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2.6.0 OVERVIEW

The following lists and charts show our progress towards releasing 2.6.0, with all remaining major tasks listed.

We have pushed 2.6.0 Live to everyone in time for the Christmas period and are very excited for you to enjoy it over the holidays. As we’ve now hit Live, we thought we’d do a bit of a retrospective of where we originally estimated our features being complete, and where they actually ended up being completed along with a brief review of what may have caused the delay. Each of the features had their own fair share of issues that clogged up our Inclusions process around the week of 21st November which, combined with the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, meant limited support to help resolve those issues.

Tasks are either feature complete, or have an ETA for completion.

Here you can see in comparison the original milestone projection of the 2.6 schedule.

Some tasks may require further QA, bug-fixing and iteration.

If you would like further explanation and insight, we’ve broken down all of the various mechanics and bugs into their respective sections below, so you can see exactly where the development ran into obstacles. As mentioned during the Live Stream, we are working on applying the same schedule process for 3.0 in the New Year, but in the meantime, we hope that this explanation will shed some light on the delicate balancing act that is the development process.

Tasks that delay beyond our target dates might cause the release of 2.6.0 to be delayed, or might be excluded from 2.6.0 if appropriate to maintain the release date target.

The following lists and charts show the work that went in to releasing 2.6.0, comparing our original estimates to the actual time spent.

2.6.0 work is separated into Subsections: Star Marine, Arena Commander, Technology & Systems, Content, Front End and Mega Map.

We are still in tests with Evocati for 2.6.0, and have been getting loads of great feedback from them. The bug fix rate is remaining consistently high and is storming along. We are awaiting fixes for a few final issues before we start a new build for tonight, this will be a candidate to go to the Evocati, and if reports for this build are good over the weekend, we would aim to push this to the PTU on Monday.

Some tasks too longer than expected, while others were finished ahead of schedule.

BUG PROGRESS

It also shows how while a fix may be straightforward, the iterative process of testing and bug regression can reveal unexpected complications. Many tasks required further QA, bug-fixing and iteration.

As we near releasing to a full PTU, and eventually Live, we want to give an overview of how the team is progressing in their bug fixing. This image shows a Created versus Resolved chart for our “2.6.0 Must Fix Issues” over the last 5 days. The cumulative total is showed at the bottom of the graph, while the data points in the graph shows progress each day.

Some tasks were excluded from 2.6.0 if appropriate to maintain the release date target and are being scheduled for future patches.

We currently have one outstanding issue that would stop us from pushing to PTU that could seriously affect people’s experience which is currently under investigation

2.6.0 work is separated into Subsections: Star Marine, Arena Commander, Technology & Systems, Content, Front End and Mega Map.

Client Crash – Error code 30008 – Authentication failed

BUG PROGRESS

We also have a further 106 outstanding issues (72 bugs & 28 tasks) that we are aiming to resolve before going Live. A selection of our worst offending bugs we will be focusing on as a priority are:

This past week as we geared up for the Live release, our team worked around the clock to find, fix, and test the last handful of critical bugs while pushing numerous builds to the PTU. Thankfully, we were able to sort through some tricky networking issues to achieve a build we felt was stable enough for the general community. The below image shows a Created versus Resolved chart for our “2.6.0 Must Fix Issues” over the last 5 days. The cumulative total is showed at the bottom of the graph, while the data points in the graph shows progress each day.

At the beginning of the week, these were the high priority bugs that we needed to be resolved:

Crashes

Crash: CFrontendEALobbySetupComponent::LobbyStateUpdate

Crashes loading into Echo 11 and Demien SpawnAllocater

Crash: Crash when selecting Electronic Access from the pause menu while in the Hangar – CFrontendController::RequestOpen

Hub Server – Memory Corruption.

Crash – dedicated game server instance – CSkeletonPhysics::Synchronize_GetPhysicsJointsParamsAE()

*New Main Menu

Main Menu – Unable to Invite players to Multiplayer Lobby

Main Menu – UI – Arena Commander – Being invited to a Multiplayer Match, then exiting and joining a Multiplayer game will always put you in a Battle Royale on Broken Moon.

Main Menu – Arena Commander ‘Exit’ button can lose it’s function

Main Menu – UI – Party/Group system missing for PU locations.

Main Menu – Add contacts button disappears after use

Main Menu – Party/Group system missing for PU locations

Main Menu – Going to Hangar, then attempting to go to any Space Port through main menu, will take you to the previous Hangar

Star Marine

Star Marine – Crackling and audio corruption can be heard throughout the match

Star Marine Loadout – Player will always load into their first match with a shotgun.

Star Marine – Remote player shooting at local player’s old position but causing damage

Star Marine – Last Stand – Hacking a terminal mid-emote will cause terminal to become non-interactable.

Star Marine – Last Stand – Late joiners will not see the correct team icon on captured points

Star Marine – Destructible Props – Explosive barrels don’t move in sync when being pushed

Performance

Performance – Destroying a ship causes a slowdown in the physics due to interpenetrating debris

Arena Commander – Performance – FPS drops when player enters EVA outside of ship

Misc

Ships – Missiles don’t inherit velocity from the ship they’re launched from

Public Crash Handler cannot submit crash reports.

Crusader – ICC Mission 2 – Civilian ship doesn’t show up

Arena Commander – Combat Visor/MFD appear blank.

New Horizon Speedway – Some gates do not show with three or more players.

Drake Caterpillar – Ship is missing crosshairs and total velocity indicator when piloting.

Overall, by the end of the week, we closed out a total of 210 issues, 22 of which were Blockers that would have stopped us from going Live.

BREAKDOWN BY SUBSECTION

STAR MARINE

CODE

CODE (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 18TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 9TH DECEMBER)

Feature complete

In general, the code work for the main features of Star Marine came in roughly as estimated. However, bug fixing, iterating upon the base implementation, and responding to feedback caused the original date to slip.

