Star Citizen Patch 3.20.0 Alpha Patch 3.20.0 has been released to the PTU, and is now available to test! Patch should now show: VERSION 3.20.0-PTU.8671107. It is strongly recommended that players...
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New Features
Locations
Bringing the Crusader Port station in line with the other stations and replacing the long standing Port Olisar, Seraphim Station brings many of the amenities needed to accommodate the various features required of a station such as hangars, cargo decks, shopping, clinics, and habs.
Gameplay
- Automated Cargo Transfer and New Cargo Packing System
Alpha 3.20 includes the addition of the new automated cargo transferal experience to the PU for the Hull C. The existing cargo transaction system,which other ships will still use for this release, will instantly pop all of the purchased cargo into a ship or instantly remove all sold cargo off the ship after the transaction has completed. The Hull C however requires a new experience where the player after buying or selling the cargo at the commodity kiosk will be prompted to pick it up/drop it off at a loading area. To do so the player retrieves their vehicle then hails the location's Cargo Services to get assigned a loading area (similar to getting assigned a landing area from ATC). After flying their ship to the loading area they will be prompted to stop moving, and then extend the spindles on their ship. Once the ship is ready cargo will be added onto the cargo grids of the ship over a period of approximately 5 or so minutes, depending on the size of the load. Currently these boxes will just pop into place. If the player moves or someone enters the area the transfer will be interrupted until the disruption is addressed or the loading area is eventually revoked. After transfer is completed successfully the player will be prompted to leave the area, eventually getting a warning for impounding if they do not.
With the changes for the Hull C comes a complete rewrite of how the cargo system places cargo into ships (any ships, not just the Hull C). Previous versions of the system only dealt with 1 SCU containers, and could use fairly simple logic for placement or removal. We are now supporting various sized boxes to be placed in the cargo holds (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, and 32) as well as supporting various orientations of placement in the grid to work around grid obstructions. This also includes temporary tractor beam strength changes to support the attachment/detachment of those various sized boxes using the tractor beam. Cargo grids have also been extended to support non-cargo box attachments and also the smaller mission hand held boxes.
- New Mission: Illegal Salvage Coverup Mission
Salvage Coverup is a new variation on the salvage missions. These new missions come as a new, illegal mission contract called The Tar Pits to cover up for the perpetrator of a crime, in this case NineTails, who want to keep their involvement under the radar. You are tasked to hull scrape their entire ship, to remove the NineTails paintjob before the ship evidence is discovered by security. If security forces arrive before you manage to perform the coverup, the security ships spot the hull colors, report back, and you will fail and be attacked if at the location. Do it in time, and the Tar Pits will pay you handsomely for your efforts, and your silence.
Ships and Vehicles
Feature Updates
Locations
- Underground Facilities - Rastar Update
Rastar is a tool which is used to quickly build POI’s on planet surfaces by combining pre-built modules together at the click of a button. They also change the way which mission locations are setup and streamed in, essentially, they are the future of creating planetary locations. This update moves all our original UGF’s over to the new Rastar tool workflow. All UGF's have been replaced in the same positions as they were previously, with the settings they previously had applied to them reapplied where appropriate. This means functionally the current locations should be no different than they were before on the mission side of things and also art wise should be the same barring some minor adjustments to the exterior layout of each location.
Gameplay
- Wheeled Vehicle Handling Improvements
Updates and improvements to current ground vehicle movement parameters and simulation, allowing for more robust tuning and identity between various ground vehicles.
- AI Ship Difficulty Rebalance
Until now, there has been a very small pool of ships available for use as AI in missions. With this new change we have included every ship able to QT into the mix for both Criminals and Civilians, though some that didn’t make sense for Criminals have not been added, like Cutlass Blue for instance. This update includes a full AI Ship Rebalance of difficulties. Ships have been divided into difficulty bands which have mainly been derived from large data sets based on PVP analytics. Finally, we have also made a new ship difficulty band of Very Hard which is now reflected in the Very Hard bounty/assassination missions.
- Vaulting & Mantling - Air Ledge Grab Improvements
Implementing updated Vaulting & Mantling improvements that make the process much more smooth and intuitive for players. This update allows players to now be able to grab ledges while running and jumping, low/high vault while running and/or in mid-air, and allows low/high mantle while running and/or in mid-air.
- Mining Stability and Polish
Enhanced lifetime of ROC coolers to help adjust them overheating while in use and breaking down too quick.
Core Tech
- Updated EAC SDK to 1.15.5
