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Star Citizen, Squadron 42 & Theatres of War News, Guides, Videos & Gameplay by BoredGamer

Gameplay & Features Needed for Release

Welcome to some more Star Citizen, I regularly get asked what other mechanics are there beyond the current roadmap that Star Citizen is planned to have in the future. In this video will will briefly talk about Mechanics & Tech that we know about that is currently not addressed by the Roadmap in brief.

Gameplay Area
Jump Points are essential to connect star systems together, some might be discoverable as part of exploration gameplay BUT there will be permanent ones connecting all of the Star Systems together, there are around 120 Systems potentially planned currently, tho at release expect only maybe upto 40.
These Star Systems require planets, and they are still building out city tech, new biomes, weather, water interaction, environmental hazards, various POI both on the ground and in space. As well as ways to navigate with maps & tools.
Space as well requires a huge amount more to bring it up to the level of detail, interest and be populated with things to do.
Eventually the Gas Cloud tech will be used to make Crusader (the gas giant), that will finish out the basics of the Stanton System, tho they will be adding more parts to it, the Aron Halo an Asteroid Field with Security/Customs Gates. Then all of these will be expendanded upon and used to make other Systems, Planets and areas.

Mechanics
The Major ones covered on the roadmap are salvage, repair, refueling BUT there are a lot of gameplay mechanics that are mentioned

Medical – Ranging from stabilizing a downed character to receiving treatment to heal a ruined limb to healing life threatening. Some of this will require tools, medipens, others will require a medical bed, they’ve talked about T1 – T3 wounds being treated in these beds T1 being life threatening, T3 being a minor injury. We are expecting the dragging of in-capped players too and the respawning of players potentially at these T1 beds / Medical Facilities.

Exploration & Survey – Covers a large range of gameplay, Long Range Scanning will detect POI.
There needs to be things for players to discover in deep space, on planet, moons.
Derelicts, Asteroid Fields, sites for outposts, the ability to survey those site locations and asteroid fields, this also requires a system to save information/data as a sellable commodity or a way of trading this with players. There could be a huge range of large asteroids/planetoids, alien stations and more that are just waiting to be discovered.
This is also true of exploring a moon or planet, there could be any number of interesting things to scan down OR find, from loot, to pirate bases, to salvage sites to alien tech.

In a lot of ways it is very connected to the science mechanics,
Science – Science covers has a lot of different mechanics, Farming literally farming using an Endeavors Biodome or on a plot of land. Overclocking Component, tweaking them making them potentially more powerful permanently. Research, gathering data and then using that to make more valuable data or learn info, potentially get more missions. Drug manufacture, there are modules on the Endeavor that allow for the potential manufacture of Drugs & Chemicals.
There could be the discovery and cataloging / data collection of animals, plants, locations and more.

Data Running is also an important mechanic, storing data as cargo, intercepting and transferring data, potentially via data hacking.

Land Claims – Players will be able to survey areas of land to see what materials are under it and build outposts or otherwise exploit the mineral wealth of an area. You can sell land & data you’ve collected. Use a Prospector to nom up rocks, or build appropriate structures using the pioneer OR otherwise transporting extractors for gas, liquids and minerals.
Base building with security is part of this too. In UEE areas you’ll need a land claim to ensure no-one steals your plot. Less secure areas will need to be protected with NPCs, Players and defense structures OR in someway hidden.
Buildings will require power and act similarly to the way ships work, requiring maintenance.
We don’t know the full extent of base building, but the hope is that they will allow you to pretty much live in a location, storing your ships and assets there… though this would also mean they are vulnerable to attack.

Bounty Hunting & Outlaw Gameplay – At the moment there is little reason to be a pirate or outlaw, the risk reward isn’t there. BUT at some point it will be. Areas will have their own laws, breaking them will affect your reputation with factions in that area. Some crimes will cause NPCs, Security or a faction to chase you for a period of time. This can be being caught with prohibited items, being caught attacking a character or otherwise being caught trying to commit a crime. Your reputation with a faction (UEE, individual pirate orgs, Crusader Security) will affect how they react to you, if it’s too low they will attack on sight.
Moreover Bounty Hunting will be a thing, certain NPCs & players will have missions generated to capture or kill them, there will be less than lethal weapons BUT we don’t know how the capture of a player will work. Obviously very few players will want to be knocked out or unable to act for long periods of time, so that can’t really be a thing in game.

People as cargo will be a thing as well, this might be VIPs that you are transporting, slaves, NPC Bounties, it will need to be handled in some way.

Smuggling again, outlaw gameplay but we will have the ability to hide cargo in ships, potentially on our person. There will be cargo scans & inspections.

Boarding / Ship Capture – More of a merging of lots of features coming together
We will be able to board ships, disabling them in various ways, taking out power plants or engines for example will cripple a ship until they are repaired or replaced. There will be distortion damage to do this temporarily too. Players & NPCs will be able to board ships & capture them.

