Star Citizen Development Update: July 2021
Cloud Imperium Games made significant progress on Star Citizen's development in July 2021, with teams across the company pushing forward on various features and content for both the Persistent Universe and Squadron 42. Key highlights included work on AI behaviors, planetary tech, ships, and gameplay systems.
AI Advancements
The AI teams focused on refining and expanding NPC behaviors. Vendor AI received polish passes, with the coffee shop setup being reviewed and sanity-checked. Medical AI for doctors and nurses saw implementation of new animations and behaviors, allowing NPCs to react appropriately when players respawn or enter hospital rooms.
Combat AI also received attention, with reviews aimed at improving the intelligence and enjoyability of NPC combat encounters. Specific work was done on allowing AI to spread out and surround players during melee combat. The teams also worked on cowering and surrendering animations to add more variety to NPC reactions.
Planetary Enhancements
Environment artists continued refining the planets and moons of the Pyro system, bringing them up to expected quality standards. Work also progressed on rest stop and Grim HEX medical clinics, with greybox phases allowing developers to walk through and experience the flow and volumes of these new locations.
The planetary navigation system saw upgrades to enable connections between adjacent mesh tiles. This lays the groundwork for full planetary pathfinding capabilities in the future. Procedural tools for generating derelict ship puzzles as points of interest on planets also moved forward.
Ship Development
Several new ships progressed through the pipeline, including both variants of the Crusader Ares, which entered final art stages. The Drake Vulture continued through whitebox, while an unannounced new vehicle began initial development.
Existing ships like the Constellation Taurus and Aegis Redeemer received final polish passes and damage modeling. The Retaliator began its gold standard rework, with interior spaces being corrected for metrics and AI navigation.
New Gameplay Systems
Personal inventory and physical item handling saw major focus, with daily reviews on the user experience. While some aspects will come in future updates, the new system aims to be a significant improvement over the existing personal manager app.
Other gameplay additions in development included expanded radar and scanning capabilities, both for ships and on-foot gameplay. A new fuel arm for the MISC Starfarer was created to support upcoming refueling mechanics.
Engine and Performance
The engine team made progress transitioning to the Gen12 renderer, implementing support for asynchronous shader compilation by default. This should help reduce stuttering from shader compilation, even in shipping builds.
Volumetric cloud and atmospheric rendering received optimizations and quality improvements. Physics saw memory and bandwidth optimizations through compressed mesh representations.
Looking Ahead
While polishing features for the upcoming Alpha 3.14 release remained a priority, the various teams made substantial headway on content and systems slated for Alpha 3.15 and beyond. As development continues, Cloud Imperium Games aims to deliver an ever-expanding and improving Star Citizen experience for its dedicated community of backers and players.
The full monthly report provides an in-depth look at the work done across all of CIG's studios worldwide as Star Citizen's ambitious development pushes forward. Fans can look forward to experiencing the fruits of July's labor in upcoming patches and events.
The Ares Incident: A 30K.fun Misadventure
Captain Zara of the Star Citizen Referral Code Club leaned back in her pilot's seat, admiring the sleek lines of her newly acquired Crusader Ares. The ship had just entered its final art stages, and she couldn't wait to take it for a spin.
"Hey, newbie!" she called out to her co-pilot, a fresh-faced recruit who had joined thanks to the RSI Referral Code Club. "Ready to test this beauty?"
As they lifted off from Port Olisar, Zara noticed something odd. The ship's systems were glitching, and the radar was picking up phantom signals.
"Must be those new expanded radar capabilities they're working on," she muttered. "Don't worry, kid. This is why we're called the 30K.fun Referral Club. We laugh in the face of bugs!"
Suddenly, the ship lurched, and they found themselves surrounded by a swarm of AI-controlled ships. It seemed the combat AI had decided to test its new "surround and cower" tactics on them.
"Hang on!" Zara yelled, expertly maneuvering through the chaos. "This is why you always ask What Code to Use before joining up. You get to experience all the fun quirks of alpha testing!"
As they zoomed past Grim HEX, Zara spotted something peculiar - a MISC Starfarer with a new fuel arm, seemingly stuck in an endless refueling loop with a derelict ship.
"Now that's not something you see every day," she chuckled. "Welcome to The Star Citizen Referral Code Club, kid. Where the bugs are as entertaining as the features!"
With a final burst of speed, they shook off their AI pursuers and headed back to Port Olisar, ready for whatever new adventure the ever-evolving universe of Star Citizen might throw at them next.
Another Star Citizen Fan Fiction from 30KFUN Accessible Gaming Community!
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