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Top level, what were our intentions for the ROC-DS?

TL;DRThe ROC-DS is meant to be a more efficient, better group experience than two small miners, with more capacity, reach and beam power, and balance may change with feedback.

Richard TyrerCore Gameplay Director

I'll jump in again. The premise when we release a vehicle that has multiple seats or multiple operator seats is that it should always be a better experience playing with your friends than it is on your own. Now, that's not to mean that playing on your own shouldn't be fun. You should be able to do what you want. But in terms of the ROC-DS, the plan was that it should be a more efficient way of mining and a more efficient way of doing the activity that you want, rather than having two smaller mining vehicles where you can go and do what you want. Having one singular larger vehicle, A, it's got a more powerful beam. It has a longer reach that can reach into areas that you can't get. And I know that that's not necessarily something that's going to be beneficial straight out of the box, but in the future when we add more accessible caves and things, that will become a factor. It's got four times the capacity of the base ROC. And again, I know that a lot of people currently use the mining vehicle, say, in the back of a ship. They'll fly to that location, mine, and then basically use the inventory system to take all the mineables out, create a box in their cargo grid, and keep going. So obviously they've kind of circumvented the limitation of the capacity of the vehicle, but the creation of that box was always supposed to be a temporary placeholder thing. So eventually when we do proper physical inventory, which I've talked numerous times about... Yeah, the creation of that box was always supposed to be a placeholder situation. You were supposed to be dealing with them on a manual basis. So eventually you'll have to remove those and basically be able to put them into your ship, but you won't just have this magic bag appearing in front of you. So when you talk about the ROC-DS having four times the capacity, you're actually driving into caves that are accessible, it's got a longer reach, it's got a stronger beam, then all of a sudden it becomes a reason, like, okay, I get it. And when you're driving in the caves, you want somebody to be focusing on driving and not tipping over, because it's going to be rough terrain, and one person just focusing on the beam itself. So essentially that is the high-level intentions. Obviously balance is subject to change depending on the feedback and what we get in there, but I think the first initial outset is looking pretty promising. I will say that obviously this information is being passed on through me, via John, to the community, but that is the intention. And I know that from a high-level point of view, it's definitely something that I've been involved in in terms of the intentions of multi-operator vehicles, for example for the tank. I'm always a big believer in the premise that you should be able to do the singular function by yourself, but then adding more people in makes it a better experience. So if you just want to go into the smaller vehicle and do it by yourself, you can do that. But if you go into the larger vehicle, in terms of the ROC-DS, it should be, A, more efficient. You're coordinating with your buddies, and you feel like you've got purpose playing together. So that is the current reasoning and intentions. But like you said, John will no doubt go into the absolute nitty-gritty of all the different decisions around that, but at least it gives everybody a high-level idea.

Star Citizen Live›All About Alpha 3.13·
Published on this date.9 Apr 2021