Happy Wednesday, everyone!
Every two weeks, we accompany the Roadmap update with a brief explanatory note to give you insight into the decision-making that led to any changes. This is part of an effort to make our communications more transparent, more specific, and more insightful for all of you who help to make Star Citizen and Squadron 42 possible.
With that said, let’s go ahead and dive into this week’s Roadmap Roundup!
-CIG Community Team
Notable Changes for December 15th, 2021
Alpha 3.16
This week, we'd like to give an update on the state of Alpha 3.16, and what you can expect to hit the live servers before holiday break (next week) vs. what we'll release at the beginning of the new year.
Star Citizen Alpha 3.15 took longer to get out the door than we had initially planned, which has limited the amount of time we have to stabilize the 3.16 code base. For this reason, we've opted to branch from the 3.15 development stream to avoid risking overall stability (which has been the best we've had in years). Taking this approach means we'll be operating on the same code base that's currently on the live servers, while manually integrating 3.16 features (specifically those we deem low risk to integrate).
It was important for us to try and limit content moving back a full quarter to Alpha 3.17, as we're eager for you all to have refreshing and engaging content to play over the holiday break and into the early new year. For this reason, in addition to next week's release, we also plan to release a content patch (3.16.1) when we return from holiday break. This patch will include some of the content that we were unable to integrate before the holidays.
Read on for more details below.
Release View
As mentioned in both the Roadmap Caveats and Letter From the Chairman that accompanied our new Roadmap back in 2020, features that are marked as Committed for a release window are done so with at least 90% certainty that the feature won't move. Only in extremely rare cases will something shift once put into this Committed state. Since that announcement, we have successfully marked 66 feature cards on the Roadmap as Committed, with today's Roadmap Roundup introducing 1 card (Mining Gadgets) which will need to be reverted.
The features below have successfully been integrated into the Alpha 3.16 patch, targeting next week for release to the live servers. These also come alongside improvements to the law system, atmospheric bounties, and other gameplay improvements which you can read more about here.
- Area 18 Hospital
- Dying Star - Updated Map
- Gravlev Physics Rework
- Jumptown 2.0
The following features are now slated for the 3.16.1 content update at the start of the new year:
- Derelict Spaceships - Points of Interest
- Laser Trip Mine T0
The following features are being relocated to the 3.17 column, as they are being integrated into that branch:
- DNA Head Textures Update
- Mining Gadgets
Progress Tracker
The following deliverables have been added to the Progress Tracker:
Lockable Containers
Lockable Containers will add the ability for designers to lock entities with either physical or electronic locks, which can be opened with a key or forced open via cutting, destroying, or hacking the lock. This deliverable has been added to the EU PU Gameplay Feature Team's schedule.
FPS Devices T1
While throwable and consumable devices already exist within Star Citizen as grenades and MedPens, further work on this system will enable us to more easily create new items with different effects when used. This includes the development of deployable devices, or items that can be carried around as part of a player loadout, equipped and deployed onto a surface. This deliverable has been added to the Weapon Feature Team's schedule.
The Vehicle Tech Team has moved from being an upstream team to a downstream team. As a reminder, this means the team is in a more reactive role and plans only one quarter ahead, rather than four. This team is keeping their current schedule through Q1, but some of their longer-term deliverables are coming off the Progress Tracker until we approach that time frame next year. For this reason, the following deliverables are being removed from the Progress Tracker temporarily:
- MultiGrid SDF - Capital Ship Destruction
- Cockpit Button Animations