The following areas are undergoing improvements:

ANIMATION (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 30TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 21ST NOVEMBER)

Grenade network sync

Animation was completed slightly ahead of schedule.

Death/Hit Reaction network sync

We were very careful to focus in on the specific animations that would be needed and polish those up as much as possible.

Ragdoll

Looting

General bug fixing for 2.6.0 by the Code team

ANIMATION

Feature complete

Reviewing all in game animations to identify improvements

General bug fixing for 2.6.0 by the Animation team

COMBAT SIGNALS

Feature complete

These were an off-shoot of Animations and were completed by the same team, with the same focus.

Ready for QA

DESTRUCTIBLE PROPS (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 16TH DECEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 20TH DECEMBER)

DESTRUCTIBLE PROPS

CryEngine does not properly deal with having destructible props serials properly between clients, so we have had to come up with some creative ways of getting these to work

Network Engineering are looking into desync/position miscalculation issues.

Destructible props still have a little way to go and will continue to be worked on as part of a future patch, but we have our base implementation working for 2.6.0.

ETA is 20th December (delayed from 16th December)

FACIAL IDLES (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 30TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 14TH DECEMBER)

FACIAL IDLES

Delayed slightly due to the Animation team spending extra time polishing up the main gameplay animations (vaulting, mantling, walking, etc).

Feature complete

CHARACTER ART (COMPLETED ON TIME)

CHARACTER ART

So far we have implemented the Light and Medium version of the Marines and Outlaws which came in on time do to being a little further along in development.

Feature complete

The Heavy Marine and Outlaw is in progress, but would not have been done in time for the 2.6.0 and would have also conflicted with other priorities within the studio.

Marine and Outlaw material updates are completed

LEVEL DESIGN (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 18TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 9TH DECEMBER)

LEVEL DESIGN

Design changes to the level were the main cause for slipping beyond the original estimate.

Feature complete

Early reviews of the level maps showed the layouts to not be too friendly to be used for both game modes, so they needed to be revised.

Echo Eleven & Station Demien layout balancing has been completed

Art is now finalizing their work with bug fixes going on, and also final lighting passes to shape areas properly

General bug fixing and polish is in progress

ARENA COMMANDER BALANCE / IMPROVEMENTS

PIRATE SWARM

PIRATE SWARM (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 30TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 5TH DECEMBER)

Feature complete

This mode took a little longer to set up and balance properly than was anticipated.

Further polish and tweaking is still needed

During the setup of this mode we also suffered a bug with the AI that caused the enemies to be unresponsive and sometimes not spawn at all.

PICKUPS

PICKUPS (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 18TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 14TH DECEMBER)

We have added two new pickups to Arena Commander Multiplayer modes

The initial code implementation for the pickups was completed as estimated, but there was a delay with the Audio and VFX hookup due to work taking place to complete the new ships.

Design is in the process to tweaking the drop chances and how much these pickups award the player

After feedback, we needed to change the pickups from a generic sphere to icons that were more indicative of what the pickup will actually award the player.

NEW MISSIONS

We also decided to add two further pickups into the game to assist players and make gameplay more interesting.

Feature complete

Once these were implemented, we needed a thorough balancing pass to look at the drop chance and pickup values.

Bug fixing as needed

NEW MISSIONS (COMPLETED ON TIME)

SCORING REBALANCE

While creating new missions does take time, the design team behind the new missions already had a workflow based on the previous missions and were able to hit the ground running and get these created very efficiently.

Feature complete

SCORING REBALANCE (COMPLETED ON TIME)

Battle Royale and Squadron Battle have now had their win scores reassessed, it should now be possible to reach the target score before the time runs out

This was a relatively easy change which involved reviewing gameplay and QA feedback to make the score limits more achievable within the time given.

IFCS MISSILE GUIDANCE

Feature complete

Addressing final feedback for missile relock times

SHIP BALANCE

SHIP BALANCE (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 18TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 12TH DECEMBER) & SHIP BALANCE (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 23RD NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 12TH DECEMBER)

Feature complete

These are being combined as the team working on the IFCS missiles are also the same team responsible for the overall ship balance

Adressing final feedback for Afterburn rates

Due to the feedback received, the improvements made for one had a knock on effect on the other.

GFORCES

With balance being very iterative and heavily based on feedback from testing, this ended up taking longer than expected.

Feature complete

GFORCES (NOT PART OF ORIGINAL SCOPE)

Bug fixing as needed

This was a task to polish / fix the parts of the feature that had rotted over time and was deemed important to improve the player experience when piloting a ship, which was one of the focuses of 2.6.

TECH / SYSTEMS

NETWORK – BIND CULLING (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 23RD NOVEMBER, PUSHED TO 2.6.1)

Due to other network stability bugfixing and support, we were not able to make enough satisfactory progress to include this with 2.6.0.

NETWORK – MESSAGE ORDERING

We have had to back out the Message Ordering work from 2.6.0 which had already been included in the build as it was causing serious and frequent server crashes with builds for the Evocati

Delayed due to other Network bugfixing.

Taking bugs into account, we will continue to work on the feature for inclusion in a patch in the new year

The work was originally checked in to 2.6.0 and was part of the builds on the early Evocati pushes. However we quickly discovered that it was causing some nasty client crashes, so it was deemed better to remove this code for now and continue developing it for a future patch.

NETWORK – SERIALIZED VARIABLE (STRETCH GOAL)

NETWORK – SERIALIZED VARIABLE (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 8TH DECEMBER, PUSHED TO 2.6.1)

This is also being pushed from 2.6.0 as parts of it rely on the Message Ordering work, and also will require some extensive testing to ensure that it doesn’t impact stability

Serialized Variables was reliant in part on the Message Ordering work that ended up being removed, so was too risky to try and include without it

This feature will continue development alongside Message Ordering for inclusion in a patch in the new year

CAMERA IMPROVEMENTS (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 18TH DECEMBER, COMPLETION DATE 22ND DECEMBER)

CAMERA IMPROVEMENTS

Delayed slightly due to various bug fixes and polish tasks based upon feedback

Feature complete

MUSIC LOGIC SYSTEM (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 23RD NOVEMBER, COMPLETION DATE 30TH NOVEMBER)

Bug fixing as needed

Delayed slightly due to various bug fixes and polish tasks based upon feedback.

