Star Citizen is a multiplayer space trading and combat simulator developed by Cloud Imperium Games. The game has a huge scope, being both highly impressive in its mechanics and its graphics which has earned it the attention and involvement of some big Hollywood names since its reveal. Because of this, it has been developed in large chunks, technically still being in the development stage since 2011.
RELATED: Star Citizen Shows Upcoming Theatres of War Game Mode
The biggest addition in the new patch is what Lead Director Chris Roberts calls the Server-side Object Container Streaming (SOCS). In short, SOCS is a sophisticated system that allows the server to use less power when populating the galaxy. Roberts, however, gives a much more detailed explanation:
“SOCS will not only improve performance on the server by dynamically loading only what the server needs at that given moment, but more importantly, will enable the game to contain and present exponentially more content to players as it is only updating what it needs to, bringing the dream of a living, breathing universe teeming with experiences one step closer to reality,” Roberts says in the press release.
Basically, instead of loading everything at the beginning, causing massive start-up load times, SOCS loads in items as they’re needed, and unloads them when they’re no longer in front of a player. This lessens the load of what the server needs to remember but it also allows for more content to be on-screen at once, as memory is freed up for just what’s in front of the player. This will hopefully make development and resource use less expensive for the team going forward.
Cloud Imperium has also added, “huge swathes of new content” in 3.8. This includes new frozen planet microTechs and a new multi-crew mining ship called the Mole. Along with the ship comes a number of missions designed for cooperative play, bringing the game further into the MMO scope that it promises. Thanks to the game’s continually impressive updates, it has maintained excitement and has crowdfunded over $250 million since its announcement.
With the extensive SOCS changes, the studio has acknowledged that stability will be something to look out for and further hammer out. “We are aware stability may not fully match that of 3.7.2,” the update says. “With the introduction of major features and tech, such as SOCS, additional polish and improvements will be required. Our current plan is to continue iterating and working towards additional improvements in incremental 3.8.X patches and beyond.”
The ambition of Cloud Imperium and Star Citizen is pretty staggering. The sheer number of backers for the project has broken records and will likely continue to do so.
Star Citizen is available now in alpha on PC.
MORE: Star Citizen Squadron 42 Beta Delayed
Source: Roberts Space Industries
