StarCitizen Alpha 2.2.0 LIVE

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The latest release of StarCitizen just went to the live servers.

Changes include the flight ready Sabre and the first run of the new reputation system. Here are the full patch notes.

See you in the Verse :-)
“Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.” ― Terry Pratchett
"less complaining, more killing" ― Finilie
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t0di
 
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Downloading right now. :)

Hopefully, I will find some time to test it on Sunday.
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Kickstart
 
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By the way, with the update they made the Sabre available for sale again.

And damn, now I'm tempted to upgrade my Delta...
“Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.” ― Terry Pratchett
"less complaining, more killing" ― Finilie
GBX, because banter is our weapon of choice
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t0di
 
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t0di wrote:By the way, with the update they made the Sabre available for sale again.

And damn, now I'm tempted to upgrade my Delta...


You should do that, so we can have a Sabre Squadron... ;)

On the other hand, all ship will be available ingame and it is good to have a goal or two...
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Kickstart
 
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Yeah... only problem, update is something like 100$+vat... and I'm still tamped, damn...

And I already looking forward to a Vanguard, a Hull-B or -C, a Redeemer, maybe some racer... so still plenty of things to get :-)
“Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.” ― Terry Pratchett
"less complaining, more killing" ― Finilie
GBX, because banter is our weapon of choice
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t0di
 
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If you want to test a Hull, I think I got a C somewhere in my hangars...

edit: I checked, it's only a B. I think I remember my train of thought being "it's more handleable by a smaller crew" and "less of a target in a convoy".
...and just today I wondered how far the finished game would let us go with improvised weapons? A Hull B desperately trying to escape and dropping two containers to get some extra speed. And the second the pursuers are close to these (or even stop to examine them) they explode in a hail of mass driver slugs, propelled by a expertly set charge...
Some people will go straight to hell.
With VIP ticket and free drinks...
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Smile! Life stays the same shit but it's definitely more fun!
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The2ndPete
 
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The2ndPete wrote:If you want to test a Hull, I think I got a C somewhere in my hangars...

edit: I checked, it's only a B. I think I remember my train of thought being "it's more handleable by a smaller crew" and "less of a target in a convoy".
...and just today I wondered how far the finished game would let us go with improvised weapons? A Hull B desperately trying to escape and dropping two containers to get some extra speed. And the second the pursuers are close to these (or even stop to examine them) they explode in a hail of mass driver slugs, propelled by a expertly set charge...


First, you want to roast pusuers with fuel from your Starfarer, and now cargo from your Hull-B. Soundsa like your are looking forward to the mine-layer...

I had a short tour in 2.2.0 yesterday. Game was very stable and I could do some missions. EVAing through an abandoned shipping hub is kind of thrilling (at least the first time, when you dont know that there are no enemies around). Some more fun things:
- kicked a guy off the landing pad of Crusader (he was kind of bugging around)
- set my ship spinning by exiting and manually pushing on a wing, felt a bit like 2001 (the movie)
- got shot by random some guy at a Cryo Astro Station
- got killed by AI (rammed to death, need to improve my aiming and my PC)
- killed myself by trying to land at a Cryo Astro Sation (need to improve my flying, my awareness and my PC)
- found out how to operate the Mobiglass
- sound in-game is really awesome, NPC dialog is fluent, immersion is gret (imo)

Finally had to quit after being stuck. I entered someone's Constellation and sat down on a bench. You know, those red thing next to the airlock elevator. I could set down but was never able to stand up or do anything else after that. Game was running and I could see everything that happenend around me but that was it. Some other passenger tried to kill me but that also did not work.

It was quite a nice ride, game needs still a lot of polishing but it is stable and fun to explore so far.
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Kickstart
 
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I had a go yesterday as well, but my experience so far isn't that great:
- some problems with getting on the server, I think Baehr and me had to try 6 or 7 times with multiple restarts and so on until we managed to get both in
- got blown up a lot by random ppl, usually while trying to EVA, when I was still in the shut down ship or just outside (the first time some one killed us both and then stole Baehrs Sabre, but we went back immediately and made some plasma out of him...)
- had 2 or 3 crashes, where the game just freezes while the sound is still playing and I had to kill it
- had to kill myself a few times, because I was in EVA without helmet out thrusters, or just bugged out before I was even out the cabinet door
“Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.” ― Terry Pratchett
"less complaining, more killing" ― Finilie
GBX, because banter is our weapon of choice
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t0di
 
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Kickstart wrote:Soundsa like your are looking forward to the mine-layer...

Who, me? Not really. Mine laying is a military profession and while I enjoy ships exchanging broadsides and missiles weaving through point defense fire I don't really want to invest my gaming time in getting a military ship that'll be shot to pieces. Because that's what happens with military ships...
I'm more interested in the improvised methods of making someones criminal life miserable.

Kickstart wrote:Finally had to quit after being stuck. I entered someone's Constellation and sat down on a bench. You know, those red thing next to the airlock elevator. I could set down but was never able to stand up or do anything else after that. Game was running and I could see everything that happenend around me but that was it. Some other passenger tried to kill me but that also did not work.

