Kontrolle \u00fcber das Speicherlayout zu geben.\nFeatures (Charaktere & Waffen)\nDas Feature-Team konzentrierte sich weiterhin auf die Behebung von Fehlern und die Verbesserung der Lebensqualit\u00e4t f\u00fcr die neuen Funktionen Spielerinventar und Akteursstatus. Vor allem das Inventar lief langsamer als bei den internen Spieltests erwartet, daher wurden erhebliche Anstrengungen unternommen, um es so schnell wie m\u00f6glich zu machen. Das Filtern von Gegenst\u00e4nden steht ganz oben auf der Liste der Qualit\u00e4tsverbesserungen.\nDas Greycat Multi-Tool ist jetzt die erste Waffe\/ das erste Gadget mit zwei Arten von Nachladevorg\u00e4ngen - einer f\u00fcr die Ampulle des Heilungsaufsatzes und einer f\u00fcr seine Batterie. Das bedeutet, dass der Nutzer zwei verschiedene Ressourcen verwalten muss, um das Beste aus ihm herauszuholen.\nDie erste Iteration der neuen Logik, die der Zustandsmaschine f\u00fcr die Akteurssteuerung zugrunde liegt, wurde diesen Monat getestet. Diese Logik wurde speziell auf der Grundlage des alten Zustandsautomaten entwickelt und sollte mit der Gr\u00f6\u00dfe und Komplexit\u00e4t des Projekts deutlich besser skalieren. Au\u00dferdem bietet sie bessere Debugging-Tools, die die Zeit f\u00fcr das Finden und Beheben von Fehlern verk\u00fcrzen.\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nIm Bereich Gameplay-Features wurde die Unterst\u00fctzung lokaler Inventare fortgesetzt und die NikNax-App f\u00fcr die Alpha 3.15 vorbereitet, wobei die Fehlerbehebung und der Feinschliff der Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che die meiste Zeit des Teams in Anspruch nahmen.\nAu\u00dferdem unterst\u00fctzten sie verschiedene Missionsteams bei der Anbindung von Inhalten an das Rufsystem, richteten L\u00e4den und Barkeeper in Orison ein und bereiteten sich auf die IAE vor.\nAu\u00dferdem wurde mit der Arbeit an der M\u00f6glichkeit begonnen, Gegenst\u00e4nde in L\u00e4den zu verkaufen, die zuk\u00fcnftige \u00dcberarbeitung der Fracht und Jumptown v2.\nFeatures (Fahrzeuge)\nIm September hat das Team f\u00fcr Fahrzeug-Features Fortschritte bei den Sprungpunkten gemacht und das Party-Springen deutlich verbessert. Au\u00dferdem entwickelte das Team neue Animationstechniken f\u00fcr den Rumpf C weiter und unterst\u00fctzte die VFX mit Verbesserungen an den Bodeneffekten. Die restliche Zeit wurde f\u00fcr die Verbesserung der Schiffsdaten verwendet, um die Entwicklungsprozesse weiter zu unterst\u00fctzen.\nVehicle Experience testete die Bombardierungsmechanik in der Qualit\u00e4tssicherung, nachdem sie im letzten Monat erfolgreich \u00fcberarbeitet worden war. Sie befinden sich jetzt in der letzten Fehlerbehebungs- und Optimierungsphase vor der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung und warten auf das Feedback aus den Evocati- und PTU-Phasen.\nEs wurden auch Verbesserungen an den Gesch\u00fctzt\u00fcrmen f\u00fcr eine zuk\u00fcnftige Ver\u00f6ffentlichung vorgenommen und Experimente zur Raketenabstimmung und -balance im gesamten Spiel durchgef\u00fchrt. Das Team pr\u00fcft au\u00dferdem, wie die Operator-Modi weiter ausgebaut werden k\u00f6nnen.\nVehicle Features bereitete au\u00dferdem die Schiffsreleases der Alpha 3.15 vor, unterst\u00fctzte Actor Features mit dem Rauschmodus f\u00fcr Piloten und Fahrer und schloss allgemeine Fehlerbehebungen und Verbesserungen ab.\nGrafik & VFX-Programmierung\nDas Grafikteam nahm weitere Leistungsverbesserungen am Renderprofil sowie Optimierungen an Post-Effekten (Tiefensch\u00e4rfe und Bewegungsunsch\u00e4rfe), Terrain-Rendering und Nebel vor, um die gleiche Leistung bei h\u00f6heren Aufl\u00f6sungen zu erhalten.\nDar\u00fcber hinaus wurde der Wassershader verbessert. Diese \u00c4nderungen erm\u00f6glichen es, dass die Schattierung auf den verf\u00fcgbaren Kachelbeleuchtungsdaten und nicht auf der n\u00e4chstgelegenen Umgebungssonde basiert, um eine konsistentere Beleuchtung in Szenen mit Wasservolumen zu schaffen. Au\u00dferdem wurde die Beleuchtung von Wasservolumina so ge\u00e4ndert, dass volumetrische Faktoren wie Wolken und Nebel ber\u00fccksichtigt werden, wodurch fr\u00fchere Probleme vermieden werden, bei denen Wasservolumina lokale Nebelvolumina beim Shading ignorierten.\nAu\u00dferdem haben sie das Render-to-Texture-Refactoring vorangetrieben, indem sie Region Copy f\u00fcr statische RTTOs implementiert haben, um den vorhandenen Inhalt wiederzuverwenden, anstatt ihn neu zu rendern. Das erh\u00f6ht die Leistung und spart den Verbrauch von Scene-Passes. Au\u00dferdem wurde der Algorithmus zum Packen des RTT-Atlas neu geschrieben, um die neue Funktion zum Kopieren von Regionen zu unterst\u00fctzen, wodurch er robuster und einfacher zu warten ist.