SQ42 development status

[Brictoria]

It's interesting, looking at today's roadmap update (Beginning to add Q4 schedule - September-December), how little work related to Squadron 42 is actually listed as ongoing beyond July (or, for that matter, beyond the end of Q2) - It also gives an indication as to why work on the Polaris was started:

Being worked on for both the PU and SQ 42 there is:
Listed until late June

• Cutting T2 - Weapon features team
• Distortion Propogation - Weapon features team
• Plasma Ammunition - Weapons feature team
• Vanduul Fleet - US Vehicle Content
• Weapon Misfire and Wear - Weapons feature team

Listed until early July

• AI Vehicle Perception - AI Tech and features team
• Entity properties plugin - editor team
• Starwords improvements - tools team
• Subsumption Editor Integration - AI tech and features team
• Testrunner improvements - tools team

Listed until early August

• MFD rework - Vehicle Features Team

Q4

• Misc Support (listed through to early September) - multiple teams
• Bug Fixing and Tech Debt (listed through to mid December) - multiple teams
• RSI Polaris (Listed through to mid December) - EU Vehicles team

Being worked on for SQ42 alone there is:
Listed until Late June

• Ch 01
• Ch 07
• Ch 11
• Ch 14
• Ch 16
• Ch 19
• Ch 20
• Ch 22
• Ch 23
• Ch 24
• Ch 25
• Map and Radar system rework - Listed as PU and SQ42, but only Sq42 features team still working on it

Listed until early July

• Ch 04
• Ch 08
• Ch 10
• Ch 12
• Ch 13
• Ch 26
• Ch 27
• MobiGlass rework - Listed as PU and SQ42, but only Sq42 features and UI teams still working on it
• Player interaction experience T2 - Visor HUD\Helmet - Listed as PU and SQ42, but only Sq42 UI team still working on it

Listed until Mid July

• Ch 17

Listed until Mid August

• Ch 21

Q4

• SQ 42 Vehicle Support (Listed through to mid December) - 11 teams

Assuming the Polaris only requires an external model (players won't be able to enter it) in Squadron 42 - much like the Idris in the PU - It does give the impression that work on SQ42 could finally be coming to an end.

 

[Thalstan]

Polaris is not in SQ42. IIRC, it was developed in response to the actions in SQ42

 

[Brictoria]

Polaris is not in SQ42. IIRC, it was developed in response to the actions in SQ42

According to the Roadmap, as updated today, it has some connection with the actual SQ42 game:

Looking at a 3rd party site, it seems like it could fit within the timespan of the Squadron 42 game (mid-late, most likely) as its devlopment coincides with the time\events at the beginning of Squadron 42:

The Polaris was fast-tracked for development following the 2945 Vanduul attack on the Vega System. The request-for-proposal specified a smaller, first-response alternative to the Idris-class frigates currently serving with both the UEE Navy and private concerns. Roberts Space Industries' Polaris bid was selected due to its unique combination of a fully equipped small craft hangar and an array of torpedo tubes that let it punch above its weight class.

Source: https://starcitizen.tools/Polaris

The story will begin during the Events of Vega II in 2945. It will detail the story of the player joining and flying with the UEE Navy's celebrated 42nd Squadron.

Source: https://starcitizen.tools/Squadron_42

 

[Richard Bong]

It's interesting, looking at today's roadmap update (Beginning to add Q4 schedule - September-December), how little work related to Squadron 42 is actually listed as ongoing beyond July (or, for that matter, beyond the end of Q2) - It also gives an indication as to why work on the Polaris was started:

Being worked on for both the PU and SQ 42 there is:
Listed until late June

• Cutting T2 - Weapon features team
• Distortion Propogation - Weapon features team
• Plasma Ammunition - Weapons feature team
• Vanduul Fleet - US Vehicle Content
• Weapon Misfire and Wear - Weapons feature team

Listed until early July

• AI Vehicle Perception - AI Tech and features team
• Entity properties plugin - editor team
• Starwords improvements - tools team
• Subsumption Editor Integration - AI tech and features team
• Testrunner improvements - tools team

Listed until early August

• MFD rework - Vehicle Features Team

Q4

• Misc Support (listed through to early September) - multiple teams
• Bug Fixing and Tech Debt (listed through to mid December) - multiple teams
• RSI Polaris (Listed through to mid December) - EU Vehicles team

