Star Citizen Alpha 3.21.0 LIVE.8779972 Patch Notes

Star Citizen Alpha 3.21.0

Alpha Patch 3.21.0 has now been released and is now available on the LIVE environment! Patch should now show: VERSION 3.21.0-LIVE.8779972.

It is strongly recommended that players delete their USER and Shader folders for the Public client after patching, particularly if you start encountering any odd character graphical issues or crash on loading. The USER folder can be found (in default installations) at C:\Program Files\Roberts Space Industries\StarCitizen\LIVE. The Shader folders can be found here: %localappdata%\Star Citizen

Update Warning: 3.21 has a nearly 34gb patch diff from 3.20 LIVE
Short Term Database Reset: Yes (Loss of items not stored in LTP)
Long Term Persistence (LTP): Enabled
Starting aUEC: 20,000

Known Issues

Misc Reliant – All Variants – The Reliant’s wingstate does not change from its horizontal configuration with appropriate inputs after ASOP spawn
UI / Menus – Controls – Keybindings – The Default Preset Images for the keyboard and gamepad control schemes do not match what is bound by default
PU – Locations / Vehicles – When spawning a ship at a Docking Port, the ship will spawn clipped into the docking port geometry
MISC Hull C – PU – Vehicles – Can’t undock the Hull-C
PU – Crusader / Orison – Locations / Transit – It’s possible for turn gates to not open preventing players from entering shuttles
PU – Art – Items / Character / Textures – Multiple clothes / armor / undersuit variants lost color / using the default base color
PU – Multivehicle – Vehicles / Ships / Ship Components / Weapons – Laser Repeater occasionally stops firing but still consumes ammo
Hull C – Spawn / Cargo / LEO – Hull C with cargo can spawn extended in a large Hangar instead of Docking Port
Stanton – Multivehicle – RSI Constellation Series – Ship Feature – Snub Ship clips through Constellation variants in vertical position when retrieved from ASOP
PU – Stanton – Area18/GrimHex – Locations / Inventory / Respawn – Player loses loadout after dying in the armistice zone
Stanton – Actor – Personal Inventory – Right click item interaction menu cannot be closed once opened
PU – Stanton – AI / Locations – Combat AI will teleport / pop in combat
Multivehicle – PU – Vehicles / Actor Feature – Medical / Respawn – Cannot respawn on a ship that has streamed out
Room System / Actor / Locations – Room System does not protect player actor from extreme weather conditions in Lorville Interiors
Vehicles – Players and items can fall through the bottom deck of the Redeemer
Reclaimer – Vehicles – Stanton – Reclaimer bridge elevator interaction missing
Vehicles / GFX – Client FPS will drop as long as players are inside of the cockpit of the Drake Cutlass series
The Carrack’s main elevator will get locked in place and begin to spin indefinitely after spamming the floors for a few minutes
Landing Pads – Multivehicle / Shopping – Refuel, repair, and rearm services unavailable when landed
Stanton – AI – Mission Giver – Wallace Klim is not visible at his location in Grim Hex

New Features

Locations

New Jump Point Rest Stop Stations and Lagrange Points

Addition of 3 additional Rest Stops to Stanton that act as the final stop before entering Jump Points. Each location is set up similarly to all the other Lagrange Points and consists of a parent Gas Cloud, a smaller Child Gas Cloud, a Gateway Rest Stop and and structures leading to the Jump Point itself. It is important to note that Jump Points are currently non-functional in 3.21 as Stanton is the only available system at this time.

These 3 new Stations with Jump Points that leave the Stanton System are:
– Pyro Gateway – (Stanton>Pyro)
– Magnus Gateway – (Stanton>Magnus)
– Terra Gateway – (Stanton>Terra)

Gameplay

New Legal/Illegal Mission: Retrieve Consignment

In this new mission type, player’s will be challenged to go to the Underground Facilities (UGFs) and kill / search for data pads that contain consignments depending on the mission variant. A consignment will have a code on the top for the dispenser which will cause the items listed on its manifest to come out of the dispenser one by one. These items can be taken and sold at commodity kiosk’s around the game for aUEC, this is however optional and players only need to retrieve these items from the dispenser to make way for the mission critical items if they so please. This mission will take part exclusively at the security UGFs, are shareable, and will require the drop-off of at least one box of classified files to complete the mission.

