Alpha 3.0

1st Official Post

    Hello guys,

    prepare your machines whoever is still interested because Star Citizen Alpha 3.0 is just around the corner. 8)

    It is going to be a major step since it will not be a tech demo anymore but a first approach to the most awesome game ever.

    I will be starting to test it hopefully by the end of next week with my fellow ETF members and it is planned to go live on 08/21/17.

    Here is what you can expect as features and when (updated every Friday): link to the production schedule


    And here is a small trailer about derelict ships recorded ingame of course posted this week.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AiNxbv-a9s&t=0s

    See you in the verse!

    PS: if anyone intends to buy a starter package ask me first which one to pick and use my referral code STAR-ZZDD-46RJ

    EDIT 07/29/17: live release has been pushed back to 09/04/17

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    • Official Post

    I'm impressed with the player movement, gun mechanics and overall smoothness of the call of duty mode. Unfortunately, in the universe I'm getting 20-30 fps on the low setting, so I get a headache trying to do missions. Did some googling and it seems the frame rate is bad for everyone in the multiplayer universe, so hopefully that can be fixed.

    Ripley, when did you become an official SC tester?

    dont´t worry about fps. With 2.6.3 you can have a PC that is able to fly you to Mars but still get 30 frames in the game. It is totally related to netcode and server structure.

    Expect a boost with 3.0 and mostly 3.1.

    I think it is more than a year now that I joined ETF. It can be very very very frustrating to test certain builds or mechanics and no fun at all sometimes but the thing is we are like sitting right next to the devs. We can talk to them via Spectrum and our feedback goes right into the next build which makes the game more enjoyable for everyone.

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    :)

    It is live for ETF now, yes. We had a blast when we read "QA has greenlit the build"...

    Unfortunately, I cannot tell you guys how long it will take until live for everyone. That is depending on the progress now but it should be a matter of weeks and definitely not months.

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    Man, I'm so excited for 3.0, and the fact you think it's weeks and not months makes it feel closer than ever.

    Just be careful rip, don't want to breach that NDA :P

    "Knowledge is power and power corrupts, so study hard and be evil."
    "If we do not end wars, wars will end us"

    Happy Thanksgiving Fellas,

    quick update on the Alpha 3.0 status.

    1st wave of invitations for 3.0 has been started:

    "The goal of this initial PTU release is to increase our total player count in an effort to test concurrency. We also need you to focus on testing the traversal system by quantum traveling, landing on moons, locating and visiting Levski, and just exploring the great expanse of space around Crusader.

    Please note that the complete Alpha 3.0 experience is not in this build, as some features are still being implemented and refined. These features will be added to future builds when ready for wider testing."

    That also means my NDA has finally been lifted :grin:

    If one of you gets an invitation I´d be happy to help you out with any steps. The waves of invitaions will continue until its ready to go live but I have no idea when that´s gonna be. There is still a ton of work to do.

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    How's the transition from moon/planet surface to space? Approximately how long does it take until you're "in space" (or until you can jump to a beacon)?

    "Knowledge is power and power corrupts, so study hard and be evil."
    "If we do not end wars, wars will end us"

    It is pretty quick from surface into space but it takes a lot longer the other way around since you must slow down when entering atmosphere in order to not crash.

    I will provide a video soon for both, I just have no clue of video editing.

    EDIT: we were just told to publish only stuff from the actual build so I had to remove the screenshots and I cannot record new videos since the servers are unstable atm

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    Very buggy atm, unstable servers, low fps but here are two examples of how the game "plays". The testing focus is just spawning ships and flying around. I hope I can add some cargo mission soon.

    Landing on Daymar at a mining facility which is on the "other" side of the moon so you have to go around via the orbital markers first.

    https://youtu.be/FKkoZzg5PYA

    Visiting an emergency shelter on Cellin and flying back to Olisar.

    https://youtu.be/LbfZpLCTB8A

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    Nice footage Rip! I heard about the buggy/unstable servers and stuff. I expected as much to be honest. I'm just really praying those network improvements really work, because otherwise the scope of the game is just unfeasible.

    Still, I believe if anybody can do it, CIG can. I just hope they find a solution that's efficient AND secure, which can be really tricky.

    "Knowledge is power and power corrupts, so study hard and be evil."
    "If we do not end wars, wars will end us"

    We had times with 50-60 fps (which is a big step from 20-30fps in 2.6.3) but right now servers cannot handle that many players, yet.

    Here is a cargo delivery to Levski with lower graphics quality due to server stress. Those are size 1 Standard Cargo Units which you cannot move personally but there are smaller boxes at wreck sites that you can loot and pick up.

    https://youtu.be/M_uOvhTVNbs

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