NOTES: Star Citizen Patch 2.6.0 to PTU! Sorry, rather lengthy.
Alpha Patch 2.6.0 has been released to the PTU, and is now available for players to test! This patch provides access to Star Marine – with two maps and two game modes to choose from, we hope you’re all as excited as we are for this release! We also have four new flyable ships, four new variants of existing ships, new FPS combat mechanics such as cover, mantle and vault, major ship balance changes and so much more. Not to mention fixes and updates to existing content and (yes, there is more) Spectrum!
Important Issues:
Lobby refactor and matchmaking updates are not in this build.
Star Marine Leaderboards and the ability to select loadouts are not in this build.
All players default to Medium Outlaw and Medium Marine.
The new AC Pirate Swarm is in this build, however players attempting to select it will get an Error code 11 when loading.
Our planned Electronic Access improvements for sequential map loading (“mega map”) are not in this build.
Scan is not complete, please refrain from using it (“Tab” key on default keybindings).
Missile rebalance is ongoing.
Flight model changes and fuel rebalance is ongoing.
Star Systems:
Crusader
The GrimHex Bar is now open and ready for your absolutely legal and legitimate business!
Crusader has several new missions available, including a new ICC Probe mission and some additional objectives to the P.I. Mission.
The Yela Asteroid belt has received some updates, with a much denser field and many more salvage locations.
Game Systems:
Arena Commander
Pirate Swarm is a new game mode to Arena Commander, for both Drone Sim and Spectrum matchups.
Players will be challenged to defeat increasing numbers of pirates as the waves count down, as the pirates also call in heavier reinforcements.
The number of pirates that spawn will scale based on the number of players present.
Star Marine!
Accessible through Electronic Access, our first-person combat simulator Star Marine is now available for players.
Two maps will be available in the initial Star Marine release, Station Demien and Echo Eleven.
Star Marine has two available game modes for 2.6.0.
Elimination, an every-man-for themselves mode where you duke it out for the highest kill-score.
Last Stand, where Outlaws and Marines wrestle for control of four key computer access points to earn points for their team. The team with the most points wins!
Beyond the weaponry you’ve already come to know and love in Crusader, grenades are also available in Star Marine from the ammo crates.
Combat Emotes
In addition to everything else that comes with Star Marine, we have also implemented some basic combat signals to the keypad of the keyboard for Star Marine.
These will broadcast at a much shorter range then a chat message or emote normally would, and allow players who are not in voice chat to convey very basic strategy to each other.
Bleeding has been added to the game!
Bleeding is a debuff that stacks (additive) with itself, and will decrease your total health pool each second it ticks down.
Each body part that enters a ruined state (10% or less health) can apply a stack of Bleeding.
Right now, each Bleeding stack deals 1 damage per second.
When your health pool reaches zero, your character dies.
To stop bleeding, you must use a MediPen to restore your injured limb out of the Ruined state.
Leaderboard Updates
Information Coming Soon (not yet implemented in this build).
Lobby Refactor
Information Coming Soon (not yet implemented in this build).
Players already in a Lobby will now be able to receive, accept and decline invites to other lobbies.
Changing the game mode or map while in a Lobby will now unready all players, so they can re-confirm the new match configuration.
Third Person Camera
The third-person cameras for both Vehicle and On-Foot have received some major quality of life changes in 2.6.0.
Many of the improvements are “under the hood” for our teams to use for new content, videos and cinematics, but there are some new features that players can use right away in 2.6.0 to help you get that perfect shot.
Vehicle/Ship Camera now has three third-person camera modes – Chase Camera, Vehicle Orbit and Passenger Orbit.
Chase Camera is similar to the classic third person view of your ship from the upper-rear, but with many more features.
Vehicle Orbit gives you control of a full range of rotation for your camera centered around the vehicle.
Passenger Orbit gives you control of a full range of rotation for your camera centered around the passenger.
On Foot Camera now has two third-person camera modes – Third-Person Follow and Third Person Orbit.
Third-Person Follow is identical to the current 2.5.0 camera implementation and does not support the new features at this time.
Third Person Orbit gives you control of a full range of rotation for your camera centered around your character.
You can switch between the camera views by tapping F4 on the keyboard. However behind the F4 modifier there are several new features, including the ability to adjust the camera field of view via different lens sizes, or offsetting the position of the camera around the ship for different angled shots.
New: Lens Size Selection (Chase Camera, Vehicle Orbit, Passenger Orbit and Third Person Orbit)
HOLD F4 & Numpad + will increases the lens size, and HOLD F4 & Numpad – will decreases the lens size.
New: Camera Offset (Chase Camera, Vehicle Orbit, Passenger Orbit and Third Person Orbit)
HOLD F4 & Left/Right Arrows moves the target position in the X axis, HOLD F4 & Up/Down Arrows moves the target position in the Y axis, and HOLD F4 & PageUp/PageDown moves the target position in the Z axis
New: Orbit (Vehicle Orbit, Passenger Orbit and Third Person Orbit).
