Star Citizen Alpha 2.2 Out Now

The newest update for the alpha version of the burgeoning space sim, Star Citizen, is out and available now. Alpha 2.2 does some general housecleaning, fixing bugs and glitches, and balancing gameplay, but it also adds a whole host of new ships, features, and gameplay elements to the game.

Once you have applied the update to your game, developer Cloud Imperium has advised that users delete their User folder after patching- this should preemptively resolve a lot of issues with graphics, loading times, and crashing that seem to have sprung up in the wake of the update.

Star Citizen Alpha 2.2 “Important Issues”:

If you’re copying the 2.2.0 PTU/Test build into your Live folder, please be sure to delete any .cfg files from your Test build first and use the “Verify” function in the Launcher Options before accessing the game.
Ship geometry can very occasionally disappear or turn invisible.
Using the Holotable in the Revel & York hangar will cause the game client to become unresponsive.

Star Citizen Alpha 2.2 Patch Notes:

Star Systems:

Crusader

We have increased the number of players and player-ships per instance of Crusader from 16 to 24.
The scale of the system has adjusted, the planet Crusader and moons are at a more appropriate distance from one another.
- Comm Arrays have been re-positioned accordingly.
- Comm Array 8 has been removed.
- The Comm Arrays have been changed drastically as part of the new Monitored Space and Bounty systems and no longer unlock Research missions.
- For the time being, Research Missions are now offered to characters who visit ICC Probe 849.
  - ICC probe 849 is now on the QT Nav Points list.
There are three new icons on the player visor HUD while in Crusader.
- An icon will appear in the top-left of your screen when you are in Monitored space.
  - This icon looks like a satellite sending off little signals.
- To the right of Monitored Space, there is an icon to indicate when you are in an Armistice Zone.
  - This icon looks like a bullet with a line through it.
- To the right of the Armistice Zone icon, an icon will appear if you are a wanted criminal.
  - This icon looks like a shooting range target, with a border that will become incrementally more orange with each Criminal level.

Game Systems:

Your efforts repairing Comm Arrays in Crusader have not gone unnoticed by Crusader Industries!

Monitored Space System

“Monitored” space are large areas of the Crusader system that are being actively monitored by Crusader Industries. These areas are centered around any active Comm Arrays in Crusader, as well as Cryo-Astro and Port Olisar.
By disabling the Comm Arrays, you can toggle monitored space off for that area. Likewise you can reactivate “Monitoring” by activating the local Comm Arrays.
Comm Arrays will be active or disabled at-random when an instance is first brought up.
- Disabling a Comm Array has consequences, because no-one except a Criminal would ever want to go unnoticed by Crusader Industries.
Players who are not currently considered a “Criminal” will receive missions for any Comm Arrays that need to be reactivated.
Player character kills made in unmonitored space will go unnoticed by local authorities.

Bounty System

In an effort to improve security in the Crusader region while their local staffing is low, Crusader Industries has activated their “Bounty” system and encourages all pilots to hunt down any wanted criminals in their space.
Destroying an empty ship, colliding with a landed ship (in Monitored space), or disabling a Comm Array gives the offending character 1 level of Wanted Criminal.
- However, these are not cumulative and will not take your character above 1 Criminal level.
Killing a player character or destroying an occupied ship (in Monitored space) gives 1 Cumulative level of Criminal.
Crusader Security AI will spawn and attack any Criminal (of any wanted level), that enters the area around Cry-Astro Station or Port Olisar.
There are 5 Criminal levels available. At Level 5 point, a global bounty mission is posted to all characters on the server instructing them to hunt down and kill the character.
- Players who successfully complete the bounty mission for a Level 5 Criminal will find a Klaus & Werner ATT4 Energy rifle waiting for them in their bedroom on Port Olisar. Courtesy of Crusader Industries.
Each Criminal level adds 30 seconds of “jail time” to your respawn. When a Criminal is killed, they will be locked into their spawn-bedroom for the duration of their penalty time.
Players who die in Crusader with at least 1 level of Wanted Criminal, will respawn in a medium Outlaw loadout.
- Those who die with Level 4 will be respawn in a different Outlaw loadout.
When a Level 5 Criminal is killed, they are removed from the server.
- This functionality is for the purposes of testing of the system, as consequences within current game systems is limited.
When a Level 5 Criminal is killed, they are removed from the server.
- This functionality is for the purposes of testing of the system, as consequences within current game systems is limited.
There are only two ways to reduce your Criminal level.
- Waiting 10 minutes without committing a crime will naturally reduce the level by 1. There is a console in Security Post Kareah that you can “hack.” Each hack you initiate and complete drops your wanted level by 1.
  - However, each hack takes 1 minutes to complete, and other criminals can interrupt your hack by initiating their own.

