With all the holiday stream shenanigans out the way, a select pool of testers have now been granted access to Star Citizen’s 2.6 update on the PTU.

The patch notes below list everything expected to go live next week once this run of PTU testing is complete. A few things have not been finalised in the notes but they are labelled as ‘Coming Soon’.

The notable addition is Star Marine with its two maps Station Demien and Echo Eleven. There is two game modes, Elimination and Last Stand.

Star Citizen Patch 2.6 Notes

Important Issues:

• This is a early build, in true Evocati style – there are a lot of issues we’re well aware of!
• Lobby refactor and matchmaking updates are not in this build.
• Star Marine Leaderboards and the ability to select loadouts are not in this build.
  • All players default to Medium Outlaw and Medium Marine.
• The new AC Pirate Swarm is in this build, however players attempting to select it will get an Error code 11 when loading.
• Our planned Electronic Access improvements for sequential map loading (“mega map”) are not in this build.
• Scan is not complete, please refrain from using it (“Tab” key on default keybindings).
• Missile rebalance is ongoing.
• Flight model changes and fuel rebalance is ongoing.

Contents:

• New Features
  • Star Systems
  • Game Systems
  • Ships
  • First Person
  • User Interface
• Updates and Fixes
  • Star Systems
  • Game Systems
  • Ships
  • First Person
  • User Interface
  • Technical

New Features

Star Systems:

Crusader

• The GrimHex Bar is now open and ready for your absolutely legal and legitimate business!
• Crusader has several new missions available, including a new ICC Probe mission and some additional objectives to the P.I. Mission.
• The Yela Asteroid belt has received some updates, with a much denser field and many more salvage locations.

Game Systems:

Arena Commander

• Pirate Swarm is a new game mode to Arena Commander, for both Drone Sim and Spectrum matchups.
  • Players will be challenged to defeat increasing numbers of pirates as the waves count down, as the pirates also call in heavier reinforcements.
  • The number of pirates that spawn will scale based on the number of players present.

Star Marine!

• Accessible through Electronic Access, our first-person combat simulator Star Marine is now available for players.
• Two maps will be available in the initial Star Marine release, Station Demien and Echo Eleven.
• Star Marine has two available game modes for 2.6.0.
  • Elimination, an every-man-for themselves mode where you duke it out for the highest kill-score.
  • Last Stand, where Outlaws and Marines wrestle for control of four key computer access points to earn points for their team. The team with the most points wins!
• Beyond the weaponry you’ve already come to know and love in Crusader, grenades are also available in Star Marine from the ammo crates.

Combat Emotes

• In addition to everything else that comes with Star Marine, we have also implemented some basic combat signals to the keypad of the keyboard for Star Marine.
• These will broadcast at a much shorter range then a chat message or emote normally would, and allow players who are not in voice chat to convey very basic strategy to each other.
  • /left – Keypad 1
  • /stop – Keypad 2
  • /right – Keypad 3
  • /yes – Keypad 4
  • /forward – Keypad 5
  • /no – Keypad 6
  • These are not bound to the Gamepad at this time.

Health System Updates

• Bleeding has been added to the game!
• Bleeding is a debuff that stacks (additive) with itself, and will decrease your total health pool each second it ticks down.
• Each body part that enters a ruined state (10% or less health) can apply a stack of Bleeding.
• Right now, each Bleeding stack deals 1 damage per second.
• When your health pool reaches zero, your character dies.
• To stop bleeding, you must use a MediPen to restore your injured limb out of the Ruined state.

Leaderboard Updates

• Information Coming Soon (not yet implemented in this build).

Lobby Refactor

• Information Coming Soon (not yet implemented in this build).
• Players already in a Lobby will now be able to receive, accept and decline invites to other lobbies.
• Changing the game mode or map while in a Lobby will now unready all players, so they can re-confirm the new match configuration.

