Q: How's the network performance?
A: It differs between builds. We're at patch 3.0.0d and I've been getting an average of ~40 FPS in the US server, 20 FPS in the EU server and 15 FPS in the AUS server. I'm testing with a GTX980, Intel i7 and 32GB RAM. As always, the FPS drops down 10-15 FPS when the server is full.
Q: How's the delta patcher?
A: It's excellent and working as intended. 3.0.0a was less than 300 MB, 3.0.0b was about 8GB, and 3.0.0C and 3.0.0D were less than 2GB. We've been getting a patch almost daily and thanks to the delta patcher, testing isn't interrupted very long.
Q: How's traversal in 3.0?
A: We're able to QT to Cellin, Daymar, Yela, and Delamar/Levski. ArcCorp, Hurston, and MicroTech are in the star map app but is currently unreachable due to QT fuel limitations. There's a new QT VFX, and QT fuel varies depending on the size of the ship, ie. the Aurora has less fuel than the Starfarer.
Q: How's cargo?
A: We can interact with cargo strewn about in derelicts and mission sites, but shopping/selling cargo isn't fleshed out yet.
Q: How's the Nox and other bikes?
A: The Nox is very uncontrollable and tends to flip to its side. The DF can spawn upside down and is jerky at best. Both bikes can be placed inside the Cutlass and other multicrew ships, but getting them inside in one piece without dying is very challenging. The URSA I have not tested because there's a known issue with the ASOP terminals where some ships don't show up even though they're available in the patch.
Q: How's the interaction system?
A: It's very tactile and immersive. Yes, there are keybinds for them, but it's satisfying opening doors/airlocks/ramps/cockpits/ladders and turning on power and engines to fly. Pressing F5 turns everything on in the ship when the "flight ready" option is broken in the patch. Everything you do now revolves around holding F and moving you mouse around you to grab/power on/open&close/enter&exit seats.
Q: How's the moons?
A: Tricky to get to atm. When first QTing to a moon, the ship stops about 500km away, so you have to go back to the star map app and select 1 of 6 bouys or "OMs" to get closer to them. Then you have to max out your ship's speed with AB to travel about 100km to reach an outpost or station. For example, from Port Olisar to Levski, you select Delamar as your destination on the star map app, then after arriving you select OM3 to get close to Levski, then after that you point your ship towards where Levski should be and you wait about 5 minutes in max speed to get to the vicinity of Levski where you can ping the ATC guy to give you a hangar to land on. The moons themselves only have 5-7 outposts marked on the star map, but there are roads, derelicts and un-marked buildings that you can explore just by flying around. Other than that, the moons are very sparse between marked outposts and bikes are too buggy to effectively roam around moons.
Q: You mentioned there are NPCs in the build?
A: Yes, patch 3.0.0a had them roaming around doing their own business in Port Olisar and Levski, but they were buggy and get stuck in doors. In later patches, CIG decided to freeze them in a line in Port Olisar, so we'd make memes about them in ETF Spectrum. You can't interact with them yet, and Miles spits out the same greeting line at Levski.
Q: Any new weapons?
A: Yes, there's a new SMG and shoulder-fired Railgun. All weapons are working, but you have to manually add them and their ammo through your inventory.
Q: How's the inventory work?
A: It has its own app. When you bring it up, there's a dropdown of all available body regions you can add/change/subtract items to. Every armor, clothing, weapon, ammo, device is available to us but we can only carry 2 weapons at a time. Armor you can mix and match with any body part, but the heavier armors will deplete your stamina and o2 meter faster. If I put on the heavy marine armor, I can only sprint for 5 seconds until my heart rate goes to 170 beats, my vision blurs to near blackout, and my o2 meter depletes to 80%. For testing purposes, it's best not to use armor because there's a lot of running to get to places.
Q: How's oxygen and stamina?
A: Like I said, there's an o2 meter showing a blue bar that depletes over time and how fast your pace is. There's also an oxygen timer on the front page of the mobiglass showing how much oxygen you have like 1H:50M:26S. Stamina is dependent on your o2 levels and is influenced by how fast you walk/jog. You use the scroll wheel to change your pace from casual walk to power walking to lazy jog to normal jog. The sprint button is still the left shift key and it drains your stamina & oxygen the fastest among the paces. There's a heart rate graph on your helmet HUD that quickens depending on how fast and how long you sprint and what pieces of armor you wear. If you don't heed the heart rate graph and keep sprinting, your character slows to the casual walk, your vision goes blurry, and you have to wait for your heart rate to go down before you resume. This will be great for Star Marine.
Q: How's the interaction with the devs?
A: CIG devs are more available to Evocati through our private ETF Spectrum chat. There's always 3 or 4 devs willing to talk to us everyday and discuss anything from testing 3.0 to what they're going to do on the weekends if they're not working. Sometimes, we get big name devs like Sean Tracy, Brian Chambers and Eric Davis to chat with us and we can ask them questions about the 3.0 builds or how epic their hair or beards are. If you aren't in ETF, you're really missing out on this close connection.
Q: How's Evocati and are more being added?
A: CIG added about 80 new members in the last 30 days, so we're up to 950 members last I remember. Some Evocati members are very patient and hardworking, and some are complete noobs who haven't tested anything in their life. Some don't read/follow directions from CIG and try to "play" the build, some are ultra dedicated testing 12 hours straight and helping with IC reports.
Q: When do you think 3.0 will go to PTU?
A: Honestly, don't expect it in November. We're still only focusing tests on traversal features. Shopping and the mission system still needs a lot of work, NPCs are broken af, ships are buggy af, crashes and 30001 errors happen every day, and even traversal is buggy with some ships not having QT fuel nor not enough to get anywhere interesting.
Just FYI, I can't verify if any of his responses are true because I'm not an Avocado myself so I don't have access to 3.0. I hope we get 3.0 PTU next month.