Star Citizen delivers the next generation of space flight simulation gaming, combining FPS (First Person Shooter) combat and persistent MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) gameplay to create a living, breathing first person universe capable of truly unlimited gameplay experiences. In addition, through the game's advanced Newtonian physics engine, Star Citizen enables players to experience an unparalleled space sim flying experience with ship control, performance and response calculated based on dozens of dynamically generated physics based variables.

Star Citizen will not require a subscription, and not be free-to-play, it will will be available for a one-time purchase. And while players will be able to play in the Star Citizen universe for free, there will also be virtual items available for purchase with in-game credits so players can customize their ships and other items.

Below you will find the latest roadmap for the development of the Star Citizen Persistent Universe. While the bulk of this schedule outlines our tasks and estimates that you can expect to find in the upcoming 3.0.0 patch (as well as some of the tasks that we’ve already completed) , we are also including projections for the remainder of the year so you can have some visibility into the upcoming Persistent Universe features and content. These are the very same schedules we update daily and circulate internally on our intra-studio hand-offs with a few exceptions: the individual developer names assigned to the tasks will be omitted (for obvious reasons), we’ll remove the JIRA details, and we’ll modify the technical wording to make it readable for a wider audience. Also note, this schedule does not represent everything CIG is working on, but more the functionality and content we feel comfortable committing to at this time. Outside of the work on Squadron 42, we have a few research projects that, once validated, we would move into production and add to this schedule. Otherwise, when something changes, slips or is completed, you will know.

What you are seeing here is the result of our scheduling and planning process. We have a high level feature and content set that we want to achieve for Star Citizen and Squadron 42. The first step is to break these features into higher level tasks with which we populate Microsoft Project, JIRA and Shotgun (the three tools we use for project scheduling and tasking). Then, as we approach a task, Production works with the relevant developer(s) to make sure the task is broken up with enough detail to allow completion. Sometimes this means adjusting the initial task estimate, as things tend to come into a clearer focus when coming up on a task, but it almost always means breaking down the big task into a bunch of smaller tasks that have their own individual sub tasks that possibly are distributed to multiple developers.

Both tasks and sub-tasks get created in JIRA, linked under an Epic (which is a high level task or feature) and are then pulled into Microsoft Project to manage with granular detail providing us global visibility through Gantt charts and visual timelines. No developer works on a task unless it has been created in JIRA, prioritized and assigned by a lead or a member of the Production Team.

Then as the developers work on the tasks, Production will adjust the schedule and JIRA tickets to reflect the work being done.

In the schedule below, you will first find a master schedule that covers the broad departments/disciplines that are being developed. Each department will then have its own dedicated sub-schedule, briefly explaining the various features that are being developed and their current status.

CAVEATS

But also, we would like to establish some ground rules before proceeding:

1. Quality will always be our number one goal. We set out on this journey by looking at the gaming landscape and asking: can we do better? We continue to ask that question about everything we do. As a result, we will ALWAYS extend timelines or re-do features and content if we do not feel they are up to our standards. The freedom to fight for a new level of quality in game development is what crowd funding has allowed us, and we will continue to fight to make sure Star Citizen is the best possible game it can be.
2. The estimates we provide are just that: estimates. They are based on our knowledge and experience, but there are many aspects of game development that are impossible to predict because they literally cover uncharted territory. You will see the same estimates we use in our internal planning, but it is important to understand that in many cases (especially with groundbreaking engineering tasks) these estimates are often subject to change due to unforeseen complexity in implementing features.
3. The time expected for bug fixing and polishing is also very hard to estimate, increasingly so in online and multiplayer situations. The complexity and the difficulty in testing at a large scale make it harder to reproduce and isolate bugs in order to fix them. We base our estimates, again, on our experience, but we also know that it’s possible for a single bug to cause a delay of days or weeks when a hundred others might be fixed instantly.
4. Internal schedules, the ones you will now be privy to, tend to have aggressive dates to help the team focus and scope their tasks, especially in the case of tech development. Every team, even a team blessed with the kind of support and freedom you have allowed us, needs target dates in order to focus and deliver their work.
5. This schedule doesn’t cover everything being worked on across Cloud Imperium Games, but is meant to highlight our aims for the remainder of the year on the Persistent Universe.
6. This schedule doesn’t include every audio, vfx, tech art, etc. task. Those are detailed in our departmental sub-schedules.
7. Although technology is shared between the two games, this does not reflect the Squadron 42 schedule. That will be released at a future date.
8. These aim dates are determined based on our current staff. Additional hiring will potentially allow us to bring in some dates below.