Third Person Camera

• The third-person cameras for both Vehicle and On-Foot have received some major quality of life changes in 2.6.0.
• Many of the improvements are “under the hood” for our teams to use for new content, videos and cinematics, but there are some new features that players can use right away in 2.6.0 to help you get that perfect shot.
• Vehicle/Ship Camera now has three third-person camera modes – Chase Camera, Vehicle Orbit and Passenger Orbit.
  • Chase Camera is similar to the classic third person view of your ship from the upper-rear, but with many more features.
  • Vehicle Orbit gives you control of a full range of rotation for your camera centered around the vehicle.
  • Passenger Orbit gives you control of a full range of rotation for your camera centered around the passenger.
• On Foot Camera now has two third-person camera modes – Third-Person Follow and Third Person Orbit.
  • Third-Person Follow is identical to the current 2.5.0 camera implementation and does not support the new features at this time.
  • Third Person Orbit gives you control of a full range of rotation for your camera centered around your character.
• You can switch between the camera views by tapping F4 on the keyboard. However behind the F4 modifier there are several new features, including the ability to adjust the camera field of view via different lens sizes, or offsetting the position of the camera around the ship for different angled shots.
  • New: Lens Size Selection (Chase Camera, Vehicle Orbit, Passenger Orbit and Third Person Orbit)
    • HOLD F4 & Numpad + will increases the lens size, and HOLD F4 & Numpad – will decreases the lens size.
  • New: Camera Offset (Chase Camera, Vehicle Orbit, Passenger Orbit and Third Person Orbit)
    • HOLD F4 & Left/Right Arrows moves the target position in the X axis, HOLD F4 & Up/Down Arrows moves the target position in the Y axis, and HOLD F4 & PageUp/PageDown moves the target position in the Z axis
  • New: Orbit (Vehicle Orbit, Passenger Orbit and Third Person Orbit).
    • Z to toggle the Orbit on and off. When active, the user can control the camera rotation via their mouse movements.
  • New: Reset to Default
    • HOLD F4 & Numpad * will reset the third-person camera to default.

Ships:

• Four new ships are both flight and hangar ready!
  • The Aegis Vanguard Hoplite
  • The Drake Herald
  • The Drake Caterpillar
  • And the Origin 85X
• Four new ship variants are available!
  • The Anvil Hornet F7C Wildfire
  • The Aegis Avenger Titan Renegade
  • The Aegis Sabre Comet
  • The Aegis Gladius Valiant
• We have also made the following ships available in Arena Commander, though they are restricted to private matches.
  • Constellation Andromeda
  • Retaliator

Ship Balance

We have made some significant changes to how ships perform in 2.6.0, and expect this will significantly alter combat tactics for many players. One of the largest changes has been in ship speeds. As more and more ships have gone into the game, the speeds have slowly crept up to make room for them. The end result is that combat in SCM mode has progressively got worse and further apart. With these increased speeds, undesirable sliding when turning comes in, and with that, more unintended collisions and a general requirement to not fly near any of our cool setups in the world.

Up to now, certain ships were held as a gold standard, meaning that we had to force values for new ships far beyond where they should naturally sit. Our goal is to nominalize speed and reset the balance across the board. Reducing the SCM speeds has allowed us to keep/tweak the afterburner/cruise speeds close to what they currently are and to put a resource on boost fuel and its management to hop between engagements.

Alongside the flight speed changes, we’re also rebalancing a lot of the weapon velocities, as they also had started stretching out to match the speeds. While these reductions in velocities are not as drastic as the SCM reductions, the goal is to bring both in line for a more satisfying combat experience.

The changes mean that the management of this boost and afterburner going forward is once again become a viable combat tactic.

• Complete rebalance of SCM speeds and ship handling for all ships.
• Complete rebalance of all shields for all ships.
  • These simulate the Item 2.0 shield values that will come with a future patch.
  • As such they are approximations of the intended default loadouts.
• Complete rebalance of fuel consumption and fuel tanks for all ships.
• Afterburner and boost consumption rates have been adjusted.
  • Once fuel is depleted you are kicked out of afterburner until enough has regenerated.
• Afterburner no longer automatic disables GSAFE.
• Complete rebalance of all missile loadouts for all ships.
  • All new missile racks and missiles have been created and outfitted to all ships.
  • Every ship has had its missile rack hardpoints adjusted.
• Rebalance of countermeasure ammo.
• All missile rack hardpoints are now editable and missile rack items can be exchanged again.
• Cruise mode has been removed at this time.
  • Afterburner has been rebalanced such that the max speed of Afterburner is now comparable to current (2.5.0) Cruise, and fuel consumption/availability has been adjusted accordingly.
  • The goal is that Afterburner becomes the method to engage/disengage combat as well as gives the choice between outright speed or better handling.
• Precision mode still exists, but can only be accessed via Landing mode.
• Velocity gained via Afterburner will no longer decay after the pilot releases afterburner.
  • Not yet implemented in this build.

Social Module

• New chat commands and functionality have been added!
  • /addignore , /removeignore , /showignore, /tell, /partyinvite , /partyleave, /addcontact, /removecontact
  • “Ignore” is new, and will add players to your ignore list. There is currently not UI to view which players you have ignored other then the /showignore command, so use with caution.
  • /tell allows you to send a private message to another player.
  • The party and contact chat commands are shortcuts with the same as the existing functions in your Contact UI.