\nSchlie\u00dflich untersuchte Graphics die Validierungsfehler und sammelte die erfassten analytischen Vulkan-Informationen f\u00fcr zuk\u00fcnftige Erweiterungen.\nBeleuchtung\nDas Beleuchtungsteam polierte und optimierte die neuen L\u00e4den von Orison: Cousin Crow's, Providence Surplus und den Crusader Showroom.\n\"Wir haben uns viel M\u00fche gegeben, um sicherzustellen, dass diese neuen L\u00e4den thematisch zum Stil von Orison passen, aber auch, dass jeder Laden einen eigenen Stil und eine eigene Note hat. Um die neuen Standorte zu unterst\u00fctzen, haben wir die Beleuchtung f\u00fcr ihre jeweiligen Plattformen weiter optimiert.\" Beleuchtungsteam\nAu\u00dferdem wurde die Fertigstellung der Krankenh\u00e4user und Kliniken fortgesetzt, wobei das Feedback der Art Directors umgesetzt und visuelle Fehler behoben wurden.\nDie Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr die Kolonialismus-Au\u00dfenposten wurde fortgesetzt, wobei die Beleuchtungs\u00fcberg\u00e4nge f\u00fcr alle aktuellen Module und Komponenten fast abgeschlossen sind. Die Optimierungs- und Polierarbeiten werden fortgesetzt, und es wurde eine neue dynamische Beleuchtung hinzugef\u00fcgt, um das Schleusensystem zu unterst\u00fctzen.\nNarrative\nW\u00e4hrend die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung der Alpha 3.15 n\u00e4her r\u00fcckt, wurde an der Narrative gearbeitet, um sicherzustellen, dass alle finalen Elemente und letzten Details vor der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung vorhanden sind. Dazu geh\u00f6rten auch die Hinweise, die zur Unterst\u00fctzung der neuen Gameplay-Funktionen hinzugef\u00fcgt wurden, und die Tagebucheintr\u00e4ge, die helfen, einige der komplexeren Systeme zu erkl\u00e4ren. F\u00fcr NikNax passte das Team die Namen und Werte von Gegenst\u00e4nden an und \u00e4nderte insbesondere alle R\u00fcstungskapazit\u00e4ten von Speicherpunkten (SP) in microSCU (\u00b5SCU).\nDie Delphi-Ruf-App wurde ebenfalls \u00fcberarbeitet, um sicherzustellen, dass alles so klar wie m\u00f6glich ist, da Organisationen nun mehrere Bereiche haben k\u00f6nnen, in denen Spieler\/innen R\u00e4nge verdienen k\u00f6nnen. Das Team verbrachte auch viel Zeit mit Playtests, um so viele Bugs wie m\u00f6glich zu identifizieren und zu beheben.\n\u00dcber die Alpha 3.15 hinaus wurde Zeit damit verbracht, Details \u00fcber das in der Entwicklung befindliche Hacking-Gameplay, die Raumstationen von Pyro und die nicht wasserbasierten Ozeane zu besprechen. Au\u00dferdem wurde eine Aufnahmesitzung zur Aufnahme der Dialoge in den Missionen und im Lautsprechersystem durchgef\u00fchrt und die Arbeit mit KI, Design und Audio an neuen NSC-Verhaltensweisen fortgesetzt.\n\"F\u00fcr die Geschichtenliebhaber unter euch gab es im September eine ganze Reihe neuer Beitr\u00e4ge auf der Website. Die Loremakers dieses Quartals: Community Questions\" wurde mit einigen Leckerbissen \u00fcber milit\u00e4rische R\u00e4nge ver\u00f6ffentlicht. Ein Buchauszug aus Always Forward: A UEE Marine History, der urspr\u00fcnglich im Jump Point Magazin erschienen ist, wurde f\u00fcr Nicht-Abonnenten ver\u00f6ffentlicht. (Abonnenten erhalten jeden Monat eine neue Ausgabe des Jump Point Magazins mit neuen Geschichten, ausf\u00fchrlichen Interviews, Einblicken in das Design und einem sch\u00f6nen Vorwort von Redakteur Benjamin Lesnick. Es lohnt sich auf jeden Fall, es zu lesen). Au\u00dferdem haben wir einen tiefen Einblick in die neue medizinische Geschichte der Regeneration gegeben. Und nicht zuletzt wurden der st\u00e4ndig wachsenden Galactapedia neue faszinierende Eintr\u00e4ge hinzugef\u00fcgt.\" Narrative Team\nQA\nDer Hauptfokus des QA-Teams lag auf den Vorbereitungen f\u00fcr den Alpha 3.15-Zyklus, insbesondere auf der Sicherstellung einer angemessenen Abdeckung f\u00fcr Evocati und Welle 1 PTU.\nF\u00fcr die Entwicklung arbeitete das Team vor allem QA Test Requests (QATR) ab, sobald sie eintrafen. Viele davon erforderten umfangreiche Tests, da sie miteinander verbundene Funktionen enthielten, die das Spiel grundlegend ver\u00e4ndern.\nEs wurde eine neue Ver\u00f6ffentlichungs-Checkliste erstellt, um die unvermeidlichen Anfragen f\u00fcr t\u00e4gliche Ver\u00f6ffentlichungen zu bew\u00e4ltigen, und der Ausbildungsweg des Teams wurde \u00fcberarbeitet, um ihn besser mit der allgemeinen Entwicklung abzustimmen.