Star Citizens Introduces New Ship Engineering Mechanics For Alpha 4.0 | MMORPG.com

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Star Citizens Introduces New Ship Engineering Mechanics For Alpha 4.0 | MMORPG.com

Ship engineering updates announced as part of Inside Star citizen are pretty major, and will change the way players assemble crews and fly their spaceships. 

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Wargfoot

The term Alpha 4.0 made me giggle.

Dattelis

How many Alphas are they shooting for before Beta? Any believers know?

Kyleran

If you have to ask you are not Star Citizen material.

Blueliner

Wargfoot said:

The term Alpha 4.0 made me giggle.

only 37 more to go!

Wargfoot

Blueliner said:

Wargfoot said:

The term Alpha 4.0 made me giggle.

only 37 more to go!

Optimists don't last long around here.
You've been warned.

Grymmoire

And as our ancestors huddle in Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe enjoying a meal as they watch the Universe explode, look it's the final release of Star Citizen how apt. Huzzah!

OldKingLog

::sigh:: What's going to come out first? This game or actual galaxy crossing star ships?

daveospice

Did they overhaul component buying so you can buy from anywhere and have it delivered to your storage on a station? No?

Then this just makes the game even more annoying to play. If a part breaks, you'll have to fly to some station an hour away to get the same part and slot that. Otherwise you'll still have to go buy extra parts if you want to stock up replacements.

Angrakhan

Sounds very complicated with lots of opportunities for bugs.

Erillion

Angrakhan said:

Sounds very complicated with lots of opportunities for bugs.

Like life. How realistic ;-)

Have fun

Scot

OldKingLog said:

::sigh:: What's going to come out first? This game or actual galaxy crossing star ships?

I have already said on here we will get humans to Mars first, and don't forget they have to properly launch two games, not just one, so I stand by that. NASA is saying the 2030's, that starts in only six years time.

Rhime

daveospice said:

Did they overhaul component buying so you can buy from anywhere and have it delivered to your storage on a station? No?



Then this just makes the game even more annoying to play. If a part breaks, you'll have to fly to some station an hour away to get the same part and slot that. Otherwise you'll still have to go buy extra parts if you want to stock up replacements.

I believe that only applies to size 3(large) or higher components...

Kyleran

Scot said:

OldKingLog said:

::sigh:: What's going to come out first? This game or actual galaxy crossing star ships?

I have already said on here we will get humans to Mars first, and don't forget they have to properly launch two games, not just one, so I stand by that. NASA is saying the 2030's, that starts in only six years time.

Well of course, landing humans on Mars is only rocket science, making Star Citizen is much harder, takes longer, and nearly as expensive apparently.

MaxBacon

One of the most exciting parts of SC to me, a system with depth to actually give gameplay to multi-crew takes, an actual need and benefit playing together on the same ship. This will make combat within multi-crew ships much more interesting having to run around physically maintaining and controlling what is happening with the ship.


In a nutshell, a big point of all of this is to have much longer ship survivability, more manouverability to thinker around bad situations and not just ship explosions.

riningear

Erillion said:

Angrakhan said:

Sounds very complicated with lots of opportunities for bugs.

Like life. How realistic ;-)

Have fun

A giant, and I mean massive, dead bug materialized on my living room floor this morning. Confirmed realism, give RSI your money. (But I'm actually interested in seeing how well this update works out for them. Seems like one of their better overhauls.)

FrodoFragins

It feels like just more fluff done to keep devs busy until meshing works.

MaxBacon

FrodoFragins said:

It feels like just more fluff done to keep devs busy until meshing works.

Engineering is the opposite of fluff, it's giving a purpose to multi-crew on ships, add the maintenance factor AND increase ship survivability on combat scenarios, it's not a superficial implementation either with the physicalization done of the components/atmosphere/electrics, etc.

Ship interiors without mechanics as that is what would be fluff.

riningear

FrodoFragins said:

It feels like just more fluff done to keep devs busy until meshing works.

Server meshing is getting introduced/tested with 4.0, too, I think they mentioned somewhere in the ether.

Kyleran

About time, I think server meshing was first mentioned back in 2020 maybe?

Entire MMORPGS have been delivered in less time. 

olepi

In actual software development, the word "alpha" has a real meaning, it means that all of the sub-systems have been written and gone through unit test and the entire product has been integrated for the first time. Alpha is short, leading to beta when the whole code has been tested as a system and is expected to mostly work.  

If you are still adding new features then you are not at alpha yet, you are still in unit development. In those terms, SC isn't at alpha stage yet, it is still in development.

In gaming terms, and the way SC uses it, the term "alpha" has no real meaning. Alpha 4.0 is absurd on its face.

Scot

MaxBacon said:

One of the most exciting parts of SC to me, a system with depth to actually give gameplay to multi-crew takes, an actual need and benefit playing together on the same ship. This will make combat within multi-crew ships much more interesting having to run around physically maintaining and controlling what is happening with the ship.


