{"data":{"id":19471,"title":"Alpha 3.18 & 3.19 Post Mortem","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/SCW\/19471-API","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/19471","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/19471","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"None","images":[{"id":31592,"name":"security-post-kareah.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/i\/47f118514b90673b0b7330b79449466351a3ce5f\/C3TZR1g81UNcYoFg8NLQ5xmK6uek6RmsPENwR2a1Xqbnyuxy86SHzwVmB3xpf5vmWRoEPyZK3kp6dx1sHcM1EBExN8jnuWk9xPveneLZXjv4MCYdc9jmhee\/security-post-kareah.jpg","alt":"g-illustration","size":7358105,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2023-09-12T18:16:13+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31592","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31592\/similar"},{"id":31595,"name":"star-citizen-jumptown2-1-kf-header-4k.webp","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/i\/df9ae8b2991066bfbb37d37aa1d172ea78a16c90\/TZjG7hXReeVtMUKUjmBfQjnyWFuUc9NEHqhLa6UjruiQa3MvnoH2WL8dWKVbi1d1C3HF4UW4Grr93iDsBuGnDco2CYmdLZNk1WRG96XWiWCHTgPRVwmvBAWJex3uNV7hy4Bbnu3TxMKJmU\/star-citizen-jumptown2-1-kf-header-4k.webp","alt":"g-illustration","size":2524636,"mime_type":"image\/webp","last_modified":"2023-09-12T18:16:21+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31595","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31595\/similar"},{"id":31598,"name":"319-banner-final-v2.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/i\/6e33c12d203311f5a05d07e0d7ba5c10f7849dd5\/3W72119s5BjWMLzhaqndVmMTkw529w6dnpSMwP77vCvCKnXohaQQLUJPidPozm8fQA9d9QQMq3XquJYd8azdbyfazUCBatnPnvmnFSXbGpJNgkRZ6AC5ie\/319-banner-final-v2.jpg","alt":"g-illustration","size":3233321,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2023-09-12T18:16:24+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31598","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/31598\/similar"}],"images_count":19,"translations":{"en_EN":"Alpha 3.18 & 3.19\nPost Mortem\n\n\n\nPersistent Entity Streaming\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe development of Persistent Entity Streaming (PES) involved a diverse strike team of programmers with specialized skills from multiple areas across the Core Tech group and Turbulent. This collaboration was crucial in successfully building this complex system. The strike team followed aligned sprints and goals facilitated by senior engineers and producers that were supported by regular meetings. This resulted in effective communication and minimized miscommunication or technical misunderstandings.\n\nA high-code-quality bar was maintained by the strike team, who ensured it underwent thorough design, discussion, and multiple reviews before being integrated into the mainline codebase.\n\nThe initial deployment to the Public Test Universe (PTU) and testing with the PTU community went well, setting a positive foundation for further improvements. However, this led to issues (discussed below).\n\nFinally, PES\u2019 system architecture and API, which are based on durable queues, proved they can recover from the worst kind of problems safely and will always tend towards recovery.\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nThe research-and-development aspects of PES posed challenges, requiring the engineers to invent ways around unforeseen problems. Due to the foundational nature of PES, integrating it into the Star Citizen game code resulted in significant changes that disrupted the game at a very low level, and some game teams were unprepared for the integration effort required to bring the game systems back to parity or to convert and leverage the new persistence layer for existing features.\n\nIssues with the changes introduced by PES only became apparent during large-scale use and under heavy player load, which caused delays in identifying and resolving the problems. And features not thought to use persistence at all became affected by trivial delays (like tram systems, spawn queues, and others).\n\nWe also underestimated the multiplication factor between the PTU and Live operations; the group had estimated a 10x increase in backend activity but were faced with a 20x+ increase in requests, stream message sizes, and overall activity, which caused service outages across the board during the initial launch.\n\nRegarding vehicles, PES heavily modified the way they are entitled and created in-game. This gives a better user experience (where you can choose where a ship ends up being created) but also significantly reduced the size of the inventory\/global database for ships that are never used.\n\nMajor issues were also discovered at scale with a third-party database engine that PES leverages for its functionality. These issues gave birth to very unstable request\/response cycles as well as heavy queuing. These issues also caused ripple effects where one database server entering a deadlock condition would cause the entire shard cluster (instead of a single shard) to stop processing requests for a period. This was a major cause of the instability throughout Alpha 3.18.x until the team had identified and programmed a workaround to alleviate the effects. Additionally, multiple locking problems at scale were discovered in the global database system (same engine) that would cause a periodic stop of all requests to the inventory systems. The team had to investigate and report to our vendors to determine workarounds and ultimately fixes that would prevent the database engine from locking.\n\nIn the engine, several shards reached previously unknown hard limits of the maximum number of allocated entities, forcing the teams to seed\/create new shards and cycle them out, diluting the effect of persistence on those shards.\n\nSeveral bugs were uncovered (in those unstable times) with error handling in parts of the login flow that bricked some accounts in different ways related to character creation. Server-crash handling was discovered to take a much longer amount of time due to a new process that kicks in during the post-mortem analysis. This affected the shard post-mortem and delayed players getting stowed back to the global inventory, which could result in a player character being \u201cstuck\u201d in a shard.\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nGoing forward, we\u2019ll finalize and use the new Cloud Test Launcher to adequately stress test the game shards at scale. This tool will simulate player behaviors and allow QA and the engineers to connect multiple modified game clients to the shard. By utilizing cloud computing resources, effective stress testing can be conducted, which will help identify and address issues relating to heavily loaded servers before moving to Live.\n\nThe team responsible for PES has now moved onto Static Server Meshing and are embracing a transformation approach to the new project. Unlike PES, this foundational technology can be integrated into the codebase gradually, avoiding a disruptive \"Big Bang\" approach. Parts of the Server Meshing tech are already available to the game team for testing compatibility with their game features. Combined with the Cloud Test Launcher, this approach aims to facilitate a smoother integration process for Static Server Meshing.\n\nBy implementing these measures, we aim to enhance our testing capabilities and mitigate integration challenges, ensuring smoother delivery of foundational technologies while minimizing disruption to the game.\n\nRivers\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe inclusion of rivers marked a significant milestone in our quest to create more realistic and immersive planets. We were quite happy with the improvements to river canyons we were able to achieve between Alpha 3.18 and 3.19 due to improvements in our asset pipeline. And the support from the Planet Tech team to address technical issues during this process was remarkable.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nThe procedural river placement tool was not in as good of a state as we had hoped when we started using it. As a consequence, a considerable amount of manual effort was required to meticulously place and verify the resulting rivers to ensure their optimal quality. Moreover, this limitation also led to a decrease in the number of rivers we were able to generate.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nThe numerous issues that were successfully identified and addressed during this initial run of rivers have already made a significant impact toward ensuring a smoother experience for next time. Although there is still considerable work ahead before we can consistently create planetary landscapes with rivers that look and feel like the real deal, we have made substantial progress and are now much closer to achieving our goal than ever before.\n\nSand Caves\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nWe were very happy with the results of this initial push to develop an improved pipeline to produce individual rooms for all cave archetypes and to also define the visual identity of our sand caves. That we were able to release a first set of smaller cave systems out of that prototyping phase thanks to the concerted effort from multiple departments was the icing on the cake for us.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nWith neither the tools for procedurally assembling locations nor automatically placing them on planets ready for use, we had to build and place every cave manually, which was the primary constraint on the number of caves we could place on planets in the Stanton system.\n\nUnfortunately, these caves had to initially be released without missions, making them into locations the player actively needed to seek out to experience.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe are currently in the final stages of refining the new visuals for rock caves, which will serve as the next archetype. We are looking forward to utilizing the Location Tool to construct a wider variety of cave systems.\n\nAdditionally, we will be working towards support for bigger connections, rooms, and entrances, which is a key requirement before we can replace the old caves.\n\nPTV Racetrack\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nIt was created very quickly; we went into it with the idea that it was a simple location with a short timeframe and minimal impact on other teams. However, we achieved a lot more in three weeks than we were initially expecting, with a good modular kit for kart-style racetracks, and the addition of good dressing, theming, and lighting. It was really good to see how the community, especially the racing community, was excited when the track was initially shown to the public. We have since seen organized races on the track. We also got code support for upgrades to the respawning vehicle entity so if people were to crash, break, or abandon the Greycat PTV, it would respawn back at the starting area of the track. We can also set the values of things like time to respawn.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nDespite finishing the track before Alpha 3.17 was released, it had yet to have a QA pass and be bug-fixed, so we decided to hold it back until Alpha 3.18. Little did we know Alpha 3.18 was going to be delayed so much, so the track, even though complete, made it into the public\u2019s hands a long time after we had hoped.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe will certainly develop more modular tracks in the future (and have another in the works), but it is on the back burner for the moment. We will try and support other similar-sized ground vehicles like the Greycat STV in the future as well (initial tests have been positive). We will also work with the Mission team to look into adding a racetrack-style mission to the tracks, which will allow the tracking of race times, checkpoints, and laps, and enable the mission to give rewards to players.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSecurity Post Kareah\n\ufeff\n\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nWe could never have imagined the level of support we received from the Art team, which really rejuvenated the location.