Star Citizen Alpha 1.3 released with fixes and more added to Area 18

It feels like it’s been a while since the last update for Star Citizen but this evening Cloud Imperium released the v1.3 alpha patch in time for the weekend.

This update is a further step towards the major 2.0 update according to the team and it finally combines their different development streams which has been mentioned a lot in past updates. So what’s actually in this patch?

There’s been flight model changes, new guns, and what they are calling a “large expansion” to ArcCorp’s Area 18 in the “social” section of the alpha. This update adds the under-construction Galleria area, the social interface has been given an “overhaul”, there’s new emotes (see patch notes below), and they added Greycat buggies around the zone which you can apparently drive and crash. Why? I have no idea.

For players concerned about balance there have been changes made to both health and weapon damage.

Frustratingly, I can’t tell you how large the patch is because my client has broken again so it will need to all be re-downloaded. Here’s the lengthy patch notes

Hangar Module

Additions:

Environment

• The Greycat Buggy has received an appearance, animation and handling overhaul.
• The fish tank in all current Hangars has received appearance updates.
• The elevator to Area 18 will now show all available instances of ArcCorp, how many people are present in each one, and how many people from your contact list are present.
• There is now a “Loadout Selector” located in all player hangar’s that will allow players to select what load out they will move around the Hangar and ArcCorp with.
  • This replaces the random loadout functionality that could be cycled through on “F6”.
  • Aeroview – Loadout Selector is in the main hangar, against the wall behind you and to the right side as you spawn.
  • Selfland – Loadout Selector is to the platform to the right of your character when you spawn, next to the Electronic Access pod.
  • VFG Industrial – Loadout Selector is to the left of your characters when they spawn, across from the elevator to the overlook.
  • Revel & York – Loadout Selector is to the left of your characters when they spawn, next to the Holotable.

Balance/Tweaks:

Environment

• The Selfland Hangar is in the process of receiving a full relighting pass to improve the overall look and atmosphere.

User Interface

• The old default function of “F11” (maximize HUD) no longer has a function in game and has been removed.
• “F6” key no longer provides in-game characters with a random loadout in the Hangar.
• Camera free look can now be activated by “Shift+G”.
• “Ctrl+F” is now the hotkey to disembark a ship.
  • This applies to all game-modes.

Fixes:

Ships

• Fixed an issue where characters would not be properly aligned in the Retaliator when attempting to sit in the Retaliator pilot chair.
• Fixed an issue where characters would appear outside of the Gladiator when attempting to sit down in the Gladiator pilot chair.
• Fixed an issue where the pilot of a Vanduul Scythe would experience unusual camera shaking when looking around in-game.

Environment

• Fixed an issue where the Revel & York hangar doors would sometimes snap back open without animation if repeatedly triggered.
• Fixed several texture conflict issues in the Selfland Hangar.
• Fixed an issue where character hands would appear to be broken when driving the Greycat buggy.

User Interface

• Fixed an issue where client framerate would drop when the cursor hovered over scrolling text.
• Fixed an issue where rapidly switching between different sections in the game menu would sometimes lock out access to device cycling.

Arena Commander Module:

Additions:

Gameplay

• The groundwork for Interior physics grids has gone live!
  • The Avenger, 300 series, Auroras (all Variants) and Non-Racer Mustangs will allow you to exit your seat while in flight as a result.
  • However because the full mechanics are not yet in place, your character may clip out of your ship or be in zero-G while on the ship.

Components

• The Behring C-788 Ballistic Cannon has been added to the game.
  • This gun uses a S4 mount and fires at 2.2 shots per second.
• Size 4 fixed mounts that can replace the Hornet and Cutlass Turrets have been added to accommodate the Ballistic Cannon.
  • The Size 4 fixed mount replaces the existing gimbal turret.
• Apocalypse Arms WarSeries SZ4 Mass Driver has been added to the game on Voyager Direct.
  • This gun uses a S2 mount and fires at 0.7 shots per second.

Balance/Tweaks:

Gameplay

• Missile explosions and impact have received minor adjustments to improve both look and feel.
• Increased the health of all ships.
• Increased overall shield strength of all ships to reduce alpha damage and bring up survival.
• Missile damage has been increased slightly to keep pace with health and improve effectiveness.
• Missile lock time has been adjusted.
• Energy weapon velocities have been increased across the board to be faster then ballistics.
  • Damage of energy weapons has been reduced slightly to compensate.
  • Our philosophy here is that as energy weapons do no damage until shields are down, it takes more hits by energy weapons to do real damage and accuracy is thus more important.
• Ballistic weapons have received a corresponding buff to their potential range so that they can potentially hit targets that are farther away.
• Shield penetration for Ballistic weapons reduced from 70% to 60%.
• Overall missile tracking has been decreased slightly.