MUSIC LOGIC SYSTEM

Also slightly delayed to to illness.

Feature complete

SHIP COMPUTER 1.X (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 25TH NOVEMBER, COMPLETION DATE 6TH DECEMBER)

All music has been received from the composer and implemented

Delayed slightly due to the Audio Code team supporting Star Marine

SHIP COMPUTER 1.X

Ground work for allowing the player to select the verbosity of ship computer.

Feature complete

CONTENT

VANGUARD HOPLITE

VANGUARD HOPLITE (COMPLETED ON TIME)

Feature complete

This ship was already in development, so it was near the end of its development cycle by the time it was ready for use.

In testing with QA

DRAKE HERALD (COMPLETED ON TIME)

Bug Fixing

This ship was already in development, so it was near the end of its development cycle by the time it was ready for use.

DRAKE HERALD

GRIM HEX BAR (COMPLETED AHEAD OF TIME)

Feature complete

Completed ahead of time as the space was mostly complete and required little set dressing

In testing with QA

Bug Fixing

GRIM HEX BAR

Feature complete

In testing with QA

Bug Fixing

SPECIAL EDITION SHIPS (SABRE, VANGUARD, HORNET, AVENGER)

In testing with QA

Completed ahead of time for the reveal as part of the November Livestream

Bug Fixing

DRAKE CATERPILLAR (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 2ND DECEMBER, COMPLETION DATE 12TH DECEMBER)

DRAKE CATERPILLAR

Due to the overall size of the Caterpillar and its complexity, this ship required more technical work to implement.

Feature complete

We also had issues with animations not working correctly and needing code support, which then had an impact on Audio not being able to begin their work until later than planned

In testing with QA

ORIGIN 85X (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 2ND DECEMBER, COMPLETED ON TIME)

Bug fixing as needed

This ship had already been in development for a little while. Although it wasn’t as far along as the Hoplite or Herald, the 85X was relatively straightforward to finish off.

ORIGIN 85X

Feature complete

In testing with QA

Bug Fixing

UI AND FRONT END REFACTOR

Star Marine Environment Screens first pass is now complete

Star Marine Environment Screens (Original Estimate 30th November, Completion date 6th December)

Bug fixing in progress

Two new Arena Commander Pickup Icons are complete (Original Estimate 28th November, Completion date 14th December)

Two new Arena Commander Pickup Icons are complete

Electronic Access Widgets are now complete (Original Estimate 18th November, Completion date 9th December)

Electronic Access Widgets are now complete

As a whole, the UI team has a huge amount of work to do with limited resources. This, coupled with general bug fixing caused these estimates to slip.

Bug fixing to follow

LOBBIES AND MAIN MENU

Star Marine Loadout Customisation is now in game

Star Marine Loadout Customisation is now in game (Original Estimate 25th November, Completion date 12th December)

Bug fixing in progress

Arena Commander Ship Customisation. (Original Estimate 5th December, Completion date 19th December)

Arena Commander Ship Customisation. ETA is 19th December (delayed from 16th December)

Front End Flow is now in game (Original Estimate 28th November, Completion date 12th December)

Delayed due moving this on to a new programming resource to allow bug fixing of other issues

As above, these features were worked on by the UI and so was subject to the same delays

Front End Flow is now in game

The code work involved with rewriting the loadout selections and front end was very complex, so it raised numerous bugs raised from internal testing as well as Evocati testing.

Bug fixing in progress

LEADERBOARD SERVICE

Feature complete

Updating the leaderboards was relatively straightforward with a little bit of support from Gamecode and the Platform Engineers.

Additions for Star Marine game modes are communicating with the web platform

MEGA MAP (STRETCH GOAL)

The Mega Map feature is now being pushed out of 2.6.0 due to the remaining time we have, the length of time needed for the remaining work, and also due to the risk of affecting stability at this point. Development of the feature will continue, but will instead aim for a patch in the new year.

This was a very ambitious feature and involved writing a whole new section of Network code, converting over 50 sets of gamerules to work with the new system, and altering thousands of lines of gamecode.

With support needed at various points from the Engineers who were already involved with supporting other features, bug fixing, and the November Live Stream, this was just too much of a risk and unknown to implement for 2.6.0.

3.X AND BEYOND - MILESTONES OVERVIEW

3.0 – The Stanton System

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS

Trading – Be able to buy/sell commodities via kiosks and NPCs among the various landing zones.

Cargo Transport – Pick up hauling jobs between landing zones. Automatic cargo load/unload, manual cargo transport.

Piracy and Smuggling – Establish secure/non-secure areas. AI Security response to attacks. Add the ability to retrieve floating cargo from destroyed ships. Create buy/sell system for illicit cargo.

Mercenary – Create Service Beacon System (for Combat Assist Contracts). Create AI distress scenarios.

Bounty Hunter – Accept missions to terminate wanted players and NPCs.

NEW SHIPS

RSI Ursa Rover – This rugged all-terrain vehicle is perfect for exploring vast planets.

Drake Dragonfly – This fast open-cockpit ship has been seen flying both in atmosphere and in space.

Drake Caterpillar – This large, modular cargo ship has a mixed reputation, to some it’s a spacious affordable hauler, to others, it’s up to no good.

RSI Constellation Aquila – The exploration variant of the classic RSI Constellation.

STANTON SYSTEM ROLL-OUT

Travel around the various planets and stations within the Stanton System. Although technically a UEE system, all of these planets were sold to MegaCorps to help fund the government.

Debut of Planetary Tech

Expanding the Stanton System

ArcCorp

Hurston

Microtech

Crusader

Delamar

New Space Stations, moons and Asteroid belts

3.1 – Mining & Refining

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS

Mining – Retrieve solid and gaseous commodities from planet surfaces, manual cargo transport, refining materials.