The following lists and charts show our progress towards releasing 3.0.0, with all remaining major tasks listed. 3.0.0 marks the next major step forward in realizing the vision of the Star Citizen Persistent Universe. As you’ll see from the sections below, there’s a lot of new content and underlying tech being worked on for this release which will enhance the experience of our players.

Tasks are either feature complete, or have an ETA for completion. It’s important to remember that some tasks may require further QA, bug-fixing and iteration. Tasks that delay beyond our target dates might cause the release of 3.0.0 to be delayed, or might be excluded from 3.0.0 if appropriate to maintain the release date target. 3.0.0 work is separated into Subsections: Persistent Universe Content, FPS / Space Gameplay, Engineering, UI, AI, Graphics, Backend, Network, and Ships & Weapons

Already Complete and in 3.0.0 branch: GRAPHICS

• RenderTarget refactor
  • This saves over 50% of video memory usage.
• Area Lights with proper shadowing
• Shadow System refactor
  • This is more efficient and allows for planetary scale shadows.

DESIGN

• Crusader Converted to Object Container Setup
  • With the transition to Object Containers, the Crusader map was completely re-designed. Each Point of interest is now an object container laid out via the Solar System Editor. This is in preparation for Object Container streaming and seamless transitions from different POI’s and between Star Systems. Mission Flowgraphs are converted over to use Subsumption and the new Mission System
• Mega Map for Persistent Universe
  • Mega Map tech (also used in Crusader for seamless loading between different gamemodes) is now possible in the new PU map, which is setup in the solar system editor. This allows the utilization of Mega Map technology.
• Revamp of Power Plants / Shield Generators / Coolers and the Heat & Power System for improved gameplay and conversion to Item 2.0

ENVIRONMENT

• Modular Room System for procedural generation of planetary outposts
  • Official Outpost Spawning System ready for mission designers
  • Integrated Outpost distribution to PlanetEd
  • Single outpost Object Preset
  • Cluster of Outposts
  • Crash site mission
  • Interface to hand place modules and save to Layer
  • Interface to teleport the camera to the closest outpost
  • Area boxes created by artists (all room sizes are now usable in the outpost procedural system)
  • Entrance Room system working (stairs and ramps are now available as initial rooms)
  • Rooftop Prop system working for Solar panel
  • Wall prop system working for additional prop variations
  • Material Wear/Dirt on props using Layer Blend done and actually working
  • Developed Outpost “feet” system
  • Set random rotation and offset caps on planet editor
  • Start documenting 3 possible map layouts looping system (using 2 or 4 meters metrics * system; using connection additional corridor pieces; using spline skinned corridors)
  • Support Aircon/solar panel system on outposts
  • Added color tinting to Outposts
  • Added color tinting interface to Planet Ed
  • Created material distinction for interior / exteriors
  • Group elements offset in Planet Object Preset to be able to offset landing pads

TOOLS

• Solar System Editor
  • A tool that will layout entire solar system with their astral objects (sun, planets moons) as well as space stations, etc.

PERFORMANCE

• New Light Controller for runtime light switches
• New network message queue (current in QATR) to reduce network bandwidth and network thread time.
• Light Entity Render node merging.
• Dynamic Physics Grid to support sparse space areas vs. dense areas like space stations.
• Highly optimized vertex and position format for all geometry
• Texture memory usage reduced across the project
• Unified material libraries for use across all departments
  • Comparing and finding all duplicated normal maps and albedo maps in the LayerBlend texture library
  • Clean up LayerBlend Material Libraries, Resolution Adjustments, Renames to Lower Case
  • Follow-ups on list of unused textures and materials
• Massively improved LOD computation and average face sizes for ships
• Shared hair assets (instead of bespoke asset per head) for character creation
• Automated facial asset LODs, skinning algorithm per lod updated.
• Reworked mesh setup of facial assets for optimal performance and reduced drawcalls.
• Unified helmet and character mesh into singular render proxy for better performance and visuals.
• Various portal and culling improvements.
• Improved Animation Data Base collection and build process for optimized animation data streaming also added external tools to manage this.
• Deprecated thousands of legacy and test assets including animations, geometry, libraries and more for reduced build size.
• Automatic Asset Error collection and tracking.
• Reworked itemport layout for characters and character items
• Updated all assets using HumanSkin to highly optimized HumanSkinv2 shader. This saves upwards of a 100 megs of texture memory per face.

