How hard is it to design and build spaceships when certain gameplay mechanics aren't fully implemented yet?
TL;DRIt is a big challenge, so the team gets a high-level download of the planned feature and builds the ship so the interactable piece is modular and can be replaced later without redoing the whole room.
Yeah, it's a big challenge. If we're doing a ship that has a gameplay feature that we know is not going to come out with the ship, or is not going to come out anytime soon near the ship, we'll try and talk with Todd, Tony, Chris and get their high-level download of where they see the feature to be. And then when we're building that ship, we try and think of a way that minimizes rework for us down the line. Say we've got a ship with a feature that requires a big interactable thing in the room. We'll try and build that room where the thing you interact with can be easily taken out and replaced down the line. It's not integral to the room. It's not built into the mechanics of the room. So instead of having to redo that entire room, you're just redoing that one piece.
Building it modular.
Yeah, building it modular, or just building it very carefully. You know you're almost certainly going to have to go back and do something to it. You might as well not redo the entire ship for the sake of that.