Being worked on for SQ42 alone there is:
Listed until Late June

• Ch 01
• Ch 07
• Ch 11
• Ch 14
• Ch 16
• Ch 19
• Ch 20
• Ch 22
• Ch 23
• Ch 24
• Ch 25
• Map and Radar system rework - Listed as PU and SQ42, but only Sq42 features team still working on it

Listed until early July

• Ch 04
• Ch 08
• Ch 10
• Ch 12
• Ch 13
• Ch 26
• Ch 27
• MobiGlass rework - Listed as PU and SQ42, but only Sq42 features and UI teams still working on it
• Player interaction experience T2 - Visor HUD\Helmet - Listed as PU and SQ42, but only Sq42 UI team still working on it

Listed until Mid July

• Ch 17

Listed until Mid August

• Ch 21

Q4

• SQ 42 Vehicle Support (Listed through to mid December) - 11 teams

Assuming the Polaris only requires an external model (players won't be able to enter it) in Squadron 42 - much like the Idris in the PU - It does give the impression that work on SQ42 could finally be coming to an end.

The roadmap isn't representative of work done, or, necessarily, things actually being worked on.

For example Chapters 1-30, were all listed and the timeline ended in Quarters 1 and 2 of 2021. The Retaliator Gold Standard timeline ended in Q2 of 2021, the Liberator was Q3 of 2021 as was the Aboreal Stalker.

At best being on the tracker means someone is working on it, nothing more. At worst it means work was planned, but nothing was actually done.

The line ending means nothing more than that scheduled work time has expired.

 

[Radegast74]

Polaris is not in SQ42. IIRC, it was developed in response to the actions in SQ42

According to the Roadmap, as updated today, it has some connection with the actual SQ42 game:

Feature creep! I am shocked! lol

Let's hope CIG learns from the other recent games (Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, and now potentailly Starfield?) and spends a year or so making sure all the bugs are ironed out.

 

[Richard Bong]

According to the Roadmap, as updated today, it has some connection with the actual SQ42 game:
View attachment 24689

Looking at a 3rd party site, it seems like it could fit within the timespan of the Squadron 42 game (mid-late, most likely) as its devlopment coincides with the time\events at the beginning of Squadron 42:

Source: https://starcitizen.tools/Polaris


Source: https://starcitizen.tools/Squadron_42

The Battle of Vega II is 2945. The Polaris is first available 2947.
Source: https://starcitizen.tools/Historical_timeline

 

[Lorddarthvik]

The Battle of Vega II is 2945. The Polaris is first available 2947.
Source: https://starcitizen.tools/Historical_timeline

Hmm, I seem to recall something about time skips in the campaign storyline? It might be possible that the we get to see the Polaris in the second half in some campaign mission as the brand new ship we gotta escort the prototype of or sumthin...
Meh anyways, even if the above time line has something to do with reality, Sq42 is still 2 years out, cos at least a year+ of testing and bug fixing and more testing and fixing and then marketing kicks in to rebuild the hype and so on.
Just like flying cars, always 2 years away.

BTW is the above time line of chapters only about ep1 of sq42? Is episodic release still a thing?

 

[Brictoria]

Hmm, I seem to recall something about time skips in the campaign storyline? It might be possible that the we get to see the Polaris in the second half in some campaign mission as the brand new ship we gotta escort the prototype of or sumthin...
Meh anyways, even if the above time line has something to do with reality, Sq42 is still 2 years out, cos at least a year+ of testing and bug fixing and more testing and fixing and then marketing kicks in to rebuild the hype and so on.
Just like flying cars, always 2 years away.

BTW is the above time line of chapters only about ep1 of sq42? Is episodic release still a thing?

Given the chapters all seem to have scheduled work on them finishing in a very similar timeframe, it gives the appearance that they are part of a single "product", rather than split into episodes... Or perhaps the 28 chapters underway will be split into episodes for release (4 episodes of 7 chapters each, maybe)?

The thing that I found strange about the progress tracker (and why I posted this) was that they have started adding Q4 (October-December) to it, but there was nothing new listed for\related to Squadron 42 after those items I listed are scheduled to "finish" (mainly in June\July). For teams like the US Vehicle team, there's a new item on the roadmap starting July (Origin X1) which picks up roughly as work on the Storm is listed as finishing (about 1 "crossover" week where the art and design teams are listed for both), yet there was no subsequent work listed\"planned" for the Squadron 42 teams, despite it supposedly being the "focus" of the work underway... That's a lot of Q3 with no work "planned" as we're about to enter it, given they've started the planning for the following quarter already: Perhaps there is something planned and not published, but it seemed strange to see so much finishing in a such a short period of time with nothing standing out as the "next step" for those teams to move on to.

