@General News New video from CIG is out:
<:scamMan:847502148464148531>
@General News New video from CIG is out:
<:scamMan:847502148464148531>
One more post covering Warbond:
Heatsink paint comes with ALL Warbond ship packs, so if you are Concierge you get Riftwalker (two posts up) and Heatsink pictured here. If you are not Concierge you just get Heatsink.
Unknown why CIG locked Heatsink to WB only
@General News New video from CIG is out:
<:scamMan:847502148464148531>
More details here, on Spectrum
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The Final Four competitors will each receive an exclusive Best in Show paint and in-game manufacturer-themed poster — and the overall winner will be honored with an in-game championship pennant commemorating their 2955 win.
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If you’re able to guess every head-to-head matchup correctly and vote flawlessly in Phase 2, you’ll walk away with the Nostradamus Spectrum Badge.
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Once the Elite Eight contenders are chosen, a limited number of Aegis Idris will be made available. Please note that a select group of the most active players (and testers) across multiple criteria over the last several months will have priority access to the first 12 waves.
(Post will be updated shortly to include wave timestamps)
This week in Star Citizen:
- Thursday:
- <:Twitch:884999004394500128> Star Citizen Live : Ship Showdown Q&A at 15:00 UTC
@General News New video from CIG is out:
<:scamMan:847502148464148531>
[Star Citizen Live: Ship Showdown Q&A Summary](
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R97aCFJmPSQ)
-# by @Dynamis Idrizen
600i Rework:
They are happy with the concept and can confirm this is still planned. However, it is not in the 12-18month schedule.
This is because the 600i is, at present, a functional ship, so they would prefer to produce new ships/concepted ships.
They (Jared) is hopeful for a new Origin ship in 2026.
Ships ready for engineering:
All ships are essentially ready for engineering, those without physical component access have a ‘fallback’ mode.
‘Fallback’ mode ships like single seaters will be able to use their MFDs to access engineering gameplay, including repairing components. Half of all ships use physicalized, mostly single seaters are ‘fallback’.
Engineering is not held back by ships being ready for it.
Colour scheme for BIS:
Nothing decided this year, but meeting held next week.
Starters gold standard:
Yes, they want this. As part of this, the Aurora Gold Standard has been kicked off, including fire extinguisher, weapons locker, physical components, MFDs, improving how it was versus when it was made.
It will be a nice update for millions of Aurora owners. Storage was added to the Aurora in 4.3. It’s important to remember gold standard is ‘current standard’, so there will be more updates in future.
They will update other starters if they have time, GSing is prioritized by popularity and the ships with worst issues. Aurora will be reintroduced to sale as part of this.
4th Zeus Variant/Zeus ST:
It’s real. However, it hasn’t been made as it is missing its gameloop, and was only included on stage by accident by JC.
Gameloop was not disclosed. When the gameloop is made, they will return to it.
Ship modularity and Apollo release:
The feature works as much as they need it to presently.
Both Apollos will be module based and are coming in September. It has six modules (configurations of tier beds) and can equip one per side. All six modules will be given, for free, to all Apollo owners.
Command module and Ironclad release:
This is due to finish in December, but implementing may be later. This is a very complicated feature as it needs to have the command module be an independent ship, but also be able to take control of the Caterpillar and Ironclad.
They would like the Ironclad to come with the Command module tech - this likely means it won’t be this year.
Bespoke weaponry:
There are two more ships coming this year with bespoke weapons - Perseus and another unannounced ship.
Design side, it enables control over the raw damage output of a ship as opposed to a full size range. Without bespokes, this would have pushed the Meteor and Wolf out of the roles they wanted and too close to other ships, or too powerful.
Generic S4s on the Wolf as well would have had a visual impact they wanted to avoid - bespoke weapons can be directly integrated into the ship. Bespoke does not mean ‘no options’ for a ship, it means not accessing the entire range. Possibly expect weapons kits at IAE for bespokes.
S2 shields:
Currently, S2 shields perform worse than S3 shields, and powering multiple is very difficult.
In the new system under engineering, you will only power two shields at once. Extra shields above this will rotate in as shields deplete. This essentially gives you the rest of the pool as ‘backup’.
Every item is completely rebalanced with engineering, there is no accurate comparison that can currently be made of 6xS2 vs S3. However, the current gap will be greatly reduced with engineering.
Medium to large salvager:
They would like a full range of ship sizes in a loop, dedicated starters, then S-M-L-C. The Golem was the first example of this.