\nBei den eingebetteten Tests konzentrierte sich das KI-basierte Team auf die Verbesserung der Bewegungen von NSCs, was weitreichende Auswirkungen hat. Au\u00dferdem wurden Gesch\u00fctzt\u00fcrme, das Zielen und die allgemeine Funktionalit\u00e4t als Reaktion auf Spielerbedrohungen getestet.\nDas Engine-Team setzte die Stresstests f\u00fcr PCs mit minimalen Anforderungen fort und f\u00fchrte die PageHeap-Tests fort, um Speicherlecks zu finden. Au\u00dferdem wurden die Automatisierungsschulungen fortgesetzt, mit dem Ziel, automatisierte Testf\u00e4lle f\u00fcr verschiedene Abteilungen zu erstellen.\nAu\u00dferdem unterst\u00fctzte die QA das Tools-Team weiterhin mit DataForge, StarWords, ExcelCore, CopyBuild und dem Sandbox-Editor.\nSystemische Dienste & Tools\nIm September hat Systemic Services & Tools (SST) weiter an der Wirtschaft, den Tools und Quantum (der KI-Simulation) gearbeitet. Au\u00dferdem wurden Edge Cases f\u00fcr eine einfachere Nutzung und Aufzeichnung \u00fcberarbeitet.\nSST schloss einige grundlegende Anpassungen an der Diffusion und der Kommunikation mit dem DGS in Form von Anpassungen an der DirectConnect DGS Thread Bridge ab. Die Service-Ingenieure arbeiten jetzt zusammen mit ihren Kollegen aus dem Gameplay Engineering an einem neuen Spielsystem \"f\u00fcr den kaufm\u00e4nnisch orientierten Spieler\".\nDie Arbeit am intelligenten NPC-Spawning geht weiter, und das Team hat einen beeindruckenden internen Meilenstein erreicht.\nIn Vorbereitung auf die Alpha 3.15 wurden neue Probleme im Inventarsystem und den Backend-Diensten behoben.\nTurbulent (Dienstleistungen)\nLetzten Monat hat das Live-Tools-Team von Turbulent einen neuen Launcher bereitgestellt. Dieser enth\u00e4lt eine aktualisierte Logik f\u00fcr die Verifizierungsfunktion, verl\u00e4ngert die Zeit der Warnmeldung beim Spielstart und aktualisiert die Bindungen mit einer neuen Ladesequenz.\nDas Team der Game Services hat den Disziplinierungsdienst weiterentwickelt und die meisten kritischen Aufforderungen erf\u00fcllt. Die Arbeiten am Launcher und im Spiel sind ebenfalls abgeschlossen, und die QA-Phase beginnt bald. Das Team setzte die \u00dcberarbeitung des Entit\u00e4tsgraphen fort und arbeitete an dem Matchmaking-Dienst.\nDas Webteam hat an den Seiten f\u00fcr CitizenCon und IAE gearbeitet und ein neues Backend-Tool entwickelt, um das Aussehen und die Funktionalit\u00e4t aller Website-Inhalte zu verbessern.\nUI\nIm letzten Monat konzentrierte sich das UI-Team auf Leistungsverbesserungen und optimierte einige der kostspieligeren Bereiche der Benutzeroberfl\u00e4che.\n\"Wir haben weitere Fortschritte bei der Arbeit am zugrunde liegenden Code der Starmap gemacht und damit begonnen, einige Platzhalter-UI in die Entwicklungs-Builds zu bringen, damit wir wirklich anfangen k\u00f6nnen, damit herumzuspielen, so wie du es schlie\u00dflich auch tun wirst!\" UI-Team\nDas UI-Team hat au\u00dferdem an den Bildschirmen f\u00fcr die kommenden Missionsarchetypen Infiltrieren und Verteidigen gearbeitet und die Bildschirme f\u00fcr Krankenh\u00e4user und das pers\u00f6nliche Inventar fertiggestellt.\nFahrzeugtechnik\nDie Fahrzeugtechnik hat einer Squadron 42-spezifischen Fahrzeugmechanik den letzten Schliff gegeben, mit dem Ziel, sie im PU zu erweitern. Au\u00dferdem wurden Bugs f\u00fcr Alpha 3.15 behoben und die Grundlagen f\u00fcr die Integration von Radar und Scanning in das FPS-Gameplay geschaffen. Einige funktionale \u00c4nderungen am Radar- und Scanning-Design sind ebenfalls in Arbeit.\nWichtige Verbesserungen bei der Steuerung von T\u00fcren und anderen raumbezogenen Interaktionen (z. B. Licht, Atmosph\u00e4re und Kommunikationssysteme) befinden sich in der Prototyping-Phase. Das Ziel ist es, dass die Spieler\/innen ihre Umgebung selbst steuern k\u00f6nnen, w\u00e4hrend sie zu Fu\u00df unterwegs sind.\n\"Erwarte, dass es bald mehr Interaktionen mit dem T\u00fcrbedienfeld geben wird! Fahrzeugtechnik\nVFX\nVFX beendete die Arbeit an den neuen Fahrzeug-Wakes, die zusammen mit dem Vehicle Feature Team durchgef\u00fchrt wurde, und die Effekte f\u00fcr ein noch nicht angek\u00fcndigtes Schiff wurden fertiggestellt.\nAu\u00dferdem wurde die Entwicklungsarbeit an den Kriegsschaupl\u00e4tzen fortgesetzt.\nWIR SEHEN UNS N\u00c4CHSTEN MONAT WIEDER...","zh_CN":"September was a busy month for all teams at Cloud Imperium. Alongside preparing for the excitement of this October\u2019s all-digital CitizenCon, the final touches were added to many features coming in Alpha 3.15, and great progress was made on content coming later in the year.