‘Star Citizen’ Talks Customization: This Ain’t No Cookie Cutter MMO

Tools, Tools And More Tools

RSI have seen fit to give us a whole bunch of things to work on, tweak and modify in our quest to build our perfect ship. Notice that I said our perfect ship and not the perfect ship because they have also recognized the fact that each person is going to fly differently, think differently, play differently and will want to build their perfect ship in a way that suits their play style. There will be no “perfect ship” for everyone because everyone is very different, from their core gameplay style all the way though which role they will take on in the universe.

To that end, here is a list of all of the things RSI has let us know we will be able to work on:

• Hull: Hull is where you can mount additional armor for protection, reduce your mass for better handling or modify your cross-section to limit your signature.
• Power Plant: Power Plants supply the power that the rest of your ship will consume. It’s the foundation on which all other systems function.
• Avionics: If the Power Plant is the heart of your ship, the avionics are the brain. Avionics calculate the advanced math required for the maneuvering thrusters, track and identify targets, and automatically route power and ensure functional life support. It is unique among systems in that it can also be upgraded with additional systems such as ITTS, better turret AI and a myriad of other options.
• Afterburners: Give a significant boost to thrust at the cost of expelling fuel inefficiently.
• Shield Generators: Protect the ship from spaceborne debris and hostile fire. Generators come in multiple sizes, and have varying levels of segmentation (single ‘bubble’, front/back, quadrant, etc.)
• Intake: Allows you to scoop free hydrogen in the vacuum of space or in the extreme upper atmosphere of gas giants to refill your working mass tank.
• Fuel Tank: The fuel tanks deliver mass in the form of hydrogen to the power plant, which in turn delivers energy to supercharge the fuel and expel it at speed. If you run out far from civilized space, you better hope you have Triple A! (Your computer will warn you when you reach ‘bingo fuel’ – the point of no return after which you will not be able to reach a friendly base.)
• Maneuvering Thrusters: Maneuvering thrusters are small thrusters that provide the majority of the pitch, roll and yaw control as well as correcting the ship’s velocity vector to be in the direction it’s pointing (if the IFCS is on). These can either be fixed in place, or have varying methods of articulation to improve control response.
• Main Thrusters: These provide the bulk of the forward thrust of a ship. Like maneuvering thrusters these can also be fixed in place or have thrust vectoring assist with the directional control of the craft. Articulated thrusters require more robust avionics.
• Miscellaneous: Weapon batteries to assist the recharge function of the energy weapons, ammo racks to store more ballistic ammunition, additional cooling systems to purge heat load, devices to hide your cargo, the list goes on and on…
• Class 1 Weapon: Forward-fixed weapons that can mount larger weapon systems.
• Class 2 Weapon: Gimbal-mounted weapons that have limited pivot in a fixed direction. The increased cone of fire comes at the cost of smaller weapon size.
• Class 3 Hardpoint: Class 3 hardpoints can mount a variety of underbelly gear such as missile racks or extra fuel tanks.
• Class 4 Hardpoint: Generally used to mount turrets, some ships can also use these hardpoints for increased cargo space and other ships systems.

As you can plainly see, that is a lot of stuff to work on. We’re also being told that there’s not going to be a one-stop-shop for this stuff, either. Sure, you’ll probably be able to find dealers who will sell every one of these types of items, but they won’t sell the top-of-the-line equipment in each category and may not even sell the kind you’re looking for at all. So when you’re wanting to reduce your cross section in order to be more stealthy, you may have to bounce around the universe for a while until you find the guy who sells the hull you’re looking for and that guy probably won’t sell the supah-groovy battery, ammo racks and avionics upgrade you’re seeking.

Every part in the game has a cost in credits that must be paid to purchase it, but just having the money isn’t enough. Not all parts are available everywhere, and even the locations that normally sell certain items can be out of stock if the supply chain to the factory has been disrupted. Players will need to travel far and wide to locate all the parts they wish to install.

We’re also being let in on the fact that you can get your hands on illegally-modified parts from various nefarious elements in the game, so it’s completely feasible that you could fly out to Spider and pick up a shield generator which has been hacked to produce a lower energy signature but still give you the same shielding capability as one with a bigger signature. Just don’t get caught using it by the Advocacy, or you may end up with a missile in your tailpipe. This also holds true for any non-citizens who get their hands on equipment which is only permitted for citizens and military, so if you don’t gain citizenship, your options will be limited there as well.

Many of the best ship parts are strictly limited to Citizens of the UEE, and others are completely forbidden. Pilots who choose to flout the rules in UEE space will be fined, have their contraband confiscated, or possibly be engaged by the Advocacy in the pursuit of their duties.

Suck it, pirate scum!

Of course, players will also have the option to upgrade their own equipment by tweaking the performance of just about everything. It sounds like you can “overclock” everything from your CPU to your avionics system to your guns, engines, power plant, etc. You’re just going to want to make sure you don’t get too crazy because you can damage the components if you push them too hard. Make small adjustments, then test, adjust, test, test, test… otherwise you could find yourself in the middle of a firefight with guns that have overheated and burned themselves out because you passed their tolerances. Where will you be then, tough guy?

Those tolerances aren’t known, though: sometimes a laser might get a 10% boost… rarer a 20% boost… and other times you might cause your overclocked gun to just generate excessive heat… or even damage itself! We anticipate some players will make a living overclocking upgrades and selling them to others at a premium… it’s our equivalent of an MMO crafting system without the artificial “leveling” mechanic taking you out of the game.

Space crafting? OK! Sounds hot to me!

Now we’ll touch on one last thing: the pipelines.

RSI has gone so far into this whole customization and personalization thing that they’ve even started charting out the various system pipelines so everything in a ship, from the power distribution system to the heads-up display subsystem can be charted, modified and tweaked. They’ve released a little graphic, which I’m sure isn’t inclusive, that scratches the surface of the pipeline situation to give future players an idea of what to expect when building their dream ship.

Again, just amazing. Knowing that once you start down the path of tweaking all of these options, you’re going to have to stay on top of your power creation and distribution systems, avionics, processing, heat dissipation, shield efficiency, batteries, displays, etc. It can sound a little bit overwhelming, but I’m sure there will be hundreds, if not thousands of players who get deep into the theorycraft of this game and spend enough time trying out new combinations of upgrades and tweaks that they end up with their own personal fleet of ships designed to do everything from stealth intercepting to capital ship warfare.

I know I’ll be up to my eyelashes in that!

That’s about all I have for this update but if you’d like to read more, head on over to the story at RSI and give it a good read-through. There’s a ton of information there and be sure to pledge while you’re at it. Seriously!