Side note: earlier this year an RSI Salvage starter was concepted. They would like an ‘orange’ medium salvager.
Backlog/BMM:
The backlog of ships that do not require gameplay is now much smaller. They need to balance creating new content (as this helps fund the game), updating content, and delivering the backlog.
Most of the seriously backlogged ships (Endeavour/BMM etc.) require significant feature and gameplay work. BMM for example is not expected in next 18mo, and hasn’t been worked on since, however, they are hoping to move people back to it in 2026.
By the end of the next 18 months, they expect there will only be 2 or 1 ships per year ‘backlogged’. They would like to focus on finishing manufacturers, and avoid making ships that miss gameplay loops.
Railen cargo:
This will be updated to fit 32 SCU boxes, it is expected it will get a very large cargo increase.
They want it to maintain the visuals but make it worth using (GATAC style), which the old system would not work well for. They’re confident they can achieve this.
Year of RSI/other manufacturers:
This won’t continue, it was just helpful for RSI.
We will see more Kruger ships and they will push for it.
Carrack cargo pods:
This will need an update to allow them to be slid down to the ground. They were not intended to be openable before while attached to the ship, this is how Carrack modularity works.
Updating this will require an extensive belly rework to the Carrack, so they will do this when there is more time.
Armour in engineering:
Engineering will contain damage reduction to emulate Maelstrom. This will stop ‘meleeing doors open’ working, as melee applies physical damage.
Armour will have minimum threshholds to take damage. Longer term, Maelstrom (functional in Sq42) will do this as a simulation rather than the lightweight approximation.
Medical beacons/gameplay:
They are aiming to restore beacons with September, they are causing a lot of problems.
They are also aiming to expand medical gameplay in September, including further separating the functionality of medical bed tiers. This will come, again, with the Apollo.
They want to fix issues with medical gameplay but also add things. If this misses # September, it will be soon after.
PDCs:
These were only given to the Reclaimer, 890J and Phoenix as their original concept included them - the Ironclad, for example, will not receive them.
They are intended for military capital ships. There is a new kind of vehicle with a new kind of PDC coming, and the PDCs sold in the Idris-kits will arrive in game shops around IAE.
Ship entry/exit animations:
Some of these, like Talon, are too long, and they will change these, however it is a multi-disciplinary adjustment as it needs to sync with audio and visuals.
The Wolf entrance and exit was mo-capped, which enabled it to be so fast. Ladder tech v2 is for static ladders, so this can’t be used for ships.
Paint creation:
This is extremely difficult for them still. They are able to apply paints internally to ships using the current paint system, but they need to be very careful with how they apply things to avoid making ships ugly. Breakup is also baked into the ship model, so they cannot make individual panels change colour.
One of the issues they are approaching is due to the very high resolution of textures in game, custom liveries - entailing unique textures - would be a huge graphical pressure on the game in the shared environment, this isn’t something they want to do. They want to make the idea easier and Graphics team is very on board on this.
They want internal liveries/paints to be a thing in the future, but this is an ongoing process.
Retaliator modules:
They will deliver the two remaining modules (dropship/living quarters), JC would like a med bay module.
Instead of a bomb module, they would like to allow the torpedo racks be swapped for bomb modules, and a bomber Tali makes sense.
PTV rework/G12 production:
Bundling these as both are called filler ship tasks. These keep getting moved for more important ships, but it will eventually come with all paints.
They really want to do the G12 to complete Origin as a manufacturer line-up, and it was on the 2026 schedule, but has been removed.
Concept ships/Battlecruiser:
They are not planning to do any concept ships anymore, none are planned for 2025 or later. It will only be Straight to Flyable from now - the era of concepts is over.
The only concept ship they may consider is the Battlecruiser, which is ‘significantly larger/different than Javelin’.
The Battlecruiser is in concept right now. It is in very early stages, but is coming - this was previously mentioned at Beijing Bar Citizen reportedly.
Wolf not being gold standard:
They did not have the time to finish the gold standard component animations for it to release in August. All of these are in progress and in engine, and they will be delivered before end of the year along with other Wolf things.
The Wolf not being gold standard is not a reflection of them skipping gold standard on new ships, only a timing challenge.
Single seaters with S4/S5 weapons:
They don’t see a problem with these smaller ships having larger guns to pursue larger ships, as this is part of the gameplay they want to pursue. They do not want to create a ‘Jesus ship’ which is the best at everything.