Hostility System

Pirates and Crusader Security now recognize potential friends and foes.
- Pirates will spawn to protect disabled Comm Arrays from non-Criminals.
- Crusader Security will spawn to protect active Comm Arrays from Criminals.
- Both will become much more aggressive toward anyone who takes action toward them.
When a character initiates combat with another character, the aggressor is flagged as “hostile” to the defender.
- Defenders do not receive a penalty or a Wanted Criminal level for killing a player that initiated combat in Monitored Space.

Party System Revamp

This encompasses a wide range of quality-of-life improvements, updates and fixes to the party system in Star Citizen.

- When a party is formed and a member attempts to join an instance for the first time, the matchmaking system will automatically look for a server with the “Best Fit” for the party size.
- Once a party member has entered an instance, the elevator UI (Hangar and Main Menu) will show those instances with a party member inside on top. Followed by instances that have contacts.
- Matchmaking system now takes into account the number of players in a party when selecting a server.
- The Matchmaking will ‘reserve’ slots on the server for the rest of your party for two minutes, to allow them time to select the instance and zone in.
- The party leadership will now automatically migrate to another player, if the leader goes offline.
- If a party member goes offline, then comes back online, the Party UI is properly restored in the Contacts list (F11).
- Players that go offline will remain in the party for 10 minutes, before being timed out of the party.
- The party will disband if all party members are offline for 5+ minutes.
- Party Leaders can now kick any offline members.

Social System

“Full” instances with contacts in them will now go to the bottom of the list of instances in the elevator screen.
AR view has a new seamless overlay to prevent it from interfering with normal gameplay.
- It will still provide the name of characters and items.
AR view is now “On” by default in all zones. You can disable it by pressing “F10,” but it will re-enable on zoning.

Physical EVA

Physical EVA has been re-enabled for 2.2.0, after extensive fixing and tweaks on our end.
Holding down the “Shift” key + a directional key while in EVA will now provide a boost of speed.

Ships:

The Aegis Sabre is now flight-ready and owners of this ship can access it in Arena Commander and Crusader.
The Xi’an Khartu-Al is now available and owners of this fine ship can now view it in the Hangar. We have been making a number of changes to the movement behavior of manned turrets, as we are aware that they have’’t been behaving in a fluid or intuitive manner.
- This is still very much work in-progress.
SCM and Cruise speeds have been re-balanced across the board for all ships.
- SCM speeds have been increased for the Retaliator, Gladius, Freelancer, Gladiator, Vanguard Warden, F7A Hornet, F7C Hornet, F7C-S Ghost, F7C-R Tracker, Mustangs (all), Vanduul Glaive, P-52 Merlin, Vanduul Scythe, M50 Interceptor and 350r.
- SCM speeds have been decreased for the Aurora (All), Cutlass Black, Avenger (All), F7C-M Super Hornet, 325a, 315p and 300i.
- Cruise speeds have been increased for the Aurora LN, Aurora CL, Aurora LX, 325a, 315p, 350r.
- Cruise speeds have been decreased for the Constellation Andromeda, Freelancer, Gladiator, Aurora ES, Aurora MR, Cutlass Black, Avenger (All), Vanguard Warden, Hornet (All), Mustang (all), Vanduul Glaive, 300i, P-52 Merlin, Vanduul Scythe, Gladius and M50 Interceptor.

Components

Ship Component Update.

We have begun a large update to our existing Ship component system. This is largely at a back-end level – implementing a new component class system, naming conventions and other needed functionality, as well as retrofitting all existing ships to be compatible. These changes will allow us to implement a greater range of modular internal ship components. Additionally, this allows components to interact with one another in a more direct and less “handwavium” simulation of a ships internal systems, setting the foundation for greater player interaction and future gameplay mechanics.

