What New Ships Are We Getting in 2019?
Welcome to some more Star Citizen, I have had requests to cover New Ships that are coming in 2nd half of 2019, speculate on some potential concepts and talk about major gameplay additions in regard to ships that are planned during that time too.
3.5.1 brings the rest of the 300 series, the 315p, 325a & 350r and brings them in line with the updated 300i.
There is an Origin Celebration Event coming soon, with the assumption that all the Origin Ships will be on sale again & that there will be some new ways of customizing ships, loadouts, colors & aesthetic internal changes probably released around the same time for at least the 300 series to start with.
There was mention of some potential (though quite vague mentions of) Origin Concepts for the Future too in an updated Origin Lore Post – “In 2944, a hack of Origin’s systems leaked a ship prototype called “Goldfinch.” The Origin 200 Series is also mentioned potentially this could be any size, it doesn’t have to be smaller or less than the 300 necessarily, it could be between the 300 and 600, a different type of ship OR maybe just an older in lore ship from the past and won’t actually make it in the game.
Let’s move on to the Roadmap with 3.6 being the next major patch & brings a few ships:
The Vanguard Warden Update – There are a lot of changes with the Warden and Vanguard Series of ships, a unified ramp, cockpit & hull but with differing central modules and loadouts.
There is a small component room for internal access. The cockpit has a door to it.
The Warden has living room for 2, an operation station & storage for weapons / armor.
The Hope is that the rework will make the Vanguard Warden a viable heavy fighter. Also it’s likely the Hoplite will receive updates at the same time.
An P-52 Merlin Update including general improvements to the landing gear compression, potentially a new loadout for the ship too. It’s luxury sister ship the P-72 Archimedes is also getting released it has an extra fuel intake and lighter hull than the P-52 so it might be a bit quicker or agile. It also has 4 size 1 weapons that can be changed out, unlike the p-52 which has 2 size 1 weapons and a UNREMOVABLE S2 Integrated Weapon.
The Banu Defender is the first Banu Ship we will have in game, it’s slightly Giger-esque organic tech with brassy greeny blue colors and materials. It’s going to be a very capable 2 man long range fighter. This will then set the gold standard for the Banu Merchantman which we should hear more about later in the year.
Probably the most exciting ship for me in 3.6 is the 890 Jump, which will be the largest ship flyable in game when it’s released at apparently now just under 200m in length. It is a massive luxury party boat, with a swimming pool, social areas, bar, dining area, spa, 2 bridges, luxury living rooms / guest rooms, it has an internal landing bay and comes with an 85x runabout too.
3.6 also plans to bring Ship Rentals to the PU & I believe new ship purchase / rental terminals so we could potentially have a lot more players trying a lot more ships in game. I am Expecting additional ships to buy and a variety to rent.
With 3.7 we should be getting the rest of the Vanguard Variants (Harbinger & Sentinel) this is the Missile & E-War focused ones respectively.
The Cutlass Red the ambulance version of the Cutlass Black should also be dropped in with 3.7, we don’t know if it’s going to have any functionality for it’s medical facilities at first, maybe as a spawn point for party members? Actually that would be awesome for the short term! Eventually you’ll see this ship have more functions for S&R and Medical Gameplay.
Physical Inventories for characters and therefore most likely functional storage for FPS Weapons and Armor should also be in 3.7.
Alpha 3.8 has a load of planned ships and new functionality.
Esperia Prowler is the first Tevarin ship that will be flyable in game, though technically in lore it’s the Esperia Remake of the ship, basically being update for the times and made more human compatible. The ship is an interesting one as it’s a dedicated troop transport that has strong stealth elements and features a shielding system that allows you to have the doors open BUT not depressurize the ship, so you have quick access in and out of the vehicle while being protected, great for ground or EVA assaults. If we get any other Tevarin ships in the Game (and I expect we will) then the Prowler will be used to help make that ship too, I suspect we will get a Tervarian Fighter at some point.
The Cutlass Blue Variant finishes off the Cutlass Range, it’s supposed to be the more armored suitable for milita and security forces type ship, originally it had a few security cells in the back we don’t know what the Rework will bring, I suspect it will at least have some secure cells, they might be removable in favor of cargo, we don’t know yet.
The other ship I am massively looking forward to in 2019 is the Anvil Carrack basically a compact exploration corvette. It has a little bit of everything, drones, medical bay, a snub in the yet unrevealed Pisces and a ground rover, it’s main focus is exploration and long range expeditions & I expect that it will have one of the longest operating ranges in the game, it doesn’t need a massive crew, with room for up to 6. I think it’s going to be one of the best general use mission ships in the game for a small group of players.
The Hull-C is a focused cargo hauler with spindles that can attach a huge amount of cargo on. The ship can contract as well so it’s able to land and dock more easily if not laden.
The ship represents A LOT of tech coming together, multi-grid physics tech, Ship to Station Docking, potentially cargo improvements & more.
The ship requires being able to morph from compressed to spindle mode.
