Letter From The Chairman - Roberts Space Industries | Follow the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42
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Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and merch, as well as all the community tools used by our fans.
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4.0 Preview Build
➣ Alpha 4.0 will be released soon to the Live servers, as part of a “4.0 Preview” channel. Expected release is within 12 hours from this post.
➣ Missing mission types and other issues prevent 4.0 from being released to everyone at once.
➣ Two Live Releases will be maintained in parallel:
ㅤ✦Alpha 3.24.3: All existing data, missions, events, and inventories maintained. No transfer to 4.0 or future versions.
ㅤ✦4.0 Preview: Clean slate 4.0 Preview. Includes server meshing, Pyro, and many other 4.0 features.
➣ All progress in 4.0 Preview is intended to carry over to future releases.
➣ Save Stanton and related events will continue to be available on 3.24.3 over holiday break.

Alpha 4.0 Content
➣ Server Meshing:
ㅤ✦ Seamless navigation between Stanton and Pyro with invisible server boundaries.
ㅤ✦ Server crashes are now localized, improving performance and playability.
ㅤ✦ Server load is reduced by having each server simulate fewer entities.
➣ New Content in 4.0:
ㅤ✦ Pyro System: Adds two competing mission chains tied to the Headhunters or Citizens for Prosperity factions.
ㅤ✦ Contested Zones: Locations in Pyro controlled by gang factions (Fire Rats, Horizon, XenoThreat) offering high rewards but requiring player conflict or cooperation.
ㅤ✦ Reputation System: Expanded to allow players to align with factions, affecting friendly/hostile areas.
ㅤ✦ New Progression Methods: Introduction of reputation and physical rewards, setting the stage for more in future updates.

2025: A Focus on Playability
➣ 2025 Focus: The primary goal for 2025 is improving playability in Star Citizen, concentrating on Performance, Stability, and Content
➣ Quality of Life (QoL): Efforts will focus on smoother gameplay with fewer bugs and obstacles, addressing tech debt while balancing new features and tech introduction.
➣ Challenges in Feature and Content Testing: Previous testing of new features within content pipelines caused instability and delays. This approach will change to improve reliability.
➣ Decoupling Feature Development:
ㅤ✦ New features will be tested separately from content releases.
ㅤ✦ Complex features will go through an Experimental PTU (EPTU) for focused testing before integration into the main pipeline.
➣ Stability and Predictability: By isolating feature testing, development will improve stability, performance, and QoL without disrupting content delivery.
➣ Connected Content Drops: Future content releases will be more focused and narrative-driven, offering rewards (ships, armor, weapons) to enhance playability.
➣ More Frequent Content Updates: Aim to deliver more content, more often, avoiding delays caused by tech or feature development.
➣ Objective: Make Star Citizen more stable, performant, and fun in 2025.
➣ Development Philosophy:
ㅤ✦ Chris Roberts reflects on creating games based on personal passion and vision, unimpeded by publishers.
ㅤ✦ Crowdfunding allowed Star Citizen and Squadron 42 to pursue ambitious, niche projects.
➣ Community Impact:
ㅤ✦ Ongoing support from the community is vital for development.
ㅤ✦ In 2024, the community hosted 203 Bar Citizens, with large in-person events like BE@Con and CitizenCon, drawing thousands.
ㅤ✦ Over 1 million players contributed 32 million hours of gameplay, and the community grew by 500,000.

  • Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world
    2·
    11 days ago

    I was planning to wait until 4.1 or any other update that brings the missing 4.0 features and/or further flight mechanic changes but changed my mind to see whether my PC can still handle the game. It does though the experience itself was rather mixed.

    • Seeing NPCs walking and talking around LZs was nice (even if they can sometimes be heard from dozens of meters and few walls between us).
    • The back-end services lag was on the lower side during my attempts - inventory, stores, elevators etc. worked pretty well.
    • Sometimes elevators wouldn’t shut their door so I could see their magic pathways at work.
    • There were almost no contracts (only 4) and the ones that were available wouldn’t finish. As a bonus, when I tried playing today I didn’t even have access to those limited contracts, just absolute void.
    • MFDs reset almost every time I leave the pilot seat and two of the four in Aurora are misaligned with the screen models. At least I can use the cargo grid under the ship properly now.
    • Didn’t have the QT issues thankfully, everything worked surprisingly smooth despite tons of people in chat complaining about an opposite experience.
    • Sometimes game didn’t manage to sync player animations properly so I’ve seen one or two folks just sliding around.
    • I could hear stuff going on in other people hangars a few times, however I couldn’t see or interact with them (I’ve seen some comments saying they could).
    • I had to fight the game to fix and refuel my ship (service screen would flicker the usable view then switch to the instructions one after a few frames).
    • The game stole all of my money which was very cool.

    Looks like I’m back to waiting. Maybe the non-preview release will be more usable.