First Person:

Animations

• We have made a huge number of updates and additions to first-person combat animations in 2.6.0.
  • This includes cover (both while standing and in crouch).
  • Vaulting, which allows characters to jumping over obstacles and low cover such as over railings.
  • Mantle, which allows characters to grab ledges or other hand-holds and pull themselves on top of other objects.
• These are primarily implemented Star Marine at this point, to allow players to test them in a focused environment.

User Interface:

• The following updates have been made to the Default keybindings. All the below changes can be rebound as desired.
  • Scoreboard in Arena Commander and Star Marine is now activated via “F1” on the keyboard.
  • “Exit Seat” is no longer behind Modifier 1 on any device.
    • Exit Seat “Hold F” on the keyboard and “Hold Y” on the gamepad will now exit, however the “hold” time has been increased.
  • Holster weapon is now “Hold R” on the keyboard, and “Hold X” on the gamepad
  • Removed the Throttle Max and Throttle Min from the double tap “S” and “W” on the keyboard.
    • Max / Min Throttle can be toggled via Backspace still on the default keybinds.
  • Added prone toggle (independent of crouch) on “X” on the keyboard.
    • Crouch is still on “LeftCtrl” on the keyboard.
• Flight Pitch is now inverted by default on the Gamepad.
• 3rd Person Orbit camera is now on “LB + R3” on the Gamepad.

Updates and Fixes

Star Systems:

Area 18, ArcCorp

• Fixed a number of small geometry holes around and outside of AstroArmada.
• Fixed a number of missing graphical detail levels around Dumper’s Depot.
• Fixed a number of props in the Casaba Outlet that were clipping into each other.
• Fixed an issue where players could very rarely find themselves unable to move if they left ArcCorp directly after dying inside of a buggy and immediately returned to the server.
• Fixed a number of texture conflicts in the alley behind Casaba Outlet.

Crusader

• Fixed an issue where deceased players would sometimes function as ammo crates.
• Fixed a number of missing graphical detail levels on Port Olisar props.
• Fixed an issue where the Reliant KORE would sometimes spawn partially inside of the Port Olisar landing pad.

GrimHex, Crusader

• Fixed a texture conflict issue on several directional arrow decals in GrimHex.
• Fixed texture conflicts on a number of GrimHex props.
• Fixed reversed warning decals on the GrimHex generators.
• Fixed a typo on one of the decals in the GrimHex cargo area.
• Fixed an issue where one of the GrimHex asteroids was missing some collision.
• Fixed an issue where the GrimHex elevator doors were missing audio.
• Fixed a number of issues with flickering decals in and around the GrimHex landing pads.

Hangars (All)

• Fixed an issue where the fish were missing from several of the fish tank flair items.
• Fixed an issue where the hangar elevator screen could become unpinned if the user moved their mouse during interaction.

Aeroview Hangar

• Fixed an issue where players would see a unintended haze in the Aeroview hangar.

Selfland Hangar

• Fixed an issue where several door panels were missing graphical detail levels and would disappear at specific distances/angles.

VFG Industrial

• Fixed an issue where several small tables in the VFG Industrial hangar would disappear at specific distances.
• Fixed an issue where the lighting in the VFG Industrial hangar would shift drastically when the player camera was at specific angles and locations.

Million Mile High Club

• Fixed a number of small texture conflicts on the ceiling of Million Mile High Club.

Game Systems:

Shopping

• Fixed an issue when players in flightsuits would find their flashlight remaining in mid-air when they tried on civilian clothing.

Social Systems

• Fixed an issue where players who are in your party and your contact list would appear on your contact list twice.

Arena Commander

• Fixed an issue where the “Join Team” button would appear as available for the team the user was already on.
• Fixed a number of missing Arena Commander audio cues.
• Ejections in Squadron Battle and Battle Royale should no longer count toward the kill/death ratio on Leaderboards.
• The game mode “Capture the Core” has been deactivated for the foreseeable future.
• Fixed an issue where the scoreboard could get stuck on screen in Vanduul Swarm if it was on-screen when the character died.
• Fixed an issue where ship components such as weapons and turrets were not correctly generating points when damaged in AC game modes.

