“Star Citizen 3.18 has caused a major pause in Star Citizen updates, and created some weird situations with 3.17.2 and 3.19. In this video I’d like to explain why this happened, how it has happened in the past, and how Star Citizen may continue …”
The recent updates for Star Citizen, specifically the 3.18 and 3.19 updates, have caused confusion among players. However, there is a reason behind the delays and issues surrounding these updates. In the past, updates were based on the availability of content, which led to long waiting periods during the development of 3.0. To address this, the update model has transitioned to a time-based schedule rather than a content-based one. This shift in approach has resulted in regular updates every few months.
The development process for updates involves different stages, with the Game Dev level being the least stable. Features are added and tested in this stage before moving on to the staging, release, and live phases. The company locks in the development branch at a certain point to ensure stability before releasing an update. This process allows for the development of larger features like persistent entity streaming (PES) while smaller updates continue to be released. The 3.18 patch, known as the persistence patch, focuses on PES and its associated features. The delays in releasing this patch are due to the complexities of developing and stabilizing PES.
The 3.19 update is also being affected by the ongoing work on the 3.18 branch. The unstable nature of the current code branch has led the company to focus on stabilizing it before branching off for another major update. This has resulted in the possibility of seeing future patches like 3.20 and 3.21 before the eventual release of the highly anticipated 4.0 update. The game’s development and the features being added take precedence over patch numbers. While improvements can still be made to the update process, changes such as the roadmap update of 2022 have led to more reliable updates and predictions.