Why did the Harbinger and Sentinel get delayed?
TL;DRThe ships weren't specifically delayed, as the schedule was revised for all ships due to shifting priorities such as mining and Squadron 42 needs and the availability of artists suited to each ship.
Delayed is a bit of a misnomer. We had a schedule for all of our ships at one point, and then we revised the schedule for all of our ships, and then we revised the schedule for one of our ships. It wasn't anything specific for the Harbinger and Sentinel. It's a matter of priorities. As something like mining comes online, obviously a Prospector is going to get a higher priority. As needs for Squadron 42 arise, those ships get priority, which is why you have something like the Reclaimer playable now, because it was necessary for Squadron 42, as you saw in the vertical slice last year. It's just a priorities change. It's not a decision generally related to one specific ship or another. It's an overall global thing. It also has to do with availabilities. Not every ship artist is appropriate to work on every ship. Some artists have a style more akin to Origin, and some artists have a style more akin to Drake. And as those artists become available, you tend to rearrange things. Okay, this person's available, so we move that to them. But this person will be available, so we give them a ship that's appropriate for them to work on. There's a lot of factors going in. Like most things in game development, there's not just one reason for anything.
Generally, you don't try to change out your artist halfway through a painting. So it's kind of the same mentality.
It's like for any kind of art. Robert De Niro is a great actor, but you wouldn't ask him to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. So you have to look at your team, you have to look at the strengths of your team, you have to look at the availabilities of your team, then you have to look at the needs of the game, and then you have to find the places where those match. Put those together when it comes to scheduling spaceships.