Jonny Jacevicius · Lead FPS Systems Designer

Well, for a start, a lot of the systems that we have in game at the moment are the very, very first implementation of them. So when you think about it, it was very convenient for us to put that on something like the multi-tool, which is a very good base for swapping in and out attachments, changing the functionality of it, and getting the very first level of each of these mechanics in there. So when I talk about salvage, for example, the multi-tool, the iteration that we're putting in now, which is the very simplest form of salvage, is always what the multi-tool is going to do. It's not going to do anything more than that, but everything extrapolated out from that will be more like, for example, being able to take weapons off ships, cutting bits off and putting them in your Reclaimer, selling ship parts and stuff like that. That will all come down the line. So if people are saying that everything feels a bit beamy at the moment, it's because it's a much simpler interaction than what it's going to be down the line, but there's going to be a lot more considerations to take into account. And if you think about even the medical gun versus the multi-tool: if you have the medical attachment for the multi-tool, it's easy to run up to someone and go, hey, I'm going to heal you. I'm interacting with you. I'm firing the beam at you. Cool. That's basically what we wanted it to be. It's a very simple way of keeping someone alive, which is what we wanted it to be in the universe. It's like an emergency tool that you're using to stabilize someone. But when you look at the medical gun, you don't just run up to them and fire the beam, or you can if you want to, because the functionality is on there, but an advanced user or a medical practitioner will be going over to the advanced side, moving all the sliders around, checking all the symptoms, all the issues that they've got, and making some informed decisions based off that. Now, in terms of the beams, obviously, if we wanted to make this a bit more visceral and up close, we're going to end up taking a lot of control away from the player. So if, for example, Jared, you were down on the floor and you were wiggling around on the floor and I was trying to get hold of you, we would both have to be locked into place for that entire process, which might make both of us vulnerable, for example. Taking control away from the player is obviously sometimes appropriate, but doing it all the time for a lot of these different mechanics makes things a lot more difficult. So obviously, it's a bit nicer to keep player control in, keep people at range, and just have almost beam or range devices that let us perform some of these systems.