RSI Polaris Corvette – What We Know
Welcome to some more Star Citizen today revisiting what we know about the RSI Polaris which was the most up-voted ship on a recent poll of what ship viewers would like me to cover next, closely follow by the Banu MM which we will take a look at again soon.
The Polaris is pitched as a nimble corvette-class capital ship that packs a powerful punch with a full armament of turrets and torpedoes. Intended for use as both a naval patrol ship and to serve as the flagship of militia operations, Polaris has the capacity to perform search and rescue operations, light strike missions and general security patrols. The Polaris includes the facilities to repair, rearm and refuel a single fighter, light bomber or support ship.
The Current Loaner ship for the Polaris is the Hammerhead.
When it was last available on sale the Polaris was $750.
The Polaris is not currently scheduled for production, the last we knew it was in Concept HOWEVER it is very popular, with backers very much wanting to see it flyable ASAP. It’s a newer ship that is supposed to of been commissioned in 2946 which should be after SQ42 Ep1 is set so it’s not a ship that will be given priority to get ready for SQ42 and it does not appear on either Roadmap currently. I personally suspect we will see it flyable in the verse mid 2020.
The ship is largely focused around being a Torpedo Corvette but is massively multi-role too with it’s core description being FAST, POWERFUL & VERSATILE.
The ship was actually conceived after the Idris grew into a Frigate sized ship and they needed something to fill that gap in game.
Built to be both a naval patrol ship and a flagship for militia operations, the Polaris is supposed to be versatile making it an ideal vessel to accomplish a wide variety of objectives.
It is also viable for long term deployment and has very impressive facilities for the crew.
Stats
The ship is listed at 155m long which is almost the same length as the Reclaimer at 158m
But it’s a much flatter slimline ship being 82x35m vs the Reclaimers 118x50m.
Hardpoint wise:
- 4x S10 Torpedo Launch tubes
- 5x Manned Turrets (Twin S4 Weapons)
- 1x Remote Manned Turret (Twin S5 Weapons)
- 1x Automated Turret (Twin S4 Weapons)
- 2x Anti-Fighter Missile Racks, each carrying 16x S3 Missiles
It’s major combat role is really to fire large torps into large ships.
Torpedoes are like missiles only larger, slower and with a heavier payload. They are intended to be used against larger ships & static installations. You can use them on smaller targets tho they are much more likely to evade them.
The ship is supposed to be able to fire 4 of it’s massive torpedoes simultaneously.
Components
The ship has a mixture of mostly Large and Capital sized components
2 Large Coolers, 2 Large Shield Generators, 3 Large Fuel Intakes,
2 Medium Fuel Tanks & Computers, 1 Large Quantum/Jump Drive & Quantum Fuel Tanks.
The Ship does have a Capital Sized Radar & Power Plant this should give the ship fantastic detection capabilities and a huge amount of Power reserve.
The ship is supposed to be very agile & fast for it’s size.
2 Main Thrusters and 4 aux thrusters make this a reality.
Facilities
The Polaris has a a range of facilities that really make it useful split across 2 decks.
Upper Deck
Cockpit/Bridge, Escape Pods (at front and rear), Docking Ring, Mess/Recreation Hall, Crew Quarters
Lower Deck
Torpedo Bay, Elevator to Exterior, Cargo Bay (216SCU) & Ramp, Hangar, Engineering
Turret access is split across both.
Currently part of the plans for the ship but not listed is also a Captain’s Quarters, 2nd in Command (Combat Pilots) Quarters, Small Medical Bay, armoury & brig.
It’s possible that the ship may increase in size to accommodate these rooms more effectively BUT We used to see ship grow significantly in size from concept to greybox, though with the Polaris they do have a lot of room to work with already and as we saw with the Carrack they don’t really want to make these ships too large, especially seeing that’s what happened with the Idris and why the Polaris exists in the first place.
The Torpedo Bay is supposed to have 28 Torps on board in total (4 of which will be loaded).
There are no plans for these rooms to be modular in the sense of being able to entirely replace any of them with another. Tho it will still be able to change weapons & equipment and some rooms may have furniture customization.
Bridge Operation – There are plans for Pilot, Co-Pilot, Turret Operator, Captain Seat and Comms Officer positions on the Bridge.
The Recreation Room was mentioned to have pool & other retractable tables. The ship is supposed to have really nice facilities for enhanced crew morale.
Hangar – It’s hangar can carry a fighter sized ship, potentially 2 snubs. You’ll be able to have some rearm, repair and rearm for the ship in it’s bay. There is no default ship that the Polaris comes with. The Floor of the hangar bay elevates and top of the ship opens up to allow it’s child ship to land and dock. While closing to provide safety when necessary.
We know the Polaris will be able to land on planets/moons and on large Landing Pads on Stations (assuming it doesn’t get much bigger).
When it comes to Ground Vehicles, We don’t know if any land vehicles will be viable with the Polaris as we don’t know the dimensions of the ramp & elevator. Once we know that we will know what’s viable.
If you parked your Polaris in a valley you might be able to get vehicles out and in the top of the hangar platform, I suspect that this will not be ideal tho.
Mission Viability
The Polaris is planned to be geared towards fighting large & capital ships, with quick hit and run Torpedo tactics. As well as cracking installations. However the Polaris should be versatile in regards to what missions and combat roles it can be used for, Strike Missions, Search & Rescue, Patrols, Command & Control, Base Cracking, it also has some Cargo Capacity.
It’s likely to be the core of a lot of smaller fleets it’s facilities giving it a little bit of everything it’s a step up from the Carrack for me and Hammerhead for me assuming you are going down the combat route, that said it is going to be versatile to most roles.
It’s Fast but lightly armored for a Capital Ship. It’s got solid turret defenses for wounding fighters and bombers BUT other bombers like the Retaliator & Gladiator may pose a threat to the Polaris.
If there are missions to destroy the pirate base, this is the ship for it.
It has Large Shields rather than Capital sized so it isn’t super tanky. However large ships are planned to have a high time to kill with disabling particular systems and thrusters will be much more common that entirely blowing ships up in the future.
In regard to range and operational length the ship is supposed to be deployed for extended periods without supply and be self sustaining
Crew
The Polaris will require a crew it’s listed with 24 crew, which is a lot why is this? Well it’s probably a bit of an overestimate but it considers crew taking breaks, having on board security roles & maintaining the ship by my count there are:
- 7 Crew for operating turrets
- 2 for loading and managing torpedoes
- 1 for locking and firing torps
- 4 other bridge crew
- Crew for the – Medical Bay & Engineering Area
- 1 crew for the fighter
- 1 crew for the management of the fighter bay and cargo area
That’s 17 Crew I can sort of justify, the remaining 7 could be redundancy, security, repair teams and to replace crew taking breaks.
I think you could run the ship pretty effectively with 12 crew on paper.
The Carrack might be a lot more appealing as a Corvette style ship with a much more manageable crew complement of 6.
That Polaris really moves into the territory of requiring a much larger crew to run.
In the future this will be able to be heavily offset with hireable NPC crew as well as AI Modules for making turrets automated.
Other info
Navy Designations – Little fact-ette Polaris-class ships in the UEE military are often named after historical figures and military heroes (like the UEES Reilly). UEES being the pre-fix of UEE Navy ships.
Source Info
RSI Polaris Original Concept Sale Page
Polaris Q&A Part 1
Polaris Q&A Part 2