10 for the Chairman: Episode 10 (2014.03.03)

Well yeah, I would think if you're hauling a bunch of cargo and you've got well defended or well armored cargo ships, and perhaps you've hired some mercenaries or friends of yours to fly escort with you, you should be able to defend yourself against a raiding party of fighters.I mean if you're flying completely unarmed cargo freighters and that's it, and there's fighters, then obviously you won't be able to, but we're designing most the ships to have weaponry. So the Freelancer is a pretty well armed cargo ship, maybe the Starfarer isn't as maneuverable as something like a Freelancer will be, but it's gonna have guns and turrets. If you're taking a Starfarer and taking some goods, you're probably gonna hire some people to fly escort for you.So that's how you would have to approach that. You can hire NPCs, or you could have your friends help you, or hire other players.So I'm hoping that will ensure reasonable balance of power. Then of course if you're trading in the safe areas, the regulated areas, there are significant penalties for people trying to attack you and raid you.So you're likely to be fairly safe trading inside the core UEE worlds, but as you get further out, you'll be less safe.

I would say yes there will be different jump points.Dave, I mean let's see, I think we've discussed this, but we haven't really designed fully the mechanics, right? We've talked about potentially having some jump points that only smaller ships could path or maybe you have to fly in with a small ship, and then a big ship has to fly in a different route.

Right, the recently proposed stretch goal one was the human one that collapsed, but we don't know if that's gonna be a persistent thing or...Chris: Right, well definitely there will be jump points that go from one system to another system and you won't be able to come back.So you always have to find the entrance and there could be one-way jump points, and there could be two-way jump points.No there will not be collapsing jump points, it's more about the jump points that larger ships can't use.We haven't 100%, we've had that discussion 'cause we were talking about it in the Squadron 42 story where there's gonna be parts in Squadron 42 where we actually have to chart a jump point and go into uncharted territory. We were debating, when you go through, can a Carrier follow you, and you chart the jump point just in a fighter.So we haven't fully figured that out, but there will definitely be different paths. So you got a tiny bit of info on Squadron 42 too.

Ok, so yes, there will definitely be an official bounty system.So basically on the bounty hunting, there will be an official list of bounties. It will be like the FBI most wanted list, or whatever you would have. The United Nation's most wanted list.Those will appear on...So we're planning to have a mission board that will be per-system. It's where you'd go to look for work, and that mission board would have certain sub-categories. So if you're a trader, basically a trucker, and you're like, "Ok, I wanna haul cargo," you can go there and there will be jobs for you to either take cargo, paid per run, from here to here, and there will be jumps for you to fly someone else's ship.The same goes for bounty hunting. If you're a bounty hunter it will be like seeing the posted bounties, which is kind of what happens in America for bounties. The FBI or local police will have bounties out to bring in various people on the run. So there will be a global bounty hunting system that there will be benefits from.It won't just be going after people in space. There will also be some tracking that you can also do down on the planet side.So it should be pretty cool. Yeah, there will definitely be an official bounty system.

Yes, you will be able to repair damage to your ship, and you will be able to explore wrecks.So we're gonna have EVA in the game, pretty much most of the ships will have airlocks that will allow you to go outside. Some of the ships like the Hornet doesn't really have that. You would have to open the canopy, vent your air, then detach yourself from the seat.But yeah, we have a full zero-g plan for movement, so if you have an EVA suit, it will have little thrusters to move around. You'll also be able to grab hold on the side of things.So if you think like the movie Gravity, so that's all stuff that the team working on first person combat is doing. So they've got zero-g combat, EVA stuff, on their plate, and we're focusing on simulating that correctly.The idea would be that you're going outside to potentially board other ships, or potentially go out and do some patch up repairs. You'll never be able to properly repair your ship, you have to do that down on a planet, but just to get you going.Those are all things you'd do, and I definitely think there could be a case where you'd EVA into a space wreck. Which is essentially a boarding mission.So yeah, it should really be cool.