Before diving into the monthly report, a quick update on StarCalendar development: I’m back from PTO and have resumed work. Currently, I’m focusing on backend improvements and separating the production and development databases (yes, I’ve been developing on the live database—oops!). Expect an update this weekend, featuring a new welcome page.
Welcome back, Star Citizen enthusiasts! The latest Persistent Universe (PU) monthly report for August 2025 is here, brimming with updates on the game's development. This summary focuses on the Ship Art, Core Gameplay, and Economy sections, showcasing CIG’s work on stunning vehicles, refined mechanics, and economic balance. Whether you’re a ship collector, gameplay tweaker, or aspiring space trader, there’s plenty to dive into. Let’s get started!
Source: robertsspaceindustries.com
Ship Art: New Vessels Taking Shape and Legacy Upgrades
The Ship Art teams in the UK and North America were hard at work, advancing both announced and unannounced vehicles. In the UK, three unannounced ships are progressing through the greybox phase:
- One is nearing its final review.
- Another is being tweaked for better component accessibility.
- The third recently entered greybox after whitebox approval.
This hints at exciting new additions to the fleet on the horizon.
For announced ships:
- The Anvil Paladin has moved into the LOD0 stage, with exterior and interior refinements aligning post-greybox feedback.
- The Kruger L-21 Wolf became flyable, with fixes for issues like the overly worn glass shader and added component bays. The team is thrilled with the community’s response!
- The Drake Ironclad and Ironclad Assault are approaching whitebox reviews, with a new asset kit being finalized for broader use across Drake ships.
- Legacy ships are getting upgrades: The RSI Aurora and Aegis Hammerhead are being modernized, starting with cockpits, dashboards, and physicalized components.
- The MISC Hull B entered pre-production after concept approval, promising expanded cargo options.
In North America, the RSI Apollo Medivac and Triage are in final prep for release, with extensive testing and bug fixing tied to medical gameplay tweaks. Some team members shifted to a related-but-unannounced ship, possibly expanding the medical or support lineup. The RSI Perseus is gearing up for its LOD0 review with added lighting and detail passes, while the Drake Kraken continues in pre-production.
Core Gameplay: Refinements for Immersion and Balance
The Core Gameplay teams played a key role in the Alpha 4.3 release while advancing major systems. Freight elevators saw fixes for usability issues and improved debug tooling, addressing community feedback. Medical gameplay is evolving with the addition of MedGel, now required for respawning to enhance the utility of medical vehicles, alongside general respawn flow improvements.
Other highlights include:
- Wrapping up support for a new creature’s behaviors and attacks, hinting at richer fauna encounters.
- The engineering screen now shows heat change rates for components, with bug fixes.
- Item recovery now disables components on claimed ships and adds timers/notifications for “bricked” items.
- Crafting progressed with an offline Blueprint service prototype and the first multiplayer playable version.
- Control Surfaces got aerodynamic simulation upgrades to reduce low-FPS jitter, plus g-limiter support and NPC integration in atmospheric flight.
- IFCS now accounts for destroyed parts reducing thrust, closing exploits and aiding ship inoperability definitions.
- Cockpit dashboards can now physically animate and vibrate based on actions like weapon fire or high-angle maneuvers, boosting realism.
- Quantum travel and interdiction saw polish for reliability, with better handling of dynamic fields and markers for interdicted ships.
- Turrets no longer fire at host vehicles, simplifying aiming and reducing erratic behavior.
- Radar & Scanning improvements include better UI target info and scan positioning for large objects.
- Transport is nearing parity with legacy systems, adopting physics-based movement and prepping for Dynamic Server Meshing.
- The inventory rework introduces proximity looting from multiple containers, plus filters and search in the new UI.
- Support for an upcoming event enhances mission archetypes and mission availability scaling.
Economy: Tuning for Profitability and Fair Play
The Economy team is refining the game’s economic systems using recent data. They’re adjusting buy/sell prices for FPS weapons, armor, and consumables, as well as profit margins for salvage vehicles and components. The effort vs. reward algorithm is being tweaked to ensure crafting profitability, revitalize component salvaging, and prevent exploits.
Notes on Main Technical Improvements
The report highlights key technical advancements supporting these features:
- AI Tech: Cross-navigation pathfinding now uses a single-step approach for the shortest paths, with temporary disabling of failed links to prevent NPC issues. Ship AI behaviors were polished for dynamic combat maneuvers and formation flying.
- Voxel-Based 3D Pathfinder: Preliminary refactoring for a new path follower, enabling efficient NPC navigation in complex environments.
- Usable Builder: Fixed collision issues, added UI tweaks (e.g., dropdown tags), and enabled layout loading for interactive objects.
- StarScript: Bug fixes and Subsumption initialization optimizations for faster AI actor setup, plus enhanced flowgraph scripted control.
- Online Technology: Advances in item imprinting, Blueprint Library APIs, and lazy inventory creation to support EntityGraph sharding and Dynamic Server Meshing.
- Network and R&D: Bug fixes for item imprinting, performance analysis, and planning for instancing to enhance multiplayer scalability.
Fly safe, citizens! 🚀