Cloud Imperium Games recently offered an exciting preview on the soon-to-release “Star Citizen” Alpha 3.0. The latest “Around the Verse” episode recorded another chronicle in the development of the remarkably ambitious MMO space trading and combat title.
The latest video focused on showing off the interaction between playable characters, NPCs, and the usables in the game world. It also documented the team’s effort to deliver a more real and natural animation system, which leaves a great impression on fans so far.
How usable objects work
NPCs will decide what type of animation to use in certain circumstances and react appropriately to what is happening around.
For example, when characters walk past them, they will look up and acknowledge them.
As shown in the segment, while doing some repair rounds on the ship, characters can physically remove elements. Then, they can put them back into place when the repair is done.
Also, players can destroy an object if they want to by picking up a glass of water on their desktop to pour the water over a laptop. They can pick up a cup of coffee and sip while sitting at the table or create a lot of fidgeting.
Thousands of animation
According to the development team, it still needs to get things done at the moment. It is in the process of finalizing the animations for the thousands of in-game usable items.
Skip to 14:35 mark to view the segment on usables in the video below.
Fans can also view from the start of the video to get some details on bug fixes prior to the release of Alpha 3.0.
More realistic feel
From the looks of it, the animation system is simply fantastic. The studio assures that playing “Star Citizen” will feel a lot more realistic and natural. The team puts tons of details, intricately weaved into each situation in order to achieve that.
Lead animator Brian Brewer added that fans will even see a couple of animations for flushing the toilet. He revealed that the team already settled on toilet metrics and were able to create little moves needed to flush out the toilet system.
Alpha 3.0 Release Date
Unfortunately, Cloud Imperium Games has not set an exact release date yet for the massive update.
First, it was slated for August and then moved to September. Apparently, it is now the first day of October, so, it looks like the official launch will most likely take place this month.
A lot of fans already feel frustrated about the series of delays, but it is possible that the developer just wants to ensure that everything will be smooth and look good at launch.
“Star Citizen” is currently in development for Microsoft Windows and Linux using the Amazon Lumberyard engine. The game is touted as the highest-funded crowdfunding project, raising more than $153,000,000.