\n\nThe player-triggered sandbox activity was well received, and analytics showed that hacking CrimeStats at Kareah is still very popular, which was a concern for us as we were taking a risk removing the other hacking locations.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nThe mission still has rough edges that need ironing out, which is in progress. Also, additional analytics needs on sandbox activities were identified to be able to further understand player participation.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe\u2019ll continue to iterate on the sandbox activity and location based on the feedback we\u2019ve received and add further analytics to better understand participation.\n\nJumptown\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe changes to the location were very well received, player participation was consistently very high, and the support we received from Art was well beyond what we expected.\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nThe implementation of PES led to performance issues around the location after a lot of ships were destroyed. We also wanted to redrop the locations with RASTAR. However, we were unable to at the time due to it breaking the shops.\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nFor the next run of Global Events, we\u2019re planning to redrop the locations on different planets to give different gameplay. For example, in thick atmosphere, higher gravity planets, and forests.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTime Trials\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe new racing content and time trial modes were well received by the racing community, helped by the Content teams who produced many more tracks than we could have hoped for.\n\nIn the backend, the analytics we added were fantastic and allowed us to make very in-depth analyses of each track, which helped determine where they should go on the difficulty ranking and what the target times should be.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nPoor server performance meant that a sophisticated new system of checkpoint tracking had to be created, though the markers still do not update as responsively as we would like.\n\nAnalytics also show that relatively few players actually unlock the second track.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nInfiltrate Missions - Orison\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe new FPS environments were well-received and a refreshing change after only having underground facilities for years. The ability to assault the locations on foot or in ships was great too.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nWe had to turn the missions off for Alpha 3.19 because we were aiming to release Siege of Orison, but we were not able to achieve this or the new platform clusters (where we were to relocate them) in time.\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe have relocated the missions to the new platform clusters and will be releasing them when possible.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPrison Activities\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe Prison Escape mission is surprisingly well-played and offers a new way for players to clear their CrimeStats. Inside the prison, loot on the AI and new selling terminals were well received; players felt the new AI made the prison feel more alive and it gave them another way to earn merits.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nThe Ursa Rover continues to spawn underground, selling items at the prison kiosk still isn\u2019t reliable, and excessive AI are being spawned due to a spawn closet issue.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nFor the next release, we\u2019ll fix any bugs we can, including the Ursa spawning issue.\n\nDrake Vulture\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nAdding the long-awaited \u201cstarter\u201d of the Salvage career alongside its gameplay loop was a great milestone for the Vehicle team. While the vehicle was started some time ago, we had held on to it to ensure it released strongly with the gameplay loop rather than without, and this allowed the team to squeeze in some more features to the ship to make sure it hit all the current standards.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nA few complaints surrounding the traversal of the ship due to the gameplay mechanics were somewhat a product of the Salvage mechanic evolving over time to require more manual input than initially expected during the vehicle\u2019s concept in 2018.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nReleasing vehicles alongside their gameplay loops rather than earlier in the project (see Starfarer and Reclaimer) is something we\u2019ve been striving to do in recent times, and we\u2019ll continue aiming to do this.\n\n\n\n\nRSI Scorpius Antares\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe Antares was designed alongside the base Scorpius as an optional variant to put into production in the future, with the tail section of the ship outlined as the part that could be geometry-swapped. However, during development, it was clear the needs of the EMP and quantum drive required slightly more power than planned and the team reacted well to adjust both the base and Antares to allow the component layout to suit both.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nThere were a few technical issues that we weren\u2019t able to solve that reduced the ability for the second player to have more control over pilot features and a more enhanced MFD setup.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWith Master Modes and new MFDs coming in the future, we should see the copilot get more gameplay features rather than being half passenger, half button-presser.\n\nSalvage & Cargo - Vehicle Gameplay\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nWe were able to support both Feature teams' introduction two key features to the PU, with Salvage requiring a lot of time be spent on the art assets and Cargo requiring a pass across all ships by Design.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nUnfortunately, the scope of the work for Salvage was drastically underestimated, as we thought the existing UV2 damage system all ships used would be suitable out of the box. However, we very quickly realized we\u2019d have to do an entire pass on every ship to up the quality, as you were looking at the visuals much closer than the damage system.\n\nIn addition, the gameplay mechanic was built around the idea that you\u2019d be able to 100% scrape the entire hull. However, this wasn\u2019t a consideration in the UV2 damage setup, so some areas were inaccessible, causing frustration to early testers who couldn\u2019t \u201c100%\u201d a ship.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe\u2019re now more closely integrated with the teams working on big features like this so issues can be found and investigated before development properly starts, rather than being looped in once the prototype has been completed.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHull Scraping\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe long-awaited first iteration of Salvage gameplay finally arrived with Alpha 3.18, which enables players to scrape off hull material and either trade it or use it for field repairs. The core gameplay loop was generally well received and provided a great contrast to other activities.\n\nWe also expanded the harvestable system with ship-wrecks and salvageable metal pieces, and introduced the first miniature version of Crafting by allowing players to create a few select items using RMC.\n\nReleasing Hull Scraping alongside the Drake Vulture meant that the ship could come out with a proper gameplay system, and the Aegis Reclaimer finally has appropriate gameplay available to it.\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nA lot of features and systems Hull Scraping was relying on were still in active development when we were building the core gameplay system. This meant the feature was handed off to the EUPU team with a fairly compressed timeline for release.\n\nWe addressed the way players would find salvageable objects in the universe way too late in the process, and the balance work for salvageable-object distribution was not properly mapped out.\n\nNot all vehicles could be upgraded to the new Damage Map, meaning some vehicles still won\u2019t work correctly with Hull Scraping.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe\u2019ve changed our approach to how early we get other teams involved, meaning that downstream teams get involved as early as the prototyping stage. We\u2019ve also introduced additional milestones where downstream and content teams can review and approve the progress we\u2019ve made before we move on to the next stage.\n\nAlpha 3.19\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSalvage Contracts\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nWe\u2019re very proud of what we achieved; initially, we had only expected to release with Hull Scraping, but were able to get cargo and the brand-new detachable-components feature included. The mission was well received by backers too.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nWe didn\u2019t choose the best ships for the mission, as only some have detachable internal components and gold-standard hulls for scraping (which we only found out after the fact). And, due to developer illness, the first release saw a very rough pass of cargo spawning, meaning there was no time to properly balance or verify that all items could be sold.\n\nThe Economy team had to change the value of ship weapons very late into development. This was necessary to balance the problematic insurance issue, which needs a further rebalance. The change meant some backers were disappointed having gotten used to higher rewards.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nFor the next release, we\u2019ll choose more appropriate ships with detachable internal components.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNew Player Experience\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nWe received a lot of positive feedback from new players that the New Player Experience has helped them learn the game. The visual upgrades to Area 18 have greatly improved navigation, alongside new control and contextual hints.\n\nThroughout the development of NPE, we\u2019ve been able to make many improvements to our mission system, such as the introduction of mission persistence, which allows us to resume a mission at the last active objective if a player loses connection or experiences a client crash.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nThe mission is largely modular but not entirely so, which means more work is needed to bring it to other locations. We didn\u2019t have sufficient time or support to teach the player inventory management or interacting with shops.\n\nIn terms of the production itself, New Player Experience was a cross-team initiative and as such, was complicated to coordinate. Production support for New Player Experience changed a few times as it wasn\u2019t owned by a dedicated team.\n\nAdditionally, we didn\u2019t have sufficient support to remedy the visual issues with the existing HUD elements clashing with the new Control and Contextual Hints.\n\n\n\nWhat We'll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe\u2019ve started work on modularizing the remaining parts of the New Player Experience to reduce maintenance and allow us to bring it to multiple locations. We will also introduce additional components to NPE, such as inventory management, shopping and more.\n\nRSI Lynx\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe Lynx started off as a very simplistic adjustment of the Ursa but, as we progressed, we felt it deserved more. So, it ended up with virtually all-new geometry and materials, which paid off as the vehicle now looks the part and sits well with the Constellation Phoenix.