Nick Wardle · Economy Team

So that's actually a StarSim/Quantum conversation, and the sensible answer is it depends. What you're essentially asking is: will NPCs in the StarSim system be physicalized? That's essentially the question you're asking, and the answer is it depends.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

And that's been in the Quantum design for forever. I'm sorry, I'm still not used to calling it StarSim. There will be a selection of them that are physicalized, and then the overwhelming majority of them will not be, just because there's no use taking the performance hit for that. So the answer to how many will be will almost certainly come down to a performance thing as the game continues to evolve and as Server Meshing comes online and we start seeing the various performance improvements that we get from that, as all the game systems are hardened and developed in line with Server Meshing. We start to see all these performance improvements that, I swear, we're all dying for just as much as you are. That will determine how many of those other ones we can physicalize and put in there. There's not a person who works here that doesn't want to see that line of ships leaving Area18 and going up into orbit and hitting quantum. We all want it. But it will always come down to a question of: do we have that, or do we have another player? And we're always going to pick another player first. So that's not a question that we have an answer for. There will be some amount of it, but we couldn't tell you how many yet.

Nick Wardle · Economy Team

That's actually super interesting that you say another player, Jared, because these missions will tend to concentrate players. Because the routes are grade-specific and the grades are ship-specific, you will tend to find traffic of a certain type on certain routes.

Jorrit · Mission Designer

The chances are that as more players become available on a server, you'll see actual shipping lanes and logistical supply lines.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

Distribution centers.

Jorrit · Mission Designer

Exactly. All of that form, and actually it being player-driven.