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Weapons 2.0, Blocking Quantum & Flight Control

Welcome to some more Star Citizen with a Summary of the Calling All Devs information from 7th May 2018 – Everything Flight Control and More.

Weapons 2.0
Weapons 2.0 is the refactor of both FPS and Ship Weapons to the new item 2.0 system. This makes it more efficient, easier to mod, the items customizable & falls in line with what they want with the game.
The system also allows them to make many more weapons much more easily.
All of the features, fire modes and damage types are available for them to use for other weapons without additional code support, rather than having to make each weapon bespoke and separately.
The New system allows them to do live tweaks, so they can edit things like weapon recoil while playing.
They are looking at making FPS weapons “more punchy”.
FPS weapons are fully modifiable allowing for attachments, which will be coming in a future patch. Things like silencers, compensators, scopes. You’re PMA will show physical & stats changes to weapons.
Ships weapons can be tied directly in with the heat and power systems. Previously we have only had weapon on / off and weapon overheating ot a very simple level.
They can now look at the exact amount of power it’s receiving, this could affect it’s performance. Potentially the hotter a weapon is firing, the more damage it might do OR it will wear faster.
Some of this functionality may be seen with 3.2 in June with the Item 2.0 Ship Systems & Weapons – Power Allocation feature planned.

Galatipedia
You’ll be able to access a huge amount of ingame lore and info via the mobiGlas’ Galatipedia (which is the history/encyclopedia of star citizen in a diegetic (in game) format). It’s also probably going to be available online on a website too. Implementation wise it’s being worked on by Turbulent currently.
Cherie Heiberg the Lore Archivist for Star Citizen would like the Ark to be a visit-able place in game, this would be the combination of a museum and have access to the Galatipedia on a much grander stage.

Quantum Travel Intentions
Currently QT is only blocked by large celestial bodies like planetoids, planets and moons.
Though the system won’t allow you to initiate QT if there is something directly in front of you at a very short distance tho.
They are looking at having asteroids & other object blocking QT in the future potentially, or pulling you out of QT. They are looking at a more efficient way of doing it than the current raycasting tho.

Gravlev & IFCS
A lot of the information given in CADs about Gravlev and IFCS we have already covered recently but I’ll highlight some pieces as well as the new info here:
The Hoverbike (Gravlev) system is broken in the live build of 3.1.3 the aim is to be fixed & in a good state by 3.2 tho the current PTU 3.1.4 may improve them once it goes live. They are currently working on getting it working on high server loads. Atmosphere and Gravity will also affect gravlev and be part of it’s sim model.
They are still working on the Atmospheric Flight Model, currently it just modifies your ships thrusters. Gravity and atmosphere will affect your ship as forces in the future and slow you, factors to consider are drag, air density, hull shape and gravity. I suspect weather is a combination of these factors, tho weather may also have de-buffs like being in a sandstorm may partly clog thrusts or vents.
VTOL thrusters specifically counteract gravity & are very suited to atmospheric flight. Ships without it can still fly in atmosphere but they have to expend more of their maneuvering thrust power (out of their z-axis) as well as more fuel staying airborne.
Also thrusters will overheat through overstress which is will result in less maneuverability.
Maneuvering thrusters are going to have two types of thrust: Sustained for long periods and impulse for short bursts.
The IFCS system from 3.0 till now has been “drunk” with many bugs and issues that weren’t able to be addressed quickly. ESP was also heavily affected due to the IFCS problems. Expect much more responsive IFCS and ESP shortly.
Spectrum & general feedback on these systems really does help them design, implement, iterate and balance systems.
In the future IFCS and Gravlev should be a universal framework that developers can add to & balance vehicles to their intended role.