Ship combat

They say engineering balance isn't where they want it, plan to keep tuning it over the next year, and want AI soft-death and cargo changes, while admitting development needs to be faster.

Maelstrom is technically complete in Squadron 42 and is meant to replace the current armor system wholesale in Star Citizen, but still needs network integration and balancing, and is expected among the early features brought over.

The ship carries a large mix of manned and remote ballistic turrets in sizes 12, 10 and 8 plus two piloted quadruple laser cannons, all weapons built specifically for it rather than generic PU weapons.

A first version of armor is coming as part of engineering when it returns to PTU, and they say it will change combat balance and reward larger crews.

In 4.5 the Polaris's back-right bridge station will get torpedo control, but the pilot won't, because the team wants enforced balance between ships and the Polaris torpedoes are far stronger than the Perseus's.

Short term, ships will draw ammo from the cargo grid and can restock, rearm and refuel docked ships from it, while longer term the Perseus's two turret rooms have space reserved for manually loading specific ammo.

AI blades are still wanted and intended, as part of keeping solo players supported, but the speakers say the current implementation isn't how blades will eventually work and give no timing.

Subcomponent targeting is coming, but knowing where ship components and weak points are, such as uneven hull thickness, remains the better skill, and learning your own ship's weak spots gives pilots an advantage.

They say the shown ping was deliberately the strongest version and is still being balanced, with tunable parameters and possible low-emission suits, decoys or jammers as counters, and they don't want radar to trivialise PvP.

Mixed flight controls between pilot and co-pilot are unlikely, but a planned controller change should let weapons like a Cutlass Black's forward gimbals be handed to another seat.

Master Modes is meant to fix combat by dealing with excessive high speed, bringing fights closer so they're about outmaneuvering opponents, without capping speed outright because travel matters too.

The two modes are a combat mode (name still under discussion) for most gameplay, and NAV mode, which allows quantum travel and high speeds but disables shields and weapons.

Earlier attempts included speed-based nerfs and shield changes, but each fix created another problem; they think Master Modes avoids that loop.

It was partly a eureka moment, but the big change needed approval from many teams, who had to be convinced it wouldn't break racing and other systems.

The plan is for ships to hide in gas clouds, but not yet; it depends on an upcoming rebalance of EM and IR signatures, ambient signatures, and a new cross-section signature.

Flare and chaff were renamed to decoy and noise field to better reflect what they do with Star Citizen's multiple signatures and reduce confusion with real-world meanings.

No official change to separate racers from interceptors is planned; John Crewe personally would like it, but it hasn't been decided and would need internal consensus.

Armor currently exists only as a flat per-damage-type reduction on top of hit points, with physically-based damage planned as a long, ongoing effort, and no armor stat is on the ship matrix yet because it would not be useful.

They try to turn intangibles into numbers, such as scoring weapon arc range, even for value judgments, which is a core and challenging part of the economy designer's job.

Escape from interdiction is still being worked out, but the interdictor chooses power, which sets the field's range and probability curve, trading how quickly victims can re-engage quantum against attracting more attention.

The Phalanx Shield is meant to be powerful but even more skill-reliant than normal shields, rewarding players who manage it well, with shield management systems still being worked on.

Yes, non-lethal modules like EMP will be possible on other ships, usually bigger ones, as the game is built around swappable components, though producing all the component variety takes time.

Self-destruct is intended to have an audible countdown that attackers might disable and be limited to the owner or approved captain, with a possible owner-only snap-destruct that kills the owner, still in development.

The Hornet's toughness was a bug giving it far more health than intended, and the developers expect tuning changes to the new multi-crew ships over coming patches, relying on community feedback.

Both Caterpillar sides will open as clamshells and bullets should pass through if nothing is in the way, though there will usually be something inside to hit.

Signal range, signature, CPU-based encryption, transmitting and receiving equipment, interception and code cracking are all planned as team gameplay on bigger ships, with a fair amount of it in the long run.

Some longer-range smart weapons will probably come once the 64-bit Large World tech is in, but not in vast amounts since beyond-visual-range combat isn't very fun.

Electronic countermeasures and modular systems are being built into some ships, but he isn't sure the Carrack will have such features, though he thinks modular plug-in systems are likely there.

Friends joining bigger ships is definitely planned, but the first release will have only small single-seat ships because larger ones need many more assets; bigger ships may come around mid-next-year, hopefully.