Components

• Plasma bolt range decreased by 30% for the Vanduul “Wrath” Plasma Cannon.
• Neutron bolt speed increased by 20% for the Vanduul “War” Neutron Cannon.
• The effectiveness of the chaff countermeasure has been increased.
• Reduced the power plant of the F7C-M Super Hornet by 25% to make the selection and use of weapons with high power drain more meaningful.
• The “Wrath” Plasma cannon has had damage increased, heat pool increased and coolant increased.
• Reduced rate of fire for the Tarantula GT-870.
• Damage for 20mm ballistic ammo has been reduced by 3.
• Damage for 60mm ballistic ammo has been increased by 20.

Ships

• The Cutlass has received a minor tweak to its thruster gimbals to improve maneuverability.
• The following ships and all variants have received an update to their shield meshes and animations to better align with their ship models.
  • Avenger, Gladius, Mustang, Cutlass, 300 Series, M50, Gladiator, Glaive.
• Increased the power draw of the M50’s engine.
• Decreased the strength of the M50’s power plant.
  • These two changes are to ensure that the choice of mounting a weapon with high power drain vs one with low power drain on the m50 will have a meaningful impact on performance and speed.
• Interacting character animations have been updated for all flight-ready ships.
• Rotational acceleration and boost have both been increased on the Cutlass.

Environment

• The following ships and all variants have received tweaks to their thruster audio:
  • Avenger, Gladius, Hornet, 300 series, M50, Glaive, Scythe

User Interface

• “Look Ahead” mode is now turned on by default. It can be toggled on and off by “Right-ALT+M”.
• The Weapon Gimbal Lock is now on “Left-CTRL+G”.

Fixes:

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue where players would not be removed Arena Commander for being idle unless all players in the match were idle.
• Fixed an issue during the Tutorial – Chapter 3, where the missiles would sometimes not track the target correctly, particularly when firing all missiles simultaneously.
• Fixed an issue where weapons fire could appear offset from the weapon muzzle, when the ship was firing while moving.
• Fixed an issue where a ships target could be lost when increasing distance from target, despite target still being in sensor range.#

Components

• Fixed an issue where projectiles fired from ship weapons would sometimes remain protruding out of the weapon they had been shot from or otherwise collide with the firing weapon, causing damage or display issues.
• Fixed an issue where gimbaled thrusters were not always rotating visually.
• The “War” Plasma Cannon for the Vanduul Scythe is now correctly designated by the in-game Hangar HUDas the “Wrath” Plasma Cannon.

Ships

• Fixed an issue with one of the third-person camera views for the Aurora (all variations) where it would sometimes be clipped inside the hull of the ship.
• There should no longer be a visible gap between the bottom of the rear door and the floor of the Cutlass (all variants).
• Fixed an animation problem where character hands would sometimes clip through the turret controls for the Gladiator when sitting down.
• Fixed an issue where the Vanduul Glaive would occasionally land with the front of the ship pointed upward.
• Fixed an issue with the Vanduul Glaive, where the boost would not work due to it having no fuel.
• The pilot seat for the Avenger is no longer missing textures.
• Fixed an issue where the 300 series, Avenger and Hornet (all variations) would sometimes tilt backwards when landing.#
• Fixed an issue where the Aurora LN was missing green paint on the side and upper intakes.
• Fixed an issue where the Hornet engine audio, for both acceleration and boost, was sub-audible at most volumes.
• The Vanduul Glaive name no longer appears as “@vehicle_NameVNCL_Scythe_Glaive” in Arena Commander, and instead shows the proper label.
• The M50 no longer jerks erratically to the left or right when boosting.
• Fixed an issue where the Mustang Beta could not enter landing mode.

Technical

• Fixed a black screen that would occur when joining a Lobby while GIM services were down.
  • Added the ability for the Lobby to return an error if a client attempts to join while GIM is down.
• Fixed an issue where clients would sometimes get stuck on a loading screen, if they are connecting to an instance that no longer exists.
• Fixed an issue where pressing X to respawn in Arena Commander would sometimes cause the client to crash if the character died by colliding with an asteroid.
• Fixed an issue where the client could black screen if the lobby service was not able to communicate with the instance manager.
• Fixed one lobby issue where the player Host would see a different map and rule for a match in the UI then the players would.#
  • This would happen when a host created a game, left, and entered or created a new lobby.
• Fixed an issue where players would complete a match, return to lobby, and be unable to ready-up for a new match.#
  • This was due to the players in the group remaining in a “in match” state in GIM.

