The alpha 3.18 release of Star Citizen continues to look like a gamedev engineering nightmare as the partial outage state of the persistent universe moves into its 33rd day. Even so, CIG continues to try to keep communication and progress reports rolling in, and this week’s event calendar is no exception as it briefs players on current updates.
Most of the details focus on load testing tools that have been specifically designed for 3.18, which will allow publishing teams to validate whether the game functions under specific conditions. This can be done by way of “chaos/destructive testing,” where devs can turn off or on game functions without requiring a PTU round or QA groups. The post also notes additional backend updates like refined player inventory sizes and optimization of regional cloud hosting footprints.
As for alpha 3.18.1, which readers will recall was originally projected to release two weeks ago? That’s now being moved from a release window to a more nebulous time in the immediate future. “The team has made significant progress toward the launch of 3.18.1, and we’re looking to have this in your hands shortly,” the post reads. “Once again, thank you all for your continued support, patience, and understanding as our teams work to get things running smooth again.”
In the meantime, SC’s status page has offered a brief note about the live service’s recovery from a temporary outage, but it still shows the game in partial outage; no other updates have been posted outside of last week’s platform services disruption that caused the forums and launcher to die.
