Guests:

• Yogi Klatt, Principle Vehicle Programmer
• Richard Towler, Lead Game Designer (Vehicle Experience team)
• Mattia Monticelli, Game Designer III

TL;DW:

• Heavy Fighter are intended as fighters with lower manoeuvrability and more armour. They think the current issue with HF performance has less to do with their tuning and more with the cross-class balancing.
• According to Yogi HFs currently feel "too tanky" compared to other fighters, their HP will be re-evaluated once the new flight model drops (it may or may not change things).
• "Not all ships are suppose to be balanced" - some will act as stepping stones.
• Quantum Experience showed during CitCon two years ago was exactly like how it was in Squadron 42, that design changed since then. Currently the design consists of: Quantum Experience, Space Flight Model, Control Surfaces.
• In the future flight speeds will be split into: jumping (between planets), Quantum Boost (between POI, replaces NAV mode), SCM speeds.
• New flight model will allow them to tune ships in more ways then currently possible.
• Despite the fact they're constantly waiting for new features throughout the years (various flight models, blades, armour, ship crafting etc) the team still believes balancing efforts in the meantime provide useful knowledge for the future changes - even if most (or all) of it will end up being scrapped.
• Updated flight model talk:
  • Non-spheric velocity space (different movement speeds depending on which way you fly).
  • Jerk (slightly slower acceleration/rotation instead of instant 0 to 100).
  • Currently we have "IFCS on training wheels", we'll be able to toggle more things in the future. Even turn it off.
  • No top speeds in the way they currently exist, more power to engines will increase max speed of the ships based on engine strength, ship weight etc.
  • Unassisted aerodynamic flight (how ship behaves in atmosphere). Allows for gliding, controlled crash landing.
  • "NAV mode will die" - just point and quantum boost (if quantum drive is powered).
  • Most of the Squadron 42 FM features are already ported to SC but won't be enabled until everything is ready.
  • Ground turbulence present in patch 4.2 was suppose to be released 6 months ago but didn't due to a in-game time disparity between dev and live environments.
  • Capital ship behaviour in atmosphere probably won't change until the new flight model comes online. Thrust vs gravity ratio will affect ship's ability to fly, even to the point of not being to hover or take-off after landing (in extreme cases).
  • "Space flight model is done, aerodynamic stuff is halfway done (still needs AI to be able to use control surfaces)".
• They're waiting on more medium range weaponry to make the turrets more effective as a deterrent against attackers. Reminder that once the armour system comes in the future some of the weapon/ship combos used to attack industrial and larger ships won't be viable anymore.
• Weather (coming in 4.2) affects your ability to fly, less effect on larger ships.
• Upcoming change to the torpedo arm range is calculated based on torpedo's and ship's position - if you fly with the torpedo and won't let it get 1.5km away it won't blow. This is not the intended way of how it'll work in the future (it will be distance travelled by the torpedo).
• Ground vehicles still need more work in terms of how they feel. They also want to give them more purpose through weapons and other systems available for them.
  Throttle control for GV is on the TODO list but marked as low priority.

A 4 minute video from CIG about this new ship and some of the features:

• Ship hull opens up and exposes cargo grid to the exterior.
• External tractor beam (S2 remote).
• Wing "feathers" fold in on landing to make cargo easier to access from more angles.

Hey everyone,

Join us on Thursday, June 12, for a new session of Star Citizen Live. Catch us at 15:00 UTC, on ⁠⁠Twitch.

Richard Towler (Lead Game Designer), Mattia Monticelli (Game Designer III) and Yogi Klatt (Principal Vehicle Programmer) will be answering questions about Vehicle Flight & Balance.

Drop your questions for the Team below^*^. See you there!

* As in, on Spectrum. Obviously.

