I've been wondering, with all the fantastic work you guys are putting into updating all the damage states and the impact physics how will this affect long term game play? Say I'm a lousy shot but still want to help my friends by turning a wrench, could I help keep the ship floating in a tough spot?asked by Alex Valentine
TL;DRHopefully yes: engineering will be an involved role, including bringing components back from near destruction and temporarily overclocking them, so non-combat players can contribute meaningfully to the ship.
Hopefully, I mean... I'm really not a particularly good dogfighter. I mostly pilot and am interested in doing engineering work myself. It's a pretty involved element of play including for because not only will you be able to bring components back from the brink of death, but you will be able to... it ties into the workbench and overclocking there. You'll be able to do some of that on a short term limited basis of... you know, go over and really get the powerplant to put out a lot more power for this duration and be sure to shut off the valve again before it explodes... but you'll have a lot of opportunity to really contribute to the performance of your ship even if you aren't contributing to what that ship is doing.
The goal is just everything can have that active hands-on gameplay to it. So, you're never going to just be that guy tagging along for the ride progress barring your way through your task. You'll have something to do and keep you involved with your friends.