So this [the MISC Starlight] is a refueler. Why make a new refueler?
TL;DRA smaller, earlier entry point into refueling was needed because the Starfarer is too big, so this ship reuses the Starfarer's fuel pods and offers the same refueling gameplay at about a quarter of the size.
Because we need another one. The opening into refueling can't be the Starfarer. It's too big. It's too far on through the game progression. We needed something earlier, smaller, just for one person to get out there and start engaging with the gameplay. And one of the early design brief parts of this was to have interoperability with the Starfarer, so it reuses the Starfarer fuel pods, and they are quite large. And just having one didn't really give you that much fuel to do refueling with. Plus we needed the two types of fuel, one for quantum and hydrogen. So it becomes quite a large ship for what is essentially a starter in the refueling career, but it does everything the Starfarer does in about a quarter of the size. It does all of the refueling gameplay that the Starfarer does.
I remember when we first kicked off the concept and we were like, okay, let's get the fuel pods in. Where are we going to put the ship? Because they're so big.
Well, there is a reason it looks so cute and tubby, because there was no space left. This is from Laith, and he had to squash a lot of components, an entire dashboard, interiors, in a very limited amount of space with these massive refueling pods.
And it needed the refueling arm. And they needed to be accessible so they could be tractor-beamed out. And they wanted a lift. It was one of those things where there was a long list of things that we needed to tick off as we were concepting this. And I think they smashed it.