Devs: Alberto Petronio (Lead Concept Artist) & Dan McCabe (Senior Vehicle Artist)

Notable Information: ➣ This SCL did not contain any development or game news. ➣ This week in the followup to last week's SCL, Alberto and Dan went through a mock of the feedback process but instead with the vehicle they previously designed. ➣ The feedback process takes place following the creation of a ship, vehicle, asset, etc. and it goes up the chain to catch things that need changed, removed, or updated. ➣ This part of the process is where considerations for how long it could take or how much work will be needed to accomplish the goal. ➣ While this episode did not have any development or game news it was a good opportunity to visualize what considerations are made when designing new vehicles or ships.

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AI (Content)

AI Content developed a new background manager to handle all non-scene scripted sequences. This update has streamlined the main mission manager, stabilizing it for core flow operations and significantly reducing bugs.

For the opening level, they completed the R&D for new ‘Look At’ technology. This enhancement significantly improves visuals when NPCs look at the player, featuring profiles that allow them to glance weakly or stare strongly based on the situation, adding a layer of realism and depth to character interactions.

They also made adjustments to the pathing of scripted walkers in the Stanton to avoid critical scenes and improve visual consistency. In addition, they suppressed greeting dialogue for NPCs shortly after workouts, as the previous content didn't sound appropriately out of breath, ensuring a more realistic experience.

The chowline was improved by decreasing idle times between interactions, making the AI feel more responsive and realistic. To further enhance dynamic conversations, facial animations were added for additional voice packs.

Janitor cleaning spots were also adjusted to avoid high-traffic areas, which helped reduce bugs. Furthermore, cleaning-spot regeneration now occurs only when players are not nearby, enhancing both performance and realism.

AI (Features)

Last month, AI Features worked towards consistent behaviors across different combat scenarios, ensuring that AI characters react in believable ways, no matter what situation they’re in. The team began by improving and unifying perception reactions, improving cover use in different scenarios, and making a holistic evaluation of all combat elements to ensure they work as intended.

This is particularly important with the recent improvements to the hostility system. For example, if an AI comes across two others fighting and they are friendly with both, doing nothing is not a valid response. For the first-pass implementation, the AI will run and cower when this situation arises, though this isn’t ideal and will be improved upon.

AI (Tech)

AI Tech improved the functionality of NPCs pushing trolleys and using elevators alongside updates to behaviors for elevator use. Smoother animations when NPCs move away from trolleys and improved functionality for NPCs parking trolleys were implemented too.

AI Tech also began work to allow NPCs to understand when cover is being destroyed or when parts of a usable are being destroyed. This will prevent NPCs from attempting to find or use unsuitable cover.

For Ship AI, the team continued making improvements and fixing bugs related to following splines and back-strafing.

Animation

May saw Gameplay Animation further develop various player-interaction moments, such as interacting with levers, vehicles, clothing, etc. They also worked to improve the feel of zero-g movement and created additional first-select animations, which are used when the player gets a new weapon.

Combat AI polishing continued, with a focus on refining the motion-capture flow. The team also discussed how entity movement implies enemy logic and how it can be improved.

The Social team continued to work through multiple chapters, focusing on placement and the creation of ‘life’ animations to give the feeling of a living, breathing ship.

The Motion Capture team supported both gameplay and story elements and completed a shoot for a new enemy class. They also discussed how to leverage the Mo-cap team’s experience in solving and retargeting to improve burndown in other places.

Vanduul facial animations progressed too, as well as animations for various tier-two story characters and the player character.

Gameplay Story

Throughout May, Gameplay Story continued polishing characters in chapter 1 following feedback, including fist bumping, looking at the player, fiddling with turret buttons, and walking off with their helmets.

A tour in chapter 4 also saw improvements. For example, player choice was added to the beginning along with new idle and abandon animations. A key ‘meet’ scene was overhauled with updated mo-cap to make it more robust, while idles and exit animations were improved for another scene.

New audio was added to scenes in chapters 4a and 5, a scene in chapter 4d was updated to account for a new console position, and a console animation was repaired in chapter 14.

Several new scenes were created too, including a hiding survivor, a conversation in the mess hall, a moving forklift truck, a medic healing the player, and a deck crew inspecting a Gladius.

Level Design

Social Design continued to work on their ‘focus’ chapters. Alongside addressing review feedback and fixing bugs, part of this involved implementing fail states, objective markers, emails, ship chat, checkpoints, Galactapedia entries, and more.

This was also an opportunity to clean up loose ends with various scenes. For example, new mo-cap was used to improve several scenes where the narrative content played out well but didn’t close out as cleanly.

