[Star Citizen] Arena Commander PTU 1.1.5 rolled out

[Wauthar]

The long awaited 1.1.5 Alpha update has been rolled out to the Public Test Universe (PTU)! This is quite a substantial update, so I thought it deserved its own topic

There are some very interesting changes made, which includes 2 new flyable ships (the P-72 Merlin and the Vanduul Scythe), increased hull health for all ships, a new and faster downloading launcher, a completely reworked lobby system and many more nice changes.

 

For those who don't know, the PTU is more like the testing ground before CIG pushes the update to the masses. You can copy your RSI account over to the PTU to gain access to the new stuff. To do such thing, follow this: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/account/copy/ptu

 

And now for the full patch notes, conveniently hidden in a spoiler to avoid furious scrolling:

Additions:

 

Gameplay

• Battle Royale and Squadron Battle have had their maximum player count increased to 16
• Respawn penalty has been applied for situations where a pilot would intentionally destroy the ship to either reload missiles or prevent another player from getting a kill
• Reworked the server, instance, and matchmaking service from the ground up
• Lobby system and game servers now talk to each other about the teams that a client is on in the lobby and in game
• Lobby system will now remove players from a lobby if the instance system crashes rather than letting a group remain in a broken lobby
• Game Instances are able to transition from completed matches to hosting a new match more quickly

 

Ships

• Vanduul Scythe is hangar and combat ready (shows as captured vanduul fighter in lobby)
• P52-Merlin is hangar and combat ready
• Due to being a snub fighter, the Merlin does not have intakes. As such, it does not replenish fuel while flying. In the PU, it would do this by docking with a Constellation
• Accounts that have constellation variants that come with a snub fighter will be given a Merlin loaner ship to use in Arena Commander
• Like other loaner ships, loaner Merlin’s cannot be placed in the hangar
• Placing a Constellation Andromeda in the hangar will also spawn a Merlin

 

Components

• Added support for spray patterns to weapons based on weapon mount type
• Added new attenuation for missiles explosions
• Added weapon names to Vanduul armaments
• Added blade extension for captured Vanduul Scythe. It is activated by turning the item on in the weapon UI
• Human engineers have increased the weapon lethality for the ship for the captured version of the scythe

 

User Interface

• Added a HUD effect to the Vanduul Scythe where the alien ship HUD will appear in some situations
• Electronic Access button has replaced the Arena Commander button in the main menu to help with indicating that Arena Commander and Star Marine and simulations within the game fiction
• Arena Commander and Star Marine icons have been added for each game module
• Game module icons will be grayed out for accounts that do not have access to them (Star Marine is grayed out for all accounts)
• Game modes and maps will have a red overlay for accounts that are invited to lobbies which contain game modes they can’t play
• Lobby host will receive an error if a player in a lobby doesn’t have access to the selected game mode
• Match ID’s have been put back into the game to make it easier for players to report issues with specific instances
• Match ID length and complexity has been increased to ensure that they’re always unique

 

Environment

• Transitioned the audio system for all game content over to new cross-platform sound engine
• Added additional ambiance to the VFG Industrial hangar
• Added new splash screens when initially logging into the game

Balance/Tweaks:

 

Gameplay

 

• Updated how ships calculate their mass when in the hangar
• Points that are earned for doing damage to ship hulls has been adjusted due to the changes in ship health
• Rebalanced Vanduul Swarm to be in line with desired difficulty due to the balance changes made to ships

 

Ships

• Boost consumption has been rebalanced so that it involves more decision making for when to use it and involves less attrition
• 300-series hull health increased x2
• Aurora hull health increased x3
• Aurora top speed increased to 175
• Avenger hull health increased x2
• Avenger wings upsized from size 1 to size 2
• Gladiator hull health increased x2
• Gladiator adjusted to drift more when turning so that it handles appropriately for its size and role.
• Gladius hull health increased x2
• Hornet family hull health increased x2
• Hornet rotational velocity increased
• Hornet rotational acceleration decreased
• M50 hull health increased x3
• Mustang hull health increased x3
• Restricted missile hardpoint sizes from size 1-3 to size 3 only to restrict possible missile racks on the Hornet Series
• Cutlass hull health increased x3
• Decreased Cutlass boost angular velocity from 3x normal to 2x normal

