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With the implementation of FPS tractor beam gameplay, what impacts do you foresee on things like push-pull? Will tractor beaming around supersede this mechanic?

TL;DRNo, the tractor beam will not replace zero-G push-pull; it is one of several EVA mechanics (with limited fuel and battery) that are meant to be balanced against each other.

Richard TyrerCore Gameplay Director

Absolutely not. So my teams work on push-pull. We're working on it right now. The way the tractor beam is going to work in terms of EVA traversal is, if you look at, say, traversal on ground, you have things like vault and mantle and jump and sprint. And if you look at an Assassin's Creed game, you've got wall climbing and rope traversal and ledge climbing. And that creates all of these different ingredients for players or for designers to then craft spaces that allow you to go, OK, let's have a jump, followed by this mechanic, then followed by this mechanic. So you can create these interesting layered systems across all these different mechanics to create traversal puzzles. And that's basically what they fundamentally are. But we don't necessarily have that in an EVA space. Now, tractor beam, obviously, the grapple hook, at the moment it's your Spider-Man in space. Now, obviously, fundamentally, that doesn't mean that you're just going to have this and you can just tractor beam forever. But vice versa, you've also got unlimited EVA fuel. So at the moment, you can just EVA everywhere you want to go. You can tractor beam everywhere you want to go. So for 3.12, I'd say really enjoy that, guys, because that's something that is not going to be a long-term endeavor, because what we want to do to create a more fun experience is that, OK, I've got limited fuel in my EVA pack, so I don't want to be stuck out in the black without fuel. And then it's like, OK, I've got a limited battery on my multi-tool, but maybe I'm using that multi-tool for salvage purposes. Maybe I'm using it for cutting. Maybe I'm using it for healing. Maybe I'm using it for the tractor beam. So all of a sudden, you've got a limited-use tool that has multiple uses in gameplay, but could potentially get you out of a bind, or if you need a long-range grapple hook in EVA. And then you've got zero-G push-pull. Now zero-G push-pull, the fundamentals of it, it's free. So it's just under your own effort. You're not consuming a resource. So the zero-G push-pull is kind of like wall climbing. That's the one where you want to be going, I get to a location, let's say it's a derelict. I can now zero-G push-pull. I'm pulling myself around. I'm pulling myself inside. I'm using these grab holds to get to my location. And you're like, cool, but I'm not expending any resource. And all of a sudden there, we have these three mechanics. We have zero-G push-pull, we have tractor beam, and we have EVA. And you've got to then balance it and go, OK, maybe I should use this, maybe I should use this, depending on what armor I'm wearing. How much EVA fuel capacity do I have? How much battery do I have? Do I have the correct suit that can recharge that battery? And all of that stuff is coming. I gave a talk at CitizenCon on how we're going to be converting armor to ships. That's still the case. That's still the plan. We're working on all of this going forward. So absolutely not. Categorically, no, is the answer to is it going to kill zero-G push-pull, because it's one facet. It's like us releasing jump and saying, is that going to kill sprinting? That's not the case. The intention is that we're trying to mix all of these things up to create meaningful gameplay spaces.

Star Citizen Live›All About Alpha 3.12·
Published on this date.11 Dec 2020