Narrative

May saw the Narrative team continuing to drill down on their remaining tasks for Squadron 42. On the production side, they continued reviewing tasks to make sure they represent a comprehensive list but also to see if there are any that could be tackled without waiting on other teams.

They continued to sit in on playthroughs of levels with other teams as well as on their own to provide feedback on the narrative experience. Narrative also continued writing Galactapedia entries and worked with Core Gameplay to define where they will appear in levels.

Narrative also worked with several outsourced freelancers to develop collectibles that will be scattered throughout the levels for players to find.

“It’s been exciting to see the work come in and we’re looking forward to seeing the players react to them.” Narrative Team

Following up on last month’s report, a new testbed was developed in collaboration with the Gameplay and Audio teams to test the dogfighting combat experience and make sure the wildlines for the various pilots trigger correctly. When complete, this will provide an in-situ environment to ensure the technical setup is working but also that the personalities of the various gangs come through in the way they talk as well as fight.

R&D

For volumetric cloud rendering, stochastic Catmull-Rom texture filtering was implemented for the new half-res render mode upsampler. The number of ray marching steps now also scales with scene depth to improve performance in scenes with near-distance occluders (buildings, cockpit, terrain, etc.).

Moreover, progress continued on the temporal render mode. All confidence metrics and transmittance filtering received further tweaks and improvements. A first draft of the code was submitted for internal use.

Tech Design

For flight, Tech Design integrated the new AI flight behavior from the PU to SQ42 and began improving various combat encounters.

They also fixed bugs and made improvements to interactables across multiple chapters. For example, in chapter 1, terminal screen interactions were polished, new UI art was implemented, and the interaction flow was streamlined.

VFX

The VFX team continued to support the Art, Design, and Cinematic teams in May. Several cinematic scenes are reaching ‘edit lock,’ which means the camera positions are mostly finalized, enabling the VFX artists to dial in their effects to match each shot.

➣ K-Dot is King ➣ The Drake Ironclad is the next step up in Drake cargo ships, bringing what they've done before in a much bigger form ➣ It is a 6-person multi-crew armored freighter with a majority of the ship dedicated to the large cargo section in the front ➣ There is both a front ramp and a retractable roof for space loading to make any loading and unloading easy ➣ The Ironclad has the benefit of protected cargo vs something like the Hull-series ➣ It is more heavily armed than the Caterpillar to give it the punch it needs to protect its contents ➣ It has a very rugged and exposed look like other Drake ships ➣ There are 3 distinct sections on the Ironclad. The rear is dedicated to the living quarters and other amenities, the front is the cargo section, and the command pod is where the ship is flown ➣ The command pod can be used as an escape pod similar to the Caterpillar ➣ They are much closer to having the command pods ready for use ➣ There are two entrances to the ship outside of the front cargo entrances. There is a command pod entrance and a docking airlock ➣ There is an additional command bridge that sits over the cargo section that allows the crew to view cargo and control tractor beams, this does not function as a spot to fly the ship ➣ There are dedicated off-sections of the cargo section meant to be used for small vehicles or cargo-moving equipment ➣ There are numerous internal viewing angles of the cargo hold including gantries that run the full length of the cargo section ➣ There is an additional secure cargo ship that sits at the front of the ship above the main cargo section that is highly protected ➣ They are exploring different variants such as a military-variant that is meant for providing ground support, it would have additional turrets and lose cargo size to add a repair facility

➣ RSI Polaris Updates: ㅤ✦ The exterior we see currently is mostly final art but is primarily missing its damaged states ㅤ✦ Their big focus was working on the exterior so they could showcase it at ILW this year ㅤ✦ The Polaris is aimed for IAE 2954 ㅤ✦ This means the interior is not quite done but is roughly at the gray stage ㅤ✦ There are 2-3 rooms still in white but most are around the gray stages ㅤ✦ Some primary rooms are further along as well such as the torpedo room ㅤ✦ They are very focused on making sure the torpedo-loading process and visuals are perfect ㅤ✦ They are looking into a potential up gunning of the turrets so it can also pack a punch with its guns

Release View The following feature cards have been added to Release View, targeting a release with Alpha 4.0.