If you're sitting at a station/bench/turret you can only leave by pressing CTRL+F.
Took me just 10min to find that one ;)

My impressions for 2.2.0

Good ones:
- it's really cool to finally fly the Freelancer. And that ship's shaping up to fill my expectations quite nicely.
- the soundscape is great. It starts with the thrusters: from the small "clank" of a pressure valve for an Auroras directional thrusters over the hiss on a 300i to the almost rumbling on the Freelancer, the sounds tell you quite nicely how much power a thruster is excerting on your ship. Well, and the Mustang Gamma, the high powered supertuned racing ship which has a far more aggressive roaring from the thrusters than even the Freelancer. But then, it's a racer, built for abrupt changes in heading.
And the power plants follow suit. A low background whirring on the Aurora, a gentle hum in the 300i, a pulsing in the Mustang and a low grumbling for the Freelancer. Hear the power, indeed.
- very easy matchmaking. What started with code transmissions to your friends in hopes that everyone would be able to join the same game of electronic flight death matching and went over "your party might be able to find a round that's not totally full" now is easy. Invite folks from your contacts list into a party, party leader selects where to go and there'll be enough spots reserved so everyone can join. And even with a disconnect you get a 10min timer to rejoin onto the reserved spot.
- Graphics. Wow, apart from some glitches, just wow. Seldom have I seen graphics that are portraying gas giants in such splendor. And the light and shadow effects? Wow again. Stand on an asteroid and you see the shadow of a ship passing between you and the sun roll over the surface. And that sun can be as annoying as RL. I had to roll my Freelancer with belly to the sun so it wouldn't glare off the dashboard, obscuring my HUD.
And they did a marvelous job with the "in space you need reference or that little piece of scrap can well be a supercarrier 100km off". Baehrserker and I tried to find each other floating around the starting station of Port Olisar. Despite talking to each other and relaying where each of us was it took several minutes, thanks to that distance-and-reference-problem. I couldn't see him because he was totally not where I though him to be and he mistook me for a piece of scrap near the hull.
- EVA. What fun to just stop the ship near an objective, get up and exit to examine it in person. No loading screens disguised as airlock cycles, no wait times. Just get up and out there. Easy as that.
- MultiCrew. Get your friends aboard, take some seats (or not) and fly them where you need to be. As fun as riding a Sunderer off a cliff and saving the tumbling monster.

Bad ones:
- Graphics. When I was sitting in the pilots chair the view would occasionally flip sideways for a split second before returning to normal. I later found out (thanks to a disconnect which froze my game just right) that my pilot tried to take a look over his left shoulder or to the lower right before snapping the head back front. I didn't start any look around and neither did I find a way to stop him from doing so. Super annoying!
- Getting back in the ship from EVA. What works fine for the Freelancer with the large rear ramp opening into a fairly large cargo space (thus giving your char ample room to orient himself in the artificial gravity) is a hassle with the 300i. Your pilot tries to get back in, finds himself in the physics grid of the ship with the artifical gravity pointing down and flops to the ground like a jellyfish. With about as much chance to move... And don't get me started on the Aurora. These things are so small you'd have to float up into the small part behind the pilots seat, orient yourself to the pilots seat and try to get to the "enter seat" function box around it. I'm actually kinda happy Baehrserker killed me before I tried to get back into that one...
- ship despawning. Imagine finding an interesting vessel floating in space without anyone near. You leave your craft, float over and the second you touch it *poof* ship gone. I hope the PU manages this differently because as annoying as it might be to disconnect and find yourself "somewhere" and not in your ship on relogging, a ship that just disappears is about as immersive as a 150m M&Ms ad on the flanks of a Vanduul carrier. Maybe start a timer and if the owner/user/pilot of the ship doesn't reconnect before it's done have the ship broadcast a distress beacon. Or deteriorate rapidly from whole to wreck to chunks to scrap parts to floating bits'n'pieces.
- very variable ping. Might be the server runs fine for you but your friends all get some 100ms. Or everyone has an awfull ping that might just allow online chess but nothing requiring more-or-less constant input like this. Or everything runs fine. And there's no system behind it. Pure chance!
- [luxury problem] so many functions were added since I last flew in the 'verse. Cruise/SpaceCombat/Precision Control mode, QuantumDrive, mobiGlas integration... And I have no idea where to assign them on my HOTAS.
Some people will go straight to hell.
With VIP ticket and free drinks...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Smile! Life stays the same shit but it's definitely more fun!
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The2ndPete
 
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I am quite aware of Ctrl-F since they first put it in and I read about in the patch notes. :) I was just stuck, even my view was fixed (although the damage indicator rotated when I moved the mouse). Very odd, hopefully it was captured in some game log and will be analyzed.

I had very few problems with graphics, some missing textures and some odd behavior when getting back into the ship from EVA. I somehow managed once to climb into the second seat of the Super Hornet, the interfaces clearly need some love (i. e. visual appearance, just a hovering "use" can be very misleading, especially if it randomly appers while you stroll around and your curiosity urges you to find out what will happen if push the button).

Regarding controls:
I left most of the controls at the keyboard and only configured my gamepad which has "only" 18 + 8 input possibilities. If you now take into account that you can yaw, pitch, roll, strafe and throttle up + down, that is twelve buttons occupied. Now you also have 4 weapon groups, missiles, countermeasures and boost (never works for me) + afterburner (5 to 10 buttons). And you need to do some targeting and radar checks (3 to 8(?) buttons. You also want to do some of that stuff simultaneously but you only have two hands (maybe I should get pedals).
I have no idea how to access the HUDs in the cockpit to manipulate power / shield management and so on, while flying and shooting and checking the radar at the same time...
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