The Illegal version of this mission is offered by Ruto and the Legal version of this mission is offered by the various Security Organizations of Stanton.
– The Legal version of the mission the player will find corpses of dead security at the facility on arrival. On these corpses will be the data pads and the player will have to deal with Ninetails defending the location they have overrun.
– The Illegal version of the mission there will be no corpses, just security at the location which will drop the data pads as loot when killed.

This mission also introduces a new mission module called the AnteUpWaveSpawner, this module will cause AI to continuously spawn in waves at the location. These waves get progressively harder based on triggers, the triggers for this mission are Codes being successfully entered into the dispenser and every 5 minutes the player is at the location(on a looping timer). On this mission the waves will start to spawn once the first boss is killed.

New Illegal Mission: Kareah – Steal Evidence

With this new Steal Evidence mission offered by Twitch, players are tasked with stealing the next Evidence item that spawns from the Kareah contraband dispenser. To obtain this mission, players must talk to Twitch in person after completing her intro mission and having climbing in reputation. Only one instance can be active on the server at any time.

The first objective simply states to retrieve the Evidence, which will place a marker on the evidence dispenser. The mission description in the MobiGlas has a brief explanation on how to get the access code for the dispenser. When a box of evidence is spawned, the marker moves from the dispenser to the evidence, objective stays the same. Once the box of evidence has been grabbed by a mission player, the delivery destination is marked. If the box of evidence is taken away by another non-mission player, the marker will stay on it to allow recovery of the box by mission players.

Ships & Vehicles

Added New Flyable Ship: Crusader Industries A1 Spirit

Feature Updates

Gameplay

Repel Raid on Orison with New Crusader Platforms

With 3.21 we are bringing back the Repel Raid on Orison missions (Originally called Platform Assault on Orison). These FPS combat missions around Orison will now utilize newly added platform clusters that have been placed around Crusader.

Re-introduction of Bounty, Assassinate, Clear All, and other missions. These FPS combat missions around Orison will now utilize newly added platform clusters that have been placed around Crusader to provide opportunities for more concurrent missions and more unique locations. These missions include eliminate all missions similar to the current UGF missions. For these islands the player will be tasked with killing everyone in a given building. These Mercenary missions available from Crusader Industries will have three difficulty curves, ranging from an easy clear of one building, to a hard clear of three buildings. Similar to eliminate all missions, Eliminate Specific Missions will task the player with killing single or multiple Bosses based on difficulty. For players to qualify and receive these missions they first need to complete Security Work Assessment for Crusader Security.

Added Support for Players to Sell Things Owned by Members of Their Party Without it Being Considered Stolen

Ships and Vehicles

Ground Vehicle Physics Updates

Made further Ground Vehicle Handling Improvements for the Nova Tanks and all Wheeled Vehicles. Made Throttle Control easier and made suspension tweaks.

Driver Remote Turret QoL Improvements

Zoom has been added for all vehicles where a Drivers/Pilots that can use a remote turret. Added Stages to Turret Zoom: None, 2x Zoom, and 4x Zoom. Press or Hold Z to activate. Gyro mode is now enabled & togglable (G) for Driver Remote Turrets for all ground vehicles.