\n\nWe also managed to cram a huge amount of interactive content within the vehicle, including animated chairs, TVs, lockers, and fridges.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nIncreasing the scope of work for the vehicle (primarily redoing the entire cockpit area) resulted in the Vehicle team working longer than expected, leaving less time for other teams, such as VFX and Audio, to do their work.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nNext time, we\u2019ll ensure scope adjustments are discussed with all teams and that they\u2019re not unnecessarily waiting for all aspects to be delivered to start their pass.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMirai Fury & Fury MX\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nDespite its size, the Fury series is one of the most complex vehicles we\u2019ve ever put in the game, requiring complex animations and state machines all compressed into a very small spaceframe. It was also delivered ahead of schedule, as we were so excited by the vehicle we actually started production before the concept pass was officially complete.\n\nVehicle Features made a pass on the gimballed thrusters to make them work as we had envisioned. This means the Khartu-al and San\u2019tok.yai will benefit from this in the future.\n\nThe MX\u2019s blast shield was our first proper foray into integrating custom Building Blocks UI into the vehicle pipeline rather than reusing other assets, such as door control panels.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nSome of the tech we needed for the thruster rotations took a few attempts to iron out, and we accidentally caused other issues with thrusters on other ships, but all was solved before release.\n\nThe MX was originally intended to have generic missile racks but it was clear early on they needed to be bespoke to prevent them from launching into the body or wings when changed for alternatives. This sadly reduces player customization but ultimately makes it more reliable in use.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe\u2019re pretty happy with how the Fury and Fury MX turned out and no specific things occurred with their development that need adjustment in the future.\n\nTractor Beam - Item Attach\/Detach\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nFinally, players are able to loot vehicles for components and weapons, greatly expanding the Salvage gameplay loop. This feature also provides additional gameplay opportunities to other features, such as allowing players to swap out mining heads and modules, and provides a strong foundation for the Vehicle Tractor Beam feature.\n\nInternally, the Vehicle Content team were very responsive to addressing content issues with existing components and weapons.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nThis feature wasn\u2019t originally scheduled for Alpha 3.19, so we had a compressed timeline to work with. The QATR for this feature also revealed a lot of issues with content that couldn\u2019t all be resolved in time for release.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe\u2019ve started requesting downstream support much earlier in the process so that necessary content changes can be done in anticipation of the feature getting ready, as opposed to doing the handover toward the tail end of development.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMining Rebalance\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe community reception has been fantastic and we\u2019re very happy with how the release panned out; long-standing metas and balance issues have been resolved and mining is now a much more nuanced gameplay loop that allows for multiple strategies.\n\nChanges to tractor beams greatly benefited the Mining gameplay loop by enabling the ability to swap out mining heads, modules, and pods. We also identified a better process to balance gameplay loops holistically.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nThere were some issues that we couldn\u2019t properly resolve until after the release, such as mineable rocks always exploding, and the redistribution and rebalance of shop prices required quite a bit of back and forth between various teams before we got it properly implemented.\n\nA lot of issues and edge cases with pricing and distribution were revealed during testing that needed constant fixing and readjustment.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe want to continue to improve our communication around mining with the community and keep listening to critical feedback to make mining the best it can be.\n\nWe\u2019ll also put more trust in the data we gather to help inform future design decisions around mining gameplay.\n\nAlpha 3.18's LaunchAs many of our players experienced, we launched Alpha 3.18 on March 10 of this year, and alongside a bevy of high-profile new features like Salvage, the Vulture patch flyable ship, the surprise Scorpius Antares, new rivers, and new missions, the biggest headliner of the patch was our delivery of Persistent Entity Streaming (PES), which completely rewrote how we save state in the game and ushered in the beginning of the promise of a truly persistent universe where a player\u2019s actions could remain in the game for others to interact with and create a lived-in environment where you could literally leave your mark in the PU. And, just as importantly, PES, was the necessary final stepping stone to delivering Static Server Meshing.\n\nMany who follow Star Citizen appreciated how consequential and important our delivery of Alpha 3.18 was for us and the game itself. Many teams at CIG spent most of the second half of last year finishing out Persistent Entity Streaming, as we deployed it to our Public Test Universe servers for testing in December 2022, and then spent the next 3 months attempting to harden and improve it for launching to our Live Star Citizen service as quickly as possible.\n\nHowever, when the moment of truth came and Alpha 3.18 shipped to Live, the shock to the system was beyond what we had projected. While it\u2019s true that we expected PES to create a rough experience initially as we ironed out the issues that could only expose themselves at massive scale (and we warned as much), to say that we were surprised by the depth of chaos from the PES launch would be an understatement.\n\nThe anticipation for PES and 3.18 was nothing short of unprecedented for us. When the patch first dropped on March 10, we experienced our highest peaks ever for logins per minute and per hour, and had our highest number of attempted logins in a day for the first few days of launch. We say \u201cattempted logins\u201d because as you all know, the service was so overwhelmed by the traffic and teething pains of PES that many players could not get into the game, as various issues stalled users throughout the login funnel. Some were stuck in queues, some couldn\u2019t get their characters to load, some were stuck at an infinite loading screen. As you can read more about in Benoit Beausojour\u2019s (our Chief Technical Officer) account below on PES, we underestimated the multiplicative forces of going to Live and now creating and persisting every entity players created through their actions, creating a load on our service that was beyond our initial forecasts. And it took weeks if not months to expose, diagnose, create fixes, test them, and deploy them to restore the service, all while the game was still running on Live.\n\nWe learned a lot from the launch of PES, and while we are still recovering, and regret the compromised service in the first days and weeks of the rollout, it has definitely taught us a valuable lesson to value and preserve the integrity of the service more than we had in the past. That\u2019s why as we begin to roll out the Replication Layer split and crash recovery \u2013 two things now enabled by PES \u2013 we will do so gradually, and as we begin to deliver Server Meshing, we will create dedicated testing channels to harden those new technologies further and implement standards and thresholds before we \u201cgraduate\u201d them to PTU and then Live. You\u2019ll start to see the ramifications of that later in the year and hear more from us later about our new approach to deploying potentially disruptive and game-changing new tech to the game service, but it comes down to us truly committing to preserving the experience for the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who now play Star Citizen as a live service game, albeit an alpha still in development.","de_DE":"Persistentes Streaming von Entit\u00e4ten\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nAn der Entwicklung von Persistent Entity Streaming (PES) war ein bunt gemischtes Team von Programmierern mit Spezialkenntnissen aus verschiedenen Bereichen der Core Tech Group und Turbulent beteiligt. Diese Zusammenarbeit war entscheidend f\u00fcr den erfolgreichen Aufbau dieses komplexen Systems. Das Strike-Team arbeitete nach abgestimmten Sprints und Zielen, die von leitenden Ingenieuren und Produzenten vorgegeben und durch regelm\u00e4\u00dfige Treffen unterst\u00fctzt wurden. Dies f\u00fchrte zu einer effektiven Kommunikation und minimierte Fehlkommunikation oder technische Missverst\u00e4ndnisse.\n\nDas Strike-Team sorgte f\u00fcr eine hohe Code-Qualit\u00e4t und stellte sicher, dass das System gr\u00fcndlich entworfen, diskutiert und mehrfach \u00fcberpr\u00fcft wurde, bevor es in die Haupt-Codebasis integriert wurde.\n\nDer erste Einsatz im Public Test Universe (PTU) und die Tests mit der PTU-Community verliefen gut und bildeten eine gute Grundlage f\u00fcr weitere Verbesserungen. Dies f\u00fchrte jedoch zu Problemen (siehe unten).\n\nSchlie\u00dflich haben die Systemarchitektur und die API der PES, die auf langlebigen Warteschlangen basieren, bewiesen, dass sie sich von den schlimmsten Problemen sicher erholen k\u00f6nnen und immer zur Wiederherstellung tendieren werden.\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nDie Forschungs- und Entwicklungsaspekte der PES stellten die Ingenieure vor Herausforderungen, denn sie mussten Wege finden, um unvorhergesehene Probleme zu umgehen. Aufgrund der grundlegenden Natur von PES f\u00fchrte die Integration in den Star Citizen Spielcode zu erheblichen \u00c4nderungen, die das Spiel auf einer sehr niedrigen Ebene st\u00f6rten, und einige Spielteams waren nicht auf den Integrationsaufwand vorbereitet, der erforderlich war, um die Spielsysteme wieder auf den gleichen Stand zu bringen oder die neue Persistenzschicht zu konvertieren und f\u00fcr bestehende Funktionen zu nutzen.\n\nProbleme mit den von PES eingef\u00fchrten \u00c4nderungen wurden erst bei umfangreichem Einsatz und unter hoher Spielerbelastung deutlich, was zu Verz\u00f6gerungen bei der Identifizierung und L\u00f6sung der Probleme f\u00fchrte. Und Funktionen, von denen man gar nicht dachte, dass sie Persistenz nutzen, wurden durch triviale Verz\u00f6gerungen beeintr\u00e4chtigt (wie Stra\u00dfenbahnsysteme, Spawn-Warteschlangen und andere).\n\nWir haben auch den Multiplikationsfaktor zwischen dem PTU- und dem Live-Betrieb untersch\u00e4tzt; die Gruppe hatte mit einem 10-fachen Anstieg der Backend-Aktivit\u00e4ten gerechnet, sah sich aber mit einem 20-fachen Anstieg der Anfragen, der Stream-Nachrichtengr\u00f6\u00dfen und der Gesamtaktivit\u00e4t konfrontiert, was in der Anfangsphase zu Serviceausf\u00e4llen auf breiter Front f\u00fchrte.\n\nBei den Fahrzeugen hat PES die Art und Weise, wie sie im Spiel berechtigt und erstellt werden, stark ver\u00e4ndert. Dadurch wird die Benutzerfreundlichkeit verbessert (du kannst w\u00e4hlen, wo ein Schiff erstellt wird), aber auch die Gr\u00f6\u00dfe des Inventars\/der globalen Datenbank f\u00fcr Schiffe, die nie benutzt werden, erheblich reduziert.