David Colson · Gameplay Programmer

So I think one of the biggest things under this topic is that, because the flight model is obviously super core to how you fight in ships, a lot of the other combat-related mechanics tend to be thought to be tightly related. But the flight model is purely just moving the ship. So things like the gunnery, the weapon balance, the shield balance, armor, all of that stuff, that is not the flight model. That is something else.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Content Manager for Global Video Production

So game balance, as it were, whether this ship can beat this ship, whether this ship is more maneuverable than some other ship, that's not flight model. That's game balance, and that's handled by a series of designers. If you've been following the project, you've met 100 designers over the course of Star Citizen's development. Those are the ones that will take the tools that something like the flight model provides them and then tweak them and change them for each individual ship.

David Colson · Gameplay Programmer

It's worth noting as well that those things are not balanced and designed in isolation from the flight model. They're just different things. So you sort of have your shield balance and your weapon balance and your flight model balance, and the combination of all three of those goes into the balance of combat.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Content Manager for Global Video Production

So when we see a lot of questions about how will this ship fly or how will that ship fly, that's not necessarily in the wheelhouse of you and your team. You're working on the general overall model, and then the designers will go in and take the model that your team has created for them and tweak it for the individual ship parameters.

David Colson · Gameplay Programmer

I want to give the idea of how much of a collaboration this is. Obviously, to get the best result out of the flight model, I work with designers really, really closely, and I sometimes work with the other ship balance tasks just so that we can make sure that everyone's on the same page and we're all working towards the larger goal, which is the game.