• Server Meshing V1
• Mission System Refactor
• Transit System Refactor
• Pyro I
• Pyro II - Monox
• Pyro III - Bloom
• Pyro IV
• Pyro V
• Pyro VI - Terminus
• Ignis
• Vatra
• Adir
• Fairo
• Fuego
• Vuur
• Pyro Space Stations
• Outposts - Colonialism +Jump Points
• Solar Burst
• Life Support
• Engineering
• Charge/Drain
• Multi-Tool Updates
• Fire Hazard
• Fire Extinguisher
• MFD Rework and New Displays
• Quasi Grazer
• Additional Player Customization
• RSI Zeus MkII ES

The following cards have been added to Release View, released in Alpha 3.23.0:

• Mirai Pulse
• Mirai Pulse LX

The following cards have passed their final review for Alpha 3.23.1, therefore we are toggling their status to Committed: Aegis Retaliator - Gold Standard Vehicle Modularity

AI (Content)
  April saw the AI Content team enhancing the dialogue experience, introducing four dynamic conversations into chapter one to showcase chapter-specific content more effectively. They also addressed a critical issue where players could observe NPCs despawning after following them - NPCs now engage with the environment meaningfully until the player exits the area. The team then implemented input variables to enhance flexibility in player-AI interactions, allowing for tailored reactions, such as a formal greeting followed by task-related dialogue, a concise ‘busy’ response, or no dialogue at all. This expanded functionality proved invaluable for addressing the campaign’s diverse narrative scenarios.  Overall NPC behaviors were refined too, with the team resolving a bug causing NPC guards to gradually shift leftward each time they saluted the player. This was caused by a locator malfunction. 

 The team also rectified an issue where the ‘supervisor’ NPC was inconsistently present on the Stanton’s bridge across the day-night cycle. 

 For combat mechanics, AI Content utilized new mo-cap to refine how players interact with the Gladius. Alongside this, various tasks and bug fixes were completed to improve the overall player experience.



AI (Features)
  Last month, the AI Features team made updates and bug fixes to AI combat for the Persistent Universe. Once Alpha 3.23 launches, these improvements will be brought into SQ42 to further enhance the flight and combat experience. 



AI (Tech)
  AI Tech began supporting usables reacting to Maelstrom physics. As part of this, the usable will react to the destroyed object and enable or disable specific functionalities. For example, if an engineer inspects a broken wing of the Gladius, they will notice the damage and perform an appropriate interaction. For cover, the system will react to the object’s destruction and notify NPCs that might be already using the cover.


Animation The Animation team worked on numerous space-centered movements throughout April, including zero-g and prone movement in gravity. They also worked on first-person animations for turrets, interacting with fire extinguishers, MedPens, and more.

 The team then continued working on player weapon reloading and malfunctions as well as burning down AI combat animations, including reloads and hit reactions. Hit reactions were also shot for a new enemy class.

 The team is currently closing out several background and life elements across various locations, such as the Idris. They also supported Cinematics with mo-cap shoots for the opening of the campaign.

 The Facial Animation team continued to develop assets for the cast characters and player. On the mo-cap side, the team supported mo-cap sessions needed to complete specific levels.

Gameplay Story
  April saw the Gameplay Story team focusing on chapter one. As part of this, they continued bug fixing and polishing, with their involvement on the chapter tapering off as it nears completion. 

 In addition to this, the team continued to implement and improve scenes across other chapters, with April’s work mostly dealing with chapter five. For example, they overhauled a scene in an elevator with new mo-cap and encouragement lines. 

 “It was great to see all these elements working together with great timing in-game.” Gameplay Story Team

 Also for chapter five, a scene on a tram platform received new mo-cap to improve how a key character reacts to the player. 



Narrative
  Throughout April, Narrative progressed with tasks started in previous months alongside reexamining remaining work to make sure that everything is covered and tracked.

 The team continued generating environmental chatter that will be sprinkled throughout the story to provide additional backstory and insights into the social dynamics of the crew.

 Additionally, Narrative worked closely with Core Gameplay to implement the Galactapedia, testing out the layout, content, and triggering of various entries. This is being trialed on a sample level to establish a standardized process before being applied across the game. 

 The team continued to review text used for mission objectives, as well as the on-screen tutorials based on Level Design’s latest updates to the game flow, to ensure players have a clear understanding of what’s needed from them. This will be an ongoing endeavor as levels are solidified and tested. 

 Work also continued with several external vendors to generate collectible content that will be found throughout the game.

 “While we can’t get into the specifics to avoid spoilers, this additional content should provide really fun easter eggs for players to track down.” Narrative Team

 Finally, Narrative kicked off an initiative across several teams to better test and validate their voice packs. While versions of this have existed for some time, the aim is for it to feature a gameplay-centric interface that will allow the Narrative, Audio, and Design teams to modify the combat experience through debug triggers that can help satisfy conditions to trigger lines.

Tech Animation The Tech Animation team continued to generate and implement new head assets to the DNA gene pool, and are not far from completing the initiative of 80 heads. 

