Patch day is here! Bringing a visually complete Pearce X5, a Paizul’s Arena level up, the long-desired dedicated servers, and shiploads more! There’s also a bunch of quality-of-life tweaks and bug fixes.

With this update, our monthly patch cycle is taking a short break as we gear up for a major mid-year release featuring gunplay matchmaking and the first version of progression.

MAJOR HIGHLIGHTS

  • Dedicated servers for gunplay lobbies with 4 or more players
  • New multiplayer hosting/joining lobby flow
  • Paizul’s Arena overhaul & Gateway redesign
  • Pearce X5 in-game model completion
  • Custom keybind remapping and improved controller support
  • Co-op Dogfighting
  • Multiplayer racing improvements
  • Mining minigame improvements

GUNPLAY

Balance Changes

  • Adjusted melee, jettie boost, fall and weapon damage values: People should die a lot more quickly now!
  • Reduced firearm swap cooldown from .75s to .1s
  • Fixed accuracy values of sighted weapon in and out of ADS: Sorry, no more easy sniper no scopes
  • Gunplay Trainer bots no longer spawn with a grenade

Weapon Changes

  • Added new shotgun model
  • Added new optimized weapon models that support weapon skinning
  • Added Gatling Gun Spin Up and Spin Down delay when firing
  • Added increased bounciness to grenades
  • Changed Auto Rifle pickups to be Scout Rifle pickups: you now spawn with Auto Rifles, so we’re switching old Auto Rifle pickups to be Scout Rifles now
  • Added lag compensation support for melee hit detection
  • Increased pickup radius on weapon spawners

HUD Changes

  • Refactored the minimap: Supports building interiors, added new mini-map icons for vehicle/trains/race gates/zones, added new states alive/dead, damage direction indicators and increased enemy visibility radius in the minimap
  • Added crosshair aim obstructor indicator “X” on player HUD when your bullets hit a wall
  • Added kills/points in the match HUD
  • Added team population when in team selection
  • Added new icon for Gun Game winner
  • Adjusted Shield, Health, and Jettie Juice HUD bars
  • Added killstreak callouts in game feed
  • Added zone capture callouts in game feed
  • Added crosshair animations and damage numbers for Grenades and Jettie Melee
  • Added incoming missile indicator on Ship HUD

GALIA (OPEN WORLD)

  • Added new vehicle modes: Combat, Tractor Beam, Scanning, and Mining
  • Added new tractor beam tether/vacuum mode
  • Added different-sized asteroids for a variety of difficulties in the mining minigame
  • Added “Mock-Credits” that can be earned through gameplay and saved between sessions
  • Added mineables on planet surfaces
  • Adjusted vehicles to now use gravity volumes instead of portals
  • Optimized API logic for getting gravity on an actor
  • Improved character movement transitions between different gravity directions

MAPS AND ENVIRONMENT

Paizul’s Arena (Arena Map)

  • Updated Paizul’s Arena with new textures and a higher resolution blockout
  • Updated exterior environment of Paizul’s Arena with atmospheric ship traffic and references to the ONI CSS
  • Added new lighting
  • Added destructible pillars

Gateway (Arena Map)

  • Updated map layout based on community feedback: Some players expressed their feelings of the map feeling bigger than it was, so we’re adding more ways to get into the action quicker
  • Updated the map with various optimization improvements
  • Added new lighting
  • Fixed various collision issues

Uru (Arena Map)

  • Updated the map with additional progress on the white box phase
  • Added new lighting
  • Fixed various collision issues

Gunplay Trainer Map

  • Added the ability to shoot through railings and other smaller holes
  • Added the ability to fly/mantle through the wider gaps in the building walls
  • Adjusted the stairs to be smoother

MULTIPLAYER

  • Added new multiplayer lobby support
  • Added dedicated servers for lobbies that start a gunplay match with 4 or more players
  • Improved multiplayer support for vehicles: Replicated vehicle animations, reduced rubber banding, fixed vehicle visibility issues and fixed floating characters

RACING AND DOGFIGHTING

Racing

  • Improved user experience for starting a multiplayer race
  • Added support for reverse direction races (and leaderboards)
  • Added jump pads to scale heights in tracks
  • Fixed a variety of issues surrounding vehicle race times on a leaderboard
  • Added a wrong-way/missed checkpoint HUD indicator

