John Crewe · Vehicle Pipeline Director

So, as you say, final art complete is only probably about three quarters of the way through the actual pipeline, because we have the... it confuses some people. We have the final stage and then we have the release prep stage afterwards, because the final art stage essentially gives you the 100% complete intact model that needs all its optimization, and then needs all the other departments to make that go from something that's in 3ds Max to an actual in-game asset, to something that can be used as a ship and then looks great with lighting, audio, VFX, UI, all that stuff that comes on. Damage states. The rest of the other departments' final state is all of that. And then you have the release state, which is doing all the LODs, doing all the damage, doing all the bug testing. So when something's final art, it's not a week away from being released. Depending on the size of the ship, it could be months or even years from where it is. But for the Idris specifically, that missile room is still not done. So that is still there to be done. And part of it is Chris and Erin have talked to me a lot about, we want to save the Idris for Squadron. We want your first experience with it to be in Squadron, learning the crew and having that great experience. And for me, that's still the case. So part of that's the reason why it's not on the roadmap, because it will come out after Squadron is done, and our roadmap only covers the next few quarters. And I've also forgotten the other reason I was going to say... that there's still stuff changing because of Squadron. So you will have noticed in the livestream last year, we had these pilot ready rooms. They were a new thing last year that we reworked a chunk of the ship around. So there's still little bits going in.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

It's like the hero asset of Squadron 42. It's your player's home. It's probably the location that you'll see more than most locations, I would imagine, if that's safe to say.

John Crewe · Vehicle Pipeline Director

There's large bits of the story where it's about you learning the ship and learning the crew and exploring it as a pilot on board, whereas if you've been given it in the PU and you know that ship inside out because you've spent hundreds of thousands of hours running around it in the PU, it sort of takes away the charm of some of Squadron.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

So I imagine we're going to be tweaking and adjusting and improving the Idris right up to the point where we have to push it out the door with Squadron, because it's such an important part of that game.

John Crewe · Vehicle Pipeline Director

Yeah, and there's also bits that the PU needs that Squadron doesn't need. So once Squadron are happy with it, we can finish off the rest of the art pipeline. And then from there, we need to do all the extra bits that are behind the scenes for PU support.