On the surface, a “vehicle experience strike team” sounds a bit like a slapped-together cartoon superteam or something as pointless as an ice show about car insurance. However, that strike team is actually important to the development of Star Citizen, as its sole purpose is to ensure that the act of piloting a ship feels and operates as good as it can. This group of developers was the focal point of this week’s Inside Star Citizen.
To be clear, this isn’t a group of newly hired people but the collective name for several devs who are already focused on ship piloting work. They’re responsible for features such as a “look-ahead mode,” which simulates a real pilot’s head movements when turning a plane, as well as a rework of weapons aiming that lets headtracking players gimbal their weapons and lets mouse users adjust how much range their steering aim reticle has on the screen. Most of their work, of course, will be fixated on refining existing ship piloting features and improving space combat, and the team is promising big things for 2020.
The video then launches into another sprint report, which shows off a nasty little boxing ring that players can utilize in the upcoming underground prison and a look at the prison jumpsuit and mining backpack, both of which are arriving in alpha 3.9. There’s also a look at a new organic shader for surface textures, a new harvestable mushroom found on microTech, a peek at decorative holograms that will first be seen at New Babbage, potential visual cues for items that buff or debuff ship mining, a first look at some new visual effects for planet entry which are due some point after Q1, a new look at the Cutlass Blue, prison pods, and final art stage previews of the Anvil Carrack.
Come for the vehicle experience strike team, stay for the sprint report. It’s all embedded below.