Refining and Processing – Process raw ore into purified commodities. Most shops will only deal in one or the other form. Initial implementation might be to have dedicated shops handle the refining.

Quantum Interdiction – Be able to interdict Player ships from Quantum travel.

Refueling – Add Refuel Contracts to Service Beacon. AI tankers and fuel requests (as well as player fuel requests)

Escort – Protect one or more ships from harm. Add Escort contracts to Service Beacon. Implement Quantum Linking (multiple ships jumping together)

ADDITIONAL SOLAR SYSTEM LOCATIONS

NEW SHIPS

Drake Cutlass Red & Blue – Variants of the popular Drake fighter.

MISC Hull C – This medium sized cargo ship is one of the most common hauling ships in the Empire.

MISC Prospector – A small mining vessel for solo operators.

Origin 85x – The luxury away-vessel first seen in the 890 Jump brochure.

3.2 – Repair & Salvage

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS

Salvage – Strip commodities from ship hulls via handheld tools, retrieve crates and other valuables from derelicts and debris.

Repair – Repair damaged ship via tools (later implementation will incorporate the Crucible), repair damaged satellites or stations.

Mercenary – Covert Operations – Patrol areas of space, protect stationary entities, advanced mission scenarios: infiltration/covert (retrieve data/object from enemy, sabotage, etc.), hostage rescue missions)

ADDITIONAL SOLAR SYSTEM LOCATIONS

NEW SHIPS

RSI Constellation Taurus – The entry-model of RSI’s iconic Constellation line.

RSI Constellation Phoenix – The luxury model of RSI’s iconic Constellation line.

Anvil Terrapin – The tough and rugged Scanning and Exploration ship.

AEGIS Vanguard Harbinger – The variant of the Vanguard has been converted into a bomber.

AEGIS Vanguard Sentinel – An E-War variant of the Vanguard line.

AEGIS Reclaimer – Aegis’ industrial salvage ship.

3.3 – Farming & Rescue

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS

Farming – Plant and grow crops, harvest when appropriate, and sell the final product.

Rescue – Rescue NPCs from a variety of dangers (powerless stations, damaged ships in decaying orbits, evacuate personnel, etc.)

ADDITIONAL SOLAR SYSTEM LOCATIONS

NEW SHIPS

Anvil Carrack – Anvil’s long-range exploration ship.

890 Jump – Luxury cruise liner from Origin.

Banu Merchantman – The first Banu spaceship to be introduced in game, the Merchantman is a massive cargo ship.

MISC Reliant Variants – All variants of MISC’s rotating vertical ship.

4.0 Jump Points

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS

Travel to multiple Star Systems – The universe expands beyond the Stanton System.

Exploration and Discovery – Find unknown asteroids, derelicts, fuel sources, bases, commodity locations, scanning of space and surfaces in order to utilize, share or sell the information.

Science and Research – Retrieve samples from space and planetside locations for analysis, atmospheric manipulation, scan/analyze various phenomena.

ADDITIONAL SOLAR SYSTEM LOCATIONS

NEW SHIPS

RSI Orion

Anvil Crucible

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2.6.0 OVERVIEW

The following lists and charts show our progress towards releasing 2.6.0, with all remaining major tasks listed.

Tasks are either feature complete, or have an ETA for completion.

Some tasks may require further QA, bug-fixing and iteration.

Tasks that delay beyond our target dates might cause the release of 2.6.0 to be delayed, or might be excluded from 2.6.0 if appropriate to maintain the release date target.
2.6.0 work is separated into Subsections: Star Marine, Arena Commander, Technology & Systems, Content, Front End and Mega Map.

We are still in tests with Evocati for 2.6.0, and have been getting loads of great feedback from them. The bug fix rate is remaining consistently high and is storming along. We are awaiting fixes for a few final issues before we start a new build for tonight, this will be a candidate to go to the Evocati, and if reports for this build are good over the weekend, we would aim to push this to the PTU on Monday.

BUG PROGRESS

As we near releasing to a full PTU, and eventually Live, we want to give an overview of how the team is progressing in their bug fixing. This image shows a Created versus Resolved chart for our “2.6.0 Must Fix Issues” over the last 5 days. The cumulative total is showed at the bottom of the graph, while the data points in the graph shows progress each day.

We currently have one outstanding issue that would stop us from pushing to PTU that could seriously affect people’s experience which is currently under investigation

Client Crash – Error code 30008 – Authentication failed
We also have a further 106 outstanding issues (72 bugs & 28 tasks) that we are aiming to resolve before going Live. A selection of our worst offending bugs we will be focusing on as a priority are:

Crashes
Crash: CFrontendEALobbySetupComponent::LobbyStateUpdate
*New Main Menu
Main Menu – Unable to Invite players to Multiplayer Lobby
Main Menu – Arena Commander ‘Exit’ button can lose it’s function
Main Menu – Add contacts button disappears after use
Main Menu – Party/Group system missing for PU locations
Main Menu – Going to Hangar, then attempting to go to any Space Port through main menu, will take you to the previous Hangar
Star Marine
Star Marine – Crackling and audio corruption can be heard throughout the match
Star Marine – Remote player shooting at local player’s old position but causing damage
Star Marine – Last Stand – Late joiners will not see the correct team icon on captured points
Star Marine – Destructible Props – Explosive barrels don’t move in sync when being pushed
Performance
Performance – Destroying a ship causes a slowdown in the physics due to interpenetrating debris
Arena Commander – Performance – FPS drops when player enters EVA outside of ship
Misc
Ships – Missiles don’t inherit velocity from the ship they’re launched from
Crusader – ICC Mission 2 – Civilian ship doesn’t show up