Bug Fixes

Fixed and issue causing players to become unstowed and not have an option to enter the Star Citizen Universe
High winds on planets should no longer blow ships away
Cargo ATC should no longer fail to detect vehicles within the loading zone or fail to initiate cargo transfers
Fixed an issue causing character’s view to get stuck wiggling when colliding in EVA
Fixed an issue that could cause server performance to create rapid Spikes in Charge Level when Mining
Fixed Medical Bay Bed and Screen Obstruction in Hangars
Carrack’s bridge should no longer cause extreme performance drops
Fixed an issue causing low client FPS around Hammerheads
Fixed the ARGO RAFT being unable to collect refinery orders
Fixed an issue causing an incorrect model to appear while using the DNA Character Customizer
Fixed SDR Brightness/Contrast/Gamma settings causing degradation in HDR quality
AI NPCs should no longer face the wrong directions when performing a leaning animation
AI NPCs should no longer begin to float while standing within a useable
Fixed an issue causing AI to not exit reinforcement vehicles at derelict outpost locations
Fixed an issue causing unconscious AI preventing spawn closet doors from closing when inside them, which caused no more AI to spawn
Players in the Anvil Pisces should no longer get pushed out the top of the ship or get stuck when using the bed
Camera should no longer be forced into third person after the player stands up from any vehicle seat twice
Toggling power on/off and Changing Weapon Groupings should no longer cause mouse clicks to not respond
Fixed Ship weapons not being able to charge or show no ammo after being retrieved
Bartenders should no longer be missing in multiple bars in major cities
Green Imperial Medical Regeneration Kiosks should now correctly display their UI
Fixed Excessive ATC Cargo communication while loading or unloading Hull-C
Fixed auto-docking the Hull C causing it dock wrong into the port and damage the ship
Fixed an issue causing players who accepted a shared salvage mission to not have permission to salvage the mission ship
Camera should no longer be stuck on players feet while trying on backpacks in shops
AI NPCs can begin to float while standing within a useable
Fixed spawn closets sometimes placing enemy AI out of bounds of their intended spawn points
Fixed an issue causing player legs and arms to become contorted in many ship cockpits
The Caterpillar should no longer be missing flare and chaff countermeasures
ATC should no longer repeat “you are clear for launch” and provide no other function after undocking from a location
Players should now fully be able to equip looted items after restarting game session
Salvaged weapons and components should no longer disappear from ship cargo bay after storing
The Ballista should now be able to hit locked targets with missiles instead of hitting itself with the missiles

Technical

Fixed 7 Client Crashes
Fixed 5 Server Crashes
Fixed a Server Deadlock
Made Further Server Entity Optimizations

Arena Commander 3.21: Feature Updates

Maps

Winners Circle – Due to issues with AI flight in atmosphere, particularly the UEE Javelin, not being atmosphere-suitable, we have disabled Winners Circle for Pirate Swarm.
Winners Circle – The playable area has increased to 10km Altitude (was 6km)

Game Modes Adjustments

Gun Rush – Special Event

Visit Gun Rush October 19th til November 10th to take part in a special event for the UEE celebration “Day of the Vara”, where Gun Rush will be sure to send shivers down your spine! Details: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/19463-Halloween-2023

Endless Vanduul Swarm (Master Modes) – Significant Wave Balance Adjustment

Endless Vanduul Swarm (currently exclusive to the Master Modes Experimental Test) has received a significant balance adjustment. The number of AI that spawn per wave, in general, has been reduced; however, the “Elite” wave where 7 Vanduul Primes spawn now includes all 13 Legendary Vanduul Pilots!
The strength of Vanduul ships and skill of Vanduul pilots now scales per wave. While we won’t be sharing the exact details of this scaling, we are excited to see how players adapt and look forward to the feedback.
Reach wave 25 (24 minutes) to earn the 2953 Vanduul Aggressor Badge!

Pirate Swarm – Wave & AI Skill Adjustments

Following feedback from players and internal testing, we’ve made changes to waves 7, 8 and 9 of Pirate Swarm for a better experience. This has us replace any use of Merlins & Constellations with other ships while we await improvements to the ships and radar/scanning systems. We’ve also adjusted AI skills between wave 4 and 8 for a better difficulty curve.

Wave 7: Constellation & Merlin replaced with Corsair.
Wave 8: Wave replaced with an intermediately skilled Hammerhead.
Wave 9: Added 2x Buccaneers & 1x Corsair.

System & Balance
Match Cycle Improvements – A small update to match cycling will make it extremely rare to get the same map in your next match. A collection of new logging & error handling has been added to match cycling which will give developers and players better visibility on the issues preventing their match from cycling. A rare but major bug which caused match cycling to get stuck on “Searching for Match” has also been resolved.

F8C Removal – Removed the F8C from the allowed vehicles of Battle Royale & Duel, as these modes are limited to Light & Medium Fighters. Also adjusted its score to 3,500 to better represent its class and ability.

Force Ready System – While introduced with 3.20 this system lacked some essential UI. To prevent players holding the lobby in pre-game for too long we have added a Force Ready System wherein after some time after reaching the required minimum players a countdown will begin which once concluded will force all players ready and continue the pre-game sequence. The countdown is now displayed alongside the ready up message.

