Star Citizen’s latest video talks about targeting, turrets, and taking off

There’s certainly a number of things to consider when flying a ship in Star Citizen, but during a recent developer livestream, several CIG devs focused on the ship experience talked about adjustments to some arguably important points: taking off, turret aim, and target acquisition.

• First off, hovering will be getting an adjustment in 3.10 which will eventually build up heat that can shut down maneuvering thrusters and cause a crash, though ships with VTOL will take longer for this heat build-up to happen. In a later update, the option to turn off this auto-shutdown is planned.
• Ships with fixed weapons are also getting a little “nudging” that will assist with aiming if players are targeting near a certain point; this won’t curve bullets, but it will provide a bit of help for those whose aim is within a close enough proximity to their intended target.
• Ship HUDs will be getting updated in 3.10, as the HUD moves from Flash over to CIG’s proprietary Building Blocks system. Manufacturer-specific HUDs will be arriving later. There will also be HUD elements that have an arrow showing where a ship is facing and a trail to show where a ship’s been to in order for players to try and predict a target’s movements.
• Thrusters will be affected by things like wind, atmosphere, and other factors, which should make flying from planet to planet more distinct. There aren’t any HUD elements to grant players a view of wind speed, direction, or other factors (players will have to use their eyes and ears), but those features should be coming later.
• Cargo weight could have an adverse effect on whether ships can take off on some planets. Players can use afterburner to try to get off the ground, but ships with VTOL will likely have an easier time. In short; your ship can be overencumbered.
• The target pinning system that shares priority targets with crew mates is planned to be expanded, with ships like the Hornet Tracker painting targets and sending that information to other ships in a fleet.

The stream also stressed that 3.10’s flight model is not the final iteration, so players will need to test things out and provide their feedback in the PTU as well as in the alpha.

Those are some of the bigger points during the stream, but there are plenty more questions and answers in the full video, which we’ve embedded below.