BREAKDOWN BY SUBSECTION
STAR MARINE

CODE
Feature complete
The following areas are undergoing improvements:
Grenade network sync
Death/Hit Reaction network sync
Ragdoll
Looting
General bug fixing for 2.6.0 by the Code team
ANIMATION
Feature complete
Reviewing all in game animations to identify improvements
General bug fixing for 2.6.0 by the Animation team
COMBAT SIGNALS
Feature complete
Ready for QA
DESTRUCTIBLE PROPS
Network Engineering are looking into desync/position miscalculation issues.
ETA is 20th December (delayed from 16th December)
FACIAL IDLES
Feature complete
CHARACTER ART
Feature complete
Marine and Outlaw material updates are completed
LEVEL DESIGN
Feature complete
Echo Eleven & Station Demien layout balancing has been completed
Art is now finalizing their work with bug fixes going on, and also final lighting passes to shape areas properly
General bug fixing and polish is in progress
ARENA COMMANDER BALANCE / IMPROVEMENTS

PIRATE SWARM
Feature complete
Further polish and tweaking is still needed
PICKUPS
We have added two new pickups to Arena Commander Multiplayer modes
Design is in the process to tweaking the drop chances and how much these pickups award the player
NEW MISSIONS
Feature complete
Bug fixing as needed
SCORING REBALANCE
Feature complete
Battle Royale and Squadron Battle have now had their win scores reassessed, it should now be possible to reach the target score before the time runs out
IFCS MISSILE GUIDANCE
Feature complete
Addressing final feedback for missile relock times
SHIP BALANCE
Feature complete
Adressing final feedback for Afterburn rates
GFORCES
Feature complete
Bug fixing as needed
TECH / SYSTEMS

NETWORK – MESSAGE ORDERING
We have had to back out the Message Ordering work from 2.6.0 which had already been included in the build as it was causing serious and frequent server crashes with builds for the Evocati
Taking bugs into account, we will continue to work on the feature for inclusion in a patch in the new year
NETWORK – SERIALIZED VARIABLE (STRETCH GOAL)
This is also being pushed from 2.6.0 as parts of it rely on the Message Ordering work, and also will require some extensive testing to ensure that it doesn’t impact stability
This feature will continue development alongside Message Ordering for inclusion in a patch in the new year
CAMERA IMPROVEMENTS
Feature complete
Bug fixing as needed
MUSIC LOGIC SYSTEM
Feature complete
All music has been received from the composer and implemented
SHIP COMPUTER 1.X
Ground work for allowing the player to select the verbosity of ship computer.
Feature complete
CONTENT

VANGUARD HOPLITE
Feature complete
In testing with QA
Bug Fixing
DRAKE HERALD
Feature complete
In testing with QA
Bug Fixing
GRIM HEX BAR
Feature complete
In testing with QA
Bug Fixing
SPECIAL EDITION SHIPS (SABRE, VANGUARD, HORNET, AVENGER)
In testing with QA
Bug Fixing
DRAKE CATERPILLAR
Feature complete
In testing with QA
Bug fixing as needed
ORIGIN 85X
Feature complete
In testing with QA
Bug Fixing
UI AND FRONT END REFACTOR

UI
Star Marine Environment Screens first pass is now complete
Bug fixing in progress
Two new Arena Commander Pickup Icons are complete
Electronic Access Widgets are now complete
Bug fixing to follow
LOBBIES AND MAIN MENU
Star Marine Loadout Customisation is now in game
Bug fixing in progress
Arena Commander Ship Customisation. ETA is 19th December (delayed from 16th December)
Delayed due moving this on to a new programming resource to allow bug fixing of other issues
Front End Flow is now in game
Bug fixing in progress
LEADERBOARD SERVICE
Feature complete
Additions for Star Marine game modes are communicating with the web platform
MEGA MAP (STRETCH GOAL)
The Mega Map feature is now being pushed out of 2.6.0 due to the remaining time we have, the length of time needed for the remaining work, and also due to the risk of affecting stability at this point. Development of the feature will continue, but will instead aim for a patch in the new year.

3.X AND BEYOND - MILESTONES OVERVIEW

3.0 – The Stanton System

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS
Trading – Be able to buy/sell commodities via kiosks and NPCs among the various landing zones.
Cargo Transport – Pick up hauling jobs between landing zones. Automatic cargo load/unload, manual cargo transport.
Piracy and Smuggling – Establish secure/non-secure areas. AI Security response to attacks. Add the ability to retrieve floating cargo from destroyed ships. Create buy/sell system for illicit cargo.
Mercenary – Create Service Beacon System (for Combat Assist Contracts). Create AI distress scenarios.
Bounty Hunter – Accept missions to terminate wanted players and NPCs.
NEW SHIPS
RSI Ursa Rover – This rugged all-terrain vehicle is perfect for exploring vast planets.
Drake Dragonfly – This fast open-cockpit ship has been seen flying both in atmosphere and in space.
Drake Caterpillar – This large, modular cargo ship has a mixed reputation, to some it’s a spacious affordable hauler, to others, it’s up to no good.
RSI Constellation Aquila – The exploration variant of the classic RSI Constellation.

STANTON SYSTEM ROLL-OUT
Travel around the various planets and stations within the Stanton System. Although technically a UEE system, all of these planets were sold to MegaCorps to help fund the government.

Debut of Planetary Tech
Expanding the Stanton System
ArcCorp
Hurston
Microtech
Crusader
Delamar
New Space Stations, moons and Asteroid belts

3.1 – Mining & Refining

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS
Mining – Retrieve solid and gaseous commodities from planet surfaces, manual cargo transport, refining materials.
Refining and Processing – Process raw ore into purified commodities. Most shops will only deal in one or the other form. Initial implementation might be to have dedicated shops handle the refining.
Quantum Interdiction – Be able to interdict Player ships from Quantum travel.
Refueling – Add Refuel Contracts to Service Beacon. AI tankers and fuel requests (as well as player fuel requests)
Escort – Protect one or more ships from harm. Add Escort contracts to Service Beacon. Implement Quantum Linking (multiple ships jumping together)
ADDITIONAL SOLAR SYSTEM LOCATIONS
NEW SHIPS
Drake Cutlass Red & Blue – Variants of the popular Drake fighter.
MISC Hull C – This medium sized cargo ship is one of the most common hauling ships in the Empire.
MISC Prospector – A small mining vessel for solo operators.
Origin 85x – The luxury away-vessel first seen in the 890 Jump brochure.