\n\nAu\u00dferdem wurden gro\u00dfe Probleme mit einer Datenbank-Engine eines Drittanbieters entdeckt, die PES f\u00fcr seine Funktionen nutzt. Diese Probleme f\u00fchrten zu sehr instabilen Anfrage-\/Antwort-Zyklen und zu langen Warteschlangen. Diese Probleme f\u00fchrten auch dazu, dass ein Datenbankserver, der in einen Deadlockzustand geriet, dazu f\u00fchrte, dass der gesamte Shard-Cluster (statt eines einzelnen Shards) f\u00fcr eine gewisse Zeit keine Anfragen mehr bearbeiten konnte. Dies war eine der Hauptursachen f\u00fcr die Instabilit\u00e4t von Alpha 3.18.x, bis das Team einen Workaround gefunden und programmiert hatte, um die Auswirkungen zu lindern. Au\u00dferdem wurden im globalen Datenbanksystem (dieselbe Engine) mehrere Sperrprobleme entdeckt, die dazu f\u00fchrten, dass alle Anfragen an die Inventarsysteme regelm\u00e4\u00dfig gestoppt wurden. Das Team musste das Problem untersuchen und unseren Anbietern Bericht erstatten, um Abhilfema\u00dfnahmen und schlie\u00dflich Korrekturen zu finden, die das Sperren der Datenbank-Engine verhindern.\n\nIn der Engine erreichten mehrere Shards bisher unbekannte Grenzen f\u00fcr die maximale Anzahl der zugewiesenen Entit\u00e4ten, so dass die Teams gezwungen waren, neue Shards zu seeden\/erstellen und sie zu verteilen, wodurch die Wirkung der Persistenz auf diesen Shards verw\u00e4ssert wurde.\n\nMehrere Fehler wurden (in diesen instabilen Zeiten) bei der Fehlerbehandlung in Teilen des Anmeldevorgangs aufgedeckt, die einige Konten auf unterschiedliche Weise im Zusammenhang mit der Charaktererstellung zum Absturz brachten. Es wurde festgestellt, dass die Behandlung von Serverabst\u00fcrzen aufgrund eines neuen Prozesses, der w\u00e4hrend der Post-Mortem-Analyse einsetzt, viel mehr Zeit in Anspruch nimmt. Dies wirkte sich auf die Post-Mortem-Analyse des Shards aus und verz\u00f6gerte die R\u00fcckf\u00fchrung von Spielern in das globale Inventar, was dazu f\u00fchren konnte, dass ein Spielercharakter in einem Shard \"feststeckte\".\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nIn Zukunft werden wir den neuen Cloud Test Launcher fertigstellen und einsetzen, um die Spiel-Scherben im gro\u00dfen Ma\u00dfstab angemessen zu testen. Dieses Tool wird das Spielerverhalten simulieren und es der QA und den Ingenieuren erm\u00f6glichen, mehrere modifizierte Spielclients mit dem Shard zu verbinden. Durch die Nutzung von Cloud-Computing-Ressourcen k\u00f6nnen effektive Stresstests durchgef\u00fchrt werden, die dabei helfen, Probleme im Zusammenhang mit stark belasteten Servern zu erkennen und zu beheben, bevor sie in den Live-Betrieb \u00fcbergehen.\n\nDas Team, das f\u00fcr PES verantwortlich ist, hat sich nun dem Static Server Meshing zugewandt und verfolgt bei dem neuen Projekt einen Transformationsansatz. Im Gegensatz zu PES kann diese grundlegende Technologie schrittweise in die Codebasis integriert werden, so dass ein st\u00f6render \"Big Bang\"-Ansatz vermieden wird. Teile der Server Meshing-Technologie stehen dem Spielteam bereits zur Verf\u00fcgung, um die Kompatibilit\u00e4t mit ihren Spielfunktionen zu testen. In Kombination mit dem Cloud Test Launcher zielt dieser Ansatz darauf ab, einen reibungsloseren Integrationsprozess f\u00fcr Static Server Meshing zu erm\u00f6glichen.\n\nMit diesen Ma\u00dfnahmen wollen wir unsere Testm\u00f6glichkeiten verbessern und Integrationsprobleme abmildern, um eine reibungslosere Bereitstellung grundlegender Technologien zu gew\u00e4hrleisten und gleichzeitig die Unterbrechung des Spiels zu minimieren.\n\nFl\u00fcsse\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nDie Einbeziehung von Fl\u00fcssen war ein wichtiger Meilenstein in unserem Bestreben, realistischere und immersivere Planeten zu schaffen. Wir waren sehr zufrieden mit den Verbesserungen bei den Flussschluchten, die wir zwischen Alpha 3.18 und 3.19 dank der Verbesserungen in unserer Asset-Pipeline erreichen konnten. Und die Unterst\u00fctzung des Planet Tech-Teams bei der L\u00f6sung technischer Probleme w\u00e4hrend dieses Prozesses war bemerkenswert.\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nDas Tool zum Platzieren von Fl\u00fcssen war nicht so gut, wie wir es uns erhofft hatten, als wir es einsetzten. Daher war ein erheblicher manueller Aufwand erforderlich, um die Fl\u00fcsse sorgf\u00e4ltig zu platzieren und zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen, um ihre optimale Qualit\u00e4t zu gew\u00e4hrleisten. Au\u00dferdem f\u00fchrte diese Einschr\u00e4nkung dazu, dass die Anzahl der Fl\u00fcsse, die wir erstellen konnten, sank.\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nDie zahlreichen Probleme, die wir w\u00e4hrend dieser ersten Runde von Fl\u00fcssen erfolgreich identifiziert und behoben haben, haben bereits einen erheblichen Einfluss darauf, dass das n\u00e4chste Mal ein reibungsloseres Erlebnis gew\u00e4hrleistet ist. Auch wenn noch viel Arbeit vor uns liegt, bis wir durchg\u00e4ngig planetarische Landschaften mit Fl\u00fcssen erstellen k\u00f6nnen, die wie echte Fl\u00fcsse aussehen und sich auch so anf\u00fchlen, haben wir gro\u00dfe Fortschritte gemacht und sind unserem Ziel jetzt viel n\u00e4her als je zuvor.\n\nSandh\u00f6hlen\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nWir waren sehr zufrieden mit den Ergebnissen dieser ersten Phase, in der es darum ging, eine verbesserte Pipeline zu entwickeln, um individuelle R\u00e4ume f\u00fcr alle H\u00f6hlenarchetypen zu produzieren und auch die visuelle Identit\u00e4t unserer Sandh\u00f6hlen zu definieren. Die Tatsache, dass wir dank der gemeinsamen Anstrengungen mehrerer Abteilungen nach dieser Prototyping-Phase ein erstes Set kleinerer H\u00f6hlensysteme ver\u00f6ffentlichen konnten, war f\u00fcr uns das Sahneh\u00e4ubchen auf dem Kuchen.\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nDa wir weder die Werkzeuge f\u00fcr den prozeduralen Aufbau von Orten noch f\u00fcr die automatische Platzierung auf Planeten zur Verf\u00fcgung hatten, mussten wir jede H\u00f6hle von Hand bauen und platzieren, was die Anzahl der H\u00f6hlen, die wir auf Planeten im Stanton-System platzieren konnten, stark einschr\u00e4nkte.\n\nLeider mussten diese H\u00f6hlen anfangs ohne Missionen freigeschaltet werden, was sie zu Orten machte, die der Spieler aktiv aufsuchen musste, um sie zu erleben.\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nWir sind gerade dabei, die neue Grafik f\u00fcr Felsh\u00f6hlen zu verfeinern, die als n\u00e4chster Archetyp dienen wird. Wir freuen uns darauf, das Location Tool zu nutzen, um eine gr\u00f6\u00dfere Vielfalt an H\u00f6hlensystemen zu erstellen.\n\nAu\u00dferdem werden wir daran arbeiten, gr\u00f6\u00dfere Verbindungen, R\u00e4ume und Eing\u00e4nge zu unterst\u00fctzen, was eine wichtige Voraussetzung daf\u00fcr ist, dass wir die alten H\u00f6hlen ersetzen k\u00f6nnen.\n\nPTV-Rennbahn\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nWir sind mit der Vorstellung an die Sache herangegangen, dass es sich um einen einfachen Ort mit einem kurzen Zeitrahmen und minimalen Auswirkungen auf andere Teams handelt. In drei Wochen haben wir jedoch viel mehr erreicht, als wir anfangs erwartet hatten. Wir haben einen guten Baukasten f\u00fcr Kart-Rennstrecken zusammengestellt und ihn mit einer guten Aufmachung, Thematisierung und Beleuchtung versehen. Es war wirklich sch\u00f6n zu sehen, wie begeistert die Gemeinde, vor allem die Renngemeinde, war, als die Strecke zum ersten Mal der \u00d6ffentlichkeit gezeigt wurde. Seitdem haben wir organisierte Rennen auf der Strecke gesehen. Wir haben auch Code-Unterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr Upgrades f\u00fcr die Respawning Vehicle Entity erhalten, so dass das Greycat PTV bei einem Unfall, einer Panne oder beim Verlassen der Strecke wieder im Startbereich landet. Wir k\u00f6nnen auch Werte wie die Zeit bis zum Respawn einstellen.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nObwohl wir den Track vor der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von Alpha 3.17 fertiggestellt hatten, musste er noch durch die QA gehen und Fehler behoben werden, also beschlossen wir, ihn bis Alpha 3.18 zur\u00fcckzuhalten. Wir wussten nicht, dass sich die Alpha 3.18 so sehr verz\u00f6gern w\u00fcrde, so dass der Track, obwohl er fertiggestellt war, erst lange nach unseren Hoffnungen ver\u00f6ffentlicht werden konnte.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nWir werden in Zukunft sicherlich noch mehr modulare Ketten entwickeln (und haben eine weitere in Arbeit), aber das ist im Moment eher auf Eis gelegt. Wir werden versuchen, in Zukunft auch andere Bodenfahrzeuge \u00e4hnlicher Gr\u00f6\u00dfe wie das Greycat STV zu unterst\u00fctzen (erste Tests sind positiv verlaufen). Wir werden auch mit dem Missionsteam zusammenarbeiten, um zu pr\u00fcfen, ob wir eine Mission im Stil einer Rennstrecke einbauen k\u00f6nnen, die es erm\u00f6glicht, Rennzeiten, Kontrollpunkte und Runden zu erfassen und den Spielern Belohnungen zukommen zu lassen.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSicherheitsposten Kareah\n\n\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nWir h\u00e4tten uns nie vorstellen k\u00f6nnen, wie viel Unterst\u00fctzung wir vom Art-Team erhalten haben, das den Standort wirklich verj\u00fcngt hat.\n\nDie von den Spielern ausgel\u00f6ste Sandbox-Aktivit\u00e4t wurde gut angenommen und die Analysen zeigten, dass das Hacken von CrimeStats in Kareah immer noch sehr beliebt ist, was uns Sorgen bereitete, da wir das Risiko eingingen, die anderen Hacking-Standorte zu entfernen.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nDie Mission hat immer noch Ecken und Kanten, die ausgeb\u00fcgelt werden m\u00fcssen, was derzeit geschieht. Au\u00dferdem wurden zus\u00e4tzliche Analysen zu den Sandkastenaktivit\u00e4ten ben\u00f6tigt, um die Beteiligung der Spieler\/innen besser zu verstehen.\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nWir werden die Sandbox-Aktivit\u00e4ten und den Standort auf der Grundlage des Feedbacks, das wir erhalten haben, weiter verbessern und weitere Analysen hinzuf\u00fcgen, um die Teilnahme besser zu verstehen.\n\nJumptown\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nDie \u00c4nderungen am Standort wurden sehr gut aufgenommen, die Beteiligung der Spieler\/innen war durchweg sehr hoch und die Unterst\u00fctzung, die wir von Art erhielten, \u00fcbertraf unsere Erwartungen bei weitem.\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nDie Implementierung von PES f\u00fchrte zu Leistungsproblemen rund um den Ort, nachdem viele Schiffe zerst\u00f6rt worden waren. Au\u00dferdem wollten wir die Orte mit RASTAR neu ausrichten. Das war uns jedoch nicht m\u00f6glich, da die L\u00e4den dadurch kaputt gingen.\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nF\u00fcr die n\u00e4chste Runde der Global Events planen wir, die Orte auf verschiedenen Planeten neu zu platzieren, um ein anderes Gameplay zu erm\u00f6glichen. Zum Beispiel in dicker Atmosph\u00e4re, auf Planeten mit h\u00f6herer Schwerkraft und in W\u00e4ldern.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTime Trials\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nDie neuen Renninhalte und Zeitfahrmodi wurden von der Renngemeinschaft gut aufgenommen. Dazu beigetragen haben die Content-Teams, die viel mehr Strecken produziert haben, als wir uns erhofft hatten.\n\nIm Backend waren die Analysen, die wir hinzugef\u00fcgt haben, fantastisch und erm\u00f6glichten uns sehr detaillierte Analysen jeder Strecke, die uns dabei halfen, zu bestimmen, wo sie auf der Schwierigkeitsrangliste stehen sollten und wie die Zielzeiten aussehen sollten.\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nDie schlechte Serverleistung f\u00fchrte dazu, dass ein ausgekl\u00fcgeltes neues System zur Verfolgung von Kontrollpunkten entwickelt werden musste, obwohl die Markierungen immer noch nicht so schnell aktualisiert werden, wie wir es gerne h\u00e4tten.\n\nDie Analysen zeigen auch, dass relativ wenige Spieler\/innen den zweiten Track tats\u00e4chlich freischalten.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMissionen infiltrieren - Orison\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nDie neuen FPS-Umgebungen wurden gut angenommen und waren eine erfrischende Abwechslung, nachdem es jahrelang nur unterirdische Anlagen gab. Die M\u00f6glichkeit, die Orte zu Fu\u00df oder mit Schiffen anzugreifen, war ebenfalls gro\u00dfartig.