 

Components

• Weapon damage increased by about 25%
• The weapon damage disparity between sizes increased to 75%. Helps to make fixed weapons vs gimbaled weapons a more valuable decision.
• Weapon accuracy for gatling weapons decreases/spread increases over longer sustained rate of fire
• Weapon mount and gimbal slew rates are now set based by size
• Adjusted weapon mounts so that their IM and EM signature generation scales with mount size
• Increasing cooling flow for weapons due to higher health and shield values
• Chaff counter measures will now fire in bursts of 4 across a 120 degree horizontal arc, chaff counter measure ammo box sizes have been quadrupled to match the burst
• Size and potency of chaff reduced
• Missile damage raised x1.5 for all missiles to help compensate the increased ship/shield health and the raised Shield absorb for splash damage
• Tempest II reduced explosion radius and overall damage
• Stalker V reduced explosion radius and overall damage
• Shield values have been doubled
• Shield splash damage absorb factor increased from 1 to 1.25 as a baseline. SECO-Splash shields raised to 1.5 and SECO-Drop shields raised from 0.8 to 1
• Shield recharge rates have been reduced
• Shield regen delay increased across the board for all sizes. Shortest delay is 9.5s for Size 1 and 19.5s at Size 4

 

Environment

• Rotated the holotables and moved most of them next to a wall

Fixes:

 

Gameplay

 

• Client and server performance for when ships are destroyed and respawn has been greatly improved
• Clients that enter a team game mode from the same ranked lobby will now be on the same team
• Characters rolling while prone is now seen by other clients
• Characters no longer spawn in as a pair of eyes
• Fixed a few issues that were causing characters to spawn in a pilot seat standing up (some still exist)
• Fixed an issue causing ships to sometimes sink into landing platforms in Multiplayer Free Flight when using automatic landing
• Fixed a crash that would occasionally occur when landing in Multiplayer Free Flight

 

Ships

• Fixed an issue where the ship name would appear as debug text for the tutorial Gladius’ ship AI
• Front panels on the Mustang now animate when used
• Mustangs no longer float in the air after landing with damaged or destroyed wings
• Fixed the mustang turret showing debug text in the holotable
• Fixed an issue where swapping turrets in a constellation would cause character animations to malfunction
• Killing a Cutlass now gives proper credit

 

Components

• Delta Rocket pods no longer display their name as debug text

 

User Interface

• Fixed an issue that caused cross-hairs and reticule to sometimes go missing upon respawn
• Thrusters can now be deactivated in power management
• Holding tab will no longer cause the score board to default to on

 

Environment

• Murray Cup poster now appears in the Asteroid Hangar
• Cloud in race maps are no longer popping in and out

Known Issues:

 

These are not representative of all known issues in the build. The following issues are bugs that were introduced with this version of the game that we feel are most impactful to play experience.

 

Gameplay

• Spawning will sometime cause blood splatter to appear on the helmet
• Pressing tab five times will open chat in Arena Commander
• There are a number of issues that prevent progression through the Arena Commander tutorial
• Connection error 8 will occasionally occur when connecting to a multiplayer match
• Spectator cameras cannot be controlled and will shake too much when observing another ship
• Comstab can no longer be disabled/enabled
• Matchmaking will load clients queued up for different race modes into the same server instance
• Client can get stuck on an infinite load screen if they are matched into a server instance that no longer exists due to the game ending
• Client will black screen when entering a lobby if it is unable to communicate with the Generic Instance Manager
• The ability to send invites does not recover if the Generic Instance Manager crashes (workaround, enter your own lobby as a host to update your clients online status and invites should work again)
• Leaderboard statistics are not being communicated to the website

 