 

[Richard Bong]

Hmm, I seem to recall something about time skips in the campaign storyline? It might be possible that the we get to see the Polaris in the second half in some campaign mission as the brand new ship we gotta escort the prototype of or sumthin...
Meh anyways, even if the above time line has something to do with reality, Sq42 is still 2 years out, cos at least a year+ of testing and bug fixing and more testing and fixing and then marketing kicks in to rebuild the hype and so on.
Just like flying cars, always 2 years away.

BTW is the above time line of chapters only about ep1 of sq42? Is episodic release still a thing?

No idea on what, if any, of the timeline still holds true for the story.

The original timeline is based on a release date around 2016, because the PU is supposed to be shortly after SQ42 not more than a decade later.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

No idea on what, if any, of the timeline still holds true for the story.

The original timeline is based on a release date around 2016, because the PU is supposed to be shortly after SQ42 not more than a decade later.

The original timeline didn't include the Polaris as the need for it hadn't occurred to CIG yet. Mechanically, the Idris was intended to be the largest ship a small group of players would combine to fly in events like the Sons of Orion storyline. When the Idris outgrew that role, CIG decided to make it a frigate and invented the Polaris. The narrative hook for inventing the Polaris is the attack on Vega, which IIRC was shortly after the attack on Orion, which is what instigated the war. I don't think the Polaris had even been conceived until after the Idris became the boated, swollen thing it became--much larger than a corvette and too large for 11 players.

 

[Cugino83]

Given the chapters all seem to have scheduled work on them finishing in a very similar timeframe, it gives the appearance that they are part of a single "product", rather than split into episodes... Or perhaps the 28 chapters underway will be split into episodes for release (4 episodes of 7 chapters each, maybe)?

The thing that I found strange about the progress tracker (and why I posted this) was that they have started adding Q4 (October-December) to it, but there was nothing new listed for\related to Squadron 42 after those items I listed are scheduled to "finish" (mainly in June\July). For teams like the US Vehicle team, there's a new item on the roadmap starting July (Origin X1) which picks up roughly as work on the Storm is listed as finishing (about 1 "crossover" week where the art and design teams are listed for both), yet there was no subsequent work listed\"planned" for the Squadron 42 teams, despite it supposedly being the "focus" of the work underway... That's a lot of Q3 with no work "planned" as we're about to enter it, given they've started the planning for the following quarter already: Perhaps there is something planned and not published, but it seemed strange to see so much finishing in a such a short period of time with nothing standing out as the "next step" for those teams to move on to.

Hmm don't hold your breath for it, there still a lot of work to be done like, for example, night vision, FPS maps, phisicalised damege, computer blade system, componets repair (alsways show as "we are imporving it", but nothing more), general control damage (fire propagation and control is just an example), room air managin (also show for years in the state "we are working on in"), stealth mechanincs, cutting tool (not even release as T0), flight control surfaces.... and probably several other thing I can't remember.

The simple fact CIG is not showing them in ProgressTracker is very likelly becouse those thing are not in work and there is no plan to work on them yet.

 

[Thalstan]

Agreed.

There are still a lot of things that need to be completed before SQ42 can go ahead.

Erin Roberts supposedly said at least two years. I expect beta testing of the entire game (in house) will take at least 6 months or more, maybe even as many as 18-24 months depending on how many bugs they find. (see how many games have been pushed back for polish and bug fixes in recent years)

So, even if they finished all the development of SQ42 by Close of Business (CoB) today, I would not expect to see it before 2024, maybe even 2025 just for the sheer amount of beta testing and polish that would need to happen. Even if they announced Jan 1, 2023 tonight...I would not bet on it arriving on that date or any soon. When CR is concerned, I would always take the over...

Here is my thoughts...When it hits beta (maybe I should be saying IF), then I would expect them to be all sorts of patting themselves on the back and then immediately tempering expectations about how long it will take to go through the beta process. Once they start spending major money on advertising people to go out and buy the game, then I would expect to see SQ42 within 6 months of the start of that campaign. This would coincide with lots of ISC and SCL videos that are SQ42 centric, hyping the game along with ANSWER THE CALL 20XX (and yeah...still hedging (10 percent chance) that it might be the 2030s when it releases...or later) After the release of SQ42, I expect at least 2 years more until SC goes to beta.