3.2 – Repair & Salvage

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS
Salvage – Strip commodities from ship hulls via handheld tools, retrieve crates and other valuables from derelicts and debris.
Repair – Repair damaged ship via tools (later implementation will incorporate the Crucible), repair damaged satellites or stations.
Mercenary – Covert Operations – Patrol areas of space, protect stationary entities, advanced mission scenarios: infiltration/covert (retrieve data/object from enemy, sabotage, etc.), hostage rescue missions)
ADDITIONAL SOLAR SYSTEM LOCATIONS
NEW SHIPS
RSI Constellation Taurus – The entry-model of RSI’s iconic Constellation line.
RSI Constellation Phoenix – The luxury model of RSI’s iconic Constellation line.
Anvil Terrapin – The tough and rugged Scanning and Exploration ship.
AEGIS Vanguard Harbinger – The variant of the Vanguard has been converted into a bomber.
AEGIS Vanguard Sentinel – An E-War variant of the Vanguard line.
AEGIS Reclaimer – Aegis’ industrial salvage ship.

3.3 – Farming & Rescue

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS
Farming – Plant and grow crops, harvest when appropriate, and sell the final product.
Rescue – Rescue NPCs from a variety of dangers (powerless stations, damaged ships in decaying orbits, evacuate personnel, etc.)
ADDITIONAL SOLAR SYSTEM LOCATIONS
NEW SHIPS
Anvil Carrack – Anvil’s long-range exploration ship.
890 Jump – Luxury cruise liner from Origin.
Banu Merchantman – The first Banu spaceship to be introduced in game, the Merchantman is a massive cargo ship.
MISC Reliant Variants – All variants of MISC’s rotating vertical ship.

4.0 Jump Points

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS
Travel to multiple Star Systems – The universe expands beyond the Stanton System.
Exploration and Discovery – Find unknown asteroids, derelicts, fuel sources, bases, commodity locations, scanning of space and surfaces in order to utilize, share or sell the information.
Science and Research – Retrieve samples from space and planetside locations for analysis, atmospheric manipulation, scan/analyze various phenomena.
ADDITIONAL SOLAR SYSTEM LOCATIONS
NEW SHIPS
RSI Orion
Anvil Crucible

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2.6.0 OVERVIEW

We have pushed 2.6.0 Live to everyone in time for the Christmas period and are very excited for you to enjoy it over the holidays. As we’ve now hit Live, we thought we’d do a bit of a retrospective of where we originally estimated our features being complete, and where they actually ended up being completed along with a brief review of what may have caused the delay. Each of the features had their own fair share of issues that clogged up our Inclusions process around the week of 21st November which, combined with the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, meant limited support to help resolve those issues.

Here you can see in comparison the original milestone projection of the 2.6 schedule.

If you would like further explanation and insight, we’ve broken down all of the various mechanics and bugs into their respective sections below, so you can see exactly where the development ran into obstacles. As mentioned during the Live Stream, we are working on applying the same schedule process for 3.0 in the New Year, but in the meantime, we hope that this explanation will shed some light on the delicate balancing act that is the development process.

The following lists and charts show the work that went in to releasing 2.6.0, comparing our original estimates to the actual time spent.

Some tasks too longer than expected, while others were finished ahead of schedule.

It also shows how while a fix may be straightforward, the iterative process of testing and bug regression can reveal unexpected complications. Many tasks required further QA, bug-fixing and iteration.

Some tasks were excluded from 2.6.0 if appropriate to maintain the release date target and are being scheduled for future patches.

2.6.0 work is separated into Subsections: Star Marine, Arena Commander, Technology & Systems, Content, Front End and Mega Map.

BUG PROGRESS

This past week as we geared up for the Live release, our team worked around the clock to find, fix, and test the last handful of critical bugs while pushing numerous builds to the PTU. Thankfully, we were able to sort through some tricky networking issues to achieve a build we felt was stable enough for the general community. The below image shows a Created versus Resolved chart for our “2.6.0 Must Fix Issues” over the last 5 days. The cumulative total is showed at the bottom of the graph, while the data points in the graph shows progress each day.

At the beginning of the week, these were the high priority bugs that we needed to be resolved:

Crashes
Crashes loading into Echo 11 and Demien SpawnAllocater
Crash: Crash when selecting Electronic Access from the pause menu while in the Hangar – CFrontendController::RequestOpen
Hub Server – Memory Corruption.
Crash – dedicated game server instance – CSkeletonPhysics::Synchronize_GetPhysicsJointsParamsAE()
*New Main Menu
Main Menu – UI – Arena Commander – Being invited to a Multiplayer Match, then exiting and joining a Multiplayer game will always put you in a Battle Royale on Broken Moon.
Main Menu – UI – Party/Group system missing for PU locations.
Star Marine
Star Marine Loadout – Player will always load into their first match with a shotgun.
Star Marine – Last Stand – Hacking a terminal mid-emote will cause terminal to become non-interactable.
Misc
Public Crash Handler cannot submit crash reports.
Arena Commander – Combat Visor/MFD appear blank.
New Horizon Speedway – Some gates do not show with three or more players.
Drake Caterpillar – Ship is missing crosshairs and total velocity indicator when piloting.
Overall, by the end of the week, we closed out a total of 210 issues, 22 of which were Blockers that would have stopped us from going Live.


