New Citizen – August 2025 Development Update

Hello everyone,

It’s time for another development update on New Citizen. August has been a busy month focused on optimization, world expansion, new gameplay systems, and polishing the overall player experience. Below is a breakdown of the work completed:

Technical & Optimization Work

• Checked and tested migration to Unreal Engine 5.6
• Migrated the project to World Partition for improved streaming and performance
• Converted actors into Instanced Static Meshes (ISM) to reduce draw calls
• Optimized and replaced landscapes where necessary
• Converted most textures to Virtual Texturing (excluding small ones)
• Compressed and resized large textures for better performance
• Optimized models with high triangle counts
• Continued work on resolving MySQL database issues

World & Map Expansion

• Built an entirely new city, replacing the old main town
• Expanded suburban areas into new connected regions
• Added a desert biome, effectively doubling the map size
• Constructed a new desert town with gas stations along its highway
• Built an advanced tunnel system under a mountain, serving as the border between the desert and other biomes
• Added a new police headquarters in the city
• Imported a range of new buildings (not yet fully placed), including interiors such as:
  • Gun store
  • Bank
  • Two fast-food restaurant buildings
  • City hall
  • Mayor’s office
  • Department of Government offices within a high-rise

Character Customization

A new character customization system has been introduced, allowing players to modify:

• Hairstyles
• Beards
• Eye colors
• Face types
• Skin tones

Vehicles & First-Person Features

Vehicles have received significant upgrades to immersion and interactivity:

• First-person driving with full IK steering (hands on the wheel)
• Free look while driving (hold Left Alt)
• Individual vehicle door interactions
• Vehicle interior lights that react to doors opening or closing
• New vehicles added

User Interface & Menus

• Customized the main menu with new animations for a more polished presentation
• Redesigned the server browser to display more information, with a more advanced layout and Steam profile picture support
• Reworked in-game admin and gamemaster menus for improved usability

Crime & Gameplay Systems

• Robbable gas stations
• Bank robbery system
• Advanced police laptop system with a more professional and polished design
• Overhauled drug gameplay with a new weed system, now including:
  • Growing
  • Drying
  • Trimming
  • Rolling
  • Packaging
  • Selling
  • Networking
  • Phone system integration (in development)

This has been one of the most significant months of progress for New Citizen to date. Between the expanded world, improved optimization, character customization, vehicle immersion, and advanced gameplay systems, the project is continuing to move closer to its vision.

Thank you for following development and supporting the project. More updates will be shared soon.