 

[Richard Bong]

The original timeline didn't include the Polaris as the need for it hadn't occurred to CIG yet. Mechanically, the Idris was intended to be the largest ship a small group of players would combine to fly in events like the Sons of Orion storyline. When the Idris outgrew that role, CIG decided to make it a frigate and invented the Polaris. The narrative hook for inventing the Polaris is the attack on Vega, which IIRC was shortly after the attack on Orion, which is what instigated the war. I don't think the Polaris had even been conceived until after the Idris became the boated, swollen thing it became--much larger than a corvette and too large for 11 players.

That doesn't necessitate the Polaris being in Squadron 42, which is a single player game.

 

[Richard Bong]

One further point on a when for Squadron 42.
We know the F8A, F7A Mk Ii, Gladiator, Retaliator, and Avenger four of the hero/mission ships and one we have to visit, are not yet to Gold Standard. The ships that are to Gold Standard that we know are in the game, the Gladius and Sabre, are not complete. We've got a ways to go.

 

[maynard]

I'm not dead yet, don't expect Squardon 42 any rime soon

 

[Lorddarthvik]

One further point on a when for Squadron 42.
We know the F8A, F7A Mk Ii, Gladiator, Retaliator, and Avenger four of the hero/mission ships and one we have to visit, are not yet to Gold Standard. The ships that are to Gold Standard that we know are in the game, the Gladius and Sabre, are not complete. We've got a ways to go.

Any time I see a cockpit view from the gladius on cig's YouTube shows, it seems to be different to what we have and what they had the last time they've shown one. I'd say we have no clue about the actual state of any of the ships involved in SQ42. I'm not saying they are done with any of em, that's basically impossible, just that they might be in a very different state than the ones we have as they iterate and rework stuff all the time, so they could be further along than what we get to play with. Well, at least that's what my silly hopeful side would like to believe lol

 

[Shadow Reaper]

That doesn't necessitate the Polaris being in Squadron 42, which is a single player game.

No it doesn’t. I think the real reason they want it in SQ42 is it’s RSI. Chris doesn’t let anything in game with that brand he doesn’t personally love and let’s face it: it is a crowd pleaser.

 

[Richard Bong]

Any time I see a cockpit view from the gladius on cig's YouTube shows, it seems to be different to what we have and what they had the last time they've shown one. I'd say we have no clue about the actual state of any of the ships involved in SQ42. I'm not saying they are done with any of em, that's basically impossible, just that they might be in a very different state than the ones we have as they iterate and rework stuff all the time, so they could be further along than what we get to play with. Well, at least that's what my silly hopeful side would like to believe lol

EVen the Gladius doesn't have all the components bays. If they had a Gladiator that was Gold Standard they'd give it to us so they could sell us paints. They told us the Retaliator wasn't done, but at least it's being worked on.
And we know other than the Idris, the Bengal, either the Valkyrie or the Hoplite, and possibly the Pegasus those ships must be finished inside and out before launch.
They don't have to put them on the tracker, but there is no reason to hide that from us on the tracker, and should shut up the naysayers if they were put on the tracker.

 

[Richard Bong]

No it doesn’t. I think the real reason they want it in SQ42 is it’s RSI. Chris doesn’t let anything in game with that brand he doesn’t personally love and let’s face it: it is a crowd pleaser.

Who wants it in Squadron 42? I haven't heard anyone from CIG say it was to be in there, and have heard that it wasn't, so it wasn't high on the priority list.

 

[Brictoria]

It seems there were only 2 changes made this fortnight regarding deliverables related to Squadron 42 that I was able to spot:
Misc Support (PU and SQ42 combined item) - The "ending" was moved from early September to Mid December
"Character Work" seems to be ending in Early July - I don't know if I missed it originally, or it was an extension - This looks to revolve around some MOCAP work

There's quite a few areas where the end of the time scheduled for work to finish has passed, but nothing new has been added for the related teams to move into working on (not even an "Unannounced" feature\item\game-play added [1]) in Q3 or Q4, which adds to the impression that the project is either winding up (mostly bug-fix\tech debt\feature polishing remaining) in preparation for entering the testing phase for the final product, or any new work is entirely reliant on something currently underway being completed (Polaris, for example).

[1] According to the roadmap, there is precedent for "unannounced" items for SQ42, as there is:
1 "Unannounced Content" item (Vehicle related) from late 2021 that is PU and SQ42 related,
1 "Unannounced Content" item (Narrative) from late 2021 that is PU and SQ42 related,
1 "Unannounced Feature" item (UI related) from late 2021 which are purely SQ42 related,
2 "Unannounced Feature" items ("Features" team) from late 2021 which are purely SQ42 related.