When laden with cargo it needs to be able to dock to stations to buy/sell.
The large amount of cargo it can have is not suitable for small boxes and new larger ones need to be made for it otherwise there will be FAR too many entities on a server.
Ship to Ship & Ship to Station Docking is quite important for ship gameplay allowing larger ships to be spawn at stations (like capital ships) that could not otherwise be landed there, it may allow for ships and vehicles to be spawned in other ships, the P-52 that the connie has as a snub also needs this to attach / detach with the ship.
The first iteration of the Salvage Gameplay loop is planned for 3.8. It should be pretty simple at this stage, think mining but for ships hulls and at this stage it would be just for the Reclaimer BUT there is supposed to be some more FPS hands on Gameplay even at this stage that is planned to be in.
Just a quick bit on 3.9 it is planned to have the Drake Vulture Light Salvage Ship (which should also have salvage gameplay straight away. Also the Constellation Taurus that has Extra cargo room instead of bottom turret as well as No Rover or Snub, it’s a stripped down cheaper connie is the idea.
Aegis – 24th August
There is an Aegis based Star Citizen Concierge Event on the 24th of August in Frankfurt.
They are unveiling a new Aegis Ship – This could be a capital ship but also potentially the new Redeemer that has become a focused gunship now (though that is less likely now as CI said they hadn’t decided on if the Redeemer was going to remain an Aegis ship)
It’s something new and cool though.
CitizenCon
Both CitizenCon and the Anniversary Sale are combined this year and will start 23rd November 2019. Typically most ships that have been available in the past go on sale again. Even the more limited Javelins and Idris have limited hull sales (where a few hundred are available to buy) We may see some more concepts and straight to flyable ships / vehicles too.
We know that Lead Vehicle Artist Chris Smith recently completed the whitebox phase of another as-yet-unnamed ship, which means the basic low-poly geometry and components are now usable in-engine & has since moved onto the greybox phase, where he will further refine the geometry, make a first lighting pass, and properly tackle the cockpit area.
So some suggestions of concepts or new ships / vehicles we might see during the next few months are:
Titan Suits – These will be in the PU at some point, they should be done for SQ42 Q4 2019.
Drone Ships – We know there is going to be drone gameplay and the Vulcan is a Drone Utility Ship, so I expect we see other Drone Focused Ships.
Some ship that is focused in servicing and deploying Titan Suits is a possibility.
Ground Vehicles – Utility (Salvage, Mining, Repair, Tow/S&R, building, survey, medical), Light Tank, Military APC, Tumbril HOV Vehicle.
Minelayer Ship – They have previously discussed the potentials of minelayer ships
F8C Lighting – Civilian Version of the F8A – Though this is unlikely
E-War – We have the Vanguard Sentinel Planned for E-War and I suspect systems for some ships to participate in E-War Gameplay BUT I would expect to see a focused ship for spoofing, and confusing, I’d also consider Quantum Interdiction focused ships in here as well, though that could also be potentially done with a module / item rather than a focused ship.
Ships of different sizes for each of the gameplay loops – A medium Salvage Ship, medium Miner, medium science ship
Capital Ships
There is a whole host of Vanduul Ships, Updates & Capital Ships in Squadron 42s Roadmap. Stinger Heavy Fighter, The Cleaver (Boarding Ship), Void Bomber, Hunter Corvette, Driller & Kingship Capital Ships. Some of these are likely to be added to Arena Commander.
There is also the Cydnus Spider Miner/Tick, Idris-M Frigate, Javelin Destroyer & The Bengal Super Carrier.
With deeper server optimization Capital Ships like the Idris-P and Javelin Destroyer become a reality sooner rather than later these ships don’t necessarily need to be held back for Squadron 42 we could see and Idris P for example. They do require a way of spawning them, Ship to Station Docking and the Server to support them though.
There is a load of General Improvements coming over the next few months for ships.
Improvements and fixes to ship combat, pips, the flight model, lots of balance but also some new bits Improved Ships Systems – New & Improved Vehicle HUD, Cockpit Experience, Updated Power & Fuel Systems, VTOL/Hover Mode, Degradation /w Misfires Updates all to support the systemic game play this should also lead on to fully Physical-Components & Sub-Components that we know they are working on BUT we don’t have these on the Roadmap yet. They have been working on new upgrade levels for various ship weapons so we will see a lot more customization at some point in the next few months most likely.
There is also Better Kiosks and Services for Rearming, Repairing & Refueling.
Multicrew – Expanded Pilot Role – Pilots will be able to receive instructions and view information in order to follow specific instruction. For example, moving to a designated area or Quantum Travelling to a specific point.
Expanded Cargo Gameplay – Commodity Transfer Timers, Economy Terminals, potentially new cargo containers of various types & sizes.
I hope that gave you some insight into what some of the new ships, ship features and potential concepts we should see over the next few months, if you have any ideas what concept / new ships we might see beyond what I discussed I’d love to hear from you, also are you particular excited by any ship this year? For me the 890 and the Carrack are much excite!