RSI Mantis & Quantum Enforcement Revealed
Welcome to some more Star Citizen, just as I get a video discussing the Mantis and Quantum interdiction, the ship gets revealed, so let’s talk about the RSI Mantis, it’s reveal and Quantum Enforcement.
The Coming Soon Page has been renamed Mantis
There was a German GameStar Article
And English NewsWeek Article that revealed the Mantis and it’s Mechanics
The Ship is Straight to Flyable Ship in Alpha 3.7 with at least some implementation of it’s gameplay mechanics.
It’s a Single Seater and described as sleek, broad and angular.
It is a Quantum Enforcement Ship (this basically being the new name of Quantum Interdiction), the Gameplay of QE allows you to ensnare & dampen quantum travel using a Quantum Enforcement Device.
The mechanics are still very much a work in progress BUT will also be in Alpha 3.7 it seems. The article’s that I read also implied that the LIVE build of Alpha 3.7 was planned for October 10th and the ship will also be on sale from the 10th as well, which is the game’s kickstarter anniversary and typically where CitizenCon Falls, which is now on the 23rd of November.
The Mantis is 30 x 16 x 8 meters
The Quantum Snare is a large-radius bubble, where you pull players & npcs out of quantum travel and preventing them from going back into QT
Dampening is a smaller area of effect (around 2000 meters) and is used to stop a quantum drive from spooling in the first place. Dampening is suppose to be an instant on function as well so you can use it like a scalpel.
As we expected Quantum Snare is much more like an EMP that has to be charged up and then when you release the charge it creates a sphere that anything up to 20,000 meters will be pulled out of quantum BOTH NPCs and Players & the device will remain on.
This also prevents the QD from being activated while in range.
There were mentions of Quantum Markers and the ability for the Mantis to track ships.
It appears that ships that get pulled out and caught will give notifications or markers for the mantis and ships in the same party.
What we are getting in 3.7 might not show clearly what ships have been pulled out though as they are still building the UI for this.
There will also be cool looking red energy effects tied to these mechanics.
Gameplay wise CIG hope that trade routes may be ambushed using these in 3.7.
And they could be used by both Bounty Hunters and Pirates alike.
Players will have to think about where they QT from and to, potentially going via longer routes if they are worried about a potential threat OR bring an escort.
The Mantis is not intended to be used as a lone wolf ship, it works well in a group as it’s focus is pulling a ship out and keeping it there. You’ll want some other ships there to help disable and loot the prey ship.
You could very easily pull out a big ship or even a fleet of ships.
The Mantis was mention at coming with 2 small guns and some missiles.
The QED is a massive power drain. Using it in any form will require a lot of power and generate a lot of heat. You may well have to turn other systems down or off.
They are going to continue to iterate on the mechanics, it may well be you need multiple mantises to pull out a very large ship, they may even add more ships that are focused on Quantum Enforcement.
You won’t be able to use these snares in green zones, it will be interesting to see how they tie this feature to the law system.
The original idea for the mantis started November 2018 and the concept started in earnest Jan 2019.
It was mentioned that the plan in future updates would be to be able to detect players QTing and the QED via scanning and to further disguise signatures.
I have yet to find a price for the ship, though I’d expect between $180 – 275 personally. It’s a focused use 1 person ship.
I was expecting it to be on sale this week, but the media that I have read appears to suggest the 10th of October.