(Game-wide) Added Driver Staged Zoom (Remote Turret) – Furthering the introduction of zoom [default: Z) to remote turrets operated by drivers (such as in the TMBR Nova Tank) we have added staged zoom, allowing the player to cycle between 1x, 2x and 4x zoom.

Arena Commander 3.21: Bug Fixes & Technical

Frontend / Lobby System

– Added clearer messaging for when a lobby is not ready.
– Fixed an issue where lobby invites were spammable.
– Fixed an issue where lobby members would appear multiple times.
– Fixed an issue where lobby members’ ready status was inaccurate for some members.
– Fixed an issue where recovery to a lobby that is still on the frontend can put the lobby in a bad state.
– Fixed an issue where a host leaving then returning to a lobby would put the lobby in a bad state.
– Fixed an issue where players who accepted lobby invites while in-game would put the lobby and their client in a bad state.
– Fixed an issue where players could accept multiple invites to the same lobby, which puts the lobby into a bad state.

Maps

– In Broken Moon, adjusted the glare of the terraforming laser to be less blinding.
– In Defford Link, fixed an issue where a large billboard from Winners Circle appeared in the distance.
– In INS Jericho, removed the vehicle impound area.
– In Miners Lament, adjusted checkpoint 14 & 15.
– In Old Vanderval, removed a race camera that was in the centre of the track.
– Adjusted various checkpoints & their trigger areas in Yadar Valley, Icebreaker & The Snake Pit to better represent the holographic checkpoints.

Modes

– In Classic Race, fixed an issue where players appeared in the wrong positions on the scoreboard after completing a match.
– In Classic Race, fixed an issue where the lap count would not appear until atleast one lap had been complete.
– In Classic Race, fixed several issues caused by players completing extra laps after a race had concluded, such as their leaderboard stats being nullified or scoreboard displaying incorrect values.
– In Gun Rush, fixed an issue where players who won would not appear at the top of the scoreboard.
– In Swarm, fixed an issue where AI would appear 5-8km away from where they should.
– In Swarm, fixed an issue where AI would only attack players within a 10km radius from the central point.
– In Swarm, fixed an issue where AI would take fighting above the playable area in Winner’s Circle
– In Swarm, fixed an issue where the mission would not start if the level loaded, and game began too fast.
– In Swarm, fixed an issue where the mission would stop progressing if all players were dead at the time of the wave changing.

System / Misc

– Added the ability to change vehicle configuration during pre-game.
– Added the ability to use in-game chat during the post-game. Be sure to let your opponents know it was a good game .
– Fixed an issue where players were unable to change their vehicle or loadout within the same match.
– Fixed an issue where the Win/Loss score bonus was not accounted for in the REC awards.
– Fixed an issue that caused squad members to be separated in team-based game modes.
– Fixed an issue where collisions with friendly vehicles would give a positive score.
– Fixed an issue that caused the players name to not be set properly in the HUD.
– Fixed an issue that caused the “Rounds Won” counter to appear on the scoreboard for non-round game modes.
– Fixed an issue where the client did not recognize newly acquired badges until restarted.
– Fixed an issue where the post-game flow would leave PlayerAwards state earlier than expected and spend longer than intended in the Scoreboard state.
– Fixed an issue where upon Match Cycling the player would get stuck on “Searching for Match”.
– Fixed an issue that caused the GMNI S71 Ballistic Rifle to be unavailable in Arena Commander.
– Fixed an issue that caused the armours for RRS Heavy Mozorov-SH (7 each type) and Light Arden-SL (4 each type) to be unavailable in Arena Commander.
– Fixed an issue where the TMBL Nova had the wrong career & role set.
– Fixed an issue that caused the wrong string to display in non-team modes for “Final Kill” UI.
– Fixed an issue where the local clients player name would sometimes not appear in AC UI.
– Fixed several instances where the scoreboard would incorrectly order players.
– Fixed several issues with joining an AC match from the SC Frontend.
– Fixed an issue where the player numbers on scoreboard past 10 would get cut-off.
– Fixed an issue where on the scoreboard players stats would go to the right of the screen rather than making the scoreboard scrollable.
– Fixed an issue where teams were the wrong colours on the scoreboard.