Guests:

• Jorrit De Locht, Mission Designer II
• Andreea Mazarianu, Mission Designer II
• Elliot Maltby, Lead Mission Designer
• William Weissbaum, Assistant Narrative Director
• Alejandro Lopez Mundoz, Technical Designer III

TL;DW:

• Stormbreaker is intended as a "next step in the exploration gameplay".
• Stormbreaker is not an event or a mission taken from the mobi, it's a permanent sandbox activity.
• Stormbreaker is a continuation of the regen crisis storyline focused on another company.
• New facilities have a new door lock mechanic which requires players to dress in faction specific clothing.
• Lots of unique loot hidden around.
• Finding tips on how to progress requires reading through lore strewn around the locations.
• Storm around the next location does distortion damage to your ship, gotta go on foot. Also deals radiation damage when on foot.
• To travel through the storm you have to take shuttles on the edges of the storm.
• Expect to fight against lots of NPCs and wildlife.
• This activity will come with audio logs to find.
• More story content coming in August.

Comment from CarbonPixel:

Currently there's a bug where if you switch to third person view while your character is standing in active rain, you can see a few seconds of the Blood, Sweat, and Tears VFX overlay feature that isn't officially released yet. The effect only lasts a few seconds once you switch and turns off consistently but it resets when you switch camera modes from first to third person again. You can see the blood drops appear and run down the character's face and if you look closer you can also see sweat appear that also moves on the skin surface (slower than the blood). I didn't see any tears, but I'm guessing that effect may be something that will be tied to an emote you can manually trigger or that will appear via other triggers (ie. pain from wounds and/or damage to your character).

I'm not sure if this bug was just a very prelim test to see if they can incorporate rain VFX and wetness using the Blood, Sweat, and Tears overlay to show rain drops on skin, at which point I would think they would just need to retexture the blood VFX to be the same color as the rain water and have that be a rain specific overlay in addition to blood, sweat, and tears. Very neat to see either way.

Rain produces blood on the skin https://issue-council.robertsspaceindustries.com/projects/STAR-CITIZEN/issues/STARC-169886

Set as committed for 4.2:

• Irradiated Apex Valakkar
• Irradiated Adult Valakkar
• Irradiated Juvenile Valakkar
• Irradiated Kopion
• New Hairstyles (x4)
• Radiation
• ASD Research Facility
• ASD Datacenter
• Storm Breaker Sandbox Activity
• ARGO ATLS IKTI
• Wikelo Special Ships (4.2.0)
• VOLT Laser Shotgun "Prism"
• Sterling Exploration Suit
• Dynamic Rain

Set as released:

• Aegis Idris-P
• Greycat MTC
• Mirai Guardian MX
• MISC Starlancer TAC
• Anvil Asgard

Additional note: good news, the scrip change for Wikelo has been reversed. It will still be exchangeable in 4.2.

Hello everyone,

Welcome to another Patch Watch! These posts shine a light on upcoming features, improvements, and fixes that may not appear on the Public Roadmap—but are updates we believe you'll find valuable.

Currently, Alpha 4.2.0 is in testing across all PTU waves and is gearing up for its Live release. So, let’s dive into some of the additional bits coming your way.

ATLS and Refining Improvements

Starting in Alpha 4.2.0, you can now summon your ATLS power suits directly via Freight Elevators in any hangar. Previously, retrieving an ATLS required using the ship elevator and ASOP terminal. With this update, you can bring it up independently, making it easier to manage your ship and power suit separately. This adds flexibility and efficiency, especially during missions where having them on different elevators is a strategic advantage. You can now even secure your ATLS directly onto your ship's cargo grid for easy transport.

The ATLS GEO has also been added to in-game shops, making it accessible to all players. Make it yours, make it mine!

As part of our ongoing effort to reduce friction and support more meaningful decision-making, we’ve also improved the refining experience: refining times are now shorter, letting you see results of your work sooner.

Mirai UI: New Style

The Mirai Guardian and Guardian Qi have received a visual upgrade with the integration of the new Mirai UI style, first introduced with the Guardian MX. This update brings a sleeker, more modern cockpit interface to these ships, unifying the Guardian line under a consistent, high-tech design language that better reflects Mirai’s brand vision. We are still working on the Pulse ground vehicles and their variants.