Ships

• Ships will sometimes spawn without IR and EM signature
• Ships will sometimes not be able to respawn in Arena Commander
• Merlin jerks when boosting after lateral turn
• Merlin HUD cannot be interacted with
• Constellation Andromeda ship surfaces are missing textures and lighting, causing them to be black in some areas
• Freelancer variants are missing textures and lighting, causing them to be black in most areas
• Retaliator is missing collision in several locations

 

Components

• Motion blur settings for some ship components is set higher than it should be

 

User Interface

• There is no message or timer indicating the penalty for early ejection
• Error codes are not being displayed in hangar and are not visible until a client loads into another match, making it seem like they appear at the start of a match
• Game Mode selection resets when returning to the lobby (this in turn can cause the lobby host to see duplicates of other players in the lobby)

 

Environment

• Large blocks of invisible collision are present on the left and right sides of the Aeroview hangar

[Adreyu]

The long awaited 1.1.5 Alpha update has been rolled out to the Public Test Universe (PTU)! This is quite a substantial update, so I thought it deserved its own topic

There are some very interesting changes made, which includes 2 new flyable ships (the P-72 Merlin and the Vanduul Scythe), increased hull health for all ships, a new and faster downloading launcher, a completely reworked lobby system and many more nice changes.

 

For those who don't know, the PTU is more like the testing ground before CIG pushes the update to the masses. You can copy your RSI account over to the PTU to gain access to the new stuff. To do such thing, follow this: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/account/copy/ptu

 

And now for the full patch notes, conveniently hidden in a spoiler to avoid furious scrolling:

Additions:

 

Gameplay

• Battle Royale and Squadron Battle have had their maximum player count increased to 16
• Respawn penalty has been applied for situations where a pilot would intentionally destroy the ship to either reload missiles or prevent another player from getting a kill
• Reworked the server, instance, and matchmaking service from the ground up
• Lobby system and game servers now talk to each other about the teams that a client is on in the lobby and in game
• Lobby system will now remove players from a lobby if the instance system crashes rather than letting a group remain in a broken lobby
• Game Instances are able to transition from completed matches to hosting a new match more quickly

 

Ships

• Vanduul Scythe is hangar and combat ready (shows as captured vanduul fighter in lobby)
• P52-Merlin is hangar and combat ready
• Due to being a snub fighter, the Merlin does not have intakes. As such, it does not replenish fuel while flying. In the PU, it would do this by docking with a Constellation
• Accounts that have constellation variants that come with a snub fighter will be given a Merlin loaner ship to use in Arena Commander
• Like other loaner ships, loaner Merlin’s cannot be placed in the hangar
• Placing a Constellation Andromeda in the hangar will also spawn a Merlin

 

Components

• Added support for spray patterns to weapons based on weapon mount type
• Added new attenuation for missiles explosions
• Added weapon names to Vanduul armaments
• Added blade extension for captured Vanduul Scythe. It is activated by turning the item on in the weapon UI
• Human engineers have increased the weapon lethality for the ship for the captured version of the scythe

 

User Interface

• Added a HUD effect to the Vanduul Scythe where the alien ship HUD will appear in some situations
• Electronic Access button has replaced the Arena Commander button in the main menu to help with indicating that Arena Commander and Star Marine and simulations within the game fiction
• Arena Commander and Star Marine icons have been added for each game module
• Game module icons will be grayed out for accounts that do not have access to them (Star Marine is grayed out for all accounts)
• Game modes and maps will have a red overlay for accounts that are invited to lobbies which contain game modes they can’t play
• Lobby host will receive an error if a player in a lobby doesn’t have access to the selected game mode
• Match ID’s have been put back into the game to make it easier for players to report issues with specific instances
• Match ID length and complexity has been increased to ensure that they’re always unique

 

Environment

• Transitioned the audio system for all game content over to new cross-platform sound engine
• Added additional ambiance to the VFG Industrial hangar
• Added new splash screens when initially logging into the game

Balance/Tweaks:

 

Gameplay

 

• Updated how ships calculate their mass when in the hangar
• Points that are earned for doing damage to ship hulls has been adjusted due to the changes in ship health
• Rebalanced Vanduul Swarm to be in line with desired difficulty due to the balance changes made to ships

 