\n\nRead on for all the details, including the latest on the Personal Inventory, various news ships, Pyro, and jump points.\n\n\nAI Content\nIn September, AI Content concluded their work on the new \u2018worker\u2019 behavior, which the designers will use to quickly add life to various environments. This will replace many legacy behaviors until environment-specific AI is added. They also added security \u2018T0\u2019 to outposts. Now, NPCs can find and use usables on their patrols, making their routes feel more believable and less robotic. NPCs can guard entrances by blocking entry or checking IDs too.\nThe bartender (vendor) was expanded with new \u2018cafe\u2019 usables to allow players to order soft drinks at locations in Area18.\nProgress continued on the patron and goods dealer behaviors detailed last month, and doctors and nurses were to New Babbage and Orison\u2019s hospitals. These are progressing well, with a QATR taking place early next month.\nAI Feature\nThe AI Feature team continued to work on perception changes for stealth, including creating a mechanism to tweak the ranges of sound events like weapons firing, bullet impact, footsteps, and vaulting. They also updated the debug renderer to show the type of sound event, enabling designers to identify the sound events they\u2019re working on.\nProgress was made on melee combat, improving the combo system to make it more data-driven so that designers can add new combos quickly and easily. Previously, combo attacks were set up in the Subsumption logic of the melee attack behavior, stringing together multiple single attack tasks. Now a single \u2018combo attack\u2019 task is used to improve responsiveness between the parts of the combo. AI Features also worked with the Actor team to come up with a solution for the AI hitting low or high targets with melee attacks, adjusting the spine bones\u2019 rotation up and down to bend towards the target.\nThe clean-up of motion capture animation assets for cowering, surrendering, perception reactions, and unarmed cover usage continued too. Finally, the team fixed some issues with ships defending a lead ship getting stuck in a loop trying to select a new target.\nAI Tech\nLast month, the AI Tech team focused on optimizing several AI systems to improve performance, including turret behavior.\nFocus was given to making 3D collision avoidance for AI Ships work in complex scenes with narrow spaces where bounding boxes for obstacles aren\u2019t a viable solution. There was a variety of updates to pathing, pathfinding, path execution, and movement alongside continued progress on planetary navigation too.\nFor the Subsumption Editor, they finished implementing the docking system, which will enable them to reorganize the UI.\nBugs were also fixed for Alpha 3.15, and the team continued to write technical documentation related to AI systems and server meshing.\nAnimation\nThe Animation team spent September improving vendors, including adding new items and location-based assets and transitions to give a more life-like result. They also discussed how to best implement emotional state idles to characters to give them life when idling. Work on behavior blockouts and animations for the patron continued \u2013 some of the assets previously shot for patrons sitting at bars is being implemented to give a more robust feel to NPCs at bars and counters.\n\u201cWe dropped in a considerable amount of new idle animations for characters sitting, and are working towards the day when no character looks like a statue but rather a living, breathing person. Some of these animations have not been fully edited yet, but we wanted to get them in so we can feel out the results in the PTU and PU.\u201d Animation Team\nOn the player side, the team began reworking various select and deselect asset sets so that they work well in all instances, including with the new inventory system. Improvements were made to drunk locomotion that will, alongside a new asset drop, significantly improve the visuals.\nArt (Characters)\nLast month, Character Art prepared assets for Alpha 3.15, and beyond. The tech artists also finished skinning two new armors debuting in the coming patch that will help fill out various gameplay archetypes.\nFor Subscribers, two new helmets scheduled for release at the end of the year were modeled and passed to tech art for skinning. These will be paired with color variants of existing armors, like the recent Star Kitty and Kabuki helmets.\nThey also put the finishing touches on the prize assets based on the Ship Showdown\u2019s final four.