User Interface

• Fixed an issue where players would be unable to trigger respawn if they died while interacting with the HUD.
• Missiles no longer have a graphical glitch where they retain a small portion of the firing ships interface.
• The ship HUD will no longer sometimes detach from the helmet upon initial spawn or after colliding with an object.
• The character helmet will no longer separate from the rest of the character due to inertia, causing issues with the ship HUD.
  h1. Social Module:

Additions:

Gameplay

• ArcCorp, Area 18 is expanding.
  • The new Galleria area is currently under construction, but available for exploration.
• New emotes have been added to the game.
  • /agree, /angry(1-3), /attention, /blah(1-2), /bored (2), /bow(1-6), /burp, /cheer(1-8), /chicken, /clap (5-7 are new), /come(1-4), /cry, /dance(1-6), /disagree(1-3), /failure, /flex(1-3), /flirt, /gasp(1-5), /gloat(1-4), /greet, /laugh(1-3), /point(1-4), /rude(1-3), /salute(1-2), /sit, /sleep, /smell(1-2), /threaten(1-2), /wait(1-2), /wave(1-2), /whistle(1-2)
• Some new and existing emotes now include (temporary) audio dialog.
• The maximum character capacity for Area 18 has been increased to 36.
  • The limit will expand up to 40, if you are attempting to join an instance with players from your contact list.
• Fully functional Greycat Buggies have been added around ArcCorp.
• The Greycat Buggies in ArcCorp can explode and be destroyed when they impact at high speed.
• Both drivers and passengers of Greycat Buggies in ArcCorp can be killed if the buggy is destroyed due to high speed impact.
  • Killed characters will be revived by our highly-trained staff at the Area 18 Medical Unit.
• Players will now be removed from Area 18 due to inactivity after 15 minutes.
  • An inactivity warning will be displayed 1 minute prior to removal.
• Falling out of the terrain will now kill players, and revive them in the Area 18 Medical Unit.

Character

• Character rigs and animations have all been updated.

User Interface

• There is a new loading screen when taking the elevator from the Hangar to ArcCorp’s Area 18.
• The chat UI has received a graphical overhaul.
  • New features for the chat interface include multiple tabs for conversation management, private conversations, and a contacts list that can be extended or retracted into the UI.
  • Owners of a private conversation can kick players from their conversations.
  • Chat setting buttons have been added to the chat interface, but are not currently active.
  • Contacts must still be added or removed via the Contacts List (Hotkey – “F11”).
• Players can now both copy chat from the chat roll, and copy/paste into the chat UI.
• Using the “Up” arrow key while the chat entry field is in focus will now display your previous message.
• The new default hotkey for the contact list is now “F11”.
• When using Augmented Reality, shop items will now have a blue highlight when targeted.
• “Left-ALT+Space” key now enables use of the Mouse and locks the character in place, allowing use of buttons, tabs and other in-game functionality.

Balance/Tweaks:

Gameplay

• /stand has been changed to /atease.

Environment

• The G~Loc liquor cabinets have been updated to have bottles from in-universe brands.
• There are new commercials scattered through the billboards and screens in ArcCorp.
• The following shops in Area 18 have received updates to their facades and external appearance: Casaba Outlet, TDD Jobwell, Cubby Blast, AstroArmada.
• Characters can no longer climb over the bar at G~Loc.

User Interface

• Augmented Reality has received some minor adjustments to its animations and appearance.
• Augmented Reality has been moved to the “F10” hotkey.
• The “L” key no longer opens the contact list. The new default hotkey is “F11”.
• Character names in Augmented Reality will now transition in and out of view based on range at a smoother, more gradual rate.

Fixes:

Environment

• Several spelling errors on the “Shooting Range” sign in Cubby Blast have been fixed.
• Fixed a number of texture conflicts and lighting bugs in ArcCorp.
• The “Exit” sign in Cubby Blast has been fixed so it overall more visible and no longer disappears on low graphic settings.
• A number of collision problems around ArcCorp have been fixed, around AstroArmada, G~Loc, Dumper’s Depot and the Medical Unit.
• Fixed an issue with the incinerator fan behind Casaba having detail and graphical errors on low graphics settings.
• Fixed an issue with some of the posters in G~Loc clipping through the wall.
• Fixed several issues with the collision of the railings in the Area 18 Jobwell.
  • Characters should no longer pop through the railings by running against them.
  • The arms of characters should no longer clip through the railing.
• Fixed an issue with one of the Medical Unit desks lacking collision.

Technical

• Fixed an issue where clients would crash on entering ArcCorp if SLI was enabled.
• Fixed an issue where players could end up in a phantom lobby after the original host departed, and never receive additional players.

User Interface

• Entering an invalid command in chat will now display an error – “Command Invalid, type /help for list of valid commands.”
• Using the up arrow while the chat entry field is in-focus will no longer take away focus.
• Updated the advanced keybinding options and keyboard keymap image in the game menu to now show the Social Module features.