ART

• New Assets:
  • Heavy Marine Armor
  • Explorer Suit Armor
• Cloth and Clothing simulation on various assets old and new
• Updated helmet interiors and exterior for updated art, FOV tech and standardization
• Armor converted to work within modular customization structure
• Finalized delivery of ALL facial assets from 3lateral.
• Ships:
  • New Skinning and Rigging tools for landing gear on ships.
  • Constellation Cargo Bay/Elevator extensions
  • Light Group entity optimization

CODE

• New Radar Databank
• Subsumption
  • This is the initial release of the foundational technology that drives all of the AI, mission, dynamic content, and conversational logic. The mission content previously created with FlowGraph has been replaced and the implementation time to achieve a desired effect has been cut dramatically.
• Various Performance improvements
• Planetary Physics Grid to support orbiting and rotating planets
• MFD implementation for Item 2.0 Components on ships
• IFCS improvements to support AI & Takeoff System
• Unified Visor for seamless Ship 2.0 / FPS transition
• HUD/Visor integration for new Radar Databank
• Vehicles No Longer Use Lua
  • This is a huge step forward on the code side.
• Skeleton Extension support for Item Port Offset overrides per item
• Numerous types of physics simulation for all Item 2.0 attachments including hair, weapons, grenades and more.
• Destructible component for items, props and environment assets
• Nested Physics Grids support for vehicle transportation inside large ships, i.e. DragonFly & Rover
• Physics simulation gravity vector now respects planetary gravity
• Modular loadouts rule sets and support for up to five loadouts
• Animation driven facial audio implemented
• Updated Sandbox Editor Python integration.
• Zone culling on all character assets and layers, system complete and mesh markup complete supplemented with tools to easily support new assets.

Planetary Update

Yela is the most frigid of the Crusader moons. Those bold (or careless) enough to step outside without a spacesuit will be killed instantly by its freezing temperatures. If the cold doesn’t kill you, than any of the treacherous crevasses that crisscross the planet might. Cyrovolcanos have been known to erupt unexpectedly from such crevasses, so be wary when flying at low altitudes. Despite all its danger, there is much beauty to be found on Yela, like the underwater caves hidden beneath the moon’s crust.

Burning with volcanic activity, Cellin is the counter to her icy sister. Although the volcanoes have been dormant for hundreds of years, the surface is dotted with thermal geysers that erupt without notice. The largest of such geysers can destroy heavy vehicles. Highly corrosive clouds of gas are regularly released from the moon’s surface, creating low visibility and damaging anything caught outside.

Daymar’s surface is like a harmonic blend of Yela and Cellin. It’s mountainous surface is reminiscent of Cellin’s volcanoes, while its craters share a warm likeness to Yela’s frozen crevessases. Known for its dense atmosphere, thick fog and a loose dirt surface makes travel difficult. Lightning storms can help illuminate the fog, just don’t get struck by their flash.

Moons

• We are adding 3 new moons to the Crusader system; Yela, Cellin, and Daymar
• Feature Complete

Surface Outposts

• The new moons will also have outposts on their surface for you to explore
• ETA is 2nd June

Mission Givers

• We’re introducing Miles Eckhart(first seen in the Gamescom video)and Ruto to provide missions to players
• ETA is 12th May

Derelict Ships

• Derelict ships will be added to the system for extra points of interest and exploration
• ETA is 26th May

Debris Fields

• To accompany the derelict ships, there will also be debris fields within the system
• ETA is 26th May

Delamar / Levski (STRETCH GOAL)

• We are adding the planet Delamar and the landing zone, Levski
• ETA is 1st June

Player Manned Turrets

• ETA is 8th June

Pick Up & Carry

• As we’re introducing cargo with 3.0.0, players will be able to manually interact with their cargo to load and unload it properly on their ships.
• ETA is 25th May

Item 2.0 Ship Conversion – Part 1

• We are beginning the process of converting our available ships over to the item 2.0 system. This will allow for greater player control of the ship and also allow for expanded gameplay.
• ETA is 1st June

Item 2.0

• Operator Seats.
  • ETA is 24th May
• Radar System
  • ETA is 5th May
• Light Control System.
  • ETA is 26th April
• Fuel / Refuel.
  • Feature Complete
• Power Supply / Pipes.
  • ETA is 5th May
• Quantum Drive.
  • ETA is 18th April

Insurance

• This will be an alpha version of the insurance system where if your current ship becomes damaged beyond repair, you will be able to request a replacement ship (with basic loadout) from the insurance provider.
• ETA is 5th May

Stamina

• We are introducing the concept of stamina in to 3.0.0, this will mean that actions will have consequences. For instance, continuing to sprint will drain the stamina of your character, causing loss of breath and difficulty in aiming a weapon.
• ETA is 31st May

Doors & Airlocks

• We are starting to update the doors and airlocks within the game to be more intelligent. In time, this would mean that the door would ‘know’ if a room beyond them is depressurised and would stay shut for safety
• ETA is 31st May