 Many devs are currently dealing with the complications of players and NPCs putting on and taking off clothes live in the engine.

 “This has been ongoing for some time and, with the addition of animation resources into the mix, we are seeing great headway in both generating the assets for animation and generating usable pipelines to expedite the entire process for everyone involved.” Tech Animation Team

 Additionally, the team are intrinsic in the creation and implementation of new creatures for both the PU and SQ42. 

 They’re also involved in work toward consumables and the setup of foodstuffs, with the team aiming to guide this initiative and promote time-saving workflows.

Tech Design Last month, Tech Design began moving the recent Ship AI changes from the PU into SQ42. They also set up new ammo crate entities, provided miscellaneous tech support, and fixed several bugs.

UI In April, the UI team focused on the opening level of the game, creating several motion-graphic videos of boot-up sequences for when the player uses tech for the first time. These are used to work out the timings of animated sequences so, once they're signed off, they can easily be recreated in-engine.

 The team also worked on the UI for one of the alien races.

VFX
  Last month, the VFX team worked on holographic shader improvements, including extending the feature set so that it can be more widely used by the Art and Design teams.

 As usual, general support for Art, Cinematics, and Design continued, including positive steps for destruction workflows.

Mirai Pulse - Ground Combat !

Mirai Pulse - Ground Racing !

Audience: Wave 3 (Wave 4 potentially after monitoring a couple hours)

Feature Updates:

Locations Further Distribution Center Lighting, LOD, and Performance Polish Pass

Gameplay ➣ Interior Map Updates ➣ Made Friendly markers fade out after 50 meters

Weapons and Items ➣ Salvage Standalone tool Balancing Pass    ✦ Doubled the range than the Multitool    ✦ Increased Gathering and Repair speed    ✦ Allow to repair a little higher than normal multitool    ✦ Less efficient (higher loss of material when gathering)    ✦ Allow toggle to fire ➣ Crafting / Filler Station update ➣ General FPS salvage changes ➣ CureLife Medical Gun

Ships & Vehicles:

Added the following ships to in game shops: ➣ Fury MX and Fury LX ➣ Lynx Rover ➣ Hull C ➣ Spirit A1 ➣ Cutter Scout and Cutter Rambler ➣ Syulen ➣ Spirit C1 ➣ SRV ➣ Storm and Storm AA ➣ SAN'TOK.YĀI ➣ X1 Base, X1 Force and X1 Velocity

Core Tech: ➣ Made Further Server Performance Optimizations ➣ AI Navigation Performance Optimizations ➣ Physics Performance Optimizations ➣ Planetary Streaming Performance Optimizations ➣ Further Vulkan Polish Pass

Patch Details:

➣ Fixed 5 Client Crashes ➣ Fixed 9 Server Crashes

Audience: Wave 3 Feature Updates: Gameplay: ➣ Starmap: Updates to transition between starmap and interior map ✦ Lerping the camera out to a default distance away from the current location. Basing transition from starmap to interior map on whether the crosshair is over the player or current location marker. Starting by default in the starmap when in a vehicle seat. Adding keybind to automatically transition to interior map from starmap (but NOT interior map to starmap). ➣ Set Chat Window to show as the default ➣ Chat: Allow cycle through chat channels (TAB key) only when chat is focused ➣ Adjusted top left Visor region to show the law zones widget when in a vehicle (also resolves STARC-107657) ➣ Kopion Fauna can no longer be stunned ➣ Lorville minimap Polish Pass

Ships & Vehicles: ➣ Lowered Shield Regen times when Swapping Operator Modes ➣ Shields regen too slowly when returning back to SCM speeds. At full Shield health, the recovery time of a shield from NAV to SCM is now: ✦ S1: 3 seconds ✦ S2: 4 seconds ✦ S3: 5 seconds ✦ S4: 6 seconds ➣ Re-tuned Cutlass Steel to be in line with other drop ships

Core Tech: ➣ Cloud Performance Optimizations ✦ Atmosphere and cloud raymarching can be expensive. To reduce GPU overhead, we've scaled down the raymarch step count for parts of the screen that are occluded by near field scene objects. This should mostly affect Very High and Photo Mode settings. ➣ Made Further Vulkan Performance Optimizations ➣ Made Further Entity Streaming Performance Optimizations ➣ Made Further Overall Network Performance Optimizations ➣ Made Planetary NavMesh Polish and Performance Optimizations ➣ Further Dynamic Crosshair Client Performance Improvements

Patch Details: ➣ Fixed 6 Client Crashes ➣ Fixed 4 Server Crashes ➣ 11 Bugs Squashed