BREAKDOWN BY SUBSECTION
STAR MARINE

CODE (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 18TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 9TH DECEMBER)
In general, the code work for the main features of Star Marine came in roughly as estimated. However, bug fixing, iterating upon the base implementation, and responding to feedback caused the original date to slip.
ANIMATION (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 30TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 21ST NOVEMBER)
Animation was completed slightly ahead of schedule.
We were very careful to focus in on the specific animations that would be needed and polish those up as much as possible.
COMBAT SIGNALS
These were an off-shoot of Animations and were completed by the same team, with the same focus.
DESTRUCTIBLE PROPS (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 16TH DECEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 20TH DECEMBER)
CryEngine does not properly deal with having destructible props serials properly between clients, so we have had to come up with some creative ways of getting these to work
Destructible props still have a little way to go and will continue to be worked on as part of a future patch, but we have our base implementation working for 2.6.0.
FACIAL IDLES (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 30TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 14TH DECEMBER)
Delayed slightly due to the Animation team spending extra time polishing up the main gameplay animations (vaulting, mantling, walking, etc).
CHARACTER ART (COMPLETED ON TIME)
So far we have implemented the Light and Medium version of the Marines and Outlaws which came in on time do to being a little further along in development.
The Heavy Marine and Outlaw is in progress, but would not have been done in time for the 2.6.0 and would have also conflicted with other priorities within the studio.
LEVEL DESIGN (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 18TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 9TH DECEMBER)
Design changes to the level were the main cause for slipping beyond the original estimate.
Early reviews of the level maps showed the layouts to not be too friendly to be used for both game modes, so they needed to be revised.
ARENA COMMANDER BALANCE / IMPROVEMENTS

PIRATE SWARM (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 30TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 5TH DECEMBER)
This mode took a little longer to set up and balance properly than was anticipated.
During the setup of this mode we also suffered a bug with the AI that caused the enemies to be unresponsive and sometimes not spawn at all.
PICKUPS (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 18TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 14TH DECEMBER)
The initial code implementation for the pickups was completed as estimated, but there was a delay with the Audio and VFX hookup due to work taking place to complete the new ships.
After feedback, we needed to change the pickups from a generic sphere to icons that were more indicative of what the pickup will actually award the player.
We also decided to add two further pickups into the game to assist players and make gameplay more interesting.
Once these were implemented, we needed a thorough balancing pass to look at the drop chance and pickup values.
NEW MISSIONS (COMPLETED ON TIME)
While creating new missions does take time, the design team behind the new missions already had a workflow based on the previous missions and were able to hit the ground running and get these created very efficiently.
SCORING REBALANCE (COMPLETED ON TIME)
This was a relatively easy change which involved reviewing gameplay and QA feedback to make the score limits more achievable within the time given.
IFCS MISSILE GUIDANCE
Feature complete
Addressing final feedback for missile relock times
SHIP BALANCE (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 18TH NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 12TH DECEMBER) & SHIP BALANCE (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 23RD NOVEMBER; COMPLETION DATE 12TH DECEMBER)
These are being combined as the team working on the IFCS missiles are also the same team responsible for the overall ship balance
Due to the feedback received, the improvements made for one had a knock on effect on the other.
With balance being very iterative and heavily based on feedback from testing, this ended up taking longer than expected.
GFORCES (NOT PART OF ORIGINAL SCOPE)
This was a task to polish / fix the parts of the feature that had rotted over time and was deemed important to improve the player experience when piloting a ship, which was one of the focuses of 2.6.
TECH / SYSTEMS

NETWORK – BIND CULLING (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 23RD NOVEMBER, PUSHED TO 2.6.1)
Due to other network stability bugfixing and support, we were not able to make enough satisfactory progress to include this with 2.6.0.
NETWORK – MESSAGE ORDERING
Delayed due to other Network bugfixing.
The work was originally checked in to 2.6.0 and was part of the builds on the early Evocati pushes. However we quickly discovered that it was causing some nasty client crashes, so it was deemed better to remove this code for now and continue developing it for a future patch.
NETWORK – SERIALIZED VARIABLE (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 8TH DECEMBER, PUSHED TO 2.6.1)
Serialized Variables was reliant in part on the Message Ordering work that ended up being removed, so was too risky to try and include without it
CAMERA IMPROVEMENTS (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 18TH DECEMBER, COMPLETION DATE 22ND DECEMBER)
Delayed slightly due to various bug fixes and polish tasks based upon feedback
MUSIC LOGIC SYSTEM (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 23RD NOVEMBER, COMPLETION DATE 30TH NOVEMBER)
Delayed slightly due to various bug fixes and polish tasks based upon feedback.
Also slightly delayed to to illness.
SHIP COMPUTER 1.X (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 25TH NOVEMBER, COMPLETION DATE 6TH DECEMBER)
Delayed slightly due to the Audio Code team supporting Star Marine
CONTENT

VANGUARD HOPLITE (COMPLETED ON TIME)
This ship was already in development, so it was near the end of its development cycle by the time it was ready for use.
DRAKE HERALD (COMPLETED ON TIME)
This ship was already in development, so it was near the end of its development cycle by the time it was ready for use.
GRIM HEX BAR (COMPLETED AHEAD OF TIME)
Completed ahead of time as the space was mostly complete and required little set dressing
SPECIAL EDITION SHIPS (SABRE, VANGUARD, HORNET, AVENGER)
Completed ahead of time for the reveal as part of the November Livestream
DRAKE CATERPILLAR (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 2ND DECEMBER, COMPLETION DATE 12TH DECEMBER)
Due to the overall size of the Caterpillar and its complexity, this ship required more technical work to implement.
We also had issues with animations not working correctly and needing code support, which then had an impact on Audio not being able to begin their work until later than planned
ORIGIN 85X (ORIGINAL ESTIMATE 2ND DECEMBER, COMPLETED ON TIME)
This ship had already been in development for a little while. Although it wasn’t as far along as the Hoplite or Herald, the 85X was relatively straightforward to finish off.
UI AND FRONT END REFACTOR