Dogfighting

  • Added a CO-OP version of the dogfighting minigame
  • Added drop pickups after you destroy enemy AI spaceships
  • Improved enemy AI bots logic
  • Added new leaderboard

VEHICLES

  • Added the Pearce X5 with final art
  • Fixed a variety of issues with the Pearce R6
  • Adjusted the handling of various XXS ships
  • Improved nametag support for possessed vehicles
  • Restored the ability to customize equipment groups in vehicle configurator
  • Added new HUD notification when trying to subwarp with insufficient fuel

CHARACTER

  • Improved jettie dashing while hovering
  • Added the ability to chain movement abilities: you can now chain a slide after a dash as well as instantly slide when landing if you held a slide input
  • Fixed a character’s knees to point in the direction of motion during a slide
  • Adjusted camera for all species: playing a Punaab has never felt this good

Special Effects

SFX

  • Added new sounds: Game mod voice-overs, weapon swaps, Cockpit wind, Ragdoll Impacts, and states of character (alive/dead)

VFX

  • Changed VFX on vehicle thruster
  • Improved Jettie VFX and adjusted size/location by species
  • Added grenade sparks on bounces
  • Added new waterfall VFX
  • Decreased lifetime of weapon tracers

OPTIMIZATION

  • Refactored galaxy requests system
  • Upgraded to Unreal Engine 5.5.4
  • Migrated and refactored all Weapon Effects logic to C++
  • Improved character/vehicle possession logic

MISCELLANEOUS BUGS AND FIXES

  • Fixed an issue where traveling to edges of arenas in photomode would create weapon spawner icon visual artifacts
  • Fixed scroll box height for accounts list
  • Fixed a bug where some players would experience the lighting breaking in the configurator screen
  • Fixed an issue where the HUD leaderboard wouldn’t reset correctly
  • Fixed an issue where missiles would sometimes not apply damage
  • Fixed an issue where kills/points/deaths would accrue between matches
  • Fixed an issue where a character wouldn’t be facing the correct direction on respawn
  • Fixed an issue where a player couldn’t back out of changing their team
  • Updated celebration test from “Defeat” to “Match Over”
  • Fixed an incorrect celebration screen when ONI wins in Surge
  • Improved network reliability of character weapon drawing/holstering/swapping events
  • Fixed an issue where players would pop/teleport when loading into a gunplay match
  • Fixed team tile highlighting logic on the team select screen
  • Added a way for players to switch teams mid match by pressing F2
  • Fixed an issue causing some players to t-pose
  • Added FX to melee hits
  • Fixed toggled crouch desync on death while crouch
  • Adjusted camera shakes to stop when a ship/character is destroyed
  • Fixed an issue where players would sometimes take fall damage on respawn
  • Added missing seat slots to double benches
  • Fixed a memory leak where bots wouldn’t get fully destroyed on death
  • Fixed an issue with max craning height in Photo Mode
  • Fixed various edge cases around zone indicators disappearing or not displaying the correct state
  • Fixed vehicle cruise control issues when a player would alt-tab
  • Fixed an issue where header menu elements didn’t work in the vehicle configurator
  • Adjusted scroll bars to be easier to use
  • Fixed an issue where a ship would remain in a leaned orientation when exiting a ship during leans
  • Added teleport FX that plays during multiplayer respawns
  • Fixed an issue where grenade FX would not sync correctly in local clients
  • Adjusted the ship configurator screen to not have the component selection menu automatically open
  • Fixed an issue where crosshair animations would play immediately after respawn
  • Fixed an issue where Photo Gallery drop down sorting filters wouldn’t work

ABOUT STAR ATLAS

Star Atlas is a next-gen gaming metaverse emerging from the confluence of state-of-the-art blockchain technologies, real-time graphics, and multiplayer video games.

Using Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite real-time graphics technology allows for cinematic quality video game visuals. In addition, blockchain technology using**Solana establishes a largely serverless and secured gameplay experience. Player assets obtained and traded within Star Atlas create an economy that replicates tangible world assets and ownership.

To learn more, join a faction at**Play.StarAtlas.com, get a spaceship in the**Galactic Marketplace, and start playing the**SAGE Labs browser game to explore, gather, craft and prosper on the galactic frontier.**

Then,**download the UE5 PC Game from the Epic Games Store.

Participate in governance of the**Star Atlas DAO.** Send your spaceships on a deep space mission by enrolling them in a Faction Fleet and harvest resources with**Faction Claims.**

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