Rock Report #2 2019 - Roadmap of Expectations
Introduction
Welcome to The Rock Report, the revived monthly newsletter for Industry in TEST Squadron. Welcome to anyone new browsing this forum section, it will get more active as people rediscover it from the old Groups section. However, in the meantime there are several new things to discuss with Star Citizen and the Industry Division in general.
Upcoming February/March Events
First of all a thread has been created in the Events forum to keep track of any and all upcoming events that will be hosted by the Industry Division.
It can be found here. Turnout so far has been good with many people coming to take part in what is hosted. Red Rover has been a hit since its reintroduction Feb 9th and the first Salvage Op went smoothly as well. Thank you to everyone for coming out and making these events fun for everyone involved. As stated in the last Rock Report, the commitment has been made to host an event at least once a week or four times a month if not more. Come out to play and have fun. Talking to everyone and getting to know other members has been the best part of the experience overall. Here is a list of tentative upcoming events through the end of March.
Some of these may change depending on availability and PTU testing:
February 15th 6:00 pm CST(00:00 UTC) - Salvage Op starting at Olisar. Search around a ship wreck site to scavenge lost cargo boxes. The TESTing portion involves box stacking for a future event. Escorts Welcome.
February 24th 12:00pm CST(18:00 UTC) - Yela Belt Mining TEST starting at Port Olisar. Further TESTing of energy signature and stealth of the Prospector mining ship followed by a trip to Kareah.
February 28th 6:00pm CST(00:00 UTC) - Cargo Running op from a R&R to Lorville starting at Port Olisar. Just a fun round trip and to practice escorting cargo transports.
March 3rd 12:00pm CST(18:00 UTC) - Salvage Op & Box Stacking Fort Competition. Bring your imagination to this one. Using what we can find from wreck sites we'll divide into 2 teams to create a fort. Best team gets 100K aUEC divided between them. We will be using a Starfarer to gather the boxes.
March 10th 12:00pm CST(18:00 UTC) - aUEC Mining Competition. Starting at Port Olisar and then going to Daymar, the person who mines the most aUEC in one run gets 100K aUEC as a prize.
March 14th 6:00pm CST(00:00 UTC) - Group Delivery Mission. Starting in Port Olisar, we pick a few delivery missions and try to do them together. Simple. Effective. And probably fun.
March 17th 12:00pm CST(18:00 UTC) - Red Rover Returns!
March 24th 12:00pm CST(18:00 UTC) - TBD depending on PTU Status - Possible Journey to ArcCorp & Moons + Area 18 exploration.
SC Roadmap Updates - SALVAGE IS BACK!
As of February 8th, CIG at long last updated the Roadmap to include the 2nd half of 2019 including what will be coming in Alpha 3.7 and 3.8. While there were several interesting items, some stood out more than others because they have a direct or indirect impact on Industry which will be explained later. A big takeaway though is that Salvage is back on the list in Alpha 3.8 after it was removed from 3.5 to make way for various improvements.
3.5
Vehicle Scanning HUD Improvements
Vehicle Radar V2
Vehicle Scanning Improvements
ArcCorp planet, moons, & LZ
In Alpha 3.5 coming at the end of March the game will see various improvements to scanning which should make finding resources much easier, especially if the scanned objects can be filtered from general background celestial destinations. ArcCorp’s moons will add new areas to exploit resources and the planet itself will provide a ‘close’ base to the Aaron Halo Asteroid belt.
3.6
Black Market Economy
Ship Rentals
Planetary Ground Fog Tech
Procedural Asteroids V2
In 3.6 Ship Rentals will allow players to rent ships. More Prospectors! The Black market Economy may open up interesting avenues later if CIG doesn’t restrict it to vice items only. Planetary Ground Fog Tech will make searching around wreck sites more engaging and could be a basis for some weather systems. Finally procedural Asteroids V2 is required to create the Aaron Halo Asteroid Belt in Stanton and give a basis for larger mineable asteroids.