\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nWir mussten die Missionen f\u00fcr die Alpha 3.19 abschalten, weil wir die Belagerung von Orison ver\u00f6ffentlichen wollten, aber wir konnten dies oder die neuen Plattform-Cluster (in die wir sie verlegen wollten) nicht rechtzeitig erreichen.\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nWir haben die Missionen zu den neuen Plattform-Clustern verlegt und werden sie ver\u00f6ffentlichen, sobald es m\u00f6glich ist.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAktivit\u00e4ten im Gef\u00e4ngnis\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nDie Mission \"Gef\u00e4ngnisausbruch\" wird \u00fcberraschend gut gespielt und bietet den Spielern eine neue M\u00f6glichkeit, ihre Verbrechensstatistiken zu verbessern. Innerhalb des Gef\u00e4ngnisses wurden die Beute der KI und die neuen Verkaufsterminals gut angenommen. Die Spieler\/innen fanden, dass die neue KI das Gef\u00e4ngnis lebendiger machte und ihnen eine weitere M\u00f6glichkeit bot, Verdienste zu verdienen.\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nDer Ursa Rover spawnt weiterhin im Untergrund, der Verkauf von Gegenst\u00e4nden am Gef\u00e4ngniskiosk ist immer noch unzuverl\u00e4ssig und aufgrund eines Spawn-Schrank-Problems wird zu viel KI gespawnt.\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nIn der n\u00e4chsten Version werden wir alle Fehler beheben, die wir k\u00f6nnen, einschlie\u00dflich des Ursa-Spawning-Problems.\n\nDrachengeier\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nDas Hinzuf\u00fcgen des lang erwarteten \"Starters\" der Bergungskarriere zusammen mit der Gameplay-Schleife war ein gro\u00dfer Meilenstein f\u00fcr das Fahrzeugteam. Das Fahrzeug wurde zwar schon vor einiger Zeit gestartet, aber wir haben daran festgehalten, um sicherzustellen, dass es zusammen mit dem Gameplay-Loop und nicht ohne diesen ver\u00f6ffentlicht wird, was es dem Team erm\u00f6glichte, weitere Funktionen in das Schiff zu integrieren, um sicherzustellen, dass es alle aktuellen Standards erf\u00fcllt.\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nEinige Beschwerden \u00fcber die Fortbewegung des Schiffes aufgrund der Spielmechanik sind darauf zur\u00fcckzuf\u00fchren, dass sich die Bergungsmechanik im Laufe der Zeit weiterentwickelt hat und mehr manuelle Eingaben erfordert, als urspr\u00fcnglich bei der Konzeption des Fahrzeugs im Jahr 2018 erwartet.\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nWir haben uns in letzter Zeit bem\u00fcht, Fahrzeuge parallel zu den Spielschleifen zu ver\u00f6ffentlichen und nicht schon zu einem fr\u00fcheren Zeitpunkt im Projekt (siehe Starfarer und Reclaimer), und das werden wir auch weiterhin tun.\n\n\n\n\nRSI Scorpius Antares\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nDie Antares wurde neben der Basis-Scorpius als optionale Variante f\u00fcr eine sp\u00e4tere Produktion entworfen, wobei das Heck des Schiffes als der Teil vorgesehen war, dessen Geometrie ausgetauscht werden konnte. W\u00e4hrend der Entwicklung stellte sich jedoch heraus, dass der EMP- und der Quantenantrieb etwas mehr Leistung ben\u00f6tigten als geplant, und das Team reagierte gut darauf, indem es sowohl die Basis als auch die Antares so anpasste, dass die Komponentenanordnung f\u00fcr beide geeignet war.\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nEs gab ein paar technische Probleme, die wir nicht l\u00f6sen konnten und die die M\u00f6glichkeiten des zweiten Spielers einschr\u00e4nkten, mehr Kontrolle \u00fcber die Pilotenfunktionen und ein verbessertes MFD-Setup zu haben.\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nMit den Master-Modi und den neuen MFDs, die in Zukunft kommen werden, sollte der Kopilot mehr Gameplay-Funktionen bekommen, anstatt halb Passagier, halb Knopfdr\u00fccker zu sein.\n\nBergung & Fracht - Fahrzeug-Gameplay\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nWir waren in der Lage, die beiden Feature-Teams bei der Einf\u00fchrung von zwei wichtigen Features in das PU zu unterst\u00fctzen, wobei Salvage viel Zeit f\u00fcr die Art-Assets ben\u00f6tigte und Cargo einen Durchgang f\u00fcr alle Schiffe durch das Design erforderte.\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nLeider haben wir den Umfang der Arbeit f\u00fcr Salvage drastisch untersch\u00e4tzt, da wir dachten, dass das bestehende UV2-Schadenssystem, das alle Schiffe verwenden, von vornherein geeignet w\u00e4re. Wir haben aber sehr schnell gemerkt, dass wir einen kompletten Durchgang f\u00fcr jedes Schiff brauchen, um die Qualit\u00e4t zu verbessern, da man sich die Grafik viel genauer ansieht als das Schadenssystem.\n\nAu\u00dferdem war die Spielmechanik darauf ausgelegt, dass du den gesamten Rumpf zu 100 % abkratzen kannst. Das war jedoch beim UV2-Schadenssystem nicht der Fall, so dass einige Bereiche nicht zug\u00e4nglich waren, was bei den ersten Testern, die ein Schiff nicht zu 100 % kratzen konnten, zu Frustration f\u00fchrte.\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nWir sind jetzt enger in die Teams integriert, die an gro\u00dfen Funktionen wie dieser arbeiten. So k\u00f6nnen Probleme gefunden und untersucht werden, bevor die Entwicklung richtig beginnt, anstatt erst nach Fertigstellung des Prototyps eingebunden zu werden.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRumpfschaben\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nMit der Alpha 3.18 kam endlich die lang erwartete erste Version des Bergungsspiels, bei dem die Spieler\/innen Rumpfmaterial abkratzen und es entweder tauschen oder f\u00fcr Reparaturen vor Ort verwenden k\u00f6nnen. Der zentrale Spielablauf wurde allgemein gut aufgenommen und bot einen tollen Kontrast zu anderen Aktivit\u00e4ten.\n\nAu\u00dferdem haben wir das Erntesystem um Schiffswracks und bergbare Metallteile erweitert und die erste Miniaturversion von Crafting eingef\u00fchrt, bei der die Spieler\/innen einige ausgew\u00e4hlte Gegenst\u00e4nde mit RMC herstellen k\u00f6nnen.\n\nDie Ver\u00f6ffentlichung von Hull Scraping zusammen mit dem Drake Vulture bedeutete, dass das Schiff mit einem richtigen Gameplay-System herauskommen konnte, und der Aegis Reclaimer hat endlich ein angemessenes Gameplay zur Verf\u00fcgung.\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nViele Funktionen und Systeme, auf die sich Hull Scraping st\u00fctzte, befanden sich noch in der Entwicklung, als wir das Kernsystem f\u00fcr das Gameplay erstellten. Das bedeutete, dass das Feature an das EUPU-Team \u00fcbergeben wurde und der Zeitplan f\u00fcr die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung ziemlich eng war.\n\nWir haben uns viel zu sp\u00e4t mit der Art und Weise befasst, wie die Spieler\/innen wiederverwertbare Objekte im Universum finden w\u00fcrden, und die Balance f\u00fcr die Verteilung der wiederverwertbaren Objekte war nicht richtig ausgearbeitet worden.\n\nNicht alle Fahrzeuge konnten auf die neue Schadenskarte aufger\u00fcstet werden, was bedeutet, dass einige Fahrzeuge immer noch nicht richtig mit Hull Scraping funktionieren.\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nWir haben unseren Ansatz ge\u00e4ndert, wie fr\u00fch wir andere Teams einbeziehen. Das bedeutet, dass nachgelagerte Teams bereits in der Prototyping-Phase einbezogen werden. Au\u00dferdem haben wir zus\u00e4tzliche Meilensteine eingef\u00fchrt, an denen nachgelagerte und inhaltliche Teams unsere Fortschritte \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen und genehmigen k\u00f6nnen, bevor wir zur n\u00e4chsten Phase \u00fcbergehen.\n\nAlpha 3.19\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBergungsvertr\u00e4ge\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nWir sind sehr stolz auf das, was wir erreicht haben. Urspr\u00fcnglich wollten wir die Mission nur mit Hull Scraping ver\u00f6ffentlichen, aber wir haben es geschafft, die Fracht und das brandneue Feature der abnehmbaren Komponenten zu integrieren. Auch bei den Geldgebern kam die Mission gut an.\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nWir haben nicht die besten Schiffe f\u00fcr die Mission ausgew\u00e4hlt, denn nur einige haben abnehmbare interne Komponenten und Goldstandard-R\u00fcmpfe zum Verschrotten (was wir erst im Nachhinein herausgefunden haben). Und aufgrund einer Krankheit der Entwickler wurde das Spawnen von Fracht in der ersten Version nur sehr grob durchgef\u00fchrt, so dass keine Zeit blieb, um das Balancing richtig zu gestalten oder zu \u00fcberpr\u00fcfen, ob alle Gegenst\u00e4nde verkauft werden k\u00f6nnen.\n\nDas Wirtschaftsteam musste den Wert von Schiffswaffen erst sehr sp\u00e4t in der Entwicklung \u00e4ndern. Dies war notwendig, um das problematische Versicherungsproblem auszubalancieren, das noch einmal \u00fcberarbeitet werden muss. Die \u00c4nderung f\u00fchrte dazu, dass einige Backer entt\u00e4uscht waren, weil sie sich an h\u00f6here Belohnungen gew\u00f6hnt hatten.\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nF\u00fcr die n\u00e4chste Version werden wir geeignetere Schiffe mit abnehmbaren internen Komponenten ausw\u00e4hlen.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNeue Spielerfahrung\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nWir haben viel positives Feedback von neuen Spielern erhalten, dass das neue Spielerlebnis ihnen geholfen hat, das Spiel zu lernen. Die visuellen Verbesserungen in Gebiet 18 haben die Navigation stark verbessert, zusammen mit neuen Steuerungs- und Kontexthinweisen.\n\nW\u00e4hrend der Entwicklung von NPE konnten wir viele Verbesserungen an unserem Missionssystem vornehmen, wie zum Beispiel die Einf\u00fchrung der Missionspersistenz, die es uns erm\u00f6glicht, eine Mission am letzten aktiven Ziel fortzusetzen, wenn ein Spieler die Verbindung verliert oder der Client abst\u00fcrzt.\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nDie Mission ist weitgehend modular, aber nicht vollst\u00e4ndig, was bedeutet, dass mehr Arbeit n\u00f6tig ist, um sie an andere Orte zu bringen. Wir hatten nicht genug Zeit oder Unterst\u00fctzung, um dem Spieler die Lagerverwaltung oder die Interaktion mit Gesch\u00e4ften beizubringen.\n\nWas die Produktion selbst angeht, so war New Player Experience eine team\u00fcbergreifende Initiative und als solche kompliziert zu koordinieren. Die Produktionsunterst\u00fctzung f\u00fcr \"New Player Experience\" wechselte ein paar Mal, da sie nicht von einem eigenen Team betreut wurde.\n\nAu\u00dferdem hatten wir nicht gen\u00fcgend Unterst\u00fctzung, um die visuellen Probleme mit den bestehenden HUD-Elementen zu beheben, die mit den neuen Steuerungs- und Kontexthinweisen kollidierten.\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nWir haben damit begonnen, die verbleibenden Teile der New Player Experience zu modularisieren, um den Wartungsaufwand zu verringern und sie an mehreren Standorten einsetzen zu k\u00f6nnen. Au\u00dferdem werden wir zus\u00e4tzliche Komponenten in die NPE einf\u00fchren, wie z. B. die Bestandsverwaltung, das Einkaufen und mehr.\n\nRSI Lynx\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nDer Lynx war anfangs eine sehr einfache Anpassung des Ursa, aber im Laufe der Zeit hatten wir das Gef\u00fchl, dass er mehr verdient hat. Das hat sich ausgezahlt, denn das Fahrzeug sieht jetzt richtig gut aus und passt gut zum Constellation Phoenix.\n\nWir haben es auch geschafft, eine gro\u00dfe Menge an interaktiven Inhalten in das Fahrzeug einzubauen, darunter animierte St\u00fchle, Fernseher, Spinde und K\u00fchlschr\u00e4nke.\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nDie Ausweitung des Arbeitsumfangs f\u00fcr das Fahrzeug (vor allem die Neugestaltung des gesamten Cockpits) f\u00fchrte dazu, dass das Fahrzeugteam l\u00e4nger arbeitete als erwartet, wodurch anderen Teams wie VFX und Audio weniger Zeit f\u00fcr ihre Arbeit blieb.\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nBeim n\u00e4chsten Mal werden wir sicherstellen, dass die Anpassungen des Umfangs mit allen Teams besprochen werden und dass sie nicht unn\u00f6tig warten, bis alle Aspekte geliefert sind, um mit ihrem Durchgang zu beginnen.