Roberts Space Industries and Cloud Imperium Games Launch Star Citizen Alpha 3.1

[Chino]

Following on its plan to deliver quarterly updates to Star Citizen, Roberts Space Industries and Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) today announced the release of Star Citizen Alpha 3.1 to its eager fan base. Star Citizen is an epic first-person experience where players fly highly detailed space ships, battle on foot through massive environments, explore life-sized planets and moons, and discover boundless adventure in an ever-changing and expanding galaxy.

New features in the 3.1 update include the much-anticipated character customizer, allowing players to add a distinctive look to their in-game avatars by personalizing their physical appearance, as well as the Service Beacon feature, providing players the ability to send out distress calls which other players can detect and respond to.


Additionally the development team polished many of the exciting features that launched with the 3.0 patch in December. Updates to the planetary technology, IFCS (flight control), AI, the Personal Manager tool on each player's mobiGlas, ship weapons, ship damage physics and overall performance optimization, all work in concert to improve the overall Star Citizen gameplay experience.

Five new ships and vehicles see their flyable/drivable debut in Alpha 3.1, including Aegis' heavy salvage ship, the Reclaimer, the Anvil Terrapin-Class exploration vessel, MISC's dedicated long-distance racer, the Razor, the Nox Kue, a flashy variant of Aopoa's popular open canopy speedster, and the Tumbril Cyclone, a capable all-terrain ground vehicle.

"This is the first step in fulfilling the pledge we made to our community last December to target quarterly updates to Star Citizen," said CEO and Creative Director Chris Roberts. "These are important updates and our fans should see some significant improvements to Star Citizen's overall experience.

"Star Citizen is an ambitious game. We are working tirelessly to build a fully immersive experience where players will be able to have the adventures of a lifetime. One universe that can be a home for all gamers and one that will continue to grow and evolve. We are proud that so many gamers have joined with us to make Star Citizen the success that it is today."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[dj-electric]

Looking great. We're getting there. Nice and slowly

 

[ArbitraryAffection]

Might actually install this and have a fly around in my Cutlass Black for a bit. Then get bored and uninstall it to free up SSD space.

Then wait another 6 months, rinse and repeat.

:|

 

[bpgt64]

I have had, several 30 minute to hour long play sessions, FPS is definitely improving. Just hoping these guys have enough cash to keep this train running the 2-3+ more years it may need to complete.

 

[Assimilator]

So alpha releases are considered newsworthy now? Or is it just because Star Citizen is a special snowflake?

 

[deu]

So alpha releases are considered newsworthy now? Or is it just because Star Citizen is a special snowflake?

You could say that its a special snowflake, since it for alot reasons is a very different production than a AAA developer / other indie/kickstarter games. Getting to 3.1 is kinda of big step, but if you dont like spacesims or impressive graphics, go to next headline I would say.

 

[bug]

So alpha releases are considered newsworthy now? Or is it just because Star Citizen is a special snowflake?

For a moment there I was actually scared this may be the actual release.

Neah, joking, I wasn't

But I do wonder how many of the people that have paid for this game ever thought: "Star Citizen, hm, if only I could drive a car in this game..."

 

[Ahhzz]

...
But I do wonder how many of the people that have paid for this game ever thought: "Star Citizen, hm, if only I could drive a car in this game..."

 

[yotano211]

For a moment there I was actually scared this may be the actual release.

Neah, joking, I wasn't

But I do wonder how many of the people that have paid for this game ever thought: "Star Citizen, hm, if only I could drive a car in this game..."

some special mental people have paid more than my car is worth. i'm sure some even more than all of my mining rigs combined

 

[bug]

some special mental people have paid more than my car is worth. i'm sure some even more than all of my mining rigs combined

Dude, get real. Can your car drive on a randomly generated planet? There's no comparison

 

[yotano211]

Dude, get real. Can your car drive on a randomly generated planet? There's no comparison

I'm special, I drive a Prius, of course I can.

 

[R-T-B]

Dude, get real. Can your car drive on a randomly generated planet? There's no comparison

There is... It's called Elite: Dangerous, and it costs $60.00.

 

[INSTG8R]

There is... It's called Elite: Dangerous.

Among dozens of other things you can and have been able to do for years now...I own SC as well but it’s not worth the hard drive space, unlike ED which I’ve owned since day 1 and still play almost daily.
That said I may waste the time installing SC again, walk around my ship for a few minutes and uninstall it again...


Edit! Actually @R-T-B it’s not near that expensive and right now it’s on sale to boot.

https://www.frontierstore.net/games/elite-dangerous-cat.html

 

[dj-electric]

SC needs more money, and media attention IMO.
This is, at least according to their goals, the most enthusiastic game.. well... of all time. Its scale and feature list is unrealistically high.

They need to push development harder if they want results by 2022-2023, if they don't want this mammoth to die in development. This rocket needs more fuel.

 

[R-T-B]

Edit! Actually @R-T-B it’s not near that expensive and right now it’s on sale to boot.

https://www.frontierstore.net/games/elite-dangerous-cat.html

I was going by its release price. It's obviously changed a bit pricing wise since I bought into it back then!