\nCharacter Art progressed with Alpha 3.16 content, including a texture update pass on all DNA archetype heads. This will massively improve the quality of the Character Customizer and NPC heads for both the PU and SQ42.\nFor Pyro, the concept artists continued creating costume packs of the frontier-style clothing that will serve as the basis of clothing for the whole system. Multiple armors were also modeled for the XenoThreat gang using the CDS armor as a base.\nArt (Ships)\nIn the US, the Ship team completed final art for the Crusader Ares, which involved implementing the new large-scale glow workflow into the thrusters for improved lighting. They also set up a bifurcated material system to support both the non-armored Ion and armored Inferno branches when applying tints, so each version of the ship will appear slightly differently.\n\nThe Drake Vulture moved into the greybox stage \u2013 the interior is now completed, and the team are focusing on finishing the exterior, including the reclamation arms, nose grinder, body, cockpit, landing gear, and thrusters. They also added a collapsible exterior ladder to allow players to access the cockpit from the arm.\nOne of the previously mentioned unannounced ships is currently in the final art phase, with a focus on polishing materials and nacelles. Attention is currently directed at dynamic animations to give players more feedback when the ship is in motion.\nAnother ship discussed in the last month\u2019s report is now art complete. The team is planning a bug-fixing pass and preparing to set up the final tint range.\nIn the UK, an unannounced ship moved down the pipeline while several others reached the final-art stage. Tasks for the Crusader A2 Hercules were closed out, including minor polishing and bug fixing.\nThe upcoming MISC cargo ships progressed well \u2013 the Hull C had numerous details finalized, while the Hull A is approaching its whitebox review.\nAudio\nThe Audio team spent September closing out goals set in Q3 and supporting the build-up to various events.\nOrison had a final push, with the SFX and dialogue for Cousin Crow\u2019s and the Crusader Showroom completed alongside an ambiance polish, VO tours, and mixing. Plans for Orison Spaceport\u2019s music progressed, and the rest stop and Grim HEX hospital locations received their final SFX and dialogue passes.\n\u201cThe \u2018gruesome treatment VO\u2019 is a particular highlight for Grim HEX now it\u2019s implemented in-game.\u201d Audio Team\nTech Sound Design and SFX worked together to add effects to the medical bed and bomb delivery UI. Finally, Audio worked on SFX and dialogue for IAE.\nCommunity\nCommunity\u2019s month began supporting the returning XenoThreat event, including publishing an infographic detailing various facts and figures. After the event, the team invited the backers to an AMA on dynamic events. Once complete, they posted a comm-link to make it easier to recap.\nOutside the game, the team supported the annual Ship Showdown competition. During phase one, the community was challenged to support their favorite craft by submitting an original creation to the Community Hub or Twitter, with the team rewarding the 10 submissions they felt were particularly outstanding with an Origin 100i. During phase two and the finals, Community supported the accompanying Free Fly and detailed the knockout rounds that ultimately crowned the Argo MPUV-1C as the overall winner.\n\n\nCommunity closed out the month announcing this year\u2019s Digital CitizenCon schedule and the Digital Goodies Pack that all backers will receive for free.\nEngine\nIn August, the Physics team continued to optimize backend code, including for soft body implementation. Various parts of relevant collision detection routines were optimized algorithmically by improving their bounding volume representations and hierarchy. Soft body topology loading and building, baking code, and memory management were improved too.\nAdditionally, terrain meshes are now flagged so that they can be exclusively raycast against along with allowing meshes to cluster with a single raycast. Moreover, kinematic parts are now used as valid moving ground colliders on actor entities.\nFor the renderer, work continued on the global draw packet cache. A mechanism was added to rebuild the cache when necessary. Its logic was also refined to prevent the unnecessary recreation of draw packets with identical arguments, which is important for brushes.