Cargo

• Commodities bought using the kiosk will be transportable in the cargo holds of vehicles, to be sold in another location.
• ETA is 2nd June

Commodities

• Implementing items to represent units of tradeable cargo.
• ETA is 19th May

Kiosk Support

• Support UI on kiosks for buying and selling of cargo.
• ETA is 1st June

Atmospheric Entry Support

• Adding VFX and Turbulence to atmospheric entry
• ETA is 5th May

Persistent Damage, Ammo and Missiles

• Persistence ensures that your vehicle state is saved between sessions.
• ETA is 26th May

Repair

• Improvements to our repair system to support our persistence model.
• ETA is 2nd June

Inventory System Support

• The inventory will offer a way to manage the cargo and commodities that are being carried by the ships a player owns.
• ETA is 1st June

Core Tech Planetary Tech

• The Physics Grid for planets and the modular space stations.
• ETA is 31st May

Solar System Tool

• ETA is 31st May

Entity Update Component Scheduler

• Will allow lower priority entities (i.e. those further away from players) to be updated less frequently, which should improve the overall framerate and allow us to add more content to the universe.
• ETA is 31st May

Entity Owner Manager

• The Entity Owner Manager will track entities that are moved around the universe, making sure we spawn and unspawn them at the correct time
• ETA is 29th May

UI Kiosk UI

• Kiosk shopping will allow players to buy and sell various commodities with the gameworld to vendors throughout the universe
• ETA is 4th May

Item 2.0 Multi Function Displays

• MFDs are being converted to work in the new item 2.0 system to give pilots even more control of their ships
• ETA is 26th May

Field of View Slider

• This will allow players to narrow or widen the field of view to their liking
• ETA is 5th May

Character Customization

• Players will now be able to customize their characters heads, hair, eye color, and skin color
• ETA is 31st May

Personal Manager App

• This App will allow players to review their inventory and customize various aspects of their suit and weapons
• ETA is 23rd May

Mission Manager App

• This is a redesign of the mission App that is currently available within mobiGlas and is the next step in allowing players more control over their mission tracking
• ETA is 16th May

Cargo Manifest App

• After buying items at a Kiosk, players will be able to head to their ship and check their cargo manifest.
• ETA is 1st June

Inventory System

• Very closely linked to the cargo manifest App. This will be the place to look for you personal inventory.
• ETA is 2nd June

Mission Board App

• The mission board allows players to see the service beacons that have been set up around the universe by other players calling for assistance
• ETA is 1st June

StarMap App

• The Starmap will be introduced to allow players to view the PU at large and select planets to QT to
• ETA is 12th May

UI Owner Component

• This is an underlying framework that will be used for the player manager App, cargo, and the Kiosk
• ETA is 12th May

Cargo UI

• UI interface for the cargo system
• ETA is 1st June

mobiGlas Overhaul (STRETCH GOAL)

• The UI team are planning an overhaul of the mobiGlas system so that it better reads what the gamecode is doing. This change will make the mobiGlas system as a whole easier to maintain for the UI team
• ETA is 6th June

AI Mission System

• The overall system that will be used to create mission flows when we start building missions like Patrol, Assassination, Smuggling, etc.
• ETA is 31st May

AI Turrets

• We are adding the ability for AI to operate turrets in Crusader, so we are working to make sure that they track and fire upon the correct targets.
• ETA is 8th May

Graphics Render to Texture

• This will have many uses going forwards, but our focus for now is to improve UI rendering and to introduce live rendering of video communications. We’re aiming to improve rendering performance by rendering as much of the UI ahead of a frame. For video communications, this will mean that we don’t have to pre-render the comms and store those files on the hard drive, as is the case with most games, allowing us to maintain fidelity and save hard drive space.
• ETA is 24th May

Environment Probe

• This allows for bounced lighting and reflections to be updated dynamically and will result in better lighting visuals.
• ETA is 2nd June

Atmospheric Entry

• With 3.0.0 players will have the chance to land on astral bodies, which, in some cases, will involve passing through the atmosphere. Our graphics team are working on the tech that will make this feel as satisfying as possible for the player piloting the ship.
• ETA is 5th May

Volumetric Fog

• ETA is 14th April

GPU Particles

• Feature Complete

Engine Trails & Contrails

• ETA is 28th April

Backend Diffusion Subset for 3.0.0

Diffusion is our second-generation cloud-oriented back-end service architecture. It dramatically simplifies the effort required to implement, maintain, and interact with services, while simultaneously providing major enhancements in the areas of scalability and redundancy.