 

[Prima.Vera]

LOOOOOOOL. After 7 years and still in Alpha???

 

[dj-electric]

LOOOOOOOL. After 7 years and still in Alpha???

This will likely stay in alpha stage for at least another 2 years until beta will be ready. Anyone aware of their progress documentation and feature list predicts this will stay away from final release at least until 4 years from now..

As i said before, SC's development is the gaming industry's equivalent to colonizing mars. It takes time and a huge effort that not many support, and many post "lol" emotes on forums about. Looking at the weekly documented progression will help many avoid any misunderstandings about SC's progress. They release 3-4 hours of video content a week about development

Without support and push from the community, including critical feedback about the game, they will never release it. lol emotes about it are not a part of it

 

[bug]

Among dozens of other things you can and have been able to do for years now...I own SC as well but it’s not worth the hard drive space, unlike ED which I’ve owned since day 1 and still play almost daily.
That said I may waste the time installing SC again, walk around my ship for a few minutes and uninstall it again...


Edit! Actually @R-T-B it’s not near that expensive and right now it’s on sale to boot.

https://www.frontierstore.net/games/elite-dangerous-cat.html

Ha! Maybe it's time I bit the bullet and bought this title. I bought a joystick for it, but failed to buy the game since I didn't find the time to play.

 

[INSTG8R]

This will likely stay in alpha stage for at least another 2 years until beta will be ready. Anyone aware of their progress documentation and feature list predicts this will stay away from final release at least until 4 years from now..

As i said before, SC's development is the gaming industry's equivalent to colonizing mars. It takes time and a huge effort that not many support, and many post "lol" emotes on forums about. Looking at the weekly documented progression will help many avoid any misunderstandings about SC's progress. They release 3-4 hours of video content a week about development

Without support and push from the community, including critical feedback about the game, they will never release it. lol emotes about it are not a part of it

Being an apologist for unending feature creep and calling it “development” helps no one either. It deserves all the LOLs and emotes it gets.

 

[SPLWF]

I've had SC for a long while now. With 3.1, it's no better. FPS hiccups and game crashes. I managed to get my Avenger out, FPS is choppy but I was able to land on a planet. As soon as I exit my ship, game crashes. SC is currently taking up NVMe space (I'm still hopeful, somewhat). SC seems to crank out more ships and land vehicles, but game still runs like poop.

I returned to the good ole reliable Elite Dangerous

 

[INSTG8R]

I've had SC for a long while now. With 3.1, it's no better. FPS hiccups and game crashes. I managed to get my Avenger out, FPS is choppy but I was able to land on a planet. As soon as I exit my ship, game crashes. SC is currently taking up NVMe space (I'm still hopeful, somewhat). SC seems to crank out more ships and land vehicles, but game still runs like poop.

I returned to the good ole reliable Elite Dangerous

Thanks for saving me the time an effort of reinstalling it to come to that conclusion.

 

[dj-electric]

Being an apologist for unending feature creep and calling it “development” helps no one either. It deserves all the LOLs and emotes it gets.

There are 5 studios working day and night, people who look like zombies for what they are doing just so one day will have something that might set new standards.
This aint no NMS.

 

[BiggieShady]

Wow, they have managed to get to major version 3, minor version 1 ... and all in alpha

... I suppose after Alpha 4.7 comes Beta 1.0

 

[INSTG8R]

There are 5 studios working day and night, people who look like zombies for what they are doing just so one day will have something that might set new standards.
This aint no NMS.

And it’s still just a bunch of half baked “features/demoes” stitched together in the hope that one day they will all actually work together(they currently don’t and may never will)while coming up with yet another new “feature” that breaks the the previous “features”and the Alpha cycle just continues indefinitely. But hey add another studio maybe one of them will actually finish one them...
I don’t understand why you’re even attempting to defend this feature creep,perpetual Alpha...I’ve paid for my copy years ago now and have yet to see anything resembling a game and Squadron 42, the reason I bought it has all but disappeared from development talk other than that it’s been “delayed” again for the n’th time, you know because of all that stuff I just said.

 

[dj-electric]

And it’s still just a bunch of half baked “features/demoes” stitched together in the hope that one day they will all actually work together(they currently don’t and may never will)while coming up with yet another new “feature” that breaks the the previous “features”and the Alpha cycle just continues indefinitely. But hey add another studio maybe one of them will actually finish one them...
I don’t understand why you’re even attempting to defend this feature creep,perpetual Alpha...I’ve paid for my copy years ago now and have yet to see anything resembling a game and Squadron 42, the reason I bought it has all but disappeared from development talk other than that it’s been “delayed” again for the n’th time, you know because of all that stuff I just said.

I feel like i'm defending it when it comes to what people think about when they think SC, witch is kinda wrong these days.

Its true. Currently, i can't find myself doing anything new after maybe 4-5 hours of gameplay in the current patch. But i still believe that the potential to have something really special exists and achievable.
Haven't lost my faith just yet.