\nOn a higher level, the Gen12 render interface is now used for stat OBJs and render proxies throughout the engine, which marks another step in the transition to the new render paradigm. The shader system saw several changes too \u2013 shader parser initialization was streamlined, and the user cache was moved to the \u2018Window\u2019s APPDATA folder\u2019. This will be rolled out post Alpha 3.15 and should fix a long-standing issue for some users. There were also various changes to refactor and transition code to Gen12.\nRegarding atmosphere and volumetric clouds, there have been various improvements to cloud shadows. The stepping code for local cloud shadows has been refined to be easier to control by artists as well as optimized so that it\u2019s not evaluated unless necessary. Aside from self-shadowing, clouds now also cast their shadows onto the entire scene which has become important for proper scene integration as the team start to use them on planets as well. Additionally, work to improve the rendering of cloud edges has been completed, and parameters exposed to artists, to give them a more volumetric look. Research went into various topics: 1) a quick prototype for better rendering of rain clouds was implemented, 2) integration of cloud shadows into the atmosphere has been implemented (among other things will allow for light shafts from clouds), and 3) because of these shadows in the atmosphere a prototype for improved rendering of multi scattering in clouds and atmosphere was implemented. It acknowledges the presence of clouds in the atmosphere when it comes to indirect lighting and will help shading clouds (brighter, more natural white tones in shadows) as well as the ambiance of overcast skies on ground (less hazy and blueish \u2013 in case of earth like planets). These research items are still WIP and will hopefully mature enough to be shipped in the coming months with other improvements to rendering quality and performance.\nOn the core engine side, support for \u2018APPDATA\u2019 access was added to the P4K system. Aside from now storing the user shader cache folder there, the team plan to eventually move all temporary game-client files to this new location. The P4K file system was also improved to properly deal with Unicode paths.\nWork on the performance regression system picked up again with numerous supporting changes, as it\u2019s becoming important to daily progress and development stability.\nThe team also supported server meshing by decoupling code so that it can run as a standalone service. They started focusing more on optimization too, with certain game scenarios frequently analyzed, reported, and updated. This brought various improvements that will be rolled out post Alpha 3.15. For example, entity-component wakeup was improved by keeping components active for some time. Server Object Container Streaming code was heavily optimized, and memory allocation when using CigFunction (lambdas) was improved. There were various other amends too, such as moving runtime GPU buffer updates to background threads.\n\nFeatures (Characters & Weapons)\nThe Feature team continued focusing on bug fixing and quality-of-life improvements for the new Player Inventory and Actor Status features. In particular, the inventory was running slower than experienced on internal playtests, so significant effort was put into making it more responsive wherever possible. Item filtering is at the top of the list of quality-of-life improvements.\nThe Greycat Multi-Tool is now the first weapon\/gadget with two types of reloading action \u2013 one for the healing attachment vial and one for its battery. This means the user has to manage two different resources to get the best from it.\nThe first iteration of the new underlying logic for the actor-control state machine began testing this month. This logic is purpose-built based on the use of the old state machine and should scale significantly better with project size and complexity. It will also offer better debugging tools, reducing the time it takes to find and fix bugs.\nFeatures (Gameplay)\nGameplay Features continued supporting local inventories and getting the NikNax app ready for Alpha 3.15, with bug fixing and UI polishing taking a majority of the team\u2019s time.\nThey also supported various mission teams in connecting content to the reputation system, set up shops and bartenders in Orison, and prepared for IAE.\nLooking further ahead, work began on allowing items to be sold at shops, the future cargo rework, and Jumptown v2.