With functional realism an end-goal of Star Citizen, we want to make sure all ships are using calculations ideal for the kind of materials our universe will contain.
Definitely not a job for the faint at heart, Kirk has researched how to properly calculate the mass of our ships, and is now looking to apply these findings. While Kirk continues with his design work on the Scout, he has also taken on the hefty task of refactoring the mass of every ship in-game. Lead Tech Designer Kirk Tome has given the Scout its overview such as its variants, characteristics – a comparison of various aspects of performance based on other ships of similar mass and design – and an idea of how the ergonomics of the cockpit will be laid out. While the technical design documentation is akin to a “letter of intent” in that it is providing an idea of how the ship will function, the grey box stage is where the nitty gritty details of the ship begin to take shape. Requisite information such as dimensions, hard points, internal volume, and various functionalities will ensure the artists are incorporating all of the necessary design elements.įurther development on the Xi’an Scout has reached the ‘grey box’ tech design phase. Creating technical design documentation for the ship provides the artists with a template of specifications. One of the most anticipated ships so far, the 890 Jump, has just had its technical design documentation completed by Matt Sherman. With so many ships in the pipeline, it is difficult to decide where to start from. “Ships galore!” should be the slogan for the CIG LA Tech Design team this month. Allen has completely decoupled the interaction logic to allow multiple actors to interact with a single object simultaneously. The current “Use” function in-game prevents us from adding more than one action to a single interactable object. The new Interaction system has been worked on by our Engine Programmer Allen Chen, changing how interactions function.
By making higher levels of shield health better at preventing damage, well-managed shields should provide a positive benefit over poorly/improperly managed shields – with the end goal of making lasers increasingly effective at depleting shields the more damage a shield takes and providing interesting decisions for players balancing regeneration speed, sheer strength, and signature in their shield generator options. While outwardly, this will have no visible impact on the game itself, it changes how the parameters are loaded and allows us to move away from the XML project path.Īssociate Engineer Chad Zamzow has been working on changes on how shields function. With many of our systems moving away from strict XML and moving towards our own internal data management system, there’s a need to convert projectiles to this new management system. This lives as a layer between the items and its physical proxy, interfacing how the physics mode of an object is changed (enabled, static, rigid, ragdoll, etc.).Įngineer Mark Abent has been industriously creating parameters for ammunition. For January, Paul has implemented a physics controlling component that handles the physicalization of objects.
As mentioned in last month’s report, this feature provides greater control over itemization on the back end of the game. Other regions are contributing to this new system and many preliminary features have been already released in order to provide a solid foundation for the Item System 2.0 and set the stage for its continued evolution.
Lead Engineer Paul Reindell has made solid progress on the item refactor collectively called Item System 2.0. The biggest milestone for all of the LA teams was the successful release of Star Citizen 2.1.0. January has been a busy month for the CIG LA Engineering team. With the 2.1.0 release, for those who purchased the Sabre during its debut last year will find this sleek and beautiful space superiority fighter sitting in their hangar!Īlong with the regular gamut of balances, fixes, and updates, below is our monthly report for CIG LA. If you watched any of our streams last year, you would have witnessed the unveiling of the AEGIS Sabre.
Additional world missions were added to the universe however, the biggest stand-out feature was the additional two flyable ships: the Aegis Vanguard Warden and the long awaited MISC Freelancer. January marked the release of Star Citizen 2.1.0, a continued evolution of the ground-breaking 2.0.0 release from last year. Now that we have taken our first step into 2016, we have already started the year off with a big splash.