Star Citizen’s Arena Commander patch 0.9.2 is all about refined control

Star Citizen

This refined control business should help with racing.

Recommended Videos

This is your official acronym warning for Star Citizen and Arena Commander’s patch 0.9.2, which features ESP, ITTS, HOMAS and PIPs. Let’s start with ESP, which is less about spooky Halloween psychic powers and more to do with ‘Enhanced Stick Precision.’

According to Chris Robert’s patch-accompanying summary of the changes, ESP is “our attempt at improving controls for flight stick and gamepad users that feel they have problems in lining up their target without overshooting.” Over the last few months the team have been keeping an eye on Star Citizen control debates and figuring out how to address the issues people have been having.

Patch 0.9.2 is a step towards solving the problem of “how to balance the feeling / ability for fine control of your ship with the full physical simulation of how a spaceship would really behave when you change its orientation and velocity via maneuvering thrusters.”

I’d recommending reading the whole thing for details on the Improved Targeting Tracking System (ITTS,) and how it involves Predicted Impact Points (PIPs.) See, I told you there’d be acronyms.

The summary beneath Chris Roberts’ little intro also goes into detail about some of the new flight controls and mods added by 0.9.2; including HOMAS. I still haven’t quite figured out what that one stands for, but it’s apparently also known as ‘Aim-only Virtual Joystick’ and is primarily geared towards joystick users. So nothing to do with hummus, then.

Full patch notes are here, but can be read below as well.

  • ADDITIONS
    • Added Gladius to hangar
    • Added Enhanced Stick Precision for Joystick and Gamepad
    • Added Target Focus
    • Added Virtual Joystick toggle (left-alt)
    • Added missile deployment animations
    • Added option to now bind decoupled yaw on joysticks
  • BALANCE/TWEAKS
    • M50
      • Health reduced
      • Turning speed increased
      • Acceleration increased
    • 350R
      • Decreased boost
      • Weight increased
    • 300i
      • Adjusted weapon heat decay
    • Hornet
      • Increased power draw of shield
    • Aurora
      • Adjusted weapon heat decay
    • Weapon Cooling tweaked for all weapons
    • Omnisky III
      • Damage Decreased
      • Firing rate increased
    • Omnisky VI
      • Firing rate increased
    • CF-007 Bulldog Repeater
      • Damage decreased
    • CF-117 Badger Repeater
      • Damage increased
    • Behring M3A Laser
      • Damage increased
    • Behring M4A
      • Firing rate decreased
      • Bullet speed increased
      • Reduced bullet spread
    • Behring M5A
      • Firing rate increased
      • Power usage increased
      • Damage increased
    • 9-Series Longsword
      • Size reduced from 2 to 1
      • Firing rate increased
      • Damage increased
    • 11-Series Broadsword
      • Firing rate increased
      • Damage decreased
    • Sledge II
      • K and W Mass Driver Cannon display name changed to Sledge II
      • Size reduced from 2 to 1
      • Firing rate decreased
      • Damage decreased
    • Mantis GT-220
      • Damage decreased
    • MaxOx NN-13 Neutron Cannon
      • Firing rate increased
      • Damage increased
      • Decreased heat and power usage
      • Changed color
    • Target Lead Indicator replaced with Lag-Pip
    • Increased size of DFM maps
    • Adjusted Shield Regen Delay
    • Default joystick x-axis input is now yaw instead of roll
    • Comstab now off by default
    • Updated 315p material
    • Relative mouse mode improvements
    • Various HUD visual changes
    • Zoom slightly increased, visual effect added
    • Adjusted position of locker toilet paper
    • Updated ammobox visual in holotable
    • Decreased IFCS Banking
    • Racing checkpoints now open faster
    • Adjusted Broken Moon and Dying Star ambient light
  • FIXES
    • Fixed 325a textures
    • Fixed Mustang enter animation
    • Fixed Aurora gimbal rotation rate
    • Fixed Squadron Battle not ending if one team leaves
    • Fixed Vanduul spawning in incorrect locations
    • Fixed racing end of match scoreboard
    • Fixed some draw distance issues in the hangar
    • Fixed the planet flickering in Broken Moon
    • Fixed 300i series door sounds
    • Fixed 300i series hologram not showing ship damage
    • Fixed Origin radar sphere being too dim
    • Fixed flickering issues of environment assets during the beginning of a race
    • Fixed distance marker on selected reticle to now match scale of reticle
    • Matchmaking improvements
    • Localization fixes
    • Various crash fixes
  • KNOWN ISSUES
    • Ships can appear to jitter near edges of large maps
    • 325a external material incorrect after zoning into multiplayer matches
    • Gladius canopy becomes offset from cockpit during open animation
    • 325a power management bars do not update when redistributing power via the power triangle
    • Dynamic Zoom only functions when ship is not moving
    • Arena commander menu specified Hornet F7a as ‘TRAINER’
    • Omnisky III and IV do not overheat
    • Floating geometry above 315p starboard door
    • The nose and wing stripes on the 315p are displaying incorrectly
    • Targeting an enemy ship during the HUD bootup sequence will result in the targeted ship not appearing in the target window
    • Wingmen stop flying between waves in Vanduul Swarm
    • Turrets are inaccessible in the Cutlass Black and Blue
    • Graphical artifacts appearing when using an AMD R9 285 video card
    • Docking Collar is inaccessible in the Cutlass Black
    • Docked targets show a scanned reticle/HUD arrow but do not give lag pips
    • Grey cat will always turn right when using the Gamepad
    • Joystick and Throttle inputs do not prevent Windows power saver mode from putting monitor to sleep
    • You can prevent this by increasing the sleep timer for your display in Windows Power Saver settings
    • Stalker IR missiles do little damage and ignore flares
    • Hornet nose weapons do not recharge
    • Helmet overlay still appears below feet when looking down
    • Aurora MR red decals don’t get damaged when the ship does
    • Vanduul, Vixen and Warlord will sometimes collide with asteroids

 


PC Invasion is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
related content
Read Article PSA: Most mods should work with Stardew Valley 1.6 on launch
Stardew Valley 1.6 Mods
Read Article Dragon’s Dogma 2 players have created a horrifically hideous Moogle from Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Dragon's Dogma 2 Moogle
Read Article Baldur’s Gate 3 player turned to gold and somehow received permanent buffs
Baldurs Gate 3 Player Turned To Gold And Somehow Received Permanent Buffs
Related Content
Read Article PSA: Most mods should work with Stardew Valley 1.6 on launch
Stardew Valley 1.6 Mods
Read Article Dragon’s Dogma 2 players have created a horrifically hideous Moogle from Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Dragon's Dogma 2 Moogle
Read Article Baldur’s Gate 3 player turned to gold and somehow received permanent buffs
Baldurs Gate 3 Player Turned To Gold And Somehow Received Permanent Buffs