\nFeatures (Vehicles)\nSeptember saw the Vehicle Feature team progress with jump points, significantly progressing with party jumping. In addition, the team further developed new animation techniques for the Hull C, and supported VFX with improvements to ground effects. The remaining time was spent on ship data debug improvements to further support development processes.\nVehicle Experience tested the bombing mechanic in QA after a successful review and polish period last month. They\u2019re now in the final bug-fixing and optimization stage leading up to release and are awaiting feedback from the Evocati and PTU phases.\nImprovements were also made to turrets for a future release, and experiments were done on missile tuning and balance across the game. The team are also exploring how to further build on operator modes.\nVehicle Features also prepared for Alpha 3.15\u2019s ship releases, supported Actor Features with the intoxication mode for piloting and driving, completed general bug fixing and improvements.\nGraphics & VFX Programming\nThe Graphics team made further performance improvements to the render profile as well as optimizations to post effects (depth of field and motion blur), terrain rendering, and fog to maintain the same performance at higher resolutions.\nAlongside this, they improved the water shader. These changes allow shading to be based on available tiled-lighting data rather than the nearest environment probe to create more consistent lighting in scenes involving water volumes. They also changed water volume lighting to take into account volumetrics, such as clouds and fog, avoiding previous issues where water volumes would ignore local fog volumes when shading.\nThey also progressed on the render-to-texture refactor by implementing region copy for static RTTOs to reuse the existing content instead of re-rendering it. This will ultimately increase performance and save on scene pass usage. They also re-wrote the RTT atlas packing algorithm to support the new region copy feature, making it more robust and easier to maintain.\nFinally, Graphics looked into validation errors and collated captured Vulkan analytical information for future extensions.\nLighting\nThe Lighting team polished and optimized Orison\u2019s new shops; Cousin Crow\u2019s, Providence Surplus, and the Crusader Showroom.\n\n\n\n\u201cA lot of effort went into ensuring these new locations thematically fit within the style of Orison but that each has a unique style and flavor. To help support the addition of these locations, we made further lighting optimization work around their respective platforms.\u201d Lighting Team\nThey also continued to finalize the upcoming hospitals and clinics, implementing feedback from the art directors and fixing visual bugs.\nSupport continued for colonialism outposts, with lighting passes almost complete on all current modules and components. Optimization and polish work is ongoing and new dynamic lighting was added to support airlock cycling.\nNarrative\nAs the release of Alpha 3.15 draws closer, Narrative worked to ensure all final elements and last details are in place before it goes live. This included a pass of the hints added in support of the new gameplay features and journal entries to help explain some of the more complex systems. For NikNax, the team adjusted item names and stats, specifically changing all armor capacity amounts from Storage Points (SP) to microSCU (\u00b5SCU).\nThe Delphi reputation app also received attention to ensure everything is as clear as possible now that organizations can have multiple scopes for players to earn ranks in. The team also spent time playtesting to identify and resolve as many bugs as possible.\nBeyond Alpha 3.15, time was spent discussing details about the in-development hacking gameplay, Pyro\u2019s space stations, and non-water-based oceans. A recording session to capture mission and public address system dialogue was also completed, and work continued with AI, Design, and Audio on new NPC behaviors.\n\u201cFor the lore lovers out there, September brought a whole host of new narrative posts to the website. This quarter\u2019s Loremakers: Community Questions went out with some tasty tidbits regarding military ranks. A book excerpt from Always Forward: A UEE Marine History, originally featured in Jump Point magazine, was released to non-subscribers. (For those of you who might not be aware, every month Subscribers receive a new issue of Jump Point magazine that features new lore, in-depth interviews, dives into design, and a delightful forward from editor Benjamin Lesnick. Definitely worth checking out!) We also released a deep dive into the new medical lore behind regeneration. Last but not least, a new batch of fascinating entries were added to the continually growing Galactapedia.