They indicate the Meteor as an example of how despite having large weapons, the ship is not overpowered as it is tuned around having such large weapons in durability and agility.
As long as ships do not break immersion and are balanced, they see no problem with filling in a wide spectrum of fighters.
More star-kitten paints:
This is a decision not directly taken by the ship team. There will be more as they are very popular. They will not make one for the sake of making one though, it will need to make sense - IAE themed around Star Kitten?
Ship to ship docking:
This is still planned, but not in progress all ships billed for it follow the metric set for it. The smaller, round docking collars extend to the bounding box of each ship and connect to enable a transfer.
Rearm/repair/refuel in capital ships:
This will eventually be implemented to enable MobiGlas style resupply on some select ships, such as Idris and Polaris, using the resources on the cargo grid of the parent ship.
This will also be part of Crucible and Vulcan functionality, but will not apply to ships that do not have dedicated hangars - Ironclad for example will not have access to this.
This is being worked on as part of content they want to deliver next year.
Drones:
Drones are due to come with base building, but will not come with the Apollo.
The Apollo has internal space for drones, but they reviewed Drone gameplay for the Apollo and it would not match current medical gameplay as it was originally envisioned versus what we have now.
They may some day implement drones into the Apollo if they can find a suitable medical gameplay space for them. They are providing all of the modules of the Apollo to all buyers, old or new, for free, as a replacement for this. This will be attributed to owner accounts.
Bedlogging:
The new design mindset is that beds will not be needed for logout in the future, as you will be able to log out ‘where you are’.
This is part of the reason why the Prowler Utility did not have a bed, and they intend to make more ships without beds as they won’t be needed for logging in or out anymore.
There won’t be any shows now until Citizencon Direct. Lots of ships at IAE.
Turbulent web studio becomes Cloud Imperium Games Montreal
CIG Montréal will work on refining the online game Star Citizen , which has been available in a pre-official version since 2017, but whose official launch version ( Star Citizen 1.0 ) is now promised for 2027 or 2028.
Star Citizen
CIG Montréal is indeed looking to increase its workforce to some 150 employees. Its ambition is to become one of the largest studios in Montreal. Turbulent, for its part, will continue to exist for web projects, including the updating of the National Bank and Ricardo websites.
Star Citizen is a fully crowdfunded, massively multiplayer online first-person space simulation game. Chris Roberts, co-founder and CEO of CIG, says he’s raised just over $1 billion (canadian $) for his game from players, some of whom are growing impatient and eager to see the finished product.
“It allows us to do things without imposing the framework of a typical video game studio,” Chris Roberts said in an interview with La Presse from his home in Los Angeles. “The players who fund us expect the best game, period. We don’t have to streamline, cut jobs, or change our business model.”
The British entrepreneur knows the Quebec metropolis well, having participated in the filming of feature films there, at a time when he was taking a break from video games. He appreciates the city and the talent of its video game specialists.
He planned to be there to personally inaugurate the renaming of his studio, but the turbulence at Air Canada decided otherwise.
Squadron 42
On the way to the “final” version of Star Citizen , CIG Montreal plans to launch the single-player game Squadron 42 next year , with a more conventional narrative and set in the same universe as the latter. Several new features introduced by Squadron 42 will then be used to enhance Star Citizen .
Squadron 42 will launch at a point in 2026 where it won’t be overshadowed by the most anticipated game of the next few months, Grand Theft Auto VI . “We’re hoping it’ll be almost as big an event. Other than GTA 6 , it’s probably the biggest-budget AAA game,” says Chris Roberts.
Star Citizen already has over a million returning players every month. In total, at least 25 million people have played it at least once. This should help CIG successfully market Squadron 42 , as many of these players are eagerly awaiting the new title.
Others might be drawn to the formula or the characters. “It’s Top Gun meets Star Wars ,” says Chris Roberts.
Throughout the action, players will be able to rely on sidekicks who take on the features of well-known actors, including Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill, and Gillian Anderson. The voices and gestures of the three actors were digitized in the studio to create realistic avatars.
In addition to Mr. Beauséjour, Turbulent’s other co-founder Marc Beaudet and partner Claire Buffet have taken on new roles at CIG. The former will lead the studios in Montreal, Manchester, England, Austin, Texas, and Frankfurt, Germany. Ms. Buffet becomes head of operations and human resources for CIG’s North American offices.
This Week in Star Citizen:
Tuesday
- Ship Showdown - Elite Eight Start
- Ship Showdown - Free Fly Start
Wednesday
- Roadmap Update + Roundup