Last Friday’s Star Citizen Live is a direct sequel to the day before’s Inside Star Citizen. In effect, six tracks and ship racing missions are coming with patch 3.18. Three of them were presented during the ISC, and the other three were presented during this live. Two members of the audio team then give an update on the state of their work.
Ship races
The decision to incorporate these racing missions in patch 3.18 was made late by Todd Pappy himself, but the teams were happy to be able to work on them. This work is a starting point for what the racing gameplay in Star Citizen can beas well as an entry point for new designers.
A reputation system will be implemented for this gameplay loop, which will unlock new tracks based on player performance. For each circuit, the time achieved by the runner will be classified according to one of the four categories :
And a lap record system will be put in place: awarded to the player with the best time on the circuit.
Consideration is given to the nature of future circuits: some will be loops, others will be linear, etc.
Significant work has been done on the visual aspect of these new points of interest. The lighting team made the night races especially memorable, and lots of easter eggs were placed along the tracks, such as podiums, landing zones, or crests that look like want to host Tusken raiders…
Daymar Circuit
Daymar’s circuit visually resembles “The Snake Pit” circuit, implemented in 3.17.2.
It is the only circuit that is not based on a community circuit.
It takes advantage of Daymar’s terrain with its canyons and mountains to create a memorable environment.
Lorville Circuit
This tour is based on a community tour named Lorville Gates. It was renamed to Lorville Outskirts to avoid confusion and better describe the circuit. The developers point out that they certainly want to honor the community with these implementations, but that it remains the responsibility of the level designers to do the work of making them available for this kind of places and missions.
To better understand the plot, a developer immersed himself incognito in the racing community by pretending to be a beginnerand asking many questions of the players responsible for creating and running the races there.
Crusader Circuit
The circuit was renamed from Caplan Stadium to Caplan Circuit.
A work of reflection and design has been carried out to best integrate the circuit and the visual indicators associated with the platform, without distorting its primary function : this is a freight platform.
The track is technical and was originally meant to be part of the second wave of unlocked tracks, but the order of appearance is still being considered.
Audio
The audio team hasn’t been seen on weekly shows for almost a yearand they take advantage of the invitation to take stock of their work in progress and announce that they will have important communications to make in the near future. The communication of the day finds itself diminished Editor’s note.
The team is currently working on updating audio triggers in older ships, many of which rely on an equally dated system. The new system allows better showcase the work of sound designers, and keep a unified workspace. Work is also underway on understanding the context, and its translation into the audio mix. For example, if the audio engine is able to understand the level of stress applied to a ship, they can apply creaking noises, hull creaks, etc. to enhance immersion.
Work on Claudius continues. It’s a bigger task than originally imagined, but everyone on the team is excited about the possibilities the tool will provide.
The team is currently moving to the new building, where 12 mixing and listening rooms are under construction. They all incorporate spatialized sound (surround) and are larger and better equipped than the old ones. Planning work has recently been done. This helped to highlight the understaffing of the team. Recruitment is therefore underway to quadruple its number of members.
Work on VOIP is planned. They want to make the experience more immersive.