• ETA is 16th June

Solar System Shop Service

• The Solar System Shop Service dictates what retail products, natural resources, and services shops are willing to buy and sell. It also decides their current level of inventory and prices, all of which may vary over time. It acts as an intermediary between the game and the back end simulation/rule set.
• ETA is 21st April

Solar System Mission Service

• The Solar System Mission Service dictates what missions are being offered at various locations and at what price. It is also responsible for specifying when and where dynamic content should be instantiated and how it should be customized. That way, the reality players see matches what it should in that area, based upon hints provided by the back end simulation/rule set. This service will split into two for 3.1, with the latter functionality becoming the responsibility of a dedicated Dynamic Content Service.
• ETA is 12th May

Network New Message Queue

• Now that all our message are strictly ordered we’ve been able to really streamline the processing, allowing us to send and recieve messages with less overhead. The new message queue also has a few extra features to better handle packet loss and jitter, helping reduce average bandwidth and latency.
• ETA is 22nd May

Physics Serialization

• This will fix a few long standing threading issues between then network and physics code. Improves separation of physics and netcode for better maintainability.
• ETA is 12th May

Network Bind/Unbind (STRETCH GOAL)

• Eliminate network updates for entities far away from clients. Should greatly reduce the amount of work the netcode has to do, helping improve server performance. A greater proportion of client bandwidth will be spent on entities close to the client.
• ETA is 26th June

Ships & Weapons Drake Dragonfly

• A short-range open canopy craft capable of space and ground flight.
• ETA is 12th May

Drake Cutlass Black

• Rework of the legacy ship
• ETA is 26th May

RSI Constellation Aquilla

• The newest available flight-ready variant of the Constellation series.
• ETA is 12th May

RSI Ursa Rover

• Ground exploration vehicle.
• ETA is 26th May

MISC Prospector

• Single-seater mining craft.
• ETA is 5th May

Behring P8-SC

• An SMG for mid-range fighting that provides a high rate of fire.
• ETA is 27th April

Apocalypse Arms Scourge Rail Gun

• A shoulder mounted railgun capable of providing high levels of damage at a long range.
• ETA is 14th June

Klaus and Werner Gallant Rifle

• Rework of the legacy weapon.
• ETA is 4th May

Arrowhead Sniper Rifle

• Rework of the legacy weapon.
• ETA is 18th May

KSAR Devastator-12 Shotgun

• Rework of the legacy weapon.
• ETA is 25th May

Beyond 3.0.0 - Overview

3.1.0 Goals

PERSISTENT UNIVERSE CONTENT New Additions:

• Modular Space Station – Truckstop
• Arc Corp / Area 18

FPS / SPACE GAMEPLAY New Additions:

• Female Player Locomotion
• AI Locomotion
• Shouldered Weapons
• Throwable Weapons
• Armed (FPS Weapon Equipped)
• Fists
• Knife
• Take down (Front, Sides, Rear)
• Knockdown and Knockbacks

CORE DEV TECH AND SYSTEMS New Additions:

• Fuel (Item 2.0)
• Criminality System
• Room System v2 (Physical Depressurization)
• Item 2.0 Elevators v2
• Item 2.0 Airlocks v2
• Diffusion Refactor
• Item Degradation/Failure/Luck
• Service Beacon v1
• Parties and Orgs(Group Entity Component)
• Game persistence
• Spectrum Integration in game
• Repair and Restock System
• Elevators v2
• Bind / Unbinding
• Object Container Streaming Core Engine Support

Ships:

• MISC Razor
• RSI Aurora (Update)
• ANVIL Terrapin
• MISC Hull C
• DRAKE Cutlass Red
• DRAKE Cutlass Blue
• AEGIS Vanguard Harbinger (Variant)

3.2.0 Goals PERSISTENT UNIVERSE CONTENT New Additions:

• Crusader
• Hurston
• MicroTech (Stretch Goal)

FPS / SPACE GAMEPLAY New Additions:

• New Ammo Types
• Gadgets (drones / shields)
• Bumps
• Coperative Avoidance
• Downed
• Drowning
• Item Inspection
• Looting IK / Permissions

CORE DEV TECH AND SYSTEMS New Additions:

• NPC Generation (Archetype)
• Interaction System – Useables
• Radar System (Item 2.0)
• Cargo v2
• Service Beacon v2
• StarMap v2
• Gas Giant Tech
• Ship to Ship Refuel System
• Breaching
• Security / Access Control
• Object Container Streaming

Ships:

• RSI Constellation Pheonix
• RSI Constellation Taurus
• MISC Freelancer MAX
• AEGIS Vanguard Sentinel (Variant)
• MISC Freelancer DUR