The coffee machines in the game are also important

With the release of Star Citizen’s alpha version 3.18, a lot has happened in space simulation – reason enough for developer studio Cloud Imperium Games to publish another monthly report on the game’s own website Roberts Space Industries to publish. In this, the studio lists in detail which changes have been made with the new Star Citizen alpha and goes into both the technical and the gameplay side.

Star Citizen Monthly Update: From coffee machines and new AI behavior

One of the most important works of the Star Citizen team is the underlying LumberYard engine, which the developers are said to have worked diligently on over the past few months. In addition to optimizations and bug fixes for the alpha version 3.18, significant progress has been made with regard to the Vulkan backend, and the PSO (Pipeline State Object) caching for projectiles and particles has also been improved.

Another development focus was new features for the AI, which are required for both the Persistent Universe and Squadron 42 itself. NPCs, for example, can now independently control ground vehicles and independently calculate a route that is appropriate for the respective vehicle. The perception of the NPCs has also been improved so that they can deal with the different lighting conditions much better, which in turn should lead to more realistic reactions.

In addition to general restructuring in individual Star Citizen background stories and the further development of interactable elements, the development team also managed to make corrections to the current coffee machines in the game. As a result, players will soon be able to bring selected cups to the appropriate machines and consume an infinite amount of coffee – further proof of the progress that the Star Citizen team is making in its twelfth year of development.