Ships

• Boost consumption has been rebalanced so that it involves more decision making for when to use it and involves less attrition
• 300-series hull health increased x2
• Aurora hull health increased x3
• Aurora top speed increased to 175
• Avenger hull health increased x2
• Avenger wings upsized from size 1 to size 2
• Gladiator hull health increased x2
• Gladiator adjusted to drift more when turning so that it handles appropriately for its size and role.
• Gladius hull health increased x2
• Hornet family hull health increased x2
• Hornet rotational velocity increased
• Hornet rotational acceleration decreased
• M50 hull health increased x3
• Mustang hull health increased x3
• Restricted missile hardpoint sizes from size 1-3 to size 3 only to restrict possible missile racks on the Hornet Series
• Cutlass hull health increased x3
• Decreased Cutlass boost angular velocity from 3x normal to 2x normal

 

Components

• Weapon damage increased by about 25%
• The weapon damage disparity between sizes increased to 75%. Helps to make fixed weapons vs gimbaled weapons a more valuable decision.
• Weapon accuracy for gatling weapons decreases/spread increases over longer sustained rate of fire
• Weapon mount and gimbal slew rates are now set based by size
• Adjusted weapon mounts so that their IM and EM signature generation scales with mount size
• Increasing cooling flow for weapons due to higher health and shield values
• Chaff counter measures will now fire in bursts of 4 across a 120 degree horizontal arc, chaff counter measure ammo box sizes have been quadrupled to match the burst
• Size and potency of chaff reduced
• Missile damage raised x1.5 for all missiles to help compensate the increased ship/shield health and the raised Shield absorb for splash damage
• Tempest II reduced explosion radius and overall damage
• Stalker V reduced explosion radius and overall damage
• Shield values have been doubled
• Shield splash damage absorb factor increased from 1 to 1.25 as a baseline. SECO-Splash shields raised to 1.5 and SECO-Drop shields raised from 0.8 to 1
• Shield recharge rates have been reduced
• Shield regen delay increased across the board for all sizes. Shortest delay is 9.5s for Size 1 and 19.5s at Size 4

 

Environment

• Rotated the holotables and moved most of them next to a wall

Fixes:

 

Gameplay

 

• Client and server performance for when ships are destroyed and respawn has been greatly improved
• Clients that enter a team game mode from the same ranked lobby will now be on the same team
• Characters rolling while prone is now seen by other clients
• Characters no longer spawn in as a pair of eyes
• Fixed a few issues that were causing characters to spawn in a pilot seat standing up (some still exist)
• Fixed an issue causing ships to sometimes sink into landing platforms in Multiplayer Free Flight when using automatic landing
• Fixed a crash that would occasionally occur when landing in Multiplayer Free Flight

 

Ships

• Fixed an issue where the ship name would appear as debug text for the tutorial Gladius’ ship AI
• Front panels on the Mustang now animate when used
• Mustangs no longer float in the air after landing with damaged or destroyed wings
• Fixed the mustang turret showing debug text in the holotable
• Fixed an issue where swapping turrets in a constellation would cause character animations to malfunction
• Killing a Cutlass now gives proper credit

 

Components

• Delta Rocket pods no longer display their name as debug text

 

User Interface

• Fixed an issue that caused cross-hairs and reticule to sometimes go missing upon respawn
• Thrusters can now be deactivated in power management
• Holding tab will no longer cause the score board to default to on

 

Environment

• Murray Cup poster now appears in the Asteroid Hangar
• Cloud in race maps are no longer popping in and out

Known Issues:

 

These are not representative of all known issues in the build. The following issues are bugs that were introduced with this version of the game that we feel are most impactful to play experience.