- These changes should not affect the performance of ships in any significant way at this point compared to 2.1, unless noted otherwise. However it is important to emphasize that this is very much a work-in-progress.
- A new component class – Coolers – has been added to the Holotable.
  - Coolers are used to dissipate the active heat built up from other components.
  - At this point, they primarily act to help cool weapon systems.
  - All ships have been retrofitted with generic coolers to provide the same level of “cooldown” time they experienced before.
- Two new coolers have been implemented.
  - The Wen/Cassel Endo and J-Span Cryo-Star, both size 1 class.
  - These can be mounted on all variants of the following ships: Avenge, Aurora, Mustang, 300 Series, Hornet, Gladiator, Gladius, M50, P-52 Merlin.
  - The J-Span Cryo-Star cooler will be awarded to all backers who pledged before the $56 million goal.
- Decreased heat per shot of the Mantis GT-220, and increased heat pool.
- Shield recharge rates on ships have been adjusted to help balance ships following the component revamp.

First-Person:

We have made extensive improvements to first-person animations, specifically for FPS. These include:
- Added better transitional animations from “Look” to “Aim” poses.
- Added improved animations for when a weapon is in a “lowered” state, both while standing and while in crouch.
- Fixed an issue where characters would be unable to aim-down-sight during certain “transitional” animations.
- Added FPS “cover” animations, for exiting and entering aim-down-sights from cover while holding a weapon.
- Fixed some animation issues, where the reload animations would not play if the character was when reloading from aim-down-sights.
- Adjusted the “sway” of characters while running with a stocked rifle (P4-AR). Fixed an issue where players could “look down” while their character is prone, holding a weapon, with something solid in the way.
  - This fixes a problem where characters could balance in the air on the front muzzle of their gun.
- Polished transitional animations when a character goes from prone movement, back into Idle.
- Animations have been added to support weapons being fired while prone, and while moving-in-prone.
- Added transitional animations for moving from low cover to high cover with a stocked weapon.
- Removed much of the helmet and HUD bob that occurred in first-person camera mode.
- Fixed an issue where lying prone in a tight or enclosed area caused characters to bounce back and forth off the collision.
- Fixed an issue where the P4-AR was not being held correctly when the character was in zero-G.
Tweaked the look-pose of characters when in first person view, such that users can now see the feet of their character (rather than their chest) when looking down.
The Gemini LH-86 Combustion Pistol is now available on Crusader for players who have purchased this gun.
- You can find it inside of your “spawn” bedroom when you first load into Crusader.
The Klaus & Werner ATT4 energy rifle is now available on Crusader!
- It is awarded to players who complete certain scenarios of the Covalex Private Investigator mission, or on killing a Level 5 Wanted Criminal.
Players on Crusader will now have a radar HUD on their visor while on foot.
- This radar will display the location of any nearby player characters that are also on foot.
- (They’re coming out of the walls!)

Technical:

We have implemented a new Crash Handler to our game client with 2.2. Now when the game client crashes, a pop-window will appear asking you if you would like to report the crash to us. The handler submission will include game logs from the client and DxDiag information on the system. This will allow us to rapidly gather data on game client crashes that are occurring in our PTU and Live environments, while also vastly simplifying the process for players to report crashes to us.

Updates and Fixes

Star Systems:

ArcCorp, Area 18

Fixed an issue where props and items in Cubby Blast, AstroArmada, and Medical Unit were missing detail levels.
Fixed an issue where the Cubby Blast store front marquee had props clipping into and through it.
Fixed an issue where puddles in ArcCorp would disappear when standing over or near them.
Fixed an issue where players could trap other characters by pushing them down the side bar of G~Loc.
Fixed an issue where characters could fall out of the world by running against the railings outside of Dumper’s Depot.
Fixed an issue where AstroArmada had gaps between the ceiling and walls that could allow outside light in.
Fixed a lighting issue in and around the shelving in Cubby Blast.
Fixed an issue with a bright light flickering on and off outside of AstroArmada.
Fixed an issue where the ArcCorp pavilion would be visible from inside the Medical Unit at certain angles.
Fixed an issue where light fixtures would pop in and out of view inside Dumper’s Depot.

Crusader

Fixed an issue where characters would get flung into space after touching ship debris.
Fixed an issue where characters would occasionally get propelled through space with extreme force after colliding with walls and other rigid objects.
Fixed an issue where the players HUD visor would re-initialize several times after the character has gotten out of bed.
Fixed an issue where the Salvage encounters around Yela would spawn very, very rarely.
Fixed an issue where players were not removed from Crusader after 5+ minutes of idle.