\u201d Narrative Team\nQA\nQA\u2019s primary publishing focus was on preparation for the Alpha 3.15 cycle, specifically ensuring they have proper coverage for Evocati and wave one PTU.\nFor development, the team predominantly worked through QA Test Requests (QATR) as they arrived. Many needed significant testing as they included interconnected features that fundamentally change how the game is played.\nA new publishing checklist was created to manage the inevitable requests for daily publishes, and the team\u2019s training path was reworked to better align with wider development.\nFor embedded testing, the AI-based team focused on movement fixes for NPCs, which has far-reaching implications. They also tested turrets, targeting, and general functionality in response to player threats.\nFor the Engine team, support continued with minimum-spec PC stress testing along with continued PageHeap testing to catch memory leaks. Furthermore, automation training continued, with the aim to ultimately create automated test cases for different departments.\nQA also continued to support the Tools team with DataForge, StarWords, ExcelCore, CopyBuild, and the sandbox editor.\nSystemic Services & Tools\nThroughout September, Systemic Services & Tools (SST) continued to work on the economy, tools, and Quantum (the AI simulation). Edge cases were also wrapped up for easier use and recording.\nSST wrapped up some foundational adjustments to diffusion and how it communicates with the DGS in the form of adjustments to the DirectConnect DGS Thread Bridge. The service engineers are now working with their Gameplay Engineering counterparts on a new gameplay system \u201cfor the mercantilely minded player.\u201d\nWork continues in earnest on intelligent NPC spawning, with an impressive internal milestone hit by the team.\nFinally, in preparation for Alpha 3.15, new edge cases in the inventory system and backend services were addressed.\nTurbulent (Services)\nLast month, Turbulent\u2019s Live Tools team deployed a new launcher. This contains updated logic for the verify feature, extending the time of the warning message on game launch and updating bindings with a new loading sequence.\nThe Game Services team progressed with the discipline service, with most critical calls being delivered. The launcher and in-game work for this is done too, with the QA phase beginning soon. The team continued to refactor the entity graph and worked on the matchmaking service.\nThe Web team worked on pages for CitizenCon and IAE and created a new backend tool to improve the appearance and functionality of all website content.\nUI\nLast month, the UI team focused on performance improvements, optimizing some of the more costly areas of the user interface.\n\u201cWe made more progress on the underlying code work of the Starmap, and started to get some placeholder UI into development builds so we can really start playing around with it, as you will eventually!\u201d UI Team\nUI also worked on screens for the upcoming infiltrate and defend mission archetypes, and finished the screens for hospitals and the personal inventory.\nVehicle Tech\nVehicle Tech put the finishing touches on a Squadron 42-specific vehicle mechanic, with the aim of expanding it into the PU. Alongside this, bugs for Alpha 3.15 were fixed, and the groundwork for incorporating radar and scanning into FPS gameplay progressed. Some functional radar and scanning design changes are in the works too.\nMajor improvements in how players control doors and other room-related interactions (such as lights, atmosphere, and communication systems) are in the prototyping stages. The aim is to fully immerse players by allowing them to control their environment while exploring on foot.\n\u201cExpect more door control panel interactions to come soon!\u201d Vehicle Tech\nVFX\nVFX finished off their work on the new vehicle wakes, which was done alongside the Vehicle Feature team, and effects were completed for an unannounced ship.\nFinally, further development work was done on Theaters of War.\nWE\u2019LL SEE YOU NEXT MONTH\u2026"},"links_count":10,"comment_count":29,"created_at":"2021-10-07T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"4 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-07 19:42:52","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":18347,"next_id":18349}}