Ships:

• Fixed an issue where Automatic Landing would activate intermittently when approaching a landing area.
• Fixed an issue where killing the pilot of a ship with a FPS weapon would cause the pilot to enter a death/respawn loop until they relogged or the ship was destroyed.
• Fixed several issues where turret auto-stabilization was not functioning when the ship was in motion.
• Fixed an issue where character items (flashlight, mobiGlas, weapons) would trail behind the pilot when their ship was in motion.
• Fixed an issue where certain HUD or UI elements would be stuck on the player screen if they ejected and survived.
• Updated the ship headlights on the Aurora (all), M50, 300i, Reliant, Freelancer, Mustang (all), Argo MPUV, Hornet (all), Gladiator, Vanguard, Sabre, Retaliator and Gladius.
• Fixed an issue where missile splash damage was not correctly affecting ship shields.
• Chaff countermeasures should now be more effective in breaking target lock and reducing CS signature.

Individual Ships

• 300 Series
  • Fixed an issue with low detail levels on certain 300 components.
• Avenger Stalker
  • Fixed some of the pilot animations where they were not correctly aligned with the Avenger flightstick.
• Constellation Andromeda
  • Fixed a texture conflict with a specific orange decal on the Constellation Andromeda support pillars.
  • Fixed an issue with the gimbals on the lower nacelles of the Constellation Andromeda that would allow it to accept weapons too large for the location and port.
• Constellation Phoenix
  • Fixed an issue where there was no audio for entering the turret seat of the Phoenix.
• Freelancer
  • Fixed an issue where the Freelancer turret was missing key audio.
  • Fixed an issue where the Freelancer shields could not be toggled off.
• Freelancer DUR/MAX/MIS
  • Fixed an issue where the audio systems of these ships could be edited in the hangar and swapped with the systems of other ships.
• Gladiator
  • Fixed an issue where the third-person cockpit view would be too close to the player when the ship was moving.
  • Fixed an issue where the orbit passenger camera was not focusing on the passenger properly.
• Gladius
  • Fixed an issue where the third-person cockpit view would be too close to the pilot when the ship was moving.
• Hornet Series (All)
  • Fixed an issue with low detail levels on certain Hornet components.
  • Fixed an issue where sitting in the turret of a Hornet would sometimes teleport the gunner to the map origin.
• Hornet F7CM
  • Fixed an issue where the wing lights would continue following the ship after the wing or tail had been destroyed.
• Khartu-Al
  • Fixed a number of small lighting issues with the Khartu-Al during landing and taking off.
  • Fixed an issue where the Khartu-Al boosters would not reappear after the ship was repaired.
• Mustang Beta
  • Fixed an issue where the main weapons would appear to fire in a 360 arc when transitioning camera angles.
• P-52 Merlin
  • The P-52 Merlin now temporarily will regenerate boost/afterburner fuel.
    • This is a temporary change, until parasite craft can refuel by docking with their host craft in the PU.
• Retaliator
  • Fixed an issue where the gunners wrists appeared to be broken when seated in the turrets.
• Reliant KORE
  • Fixed several minor issues with how the pilot gripped the flightstick of the Reliant.
  • Fixed a number of minor lighting issues inside of the Reliant cargo hold.
• Vanduul Glaive and Scythe
  • Fixed an issue where the “cockpit” would remain open after the pilot had entered the ship and taken off.
• Vanguard Warden
  • Fixed the hand positioning of the turret gunner in the Vanguard Warden.
  • Fixed the port for the Warden nose gun, so that it can no longer accept weapons not intended for it.
  • Fixed an issue where some of the Vanguard Warden multi-function displays could not be viewed.

First Person:

Animations

• Fixed a number of issues with transitions during various jumping animations.
• Fixed a number of minor animation issues with weapon draw, aim and fire while in crouch and prone.
• Fixed a number of issues tied into characters being able to continue firing their FPS weapons while in the middle of an emote such as /dance.
• Fixed an issue where players would not see any animations play when other characters on the server looted an item.

Weapons

• All of our FPS weapons have received audio and graphical tweaks.
• Fixed an issue where the Behring P4-AR would be missing the sights after respawn on Crusader.

User Interface:

Gamepad

• Updated the default ship aiming curve for pilots using the Gamepad.
• Fixed an issue where Gamepad users could change teams in the Arena Commander lobby, even when there was only one team available.

Joystick

• Fixed a number of problems joystick users were experiencing with E.S.P.

Technical:

• Fixed some performance drops associated with rapid transition of camera views.
• Fixed an issue where spamming the Escape key on a loading screen would load the menu without any options or means to back out without a client restart.
• Fixed a number of rare issues with account persistence, where data would stop updating after certain upgrades.