Neutralizing Threats With Distortion

In Alpha 4.2.0, missiles, bombs, and torpedoes will now explode when fully distorted.

This means distortion-based weapons, or fields like EMPs, can trigger premature detonation mid-flight. With precise timing, you can disable enemy ordinance before it reaches its target, adding a new tactical layer to defense and counterplay.

Missiles Tuning and Targeting Improvements

In Alpha 4.2.0, Missiles and Torpedoes are receiving a comprehensive update and tuning pass. This includes refined targeting mechanics, enhanced tracking behavior, and a broad rebalance across multiple aspects. Let’s take a look at what’s new:

Targeting System Improvements

Following player feedback and internal investigation during the Alpha 4.1.1 and previous cycles, we’ve addressed several long-standing issues in missile targeting and refined some of the underlying systems. Specifically:

• Lock Quality Mechanics - We've streamlined the Lock Quality mechanic so that once you achieve a lock on a target, your missile immediately gains full tracking effectiveness.
• Minimum Lock Ranges Adjustments - Most missile types now require a slightly increased minimum lock distance (typically between 1.7 km and 2.0 km) to ensure targets have a fair chance to deploy countermeasures. Torpedoes, on the other hand, have had their minimum lock distance slightly reduced to improve usability. Anvil Ballista's bespoke Hellion and Scimitar missiles have received specialized tuning to better serve their anti-air role. These now allow for much closer target locking and overall improved tracking capabilities against targets.
• Countermeasure and Tracking Rebalance - Missile and Torpedo tracking capabilities, as well as countermeasure effectiveness, have been fully rebalanced around the updated ship emission values introduced with the Resource Network in 3.24.2. Notably, Torpedoes now feature improved tracking performance over standard missiles, enhancing their reliability and impact during combat engagements.

Additional Updates We’ve also taken a closer look at other aspects of missile and torpedo gameplay:

• Torpedoes Explosion Safety Distance - A new minimum arming safety distance of 1.5 km has been introduced for all Torpedoes. This means Torpedoes will no longer detonate until they’ve traveled at least 1.5 km, whether fired with a lock or in dumb-fire mode.
• Explosion Radius and Damage Falloff - The maximum explosion radius for both missiles and torpedoes has been reduced whilst we further investigate internal components (or stored vehicles) being damaged too easily from external explosions. We’ve also increased damage falloff over distance within the explosion radius, for the same reasons.
• Health Sanity Pass - All missile and torpedo types have undergone a health normalization pass. Health values are now standardized by weapon size, with smaller Missiles being less durable and Torpedoes being the most resistant. We're excited to hear your feedback as you test the new systems in 4.2.0, and onwards!

Radiation Widgets

The Radiation widgets in FPS gameplay have been updated to provide clearer and more actionable information.

You’ll now see improved readouts that better reflect your exposure levels, along with new animations that help you quickly understand how fast radiation is building up or dissipating. These changes make it easier to react in real time and manage survival in hazardous zones.

Catch you all next time! Until then, gear up for Alpha 4.2.0, coming LIVE soon!

Personal note: apparently the option to exchange scrip for favours at Wikelo's is going away with 4.2, make sure to drop them off before that happens if you don't want to lose on that.

Flexcreator gives some tips on how to avoid bugs that plague Ace Helmet Farming right now. Ace helmets are used to trade with Wikelo.

TL/DW: Just park a distance away and use a hoverbike to take out the Ace Pilot.

Short (59sec) video by HEBRAiST showing off some carrier gameplay.

Space Tomato covers some information from a recent interview with Erin Roberts at a bar citizen in Beijing.

Berks activates a device which begins the apex Valakkar Raid. Full stream (link goes to the correct timestamp).

MrKraken posted some pictures of the Apex Valakkar on Twitter:

'Apex Assassin' Pyro > Pyro I > Lazarus Complex Tithonus-II w/ @Citizenspooner #StarCitizen #StormBreaker #VirtualPhotography #VGPUnite

https://nitter.net/RealMrKraken/status/1928579706489811098

Carbon Pixel showing off how rain affects Skin/clothing in Star Citizen 4.2 PTU.

