What Are The Star Citizen Refuel, Salvage & Repair Feature Plans?

CI have given us more details of the Refueling, Repair and Salvage Mechanics that are being actively worked on and what we will be getting for their first releases. Some of it’s pretty juicy and it’s good to see CI talk about these features. 

Refuelling is being actively worked on and they want to get it out as soon as possible. It was implied you can expect the first implementation with Pyro or before. 

Starfarers will be able to have different types of fuel tanks and fill them with hydrogen OR quantum fuel at stations. 

You’ll be able to transfer this fuel to another ship, to rescue or resupply them. 

This will be extremely valuable in systems like Pyro where there are less stations to refuel at. 

They are going to be adding Refueling Service Beacons in the future BUT not in the first Refueling release. 

You’ll refuel the targeted ship using a docking arm and a fuel transfer UI, allowing you to choose what tanks you want to fill and from where. These systems have had lots of refinement from the Mining Mechanics and UIs for that. 

You’ll be able to speed things up by making sure the pressure in your tanks is optimal, giving the gameplay a bit more depth if you want it done quickly. However there might be some devastating problems if you dock wrong and do everything badly. BOOM! 

In the future after the initial release Pressure and environmental changes will be a thing, so it might be best to not fill your tanks to max. You’ll be slower and explode bigger if you are more full is the expectation. 
 

They want refueling gameplay to be profitable and it will need the wider economy and balance to work properly.  

The plan is for a full Mine Fuel, Refine and then Transport/Refuel Gameplay loop and this will come in steps like mining gameplay did. 

We also learned about Salvage and Repair Mechanics which are in their early stages and in active development and are blended together for their first implementation. 

Persistence and damage system updates are coming and these mechanics are important to help support that. Again as Pyro doesn’t have many stations for Repair… you are going to need to be able to patch up your ship yourself… tho some of the mechanics are in development others are very much still very much being discussed and planned. 

Hull Stripping is the start of the salvage gameplay we are going to be getting. 

Using the multi-tool attachment to save materials in a canister, there is a dedicated tool that will be able to store more. 

You can use these canisters to repair ships as well… you can either buy them OR strip other ships, derelicts or salvage sites to get them. You’ll be able to EVA out of your ship and repair the hull. Areas repaired in this way will be obviously patched up or be made of different materials. Station Repair is the only way you’ll be able to get that LIKE NEW look. You’ve been out in the verse for a while and not been back to repair properly… you’ll have a battle scarred ship. 

Once we have Physicalized Components you’ll be able to service, replace and repair them individually too. 

With that in mind the Gladius has all it’s components and exterior access to them in Alpha 3.13 now… it’s really cool to see. 

Deeper Salvage will come later… with ships being able to strip hulls too and the Reclaimer Ripping and Crushing Ships into cubes. 

Some of these mechanics are further out than others BUT it’s great to hear that Salvage, Repair and Refueling are all in active development and we can expect their initial implementation in the not too distant future. In fact 3.15 the end of September / Early October Patch currently has the start of these Salvage/Repair mechanics as part of it.