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMirai Fury & Fury MX\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nTrotz ihrer Gr\u00f6\u00dfe ist die Fury-Serie eines der komplexesten Fahrzeuge, die wir je ins Spiel gebracht haben. Sie erfordert komplexe Animationen und Zustandsautomaten, die alle auf einen sehr kleinen Raum komprimiert sind. Wir waren so begeistert von dem Fahrzeug, dass wir schon mit der Produktion begannen, bevor der Concept Pass offiziell fertig war.\n\nVehicle Features hat die kardanischen Triebwerke \u00fcberarbeitet, damit sie so funktionieren, wie wir es uns vorgestellt haben. Das bedeutet, dass der Khartu-al und der San'tok.yai in Zukunft davon profitieren werden.\n\nDer Schutzschild des MX war unser erster richtiger Versuch, benutzerdefinierte Building Blocks UI in die Fahrzeugpipeline zu integrieren, anstatt andere Assets wie T\u00fcrbedienfelder wiederzuverwenden.\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nEs hat ein paar Versuche gebraucht, um die Technik f\u00fcr die Schubd\u00fcsenrotation auszub\u00fcgeln, und wir haben versehentlich andere Probleme mit Schubd\u00fcsen auf anderen Schiffen verursacht, aber alles wurde vor der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung gel\u00f6st.\n\nUrspr\u00fcnglich sollte die MX \u00fcber generische Raketenst\u00e4nder verf\u00fcgen, aber es war schon fr\u00fch klar, dass sie ma\u00dfgeschneidert sein mussten, um zu verhindern, dass sie in den Rumpf oder die Fl\u00fcgel geschossen werden, wenn sie gegen Alternativen ausgetauscht werden. Das schr\u00e4nkt die Anpassungsm\u00f6glichkeiten der Spieler leider ein, macht sie aber letztlich zuverl\u00e4ssiger.\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nWir sind ziemlich zufrieden damit, wie sich die Fury und die Fury MX entwickelt haben, und es sind keine besonderen Dinge bei ihrer Entwicklung aufgetreten, die in Zukunft angepasst werden m\u00fcssen.\n\nTraktorstrahl - Gegenstand anbringen\/abnehmen\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nEndlich k\u00f6nnen die Spieler\/innen Fahrzeuge nach Bauteilen und Waffen pl\u00fcndern, was den Bergungsspielkreislauf erheblich erweitert. Diese Funktion bietet auch zus\u00e4tzliche Spielm\u00f6glichkeiten f\u00fcr andere Funktionen, wie z. B. das Austauschen von Minenk\u00f6pfen und Modulen, und bildet eine solide Grundlage f\u00fcr die Fahrzeug-Traktorstrahl-Funktion.\n\nIntern hat das Fahrzeuginhaltsteam sehr schnell reagiert, um inhaltliche Probleme mit bestehenden Komponenten und Waffen zu l\u00f6sen.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nDiese Funktion war urspr\u00fcnglich nicht f\u00fcr die Alpha 3.19 geplant, so dass wir mit einem engen Zeitplan arbeiten mussten. Der QATR f\u00fcr diese Funktion enth\u00fcllte auch eine Menge inhaltlicher Probleme, die nicht alle rechtzeitig zur Ver\u00f6ffentlichung gel\u00f6st werden konnten.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nWir haben damit begonnen, die nachgelagerte Unterst\u00fctzung viel fr\u00fcher im Prozess anzufordern, damit die notwendigen inhaltlichen \u00c4nderungen schon vor der Fertigstellung des Features vorgenommen werden k\u00f6nnen, anstatt die \u00dcbergabe erst gegen Ende der Entwicklung zu machen.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBergbau Rebalance\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWas gut gelaufen ist\nDie Community hat uns fantastisch aufgenommen und wir sind sehr zufrieden damit, wie sich die Ver\u00f6ffentlichung entwickelt hat. Lange bestehende Metas und Balanceprobleme wurden gel\u00f6st und der Bergbau ist jetzt ein viel nuancierterer Spielablauf, der verschiedene Strategien zul\u00e4sst.\n\nDie \u00c4nderungen an den Traktorstrahlen haben sich sehr positiv auf das Mining Gameplay ausgewirkt, da sie es erm\u00f6glichen, Mining Heads, Module und Pods auszutauschen. Au\u00dferdem haben wir einen besseren Prozess gefunden, um Spielabl\u00e4ufe ganzheitlich zu balancieren.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWas nicht gut gelaufen ist\nEs gab einige Probleme, die wir erst nach der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung richtig l\u00f6sen konnten, z. B. dass abbaubare Steine immer explodierten, und die Neuverteilung und Anpassung der Ladenpreise erforderte ein ziemliches Hin und Her zwischen verschiedenen Teams, bevor wir sie richtig umgesetzt hatten.\n\nW\u00e4hrend des Testens wurden viele Probleme mit der Preisgestaltung und der Verteilung aufgedeckt, die st\u00e4ndig behoben und nachjustiert werden mussten.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWas wir besser machen werden\/Zukunftspl\u00e4ne\nWir wollen unsere Kommunikation mit der Community rund um den Bergbau weiter verbessern und weiterhin auf kritisches Feedback h\u00f6ren, um den Bergbau so gut wie m\u00f6glich zu machen.\n\nAu\u00dferdem werden wir den Daten, die wir sammeln, mehr Vertrauen schenken, um zuk\u00fcnftige Designentscheidungen rund um das Mining Gameplay zu treffen.","zh_CN":"Alpha 3.18 & 3.19\nPost Mortem\n\n\n\nPersistent Entity Streaming\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe development of Persistent Entity Streaming (PES) involved a diverse strike team of programmers with specialized skills from multiple areas across the Core Tech group and Turbulent. This collaboration was crucial in successfully building this complex system. The strike team followed aligned sprints and goals facilitated by senior engineers and producers that were supported by regular meetings. This resulted in effective communication and minimized miscommunication or technical misunderstandings.\n\nA high-code-quality bar was maintained by the strike team, who ensured it underwent thorough design, discussion, and multiple reviews before being integrated into the mainline codebase.\n\nThe initial deployment to the Public Test Universe (PTU) and testing with the PTU community went well, setting a positive foundation for further improvements. However, this led to issues (discussed below).\n\nFinally, PES\u2019 system architecture and API, which are based on durable queues, proved they can recover from the worst kind of problems safely and will always tend towards recovery.\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nThe research-and-development aspects of PES posed challenges, requiring the engineers to invent ways around unforeseen problems. Due to the foundational nature of PES, integrating it into the Star Citizen game code resulted in significant changes that disrupted the game at a very low level, and some game teams were unprepared for the integration effort required to bring the game systems back to parity or to convert and leverage the new persistence layer for existing features.\n\nIssues with the changes introduced by PES only became apparent during large-scale use and under heavy player load, which caused delays in identifying and resolving the problems. And features not thought to use persistence at all became affected by trivial delays (like tram systems, spawn queues, and others).\n\nWe also underestimated the multiplication factor between the PTU and Live operations; the group had estimated a 10x increase in backend activity but were faced with a 20x+ increase in requests, stream message sizes, and overall activity, which caused service outages across the board during the initial launch.\n\nRegarding vehicles, PES heavily modified the way they are entitled and created in-game. This gives a better user experience (where you can choose where a ship ends up being created) but also significantly reduced the size of the inventory\/global database for ships that are never used.\n\nMajor issues were also discovered at scale with a third-party database engine that PES leverages for its functionality. These issues gave birth to very unstable request\/response cycles as well as heavy queuing. These issues also caused ripple effects where one database server entering a deadlock condition would cause the entire shard cluster (instead of a single shard) to stop processing requests for a period. This was a major cause of the instability throughout Alpha 3.18.x until the team had identified and programmed a workaround to alleviate the effects. Additionally, multiple locking problems at scale were discovered in the global database system (same engine) that would cause a periodic stop of all requests to the inventory systems. The team had to investigate and report to our vendors to determine workarounds and ultimately fixes that would prevent the database engine from locking.\n\nIn the engine, several shards reached previously unknown hard limits of the maximum number of allocated entities, forcing the teams to seed\/create new shards and cycle them out, diluting the effect of persistence on those shards.\n\nSeveral bugs were uncovered (in those unstable times) with error handling in parts of the login flow that bricked some accounts in different ways related to character creation. Server-crash handling was discovered to take a much longer amount of time due to a new process that kicks in during the post-mortem analysis. This affected the shard post-mortem and delayed players getting stowed back to the global inventory, which could result in a player character being \u201cstuck\u201d in a shard.\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nGoing forward, we\u2019ll finalize and use the new Cloud Test Launcher to adequately stress test the game shards at scale. This tool will simulate player behaviors and allow QA and the engineers to connect multiple modified game clients to the shard. By utilizing cloud computing resources, effective stress testing can be conducted, which will help identify and address issues relating to heavily loaded servers before moving to Live.\n\nThe team responsible for PES has now moved onto Static Server Meshing and are embracing a transformation approach to the new project. Unlike PES, this foundational technology can be integrated into the codebase gradually, avoiding a disruptive \"Big Bang\" approach. Parts of the Server Meshing tech are already available to the game team for testing compatibility with their game features. Combined with the Cloud Test Launcher, this approach aims to facilitate a smoother integration process for Static Server Meshing.\n\nBy implementing these measures, we aim to enhance our testing capabilities and mitigate integration challenges, ensuring smoother delivery of foundational technologies while minimizing disruption to the game.\n\nRivers\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe inclusion of rivers marked a significant milestone in our quest to create more realistic and immersive planets. We were quite happy with the improvements to river canyons we were able to achieve between Alpha 3.18 and 3.19 due to improvements in our asset pipeline. And the support from the Planet Tech team to address technical issues during this process was remarkable.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nThe procedural river placement tool was not in as good of a state as we had hoped when we started using it. As a consequence, a considerable amount of manual effort was required to meticulously place and verify the resulting rivers to ensure their optimal quality. Moreover, this limitation also led to a decrease in the number of rivers we were able to generate.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nThe numerous issues that were successfully identified and addressed during this initial run of rivers have already made a significant impact toward ensuring a smoother experience for next time. Although there is still considerable work ahead before we can consistently create planetary landscapes with rivers that look and feel like the real deal, we have made substantial progress and are now much closer to achieving our goal than ever before.