Star Citizen - Entwickler-Update zu Alpha 2.0 und Star Marine

Die Alpha 2.0 von Star Citizen soll jetzt auch regelmäßig Thema bei den Entwickler-Updates von Cloud Imperium Games auf der offiziellen Webseite sein.

In einem Entwickler-Update auf der offiziellen Webseite zu Star Citizen hat das Team hinter dem Weltraumspiel einen aktuellen Einblick in die Fortschritte der Alpha-Version 2.0 gegeben. Darunter ist auch eine detaillierte Liste mit Neuerungen, die in die nächste große Stufe für das Projekt eingebaut wurden. Unter anderem wurden Nachtank- und Nachlade-Stationen und die dazugehörigen Mechaniken eingebaut, wie sie bereits auf der CitizenCon 2015 angekündigt wurden.

In star Citizen Alpha 2.0 kommen erstmals die unterschiedlichen Module (Raumschiffe, Multicrew, Sucial-Hub, Shooter) in einer ersten Version des persistenten Universum zusammen. Entsprechen tritt die Weiterentwicklung des separaten Shooter-Moduls Star Marine vorerst etwas in den Hintergrund. Dafür gehen viele Verbesserungen und Grundlagen aus dem Modul in die Alpha 2.0 über und sowohl Star Marine als auch der Arena Commander sollen weiterhin als Test-Umgebung dienen. Das Ziel ist klar, die Gameplay-Elemente sollen sich zum noch nicht näher genannten Release-Termin möglichst sauber spielen.

Ganz neu und nicht schon in der Gameplay-Demo gezeigt oder angekündigt ist eine erste Green Zone, ein Gebiet in dem Spieler nicht gegeneinander Kämpfen sollen. Wer es doch tut, wird von der Polizei gejagt.

Mehr zum Spiel:Optimist vs. Skeptiker zu Star Citizen

Im Blog informiert Cloud Imperium Games aber nicht nur über Verbesserungen und neu eingebaute Features, sondern auch über aktuelle Probleme in der Entwicklung. Eines der größten ist der Netzcode für das Spiel, von einer ganzen Masse an Bugs und Performance-Schwierigkeiten abgesehen. In Ein-Mann-Schiffen funktioniert hingegen die Schwerkraft nicht, so dass der Spieler nach hinten durch das Schiff geschleudert wird, sobald er aufsteht und herumgehen will.

Liste der Neuerungen und Probleme

Gameplay and Engineering

Added extra missions in to the Asteroid Fields.
Added Research Stations as well as Storage Stations.
Green Zone system now works to prevent combat fire around the main base.
EVA and animation system improvements including "Fall and Play" to make death and hit reactions look super realistic.
Added Quantum Fuel Tank functionality so now the player's fuel reserves deplete and the player will need to refuel at the stations.
Improvements to procedural FPS camera sway.
Improved AI to avoid obstacles in space.
Repair respawns turrets.
Zero-G out of airlocks.
Added a toggle for identification signal; meaning the ship emissions that make you appear on radar can be switched on and off.
Journal improvements.
Added notifications for player entering a Green Zone.
Improved network syncing for crew members of a multicrew ship when entering/exiting Quantum Travel.
Smoothed out the exit sequence from Quantum Travel.
Optimised the radar for landing areas.
Ship selector now takes ship size into account when assigning it to a landing pad.
Vehicle destruction and how we handle the interior physics upon destruction is in progress.
Putting P-capped animations onto the FPS character rig.
Discussion about character loadouts in regard to weapons and armour for the Crusader map.

UI

mobiGlas mission manager initial implementation has been completed.
Quantum Travel HUD additions.
Quantum fuel gauges.
Quantum travel point of interest marker improvements.
New airlock screens are now being implemented.
Branding for vending machines are also being implemented.
16:9 Engineering Screens art and implementation.
A new reticule for repair landing pads has been implemented.

Art

Repair drone VFX improvements.
Constellation, Cutlass and Retaliator final art, set up and balance.
Crusader map environment final art and optimizations.

Animation

Iterations and new assets for EVA, Death and Hit Reactions, and Fall and Play.
The full no weapon animation set is being finalized, work will continue into next week.
Lots of FPS basic movement and gunplay iterations and tweaks
Gun sway, weapon canting, and recoil procedural animations were tweaked by a strike team of animators, engineers, and designers this week, and we're on track to finish this next week.
Fixed up pistol reload animation.
Continued work with IK look poses and aim poses
Submitted ragdoll improvements for testing.
Ship, prop and environmental interactions for the player.

Audio

Reviewed audio from the CitizenCon demo and identified areas to improve.
Began work on dialogue editing.
Working to improve ship audio as a whole by changing our in-house process.
Implementation of more music to improve the immersion and emotion in the map.
Investigations on how to best improve the breathing manager for ships and FPS combat for the sounds and the code behind it.
Tweaking audio on FPS weapons and gadgets, with a focus on pistol and ballistic assault rifle audio, and the medpen.
Tweaking to laser recharge ammo audio.
Expanding the variety of footsteps heard on surfaces.
Addition of audio for HUD notifications when picking up/downloading datapad information.
Improvements to the breathing manager.

Blocking Issues

Mainly the network and multiplayer issues are holding us back on a functionality side.
Then it's sum of the work that's needed to get it ready for release because we have lots of bug fixing and polish to do including performance improvements.
AI do not spawn into encounters, as their triggers aren't playing correctly! Players can fly to the locations to trigger events but no AI will spawn in. Thankfully they trigger in Missions.
The interior physics grid for single seater ships has a bug meaning that you can't walk around them during flight and will fall to the back of the ship. Fun, but impractical!
The No Weapon animation set is not done yet, and not ready to ship. Should be in better shape next week as the team in Austin continues work on it.
EVA flight is difficult so needs fine tuning to be able to handle the character better, engineers will look into this next week.
EVA look and aim poses need to be created and implemented for the use of weapons.
Pistol motion sets need integration, this will be done next week.
The prone motion set is now a problem, as we have changed the way we do standing and alerted aim poses. This will change how players aim while prone, whether they be prone forward, or rolled on to the back. Needs some R&D love next week.
Issues with some ship and environment terminal UI not working properly