Crusader, Port Olisar

Fixed a typo on Port Olisar on the “Atmospheric Data” screen panel.
Fixed an issue where characters would become permanently stuck in the ship spawn menu if they activated the terminal and MobiGlas at the same time.
Fixed an issue where the Port Olisar airlocks would get stuck permanently cycling.
Ship computers now “warn” when you enter an Armistice zone and can no longer open fire freely, and “notify” when you leave the zone.
Fixed an issue where the second player to enter the proximity of the Comm Array would get redirected to the Asteroid Field instead of to Tessa at the research outpost.
Fixed an issue where the decals on platform “6” and “5” on Strut B were not in the right place.
Fixed an issue where ships were not landing in the correct state after being summoned to a platform at Port Olisar.
- This caused characters to sometimes play the incorrect (zero-g) animations while entering the ship.
Fixed an issue where ships would land on Port Olisar too hard and take damage as a result.

Crusader, Cry-Astro

Fixed an issue where Cry-Astro refueling station would not refuel a ship, if it was the second ship a character had brought to be refueled.
Fixed several issues with the Cry-Astro landing points.
Fixed an issue where the repair drones at Cry-Astro would occasionally destroy the ship and kill the pilot instead of fixing the ship.
Fixed several issues that would cause Cry-Astro repair systems to fail when repairing ship damage.

Hangar

Fixed an extraneous non-functioning scroll bar that would remain floating on the screen after using the Holotable.
Fixed an issue where shield hardpoints were not displaying on the Holotable.
Fixed an issue where the floor lamps in Selfland Hangar had a pixelated affect around them.
Fixed an issue where “Manned” turrets did not have an “attachment” point in the Holotable, so weapons could not be added or removed to the turrets.
Fixed an issue with the liquor cabinet would drop in and out of view for a player, depending on players distance from the cabinet.
The spawn position for characters inside of the VFG Industrial Hangar has been moved underneath the platform so that it parallels all other Hangars.
Fixed an issue where the Starfarer Model in the hangar had tiny “Replace Me” textures.
The Space Crab, Thorshu Grey, lives once more!

Million Mile High Club

Fixed an issue with texture conflicts appearing around the club bar.
Fixed an issue where players would encounter a continuous loading screen when leaving MMHC and going to ArcCorp.
Fixed an issue where the Vindel Cleaner fish were using a swim animation instead of a “suckerfish” fish tank animation that should keep it stuck to the fish tank glass.
Fixed an issue where the wall art behind the MMHC bar did not fully wrap around the furthest left wall corner.
Fixed an issue where the couch and stools in the back of MMHC would snap between detail levels (pop) instead of transition, depending on the player distance.
Fixed an issue where a portion of the wall above the MMHC bar would disappear at certain camera angles.

Game Systems:

Arena Commander

Fixed an issue where the NPCs Vixen and Warlord in Drone Sim, Vanduul Swarm were missing dialog.
Fixed an issue where the text on the “Invite to Match” button in the Lobby will say “actionResult” instead of “Invitation Sent.”
Fixed an issue where ships would sometimes stop responding if a second input is entered, before the first input is released.

Physical EVA

Fixed an issue where inversion controls on the mouse or gamepad was not being recognized by PhysicalEVA.
Fixed an issue with physical EVA, where dropping from zero-g to gravity caused your character items to lag behind in midair.
Fixed a bug with physical EVA, where characters would sometimes be propelled very rapidly through space when transitioning from zero-g to gravity.
Fixed an issue where EVA’ing into the back of a Freelancer would leave the character lying on the floor of the cargo bay.
Fixed some issues where Physical EVA would overreact to player input for both velocity-movement and rotation.
Added improved VFX for the EVA jet packs.

Quantum Travel

Fixed an issue where weapons and missiles could be fired while QT was active.
Fixed an issue where ships could initiate Quantum Travel while landed at Cry-Astro.
Fixed an issue where passengers in a non-multicrew ship were being ejected when ship went into quantum travel.
Fixed an issue where Quantum Travel targets where obstructed for no reason, for the Gladius and Hornet.