Z to toggle the Orbit on and off. When active, the user can control the camera rotation via their mouse movements.
New: Reset to Default
HOLD F4 & Numpad * will reset the third-person camera to default.
Ships:
Four new ships are both flight and hangar ready!
The Aegis Vanguard Hoplite
The Drake Herald
The Drake Caterpillar
And the Origin 85X
Four new ship variants are available!
The Anvil Hornet F7C Wildfire
The Aegis Avenger Titan Renegade
The Aegis Sabre Comet
The Aegis Gladius Valiant
We have also made the following ships available in Arena Commander, though they are restricted to private matches.
Constellation Andromeda
Retaliator
Ship Balance
We have made some significant changes to how ships perform in 2.6.0, and expect this will significantly alter combat tactics for many players. One of the largest changes has been in ship speeds. As more and more ships have gone into the game, the speeds have slowly crept up to make room for them. The end result is that combat in SCM mode has progressively got worse and further apart. With these increased speeds, undesirable sliding when turning comes in, and with that, more unintended collisions and a general requirement to not fly near any of our cool setups in the world.
Up to now, certain ships were held as a gold standard, meaning that we had to force values for new ships far beyond where they should naturally sit. Our goal is to nominalize speed and reset the balance across the board. Reducing the SCM speeds has allowed us to keep/tweak the afterburner/cruise speeds close to what they currently are and to put a resource on boost fuel and its management to hop between engagements.
Alongside the flight speed changes, we’re also re-balancing a lot of the weapon velocities, as they also had started stretching out to match the speeds. While these reductions in velocities are not as drastic as the SCM reductions, the goal is to bring both in line for a more satisfying combat experience.
The changes mean that the management of this boost and afterburner going forward is once again become a viable combat tactic.
Complete rebalance of SCM speeds and ship handling for all ships.
Complete rebalance of all shields for all ships.
These simulate the Item 2.0 shield values that will come with a future patch.
As such they are approximations of the intended default loadouts.
Complete rebalance of fuel consumption and fuel tanks for all ships.
Afterburner and boost consumption rates have been adjusted.
Once fuel is depleted you are kicked out of afterburner until enough has regenerated.
Afterburner no longer automatic disables GSAFE.
Complete rebalance of all missile loadouts for all ships.
All new missile racks and missiles have been created and outfitted to all ships.
Every ship has had its missile rack hardpoints adjusted.
Rebalance of countermeasure ammo.
All missile rack hardpoints are now editable and missile rack items can be exchanged again.
Cruise mode has been removed at this time.
Afterburner has been re-balanced such that the max speed of Afterburner is now comparable to current (2.5.0) Cruise, and fuel consumption/availability has been adjusted accordingly.
The goal is that Afterburner becomes the method to engage/disengage combat as well as gives the choice between outright speed or better handling.
Precision mode still exists, but can only be accessed via Landing mode.
Velocity gained via Afterburner will no longer decay after the pilot releases afterburner.
Not yet implemented in this build.
Social Module
New chat commands and functionality have been added!
/addignore , /removeignore , /showignore, /tell, /partyinvite , /partyleave, /addcontact, /removecontact
“Ignore” is new, and will add players to your ignore list. There is currently not UI to view which players you have ignored other then the /showignore command, so use with caution.
/tell allows you to send a private message to another player.
The party and contact chat commands are shortcuts with the same as the existing functions in your Contact UI.
First Person:
Animations
We have made a huge number of updates and additions to first-person combat animations in 2.6.0.
This includes cover (both while standing and in crouch).
Vaulting, which allows characters to jumping over obstacles and low cover such as over railings.
Mantle, which allows characters to grab ledges or other hand-holds and pull themselves on top of other objects.
These are primarily implemented Star Marine at this point, to allow players to test them in a focused environment.
User Interface:
The following updates have been made to the Default keybindings. All the below changes can be rebound as desired.
Scoreboard in Arena Commander and Star Marine is now activated via “F1” on the keyboard.
“Exit Seat” is no longer behind Modifier 1 on any device.
Exit Seat “Hold F” on the keyboard and “Hold Y” on the gamepad will now exit, however the “hold” time has been increased.
Holster weapon is now “Hold R” on the keyboard, and “Hold X” on the gamepad.
Removed the Throttle Max and Throttle Min from the double tap “S” and “W” on the keyboard.
Max / Min Throttle can be toggled via Backspace still on the default keybinds.
Added prone toggle (independent of crouch) on “X” on the keyboard.
Crouch is still on “LeftCtrl” on the keyboard.
Flight Pitch is now inverted by default on the Gamepad.
3rd Person Orbit camera is now on “LB + R3” on the Gamepad.
Updates and Fixes
Star Systems:
All of our FPS weapons have received audio and graphical tweaks.
User Interface:
Gamepad
Updated the default ship aiming curve for pilots using the Gamepad.
Fixed an issue where Gamepad users could change teams in the Arena Commander lobby, even when there was only one team available.
Joystick
Fixed a number of problems joystick users were experiencing with E.S.P.
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son Of God.
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