I did get the Fortuna paint some time ago looking to buy one in game. It's a nice little racer. Damn what a swanky little machine! As Din would say, "Wizard!"

The coin can be found here: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/pledge/Gear/Invictus-Launch-Week-Coin

Or on the May Newsletter Page here:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/comm-link/transmission/20613-Squadron-42-May-Newsletter-Comm-Link

If you aren't a subscriber, you can go to your account settings -> Newsletters -> Squadron 42 Updates
and then subscribe and the coin will be visible in the shop for you.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/account/settings

I've been playing almost daily through the ILW and got to experience both the usual loops I tend to do (search and rescue, hauling, transport) as well as some I've pretty much gave up on (space combat). The latter is something I wasn't particularly keen on trying again but considering the theme of this event I decided to give it a fair shake, hoping to find out I'm just being a stubborn loser.

With ILW finished and 4.2 already in wave 1 of PTU I thought it's a good time to look at the current state of the game again.

I'm not going to go super in depth since ain't nobody have the time or interest in reading a wall of text (still ended up writing one, huh) so here are the main takeaways about my time with this patch:

• Med gun change is as stupid as expected, guess I won't be using pistols ever again (or at least until devs don't change their mind again).
• Most of my player interactions consisted of helping folks via chat (common) and transporting them between landing zones when they couldn't spawn their ships (rare).
• I got to do a single space SAR operation. Got pretty exciting as my patient forgot to mention it was an active combat zone. Really fun, too bad these happen so rarely in my experience.
• Bunker missions are still extremely easy, even with NPCs working as intended.
• After playing around with more personal weapons I came to an unfortunate conclusion: I love using guns that look like crap (in my opinion obviously) and hate the ones I find to be the coolest.
• Static ILW hall sucks, if not for the rental terminals there would be absolutely no point in visiting the convention centre. I hope they'll go back to rotating displays next year.
• Servers held up pretty well for the most part, only the last three or so days treated me with 20 or even 30+ second inventory delays.
• I tested various ships throughout the event but didn't really find anything I'd like to work towards. Also, despite feeling like medical Terrapin should be a perfect fit for me I still like ~~Connie~~ Cutty Red more (even as a primarily solo player).
  I thought about Starlancer Max (the biggest ship I'd be willing to go for with my playstyle) but the belly cargo hold was so frustrating to unload it completely turned me away from even contemplating it.
• I went through a good chunk of the combat gauntlet missions to familiarise myself with the current combat experience, even using multiple ships to vary it up a bit, and... yeah, I still hate it. All the changes that came with master modes (not just switching) killed this part of the game for me.
• I hope the work on ATC rewrite goes smoothly, those queues can get ridiculous at times.
• Barely anyone seemed to touch "Hunt the Polaris". I tried it twice (after that my thoughts about space combat took over) and every time I've seen it mentioned in chat was people asking if anyone is doing it (the answer was always "no").
• Vulkan is still unplayable for me. It just hammers my GPU into a pulp, no matter the settings, while presenting me with glorious 3-5 FPS at major landing zones. And yes, this was after shader compilation. At least we got some info about planned optimisation efforts on Spectrum recently so there is still some hope for me.
• Ship UI needs a lot of optimisation work as looking at MFDs can shave a third of my FPS in some cases.
• On the other hand, some of the ships (mainly Cutty Red and Terrapin) had their MFDs improved to a state where I'm almost willing to play without the advanced HUD. All that's missing are physical altitude displays.
• Driving ground vehicles is still terrible. Good thing I decided to rent an STV before committing to buying one.
• Interaction prompt changes are an improvement but I still had to deal with multiple instances of game trying to interact with things other than what I was aiming at.
• I REALLY dislike the fact we have multiple different versions of radial menus depending on what we're trying to do. They have varying amount of animations on use, some lock/magnetise the cursor to each option while other work more smoothly. Just pick one style and stick to it, please.

All in all, 4.1.1 is a bit rougher but still playable in the technical terms. Gameplay wise not enough changed to make a difference - it's still fun on a good day.