Social Module

We have fixed an issue where deleting the “filter” text in the Contacts window would sometimes close the Contacts Window.
Fixed an issue where mobiGlas couldn’t be shut down when inside a single-seat cockpit.
Fixed an issue where the default keybinding (capslock) did not initiate “RP walk” slow speed.
Fixed an issue where users were not able to add contacts while in a lobby.
Fixed an issue where the mobiGlas overlay would overlap with both the contacts and chat window, without closing either conflicting UI window.
- Activating mobiGlas will now correctly close the contacts and/or chat window if they are open.
Fixed an issue where pressing backspace on the mobiGlas main menu would dismiss the screen, but the character would still have mobiGlas open on their arm.
Fixed an issue where AR mode would show a 5.56mm magazine on the hip of all players in Crusader when active.
Fixed an issue where the mobiGlas Scheduler could not be opened until another app had been opened and closed.

Tutorial

Fixed an issue where Gilly would wiggle, wobble, and eventually disappear out of sight during Chapter 1.

Ships:

Fixed an issue where ships weapon fire could sometimes be drastically offset from weapons when ship is in flight.
Fixed several issues with camera zoom in/zoom out when exiting a turret.

Individual Ships

300 (All)
- Fixed an issue where the ladders on the 300 series ships were not retracting when the doors closed for takeoff.
315p
- Fixed an issue where the Origin 315p thrusters were not visible.
350r
- Fixed an issue where the Origin 350r was missing its main thrusters in both Hangar and AC.
- Fixed an issue where the countermeasure launchers on the 350r were misaligned.
Avenger Warlock
- Added a EMP weapon icon to the HUD of the ship.
Constellation Andromeda
- Fixed an issue where the lower right nacelle on the Constellation Andromeda would move in the wrong direction when detached.
- Fixed an issue where the Constellation Andromeda would often lack interior collision and characters could clip through the rear cargo hold and hull.
- Fixed an issue where the Constellation Andromeda would not self-destruct.
- Audio for the Constellations missile racks has been added.
Cutlass Black
- Updated the detail levels for various “damaged” states of the Cutlass Black, specifically for the nose, body and tail sections.
- Fixed an issue where the pilot would be stuck in their seat if the copilot exited their seat in the Cutlass first.
- Fixed an issue where the main thrusters of the Cutlass would continue to emit particle effects after having been destroyed.
Freelancer
- Fixed an issue where the gunner hands did not correctly grip the turret controls in the Freelancer.
- Graphical detail levels for damage and destruction states have been added.
- Fixed an issue where the Freelancer turret could not be fired.
- Fixed an issue where the Freelancer turret seat had no HUD.
- Fixed an issue where the Freelancer bed could not be exited while the ship was in flight.
Gladiator
- Fixed an issue where animations for entering the pilot and gunner seats were offset from the ship seats.
- Fixed an issue where the pilot hands did not correctly grip the controls after loading into a multiplayer AC match.
Gladius
- Fixed an issue where the ship-lights on the Gladius would not toggle on or off.
- Fixed an issue where the Gladius countermeasures would not fire in Arena Commander or Tutorial.
- Updated the detail levels for the Gladius for better transitioning from high to low details with distance or graphical settings.
- Fixed an issue where the pilot of a Gladius would occasionally hear “Landing Approved” or “Landing Complete” when bordering the ship.
M50
- Fixed an issue where there was no animation present for the M50 landing gear being deployed or retracted.
P-52 Merlin
- Updated the detail levels for the Merlin P-52 for better transitioning from high to low details with distance or graphical settings.
Retaliator
- Fixed an issue where the Aegis Retaliator could not self-destruct and noHUD message would appear.
- Fixed an issue where there was a red “Replace Me” texture ball at the top of the Retaliator ladder, behind the cockpit.
- Fixed an issue where pilot animations for the Retaliator were switched when “yawing” or rolling.
- Fixed an issue where the Retaliator would sometimes be unable to take off after being repaired at a Cry-Astro station.
- Fixed an issue where the automatic doors in the Retaliator wouldn’t register correctly if a character approached the doors several times in succession.
- Fixed an issue where the audio for the Retaliator elevator was switched. Playing the “lowering” sound while “raising” and visa-versa.
- Fixed an issue where the Retaliator turrets could very easily fire into the hull of the ship.
- Fixed an issue where the Retaliator interior would retain a “damaged” appearance even after being repaired.
Sabre
- Fixed an issue where the AEGIS Sabre had visible gaps in the nose and main body of the ship.
Vanduul Scythe
- Fixed an issue where the Vanduul Scythe had no or missing HUD when in Quantum Travel mode.
- Fixed an issue where the Vanduul Scythe was missing weapon firing animations.
Vanguard Warden
- The Vanguard Warden interior details and thruster VFX have received tweaks.
- Interior damage state have been implemented.
- Fixed an issue where the Vanguard could not self-destruct and no HUDmessage would appear.
- Fixed an issue where the pilot hand animations for the Vanguard flight stick were reversed.
- Fixed an issue where the Vanguard pilot would sometimes respawn with eyes visible in front of the camera.
- Fixed an issue where the Vanguard would spawn too far back on some of the Port Olisar landing pads.
- Fixed an issue where the player could clip through the stairs leading to the pilot chair.