 

Gameplay

• Spawning will sometime cause blood splatter to appear on the helmet
• Pressing tab five times will open chat in Arena Commander
• There are a number of issues that prevent progression through the Arena Commander tutorial
• Connection error 8 will occasionally occur when connecting to a multiplayer match
• Spectator cameras cannot be controlled and will shake too much when observing another ship
• Comstab can no longer be disabled/enabled
• Matchmaking will load clients queued up for different race modes into the same server instance
• Client can get stuck on an infinite load screen if they are matched into a server instance that no longer exists due to the game ending
• Client will black screen when entering a lobby if it is unable to communicate with the Generic Instance Manager
• The ability to send invites does not recover if the Generic Instance Manager crashes (workaround, enter your own lobby as a host to update your clients online status and invites should work again)
• Leaderboard statistics are not being communicated to the website

 

Ships

• Ships will sometimes spawn without IR and EM signature
• Ships will sometimes not be able to respawn in Arena Commander
• Merlin jerks when boosting after lateral turn
• Merlin HUD cannot be interacted with
• Constellation Andromeda ship surfaces are missing textures and lighting, causing them to be black in some areas
• Freelancer variants are missing textures and lighting, causing them to be black in most areas
• Retaliator is missing collision in several locations

 

Components

• Motion blur settings for some ship components is set higher than it should be

 

User Interface

• There is no message or timer indicating the penalty for early ejection
• Error codes are not being displayed in hangar and are not visible until a client loads into another match, making it seem like they appear at the start of a match
• Game Mode selection resets when returning to the lobby (this in turn can cause the lobby host to see duplicates of other players in the lobby)

 

Environment

• Large blocks of invisible collision are present on the left and right sides of the Aeroview hangar

are you sure its rolled out? im definitely not seeing my merlin as flyable 

[Wauthar]

are you sure its rolled out? im definitely not seeing my merlin as flyable

Are you sure you are using the PTU launcher and build?

[Adreyu]

Are you sure you are using the PTU launcher and build?

i wasnt using the ptu launcher lol. do we have to have separate launchers now? this is taking up a lot of space on my ssd

[Vivilacqua1]

i wasnt using the ptu launcher lol. do we have to have separate launchers now? this is taking up a lot of space on my ssd

Directly from the site: This process will copy all your account data to the Public Test Universe servers and generate a new set of security credentials for your testing account there. Once the copy process is complete, you will receive an email with instructions on how to reach and login with this account on the PTU. Disclaimer: All data on the PTU is separate from your real account. Any items, points, ships earned on the PTU will be erased once the testing phase is complete.

[Albatross]

Nice to see so many fixes and additions. I can't wait for the update that will announce Star Marine.

[Adreyu]

I can't fly my merlin the andromeda one is bugged

[Napper198]

Oh god, Cutlass Hull health increased 3x? This will take a while..

And "Spawning will sometime cause blood splatter to appear on the helmet" will freak out a lot of people. I'm interested to see what stories people will come up with.  :lol:

 

Spawning without signatures is also bound to be exploited, but overall this update seems to be solid and the download is actually pretty fast, but most Americans are probably still sleeping. 

 

Edit: Also no more mute audio in launcher? not cool.

 

Edit 2: After a Quick round on Vanduul Swarm I have mixed feelings. The changed Hornet + the fact that you cant deactivate comstab is something I really need to get used to. Holotable is quicker now thanks to looking at the wall.

[Corwin111]

Mmm 9 MB/s with the new launcher. That, at least, is a significant improvement. I'll see about the rest in 40 minutes.  

[LeightonPC]

Yay, new stuff to play around with while we wait for FPS.

[rentaspoon]

I hate you guys! I wanna play!

Stupid RMA

[Corwin111]

Damn it I haven't been able to play since I installed it. First it wasn't finding any games and now it stops responding on launch.

 

And from the looks of the feedback the SH has finally been over-nerfed into obsolescence. @Napper198 what are your thoughts on it?

[Napper198]

Damn it I haven't been able to play since I installed it. First it wasn't finding any games and now it stops responding on launch.

 

And from the looks of the feedback the SH has finally been over-nerfed into obsolescence. @Napper198 what are your thoughts on it?

 

It feels a lot heavier now. Increased turning speed is actually a good thing but the reduced (de)acceleration makes me overshoot a lot and the much higher fuel consumption of the afterburner let's you drift a lot more. To put it in perspective a standard boost after a 180° turn uses about 25% of your fuel instead of 5%. If your target in front of you it's harder to hit it now (mouse+kb) but if your target is out of sight you can get it in sight faster. It takes time to accommodate to this but with enough training it might actually turn out to be better than before.