\n\nSand Caves\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nWe were very happy with the results of this initial push to develop an improved pipeline to produce individual rooms for all cave archetypes and to also define the visual identity of our sand caves. That we were able to release a first set of smaller cave systems out of that prototyping phase thanks to the concerted effort from multiple departments was the icing on the cake for us.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nWith neither the tools for procedurally assembling locations nor automatically placing them on planets ready for use, we had to build and place every cave manually, which was the primary constraint on the number of caves we could place on planets in the Stanton system.\n\nUnfortunately, these caves had to initially be released without missions, making them into locations the player actively needed to seek out to experience.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe are currently in the final stages of refining the new visuals for rock caves, which will serve as the next archetype. We are looking forward to utilizing the Location Tool to construct a wider variety of cave systems.\n\nAdditionally, we will be working towards support for bigger connections, rooms, and entrances, which is a key requirement before we can replace the old caves.\n\nPTV Racetrack\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nIt was created very quickly; we went into it with the idea that it was a simple location with a short timeframe and minimal impact on other teams. However, we achieved a lot more in three weeks than we were initially expecting, with a good modular kit for kart-style racetracks, and the addition of good dressing, theming, and lighting. It was really good to see how the community, especially the racing community, was excited when the track was initially shown to the public. We have since seen organized races on the track. We also got code support for upgrades to the respawning vehicle entity so if people were to crash, break, or abandon the Greycat PTV, it would respawn back at the starting area of the track. We can also set the values of things like time to respawn.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nDespite finishing the track before Alpha 3.17 was released, it had yet to have a QA pass and be bug-fixed, so we decided to hold it back until Alpha 3.18. Little did we know Alpha 3.18 was going to be delayed so much, so the track, even though complete, made it into the public\u2019s hands a long time after we had hoped.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe will certainly develop more modular tracks in the future (and have another in the works), but it is on the back burner for the moment. We will try and support other similar-sized ground vehicles like the Greycat STV in the future as well (initial tests have been positive). We will also work with the Mission team to look into adding a racetrack-style mission to the tracks, which will allow the tracking of race times, checkpoints, and laps, and enable the mission to give rewards to players.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSecurity Post Kareah\n\ufeff\n\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nWe could never have imagined the level of support we received from the Art team, which really rejuvenated the location.\n\nThe player-triggered sandbox activity was well received, and analytics showed that hacking CrimeStats at Kareah is still very popular, which was a concern for us as we were taking a risk removing the other hacking locations.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nThe mission still has rough edges that need ironing out, which is in progress. Also, additional analytics needs on sandbox activities were identified to be able to further understand player participation.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe\u2019ll continue to iterate on the sandbox activity and location based on the feedback we\u2019ve received and add further analytics to better understand participation.\n\nJumptown\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe changes to the location were very well received, player participation was consistently very high, and the support we received from Art was well beyond what we expected.\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nThe implementation of PES led to performance issues around the location after a lot of ships were destroyed. We also wanted to redrop the locations with RASTAR. However, we were unable to at the time due to it breaking the shops.\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nFor the next run of Global Events, we\u2019re planning to redrop the locations on different planets to give different gameplay. For example, in thick atmosphere, higher gravity planets, and forests.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTime Trials\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe new racing content and time trial modes were well received by the racing community, helped by the Content teams who produced many more tracks than we could have hoped for.\n\nIn the backend, the analytics we added were fantastic and allowed us to make very in-depth analyses of each track, which helped determine where they should go on the difficulty ranking and what the target times should be.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nPoor server performance meant that a sophisticated new system of checkpoint tracking had to be created, though the markers still do not update as responsively as we would like.\n\nAnalytics also show that relatively few players actually unlock the second track.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nInfiltrate Missions - Orison\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe new FPS environments were well-received and a refreshing change after only having underground facilities for years. The ability to assault the locations on foot or in ships was great too.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nWe had to turn the missions off for Alpha 3.19 because we were aiming to release Siege of Orison, but we were not able to achieve this or the new platform clusters (where we were to relocate them) in time.\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe have relocated the missions to the new platform clusters and will be releasing them when possible.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPrison Activities\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe Prison Escape mission is surprisingly well-played and offers a new way for players to clear their CrimeStats. Inside the prison, loot on the AI and new selling terminals were well received; players felt the new AI made the prison feel more alive and it gave them another way to earn merits.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nThe Ursa Rover continues to spawn underground, selling items at the prison kiosk still isn\u2019t reliable, and excessive AI are being spawned due to a spawn closet issue.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nFor the next release, we\u2019ll fix any bugs we can, including the Ursa spawning issue.\n\nDrake Vulture\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nAdding the long-awaited \u201cstarter\u201d of the Salvage career alongside its gameplay loop was a great milestone for the Vehicle team. While the vehicle was started some time ago, we had held on to it to ensure it released strongly with the gameplay loop rather than without, and this allowed the team to squeeze in some more features to the ship to make sure it hit all the current standards.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nA few complaints surrounding the traversal of the ship due to the gameplay mechanics were somewhat a product of the Salvage mechanic evolving over time to require more manual input than initially expected during the vehicle\u2019s concept in 2018.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nReleasing vehicles alongside their gameplay loops rather than earlier in the project (see Starfarer and Reclaimer) is something we\u2019ve been striving to do in recent times, and we\u2019ll continue aiming to do this.\n\n\n\n\nRSI Scorpius Antares\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe Antares was designed alongside the base Scorpius as an optional variant to put into production in the future, with the tail section of the ship outlined as the part that could be geometry-swapped. However, during development, it was clear the needs of the EMP and quantum drive required slightly more power than planned and the team reacted well to adjust both the base and Antares to allow the component layout to suit both.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nThere were a few technical issues that we weren\u2019t able to solve that reduced the ability for the second player to have more control over pilot features and a more enhanced MFD setup.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWith Master Modes and new MFDs coming in the future, we should see the copilot get more gameplay features rather than being half passenger, half button-presser.\n\nSalvage & Cargo - Vehicle Gameplay\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nWe were able to support both Feature teams' introduction two key features to the PU, with Salvage requiring a lot of time be spent on the art assets and Cargo requiring a pass across all ships by Design.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nUnfortunately, the scope of the work for Salvage was drastically underestimated, as we thought the existing UV2 damage system all ships used would be suitable out of the box. However, we very quickly realized we\u2019d have to do an entire pass on every ship to up the quality, as you were looking at the visuals much closer than the damage system.\n\nIn addition, the gameplay mechanic was built around the idea that you\u2019d be able to 100% scrape the entire hull. However, this wasn\u2019t a consideration in the UV2 damage setup, so some areas were inaccessible, causing frustration to early testers who couldn\u2019t \u201c100%\u201d a ship.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe\u2019re now more closely integrated with the teams working on big features like this so issues can be found and investigated before development properly starts, rather than being looped in once the prototype has been completed.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHull Scraping\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe long-awaited first iteration of Salvage gameplay finally arrived with Alpha 3.18, which enables players to scrape off hull material and either trade it or use it for field repairs. The core gameplay loop was generally well received and provided a great contrast to other activities.\n\nWe also expanded the harvestable system with ship-wrecks and salvageable metal pieces, and introduced the first miniature version of Crafting by allowing players to create a few select items using RMC.\n\nReleasing Hull Scraping alongside the Drake Vulture meant that the ship could come out with a proper gameplay system, and the Aegis Reclaimer finally has appropriate gameplay available to it.\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nA lot of features and systems Hull Scraping was relying on were still in active development when we were building the core gameplay system. This meant the feature was handed off to the EUPU team with a fairly compressed timeline for release.\n\nWe addressed the way players would find salvageable objects in the universe way too late in the process, and the balance work for salvageable-object distribution was not properly mapped out.\n\nNot all vehicles could be upgraded to the new Damage Map, meaning some vehicles still won\u2019t work correctly with Hull Scraping.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe\u2019ve changed our approach to how early we get other teams involved, meaning that downstream teams get involved as early as the prototyping stage. We\u2019ve also introduced additional milestones where downstream and content teams can review and approve the progress we\u2019ve made before we move on to the next stage.