Components

We fixed a bug with ship weapons that was causing the actual weapon damage dealt in-game to be extremely inconsistent shot-to-shot, and causing weapons to receive unintended multipliers in certain situations.
- As a result, ships in 2.2 may experience very different performance in combat. We are going to be monitoring this closely and will make adjustments as needed.
We have started a VFX pass on ship thrusters across all ship families. This is not yet complete, but you may notice small visual changes here and there.
The thrusters for many ship families have received a pass to update their level of detail.
Correct audio has been added for the Revenant Ballistic Gatling Gun.
Added audio cue for when a character picks up a weapon.
The overheat rate for Tarantula GT-870 and Tarantula GT-870 MK3 has been increased.
- Lowered fired rate and range of the Tarantula GT-870 MK3.

First Person:

Added additional detail levels for Marine and Outlaw loadouts.
Fixed an issue where clients would desync and see other characters stuck in a looping animation instead of idle.
Fixed an issue where characters would draw their weapon automatically on exiting the pilot seat in Crusader.
Fixed an issue where characters could be teleported to map origin after picking up a dropped FPS weapon.

P4-AR

Fixed an issue where swapping from the P4-AR to the Arclight Pistol while reloading would cause the rifle magazine to clip through the pistol.
Fixed an issue where the rear of the P4-AR rifle had extreme “blur” when aiming-down-sights.
Fixed an issue where swapping from the pistol to an empty P4-AR would cause your character to reload an invisible gun.
The P4-AR will now correctly “dry-fire” when out of ammo, instead of doing a magazine check.
Fixed an issue where the targeting reticle for the P4-AR was missing when aiming from the hip.

User Interface:

Fixed an issue where an empty “Ship Selection” drop down would appear on the tutorial lobby.
Fixed an issue where pressing backspace in the chat menu would cause the Crusader helmet HUD to re-initialize and disappear.
Fixed an issue where HOTAS users would find their ships going in reverse when in landing mode despite being at 0 throttle and zero-point on the joystick.

Ship HUD

Fixed an issue where the relative velocity indicator on ship HUDs would sometimes drop down to the lower corner of the screen and get stuck, whenever the ship strafed.
Fixed an issue where the ship HUD could be interacted with accidentally, outside of interactive mode.
We made several fixes to ships with multi-function displays, to address visual issues and readability.
Fixed an issue where ship HUDs would sometimes showed certain laser-type weapons as having ammo.
Fixed an issue where the “Target Status” hologram in the ship HUD were not updating to reflect the targets current damage.

Keybindings

Fixed an issue where some FPS controls could not be rebound in the keybindings menu.
We have updated the default profile mapping for the Saitek X-55 to support automatic landing zones, or strafing when on a manual landing.

Technical:

Crashes

Fixed a client crash when entering the Hangar.
Fixed a client crash in Arena Commander.
Fixes many client crashes involved with loading into Crusader or during normal game-play.
Fixed several dedicated server crashes.
Fixed an issue where computers with certain quad-core CPUs were crashing to desktop if a multicrew ship loaded in.
Fixed a crash that would occur when connecting to “Capture the Core” with a Mustang Alpha.
Fixed a client crash that would sometimes occur when quantum traveling.
Fixed a crash that would occur when exiting the game near the AI.
Fixed an issue where the dedicated game server instances would sometimes get stuck cycling in a “accepting more players” state despite being full.

Optimizations