In a nutshell, a big point of all of this is to have much longer ship survivability, more manouverability to thinker around bad situations and not just ship explosions.

How has that grouping gameplay fared over the development period, is there less or more of it? What are the benefits of grouping because that will decide if anyone actually groups? Finally you do realise that once the game launches the clamour to be able to fly a "Death Star" solo will begin, because everything MUST be solo super casual?

It is a laudable aim, but as a grouping fan all we every see is the diminishing of any benefits to grouping and the reducing of the number of times you need or even can group. That has been the direction of travel in MMOs since MMO history began, how does SC think it can stand against that tide?

Wargfoot

Scot said:

MaxBacon said:

One of the most exciting parts of SC to me, a system with depth to actually give gameplay to multi-crew takes, an actual need and benefit playing together on the same ship. This will make combat within multi-crew ships much more interesting having to run around physically maintaining and controlling what is happening with the ship.


In a nutshell, a big point of all of this is to have much longer ship survivability, more manouverability to thinker around bad situations and not just ship explosions.

How has that grouping gameplay fared over the development period, is there less or more of it? What are the benefits of grouping because that will decide if anyone actually groups? Finally you do realise that once the game launches the clamour to be able to fly a "Death Star" solo will begin, because everything MUST be solo super casual?

It is a laudable aim, but as a grouping fan all we every see is the diminishing of any benefits to grouping and the reducing of the number of times you need or even can group. That has been the direction of travel in MMOs since MMO history began, how does SC think it can stand against that tide?

I think the desire for solo combat control of even the largest ship is a real concern; however, I think the bigger issue may be small teams of players that man a multi-crew ship with stunning precision.  

These ships will have to be powerful to justify the cost in man power, for example, a five man battleship should be able to waste a five ship pirate ship onslaught.  If five small ships are more effective in PvP then nobody will use the large ships, the five man teams that make a large ship powerful will make the losers cry rivers on the forums.

In short, the undertaking here is far more complex than balancing 1v1 encounters.

Scot

Wargfoot said:

I think the desire for solo combat control of even the largest ship is a real concern; however, I think the bigger issue may be small teams of players that man a multi-crew ship with stunning precision.  

These ships will have to be powerful to justify the cost in man power, for example, a five man battleship should be able to waste a five ship pirate ship onslaught.  If five small ships are more effective in PvP then nobody will use the large ships, the five man teams that make a large ship powerful will make the losers cry rivers on the forums.

In short, the undertaking here is far more complex than balancing 1v1 encounters.

This has to be very carefully balanced, as you say that five man ship should be able to take on more than five solo craft. But if that five man ship can outpace those five one man craft there could be overpowering issues.

For this to work I would expect to see a lot of trials for different levels of power/speed/ability to repair on the fly (if they have that) etc. They really need to nail that down before the game hits beta which should be about fine tuning.

Wargfoot

Scot said:

Wargfoot said:

I think the desire for solo combat control of even the largest ship is a real concern; however, I think the bigger issue may be small teams of players that man a multi-crew ship with stunning precision.  

These ships will have to be powerful to justify the cost in man power, for example, a five man battleship should be able to waste a five ship pirate ship onslaught.  If five small ships are more effective in PvP then nobody will use the large ships, the five man teams that make a large ship powerful will make the losers cry rivers on the forums.

In short, the undertaking here is far more complex than balancing 1v1 encounters.

This has to be very carefully balanced, as you say that five man ship should be able to take on more than five solo craft. But if that five man ship can outpace those five one man craft there could be overpowering issues.

For this to work I would expect to see a lot of trials for different levels of power/speed/ability to repair on the fly (if they have that) etc. They really need to nail that down before the game hits beta which should be about fine tuning.

What about the guy piloting the mega-ship with four of his bots?
That is some funny stuff, that.

Arglebargle

Scot said:

Wargfoot said:

I think the desire for solo combat control of even the largest ship is a real concern; however, I think the bigger issue may be small teams of players that man a multi-crew ship with stunning precision.  

These ships will have to be powerful to justify the cost in man power, for example, a five man battleship should be able to waste a five ship pirate ship onslaught.  If five small ships are more effective in PvP then nobody will use the large ships, the five man teams that make a large ship powerful will make the losers cry rivers on the forums.

In short, the undertaking here is far more complex than balancing 1v1 encounters.

This has to be very carefully balanced, as you say that five man ship should be able to take on more than five solo craft. But if that five man ship can outpace those five one man craft there could be overpowering issues.

For this to work I would expect to see a lot of trials for different levels of power/speed/ability to repair on the fly (if they have that) etc. They really need to nail that down before the game hits beta which should be about fine tuning.

That'll take a while.  They'll easily fly past a billion....