\n\nAlpha 3.19\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSalvage Contracts\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nWe\u2019re very proud of what we achieved; initially, we had only expected to release with Hull Scraping, but were able to get cargo and the brand-new detachable-components feature included. The mission was well received by backers too.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nWe didn\u2019t choose the best ships for the mission, as only some have detachable internal components and gold-standard hulls for scraping (which we only found out after the fact). And, due to developer illness, the first release saw a very rough pass of cargo spawning, meaning there was no time to properly balance or verify that all items could be sold.\n\nThe Economy team had to change the value of ship weapons very late into development. This was necessary to balance the problematic insurance issue, which needs a further rebalance. The change meant some backers were disappointed having gotten used to higher rewards.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nFor the next release, we\u2019ll choose more appropriate ships with detachable internal components.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNew Player Experience\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nWe received a lot of positive feedback from new players that the New Player Experience has helped them learn the game. The visual upgrades to Area 18 have greatly improved navigation, alongside new control and contextual hints.\n\nThroughout the development of NPE, we\u2019ve been able to make many improvements to our mission system, such as the introduction of mission persistence, which allows us to resume a mission at the last active objective if a player loses connection or experiences a client crash.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nThe mission is largely modular but not entirely so, which means more work is needed to bring it to other locations. We didn\u2019t have sufficient time or support to teach the player inventory management or interacting with shops.\n\nIn terms of the production itself, New Player Experience was a cross-team initiative and as such, was complicated to coordinate. Production support for New Player Experience changed a few times as it wasn\u2019t owned by a dedicated team.\n\nAdditionally, we didn\u2019t have sufficient support to remedy the visual issues with the existing HUD elements clashing with the new Control and Contextual Hints.\n\n\n\nWhat We'll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe\u2019ve started work on modularizing the remaining parts of the New Player Experience to reduce maintenance and allow us to bring it to multiple locations. We will also introduce additional components to NPE, such as inventory management, shopping and more.\n\nRSI Lynx\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe Lynx started off as a very simplistic adjustment of the Ursa but, as we progressed, we felt it deserved more. So, it ended up with virtually all-new geometry and materials, which paid off as the vehicle now looks the part and sits well with the Constellation Phoenix.\n\nWe also managed to cram a huge amount of interactive content within the vehicle, including animated chairs, TVs, lockers, and fridges.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nIncreasing the scope of work for the vehicle (primarily redoing the entire cockpit area) resulted in the Vehicle team working longer than expected, leaving less time for other teams, such as VFX and Audio, to do their work.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nNext time, we\u2019ll ensure scope adjustments are discussed with all teams and that they\u2019re not unnecessarily waiting for all aspects to be delivered to start their pass.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMirai Fury & Fury MX\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nDespite its size, the Fury series is one of the most complex vehicles we\u2019ve ever put in the game, requiring complex animations and state machines all compressed into a very small spaceframe. It was also delivered ahead of schedule, as we were so excited by the vehicle we actually started production before the concept pass was officially complete.\n\nVehicle Features made a pass on the gimballed thrusters to make them work as we had envisioned. This means the Khartu-al and San\u2019tok.yai will benefit from this in the future.\n\nThe MX\u2019s blast shield was our first proper foray into integrating custom Building Blocks UI into the vehicle pipeline rather than reusing other assets, such as door control panels.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn't Go Well\nSome of the tech we needed for the thruster rotations took a few attempts to iron out, and we accidentally caused other issues with thrusters on other ships, but all was solved before release.\n\nThe MX was originally intended to have generic missile racks but it was clear early on they needed to be bespoke to prevent them from launching into the body or wings when changed for alternatives. This sadly reduces player customization but ultimately makes it more reliable in use.\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe\u2019re pretty happy with how the Fury and Fury MX turned out and no specific things occurred with their development that need adjustment in the future.\n\nTractor Beam - Item Attach\/Detach\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nFinally, players are able to loot vehicles for components and weapons, greatly expanding the Salvage gameplay loop. This feature also provides additional gameplay opportunities to other features, such as allowing players to swap out mining heads and modules, and provides a strong foundation for the Vehicle Tractor Beam feature.\n\nInternally, the Vehicle Content team were very responsive to addressing content issues with existing components and weapons.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nThis feature wasn\u2019t originally scheduled for Alpha 3.19, so we had a compressed timeline to work with. The QATR for this feature also revealed a lot of issues with content that couldn\u2019t all be resolved in time for release.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe\u2019ve started requesting downstream support much earlier in the process so that necessary content changes can be done in anticipation of the feature getting ready, as opposed to doing the handover toward the tail end of development.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMining Rebalance\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Went Well\nThe community reception has been fantastic and we\u2019re very happy with how the release panned out; long-standing metas and balance issues have been resolved and mining is now a much more nuanced gameplay loop that allows for multiple strategies.\n\nChanges to tractor beams greatly benefited the Mining gameplay loop by enabling the ability to swap out mining heads, modules, and pods. We also identified a better process to balance gameplay loops holistically.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat Didn\u2019t Go Well\nThere were some issues that we couldn\u2019t properly resolve until after the release, such as mineable rocks always exploding, and the redistribution and rebalance of shop prices required quite a bit of back and forth between various teams before we got it properly implemented.\n\nA lot of issues and edge cases with pricing and distribution were revealed during testing that needed constant fixing and readjustment.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nWhat We\u2019ll Do Better\/Future Plans\nWe want to continue to improve our communication around mining with the community and keep listening to critical feedback to make mining the best it can be.\n\nWe\u2019ll also put more trust in the data we gather to help inform future design decisions around mining gameplay.\n\nAlpha 3.18's LaunchAs many of our players experienced, we launched Alpha 3.18 on March 10 of this year, and alongside a bevy of high-profile new features like Salvage, the Vulture patch flyable ship, the surprise Scorpius Antares, new rivers, and new missions, the biggest headliner of the patch was our delivery of Persistent Entity Streaming (PES), which completely rewrote how we save state in the game and ushered in the beginning of the promise of a truly persistent universe where a player\u2019s actions could remain in the game for others to interact with and create a lived-in environment where you could literally leave your mark in the PU. And, just as importantly, PES, was the necessary final stepping stone to delivering Static Server Meshing.\n\nMany who follow Star Citizen appreciated how consequential and important our delivery of Alpha 3.18 was for us and the game itself. Many teams at CIG spent most of the second half of last year finishing out Persistent Entity Streaming, as we deployed it to our Public Test Universe servers for testing in December 2022, and then spent the next 3 months attempting to harden and improve it for launching to our Live Star Citizen service as quickly as possible.\n\nHowever, when the moment of truth came and Alpha 3.18 shipped to Live, the shock to the system was beyond what we had projected. While it\u2019s true that we expected PES to create a rough experience initially as we ironed out the issues that could only expose themselves at massive scale (and we warned as much), to say that we were surprised by the depth of chaos from the PES launch would be an understatement.\n\nThe anticipation for PES and 3.18 was nothing short of unprecedented for us. When the patch first dropped on March 10, we experienced our highest peaks ever for logins per minute and per hour, and had our highest number of attempted logins in a day for the first few days of launch. We say \u201cattempted logins\u201d because as you all know, the service was so overwhelmed by the traffic and teething pains of PES that many players could not get into the game, as various issues stalled users throughout the login funnel. Some were stuck in queues, some couldn\u2019t get their characters to load, some were stuck at an infinite loading screen. As you can read more about in Benoit Beausojour\u2019s (our Chief Technical Officer) account below on PES, we underestimated the multiplicative forces of going to Live and now creating and persisting every entity players created through their actions, creating a load on our service that was beyond our initial forecasts. And it took weeks if not months to expose, diagnose, create fixes, test them, and deploy them to restore the service, all while the game was still running on Live.\n\nWe learned a lot from the launch of PES, and while we are still recovering, and regret the compromised service in the first days and weeks of the rollout, it has definitely taught us a valuable lesson to value and preserve the integrity of the service more than we had in the past. That\u2019s why as we begin to roll out the Replication Layer split and crash recovery \u2013 two things now enabled by PES \u2013 we will do so gradually, and as we begin to deliver Server Meshing, we will create dedicated testing channels to harden those new technologies further and implement standards and thresholds before we \u201cgraduate\u201d them to PTU and then Live. You\u2019ll start to see the ramifications of that later in the year and hear more from us later about our new approach to deploying potentially disruptive and game-changing new tech to the game service, but it comes down to us truly committing to preserving the experience for the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, who now play Star Citizen as a live service game, albeit an alpha still in development."},"links_count":0,"comment_count":0,"created_at":"2023-09-12T18:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"2 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-04-27 12:25:30","valid_relations":["images","links","translations"],"prev_id":19469,"next_id":19472}}