When asked about the latest development update on Control Surfaces on Spectrum recently, one of the CIG developers responded that the team is still working on this flight-related feature, but it will only release after finalizing the flight mode.
Originally announced back in CitizenCon 2023, Control Surfaces is a new flight system in Star Citizen that can be activated when ships enter atmosphere.
When this feature is added to the game, maneuver thrusters will no longer perform as effective as they are at the moment in atmosphere. So, like the real life planes and fighter jets, players will rely on controlling the ship with forward thruster and the aerodynamics of the wings and tails.
According to Richard Towler, lead game designer at CIG, the developer will not launch Control Surfaces before finalizing the flight mode, as it could double the amount of work required to launch and fix it later.
This system, however, does seem a bit complicated for larger ships. Sure, a fighter like Aegis Gladius is nimble enough to be controlled easily by aerodynamics, but what about a Caterpillar, or an Argo Mole, which doesn’t even seem to have big enough wings or tails?
Control Surfaces is the continuation of flight mode revamp in Star Citizen that was started with Master Modes. Implemented back in Alpha 3.23, Master Modes introduced two different major flight models for combat and navigation. While it received heavy criticisms in the first days of implementation, but now players seem to feel alright about it.
Quantum Boost was also another feature from last year’s CitizenCon that has not been delivered yet. It was announced as a part of the new Quantum Travel system, that allows players to traverse short distance with much higher speed.
That being said, the new Quantum Travel animation was teased at the IAE 2954 teaser trailer, and there is speculation around its release this year with Alpha 3.24.3, though nothing has been extracted about it from data mining so far.