3.7
Cargo Depot Space Stations
Rest Stop Space Station - Unoccupied
Refueling: Fuel Scooping
Player Swim
Cockpit Experience Improvements
Ship-to-Station Docking
Physical Inventories
3.7 will bring more varied space stations. Cargo depots are required for the Hull C-E ships because they can not land on a planet/moon while loaded with cargo. Ship-to-Station docking goes along with this as well. The unoccupied Rest Stop station could allow for greater exploration of space and possible salvage opportunities. Refueling: Fuel Scooping should provide a foundation for the Starfarer to perform its primary mission as a hauler/gatherer of fuel while Cockpit Experience Improvements might mean that bright lights will no longer interfere with the HUD’s readability. Player Swim might allow spaceship wrecks to be placed under the water and perhaps even have underwater combat. Physical Inventories will now determine what can be carried on a person at any time. It will also mean that armor or clothing choice is very important to the desired profession. Some armors or clothes will have additional space for tools, ammo, and gadgets than others.
3.8
Microtech planet, moons, & LZ
Refinery Space Station
Cargo Space Station - Unoccupied
Refinery Space Station - Unoccupied
Mag Boots
Zero-G Push & Pull
Ship-to-Ship Docking
Vehicle HUD V4
Salvage V1
Anvil Carrack
MISC Hull-C
Alpha 3.8 seems to be the biggest patch of the year incorporating several needed features to help players get the most out of the game. First there is Microtech and its moons. Microtech is also the planet farthest from the system’s center, but still somewhat close to the Aaron Halo asteroid belt. Refinery Stations will allow people to offload their mined ore to be sold and refined while also allowing pure materials to be bought. The unoccupied stations as before will provide interesting encounters and exploration gameplay. Mag Boots along with Zero-G Push & Pull will greatly enhance EVA maneuvering making it easier to find your way around.
Ship-to-Ship docking may in some form allow cargo transfer which would be great for mining ships offloading their stock to a transport ship. If not then it at least allows the Constellation snub fighter to be used. Vehicle HUD V4 should show incremental improvements over the previous version. The Anvil Carrack will finally be brought into the game making it possible that some form of mapping will start taking shape. This would be used to catalogue resources. The Hull-C of course would be the culmination of several earlier systems coming together to produce one of the most anticipated concepts in the game.
Salvage V1. This is the big one. Will it finally be done? Who knows. It has slipped so many times in the schedule before that its taken with a grain of salt now. But, if it does finally get started and V1 is released then it means that the game will have its 2nd industrial profession and going into 2020 this will be huge. With Sq42 being released that year some of those resources may be freed up to move to PU development.
Where there’s a tug, there’s a way.
With our new look at the 2019’s first concept sale, the Argo SRV looks as promising in its potential as it does its rugged good looks. Other ships with the capability to repair, refuel, and many other industrious activities, our new tug boat is helping to fill in that niche for us looking to get our hands dirty. For only $130, you too can be hauling away illegally parked ships or helping to load up that Hull E. The sale goes on through March 4th, so don’t delay and get yours today! While we wait for the Q&A to come out, we can speculate on just how this fine looking ship might assist in our everyday operations. The ability to haul away wrecks or non-functional ships to a nearby repair facility, the potential to move heavy cargo containers about, or possibly the finesse to grab those filled saddle-bags dropped by our mining counterparts during a mining run. All in due time will CIG fill us in on just how we will be able to bolster our fleet of industrious monsters.
Looking Forward
Looking forward unto our new dawn that awaits us, we shall start to collaborate together more and more until a systemic and functional foundation of what is the standard for operations molds us into a cohesive unit. We will take the solar system by force, if we must, to support our overarching goals within TEST Squadron! That being said, how many of you have actually been to one of our major events as of lately? If you are looking to work together with your fellow TESTies, now is the time to get involved to help build that camaraderie between you and Jimmy-two-shoes. BLOT OUT THE SUN events are starting to appear on weekends, take a look at the Guilded calendar, found in the Guilded app/website as well as the Test forums. Hosted by our glorious leader Montoya, under his direction, you will experience what it takes to become a fully fledged TESTie.
Finally, special congratulations to
@mr-hasgaha for winning the Tumbril Cyclone contest with his Arts & Crafts team.
Until next time take care,
-Black Sunder
-Printimus