So that's me. How are you all finding the current patch? Any fun or unfortunate experiences?

Saw an abandoned Valkyrie at SCD-1 this night and took the opportunity to shoot the siblings next to each other.

When you park the Asgard next to it, you realize how fat its ass really is, albeit its only 2 SCU longer in the cargo hold. And it could have an even longer cargo hold if they didn't left out the section that was occupied by the Valkyries Balcony which is a shame.

I really dig the Asgard for how fast it feels (and the sound of the engines) and how cavernous the empty hold is.

A+ for a military logistics vessel.

Duration: 13:34
Morphologis discusses some of the issues with big ships vs small fighters.

It's too easy for fighters to take out larger ships.

Personally I think that if turret gunners were given some sort of flak weapon, it would be a good way to handle this situation.

Duration: 7min 48sec

Camural tests out the Idris Laser on different sized ships.

TL/DW:

*Note there was likely a bug with the Caterpillar testing.

I rearranged the sections a little:

Features & Gameplay

Gameplay

Farro Data Center - Part 1 of New Activity
This new activity takes place in both Stanton and Pyro at multiple different locations. For tonight's build, we will focus on Farro Data Center on Pyro IV and ends at Step 4 of the list below. This location has multiple locked doors that take different types of credentials to open such as key cards, "computer data security", and uses a new mechanic that requires certain clothing for the door scan to allow you entry. How you get this clothing is up to you. We will keep the details beyond this at a minimum to test the in-game communication and discovery of this activity. In tonight's 

The activity for this first part will be held at Farro Data Center on Pyro IV

1. The Data Processing Room is locked by doors that require a Technical Access Card to open
2. Technical Access Cards can be found in various loot rooms at the location
3. Inside the Data Processing Room, the players find the Credentials Printer that can give them the Doctor’s Credentials
4. The printing process takes time and causes the alarm to go off, drawing security reinforcements to the Data Processing Room

Items partially in the build (not ready for feedback):

• Improved Kiosk Interactions
• Pyro Research Facility (Part of the new Activity)
• [Redacted]
• [Redacted]
• [Redacted]

I haven't tested this out yet, but I'm curious what other objects can be used as makeshift fuses.

A user in the thread here pointed out:

You can use bloodbag or beans container from spawn Habs as fuse

https://www.reveddit.com/v/starcitizen/comments/1kpwtna/idris_fuse_blew_after_several_hours_of_combat/mt2cz1d/

I think beans are going to be higher up on my list of foods to bring on trips with me.

Source:

As you explore the Bevic Convention Center, keep your instincts sharp by looking for hidden scrips around the hall.

Should you be lucky enough to find them, Wikelo may have something of value to exchange for them.

- @robertsspaceind.bsky.social‬

How to avoid the worst bugs in Star Citizen (as of v4.1.1)

A decent number of the 4.1.0 issues have been fixed/removed since the last list. The Pyro V quantum issue isn't new, but getting stranded out there is not fun, so I added it in. I also updated the ATLS teleport issue with a new possible workaround.

The first trick you'll need to learn is how to Server/Region Hop. Some of the worst bugs require just leaving the current server and going to a different one.
To force a server change you'll need to exit back to menu and change your region to something else.
Note: If you attempt to start the game in the same region, the game leans toward placing you in the server where you've been most recently.

Elevators

Don't press up against the door when waiting for an elevator to arrive, it might push you out of the station as it arrives and physicalizes.

To avoid falling out of your ship during quantum:

• Don't stand up immediately from your seat the second you enter quantum.
• Don't jump around like the floor is lava.
• Don't use the stairs on the Idris while it is in Quantum.
• Don't change armor/undersuit while in quantum (might be fixed in 4.1.1?).

For other known issues, check the information here:
https://support.robertsspaceindustries.com/hc/en-us/articles/360056254754-Star-Citizen-Alpha-4-1-Known-Issues

Or search through the issue council and look for workarounds on the ticket or in the comments.

The image from this post is from an old bug we had years ago.