 

What really bugs me are the crappy servers that put you into a death spin for no reason or let you only connect to one match per client restart, the damage states not getting mapped to your HUD again (Hornet), the poor performance in 16 player games and the signature bug.

 

Mixed feeling on the increased health but this takes more investigation once the servers are running fine.

 

The good things are the increased cooling performance. The Badgers were way cooler and didn't just outright overheat after emptying their caps. You can finally counter CS missiles with chaff! It still takes 4 chaff to get rid of them and the whole countermeasure redesign seems like it's still bugged but the increased amount (96 flare on a Hornet!) definitely helps. Gladius and Gladiator might actually need to use their guns to get kills. Also the penalty for early eject'/self destruct is a great thing but I got one just for getting shot up so it still needs work.

 

Overall a lot of nice stuff but this is the most bugged PTU release to date. This might take 2-3 weeks to get ironed out.

[Corwin111]

It feels a lot heavier now. Increased turning speed is actually a good thing but the reduced (de)acceleration makes me overshoot a lot and the much higher fuel consumption of the afterburner let's you drift a lot more. To put it in perspective a standard boost after a 180° turn uses about 25% of your fuel instead of 5%. If your target in front of you it's harder to hit it now (mouse+kb) but if your target is out of sight you can get it in sight faster. It takes time to accommodate to this but with enough training it might actually turn out to be better than before.

 

What really bugs me are the crappy servers that put you into a death spin for no reason or let you only connect to one match per client restart, the damage states not getting mapped to your HUD again (Hornet), the poor performance in 16 player games and the signature bug.

 

Mixed feeling on the increased health but this takes more investigation once the servers are running fine.

 

The good things are the increased cooling performance. The Badgers were way cooler and didn't just outright overheat after emptying their caps. You can finally counter CS missiles with chaff! It still takes 4 chaff to get rid of them and the whole countermeasure redesign seems like it's still bugged but the increased amount (96 flare on a Hornet!) definitely helps. Gladius and Gladiator might actually need to use their guns to get kills. Also the penalty for early eject'/self destruct is a great thing but I got one just for getting shot up so it still needs work.

 

Overall a lot of nice stuff but this is the most bugged PTU release to date. This might take 2-3 weeks to get ironed out.

 

Thanks. I really hope they iron this stuff out before the release. And I still can't get in so I guess I'll just wait for that.

[rentaspoon]

Tbh the health thing sounds good to me, how crap would it be if you got one shot killed in the PU? And I want dogfights to last longer plus those hornets with nothing but ballistic weapons are nothing but annoying

[Corwin111]

Well I finally got it to run and it is appalling. I don't think the hornet has handled worse in all the time I've played so far. It is completely unflyable with a joystick.

 

I sincerely hope they've missed something major and will get it back in shape for the 1.1.5 release.  

[CatCloud]

More HP?

Man, my m50 had enough issues Taking down hornets with my weak lasers, this going to be a nightmare.

[Corwin111]

More HP?

Man, my m50 had enough issues Taking down hornets with my weak lasers, this going to be a nightmare.

 

If the hornets are kept as they are atm, I wouldn't worry. You will have a good 10-20 seconds to fire at them before they manage to even point their nose in your general direction, let alone actually get a firing solution on you - that would be rather impossible.

[CatCloud]

If the hornets are kept as they are atm, I wouldn't worry. You will have a good 10-20 seconds to fire at them before they manage to even point their nose in your general direction, let alone actually get a firing solution on you - that would be rather impossible.

Ah, nice.

Btw does the nose gun on the merlin fire? Or are the wing guns the only working weapons so far?

[CommanderFett]

3x Cutlass health? BOO YEA

[Wauthar]

Ah, nice.

Btw does the nose gun on the merlin fire? Or are the wing guns the only working weapons so far?

I have seen videos of both working. It's a gatling gun, so it has some spin up time.