UI
Star Marine Environment Screens (Original Estimate 30th November, Completion date 6th December)
Two new Arena Commander Pickup Icons are complete (Original Estimate 28th November, Completion date 14th December)
Electronic Access Widgets are now complete (Original Estimate 18th November, Completion date 9th December)
As a whole, the UI team has a huge amount of work to do with limited resources. This, coupled with general bug fixing caused these estimates to slip.
LOBBIES AND MAIN MENU
Star Marine Loadout Customisation is now in game (Original Estimate 25th November, Completion date 12th December)
Arena Commander Ship Customisation. (Original Estimate 5th December, Completion date 19th December)
Front End Flow is now in game (Original Estimate 28th November, Completion date 12th December)
As above, these features were worked on by the UI and so was subject to the same delays
The code work involved with rewriting the loadout selections and front end was very complex, so it raised numerous bugs raised from internal testing as well as Evocati testing.
LEADERBOARD SERVICE
Updating the leaderboards was relatively straightforward with a little bit of support from Gamecode and the Platform Engineers.
MEGA MAP (STRETCH GOAL)
This was a very ambitious feature and involved writing a whole new section of Network code, converting over 50 sets of gamerules to work with the new system, and altering thousands of lines of gamecode.
With support needed at various points from the Engineers who were already involved with supporting other features, bug fixing, and the November Live Stream, this was just too much of a risk and unknown to implement for 2.6.0.
3.X AND BEYOND - MILESTONES OVERVIEW

3.0 – The Stanton System

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS
Trading – Be able to buy/sell commodities via kiosks and NPCs among the various landing zones.
Cargo Transport – Pick up hauling jobs between landing zones. Automatic cargo load/unload, manual cargo transport.
Piracy and Smuggling – Establish secure/non-secure areas. AI Security response to attacks. Add the ability to retrieve floating cargo from destroyed ships. Create buy/sell system for illicit cargo.
Mercenary – Create Service Beacon System (for Combat Assist Contracts). Create AI distress scenarios.
Bounty Hunter – Accept missions to terminate wanted players and NPCs.
NEW SHIPS
RSI Ursa Rover – This rugged all-terrain vehicle is perfect for exploring vast planets.
Drake Dragonfly – This fast open-cockpit ship has been seen flying both in atmosphere and in space.
Drake Caterpillar – This large, modular cargo ship has a mixed reputation, to some it’s a spacious affordable hauler, to others, it’s up to no good.
RSI Constellation Aquila – The exploration variant of the classic RSI Constellation.

STANTON SYSTEM ROLL-OUT
Travel around the various planets and stations within the Stanton System. Although technically a UEE system, all of these planets were sold to MegaCorps to help fund the government.

Debut of Planetary Tech
Expanding the Stanton System
ArcCorp
Hurston
Microtech
Crusader
Delamar
New Space Stations, moons and Asteroid belts

3.1 – Mining & Refining

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS
Mining – Retrieve solid and gaseous commodities from planet surfaces, manual cargo transport, refining materials.
Refining and Processing – Process raw ore into purified commodities. Most shops will only deal in one or the other form. Initial implementation might be to have dedicated shops handle the refining.
Quantum Interdiction – Be able to interdict Player ships from Quantum travel.
Refueling – Add Refuel Contracts to Service Beacon. AI tankers and fuel requests (as well as player fuel requests)
Escort – Protect one or more ships from harm. Add Escort contracts to Service Beacon. Implement Quantum Linking (multiple ships jumping together)
ADDITIONAL SOLAR SYSTEM LOCATIONS
NEW SHIPS
Drake Cutlass Red & Blue – Variants of the popular Drake fighter.
MISC Hull C – This medium sized cargo ship is one of the most common hauling ships in the Empire.
MISC Prospector – A small mining vessel for solo operators.
Origin 85x – The luxury away-vessel first seen in the 890 Jump brochure.

3.2 – Repair & Salvage

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS
Salvage – Strip commodities from ship hulls via handheld tools, retrieve crates and other valuables from derelicts and debris.
Repair – Repair damaged ship via tools (later implementation will incorporate the Crucible), repair damaged satellites or stations.
Mercenary – Covert Operations – Patrol areas of space, protect stationary entities, advanced mission scenarios: infiltration/covert (retrieve data/object from enemy, sabotage, etc.), hostage rescue missions)
ADDITIONAL SOLAR SYSTEM LOCATIONS
NEW SHIPS
RSI Constellation Taurus – The entry-model of RSI’s iconic Constellation line.
RSI Constellation Phoenix – The luxury model of RSI’s iconic Constellation line.
Anvil Terrapin – The tough and rugged Scanning and Exploration ship.
AEGIS Vanguard Harbinger – The variant of the Vanguard has been converted into a bomber.
AEGIS Vanguard Sentinel – An E-War variant of the Vanguard line.
AEGIS Reclaimer – Aegis’ industrial salvage ship.

3.3 – Farming & Rescue

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS
Farming – Plant and grow crops, harvest when appropriate, and sell the final product.
Rescue – Rescue NPCs from a variety of dangers (powerless stations, damaged ships in decaying orbits, evacuate personnel, etc.)
ADDITIONAL SOLAR SYSTEM LOCATIONS
NEW SHIPS
Anvil Carrack – Anvil’s long-range exploration ship.
890 Jump – Luxury cruise liner from Origin.
Banu Merchantman – The first Banu spaceship to be introduced in game, the Merchantman is a massive cargo ship.
MISC Reliant Variants – All variants of MISC’s rotating vertical ship.

4.0 Jump Points

BASIC PROFESSION FUNCTIONS
Travel to multiple Star Systems – The universe expands beyond the Stanton System.
Exploration and Discovery – Find unknown asteroids, derelicts, fuel sources, bases, commodity locations, scanning of space and surfaces in order to utilize, share or sell the information.
Science and Research – Retrieve samples from space and planetside locations for analysis, atmospheric manipulation, scan/analyze various phenomena.
ADDITIONAL SOLAR SYSTEM LOCATIONS
NEW SHIPS
RSI Orion
Anvil Crucible