E-War & Hacking mechanics are also related to this they’ve talked about Security MFDs / Controls – enabling you to Depressurize certain areas of your ship, turn off/on gravity, open, close and lock doors. Hacking will allow you to open some doors, disable and control systems. You might also have access to explosives and other options to open doors & breach too.
E-war is another thing, this could be spoofing signals, causing interference, disabling systems, countering targeting.

Quantum Interdiction – Players need ways to pull ships out of QT and slow them from QT-ing again.

Survival Mechanics – They’ve talked about the need to eat, drink, shower BUT we don’t know exactly what form this will take.

All of these gameplay mechanics will have associated missions that will be generated by the dynamic economy, God AI or Subsumption.

Service Beacons that players create will also encompass these gameplay mechanics, depending on how robust the system is, NPCs may also be able to take and complete these missions. Also missions & their rewards will be shareable in some way.

Subsumption is a blanket term for the AI and all of the associated dynamic gameplay, mission generation, economy & a lot of the back end.
We will get smarter NPCs, eventually Hireable NPCs, going all the way up to full Crews, though they want Players to be better options than NPCs, also AI modules may allow turrets to fire in a semi-automated fashion too.
There will be the Removal of Armistice Zones, Replacing with physical Security, defense turrets, patrols.

Drones will be a thing, for repairing, rearming, refueling, scouting and possibly defense too.
At some point we will have Aliens (so the Vanduul, Banu, Tevarian, Xi’an and maybe the Kr’Thakk) There AI should be a bit different from human NPC AI.
There will also be alien Creatures & Animals – these will have Life Cycles, we don’t know what interaction we will have with animals tho, big game hunting, running away from xenomorphs, science missions. Pets were a stretch goal so we should have them at some point too.

Economy
A dynamic economy with deeper persistence, missions will be generated based on economic needs and activity in an area. Items will be priced based on the value of the materials needed to make them & time.
The actual purchase of ships in game with aUEC will be implemented at some point, it looks like we will have rentable ships with aUEC in the PU in 3.3 which will be very similar.
Shops on Ships – The Banu Merchantman is supposed to have shops on it, so player run shops on ships and potentially on stations / outposts should be available in some form.

Modularity & Customization
Ships are getting deeper customization, sub-components, more items BUT swappable Modules for ships like the Caterpillar, each of it’s rooms can be swapped out for a different type, this is true of other ships too, including the Retaliator with cargo and torpedo bays.
Ships will also have the ability to be painted, some interior options with furniture.
There will be rentable and Customizable Habs and Hangars, Living Areas.

Tech
On the tech side, Server Side OCS is needed, this will enable server loads to be more efficient by stand-bying & making certain areas in active when not in use. This should also allow for larger server sizes beyond 50 as well as the potential to allow Capital Ships in the PU.
Server Meshing is another important part of SCs PU. It allows servers to be spun up and down for individual object containers based on population & load, potentially allowing everyone in the same megaserver by seamless stitching these server together.

MultiGrid Physics Tech is needed for ship to ship Docking, large Morphing Ships like the Hull C, Parasite Docking like the Constellation and P-52.

There are still plans for VR, Vulkan & DX12 integration at some point too.

There is a large range of Ships we are waiting on:
Carrack – Exploration Ship
Banu Merchantman
Redeemer – Which requires a 2nd Concepting Phase
Genesis Starliner
Polaris
Endeavor Modular Science Ship
The Hercules Starlifter
Apollo Medi-vac
Mercury Star Runner
The 100 Series Starter Ships
Vulcan – Utility Ship
Nova Tank
X1 Luxury Bike
Pioneer
Prowler
Crucible
Orion – Massive Strip Miner
The Hull Series A – E

Military Versions of Ships – like the F7A
The F8 Lightning
Idris M & P, Javelin, Pegasus, Bengal, maybe the Redemption Super Dread

There will be lots of other Vanduul and Alien ships too, we know some of the Vanduul ones like the Kingship, Harvester, Void Bomber, Mauler & Stinger among others.
Squadron 42 Episode 1 stuff will be absorbed into the PU as well, some of that is very much being kept secret.

Other bits
Gadgets will be a thing at some point, so personal shields, more grenade types, claymores, holograms.
EVA packs will be able to simulate gravity by thrusting you in the appropriate direction.
Titan Suits – Super heavy armor, probably like power-loaders from aliens.
Command and Control gameplay, will enable us to issue orders and command ships from a central map or terminal.
We will also have course plotting in some form too.
The mobiGlas will expand with a large range of Apps for various uses.
Life Support and Decompression is coming properly at some point.

A revamped Flight Model & better Multi-Crew is coming, that’s actually been suggested for implementation by the end of the year. There will be constant balance tweaks for ships, weapons, FPS gear. Times to kill for larger ships will be getting higher, so that repairing of them is more important and there will be more of chance ships will be disabled due to a systems being damaged, which will then be able to be repaired.

Time to kill for Players may potentially be rising too, knocking players down, stunning them, them bleeding out will all be things. They don’t want a player getting 1 shot every time after flying for 30 mins on a mission, tho choice of armor and gear will also play a part.