Star Citizen – CIG Devs Respond To Ship Combat Model Concerns
Welcome to some more This Week in Star Citizen… going on what CIG have planned this week BUT also, we are going to be taking a look at some concerns over the new Master Modes & Ship Combat and Dev Responses to this.
This Week in Star Citizen 27th Feb 2024
We hope you had a stellar weekend. In the ‘verse, our Capture the Idris event ends today February 27, there still might some time left to take control of a behemoth yourself. We’ve had a blast (no pun intended) watching many of you take the wheel and fend off waves of other players looking to board. From screenshots, videos, and all of the valuable feedback presented, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed soaking it all in, and already have ideas on how we’ll improve and expand future events.
Jumptown Safe? Gear up and find out starting Tuesday. Whether you’re a responsible civilian upholding the law or a rambunctious rascal looking to cash out with the contraband, we’ll see you planet-side.
As we march on towards Alpha 3.23, last week we took a look at some of the features and changes that will be introduced in this update. Inside Star Citizen explored Master Modes and how the upcoming changes will transform combat, and we followed up with the developers creating the Distribution Centers, who answered the community’s questions on Star Citizen Live.
In case you missed it, we also announced the biggest celebration of all things Star Citizen and YOU, our epic community, so save the date for this year’s CitizenCon in October; we can’t wait to see you there! If October feels too far away for your next hang-out with other like-minded people, you can check out Barcitizen.sc for events near you. We hear there’s going to be one happening in Manchester, U.K., this Saturday (we’ll be there!). BoredGamer and zinya will be there too! (I added that bit, but it is true).
Now, let’s see what’s going on this week:
This Tuesday, the Narrative team brings us the latest monthly Galactapedia update. You’ll also see the return of Jumptown, so prepare for some merriment and mayhem!
Thursday’s episode of Inside Star Citizen is a look at the current state of the Aegis Idris with “Director’s Commentary” by Nathan Dearsley and John Crewe.
Plus, Jump Point magazine is back for all subscribers, this time looking behind the scenes of last year’s Anvil F8C Lightning event, detailing the development of the Gatac Syulen, a walk around the Aegis Idris, and a deeper look at the in-lore history of Pyro’s Headhunters gang.
There is No SC Live this week.
CIG have added an Arena Commander section in the Community Tab of the Website… and this goes over all the current schedules for game modes, what they are and awards you can achieve.
Dev Response Master Modes
In a recent ISC where CIG talked about Master Modes and Gunnery Updates that are coming in 3.23 but a lot are testable now.
Some people are concerned about this direction for the combat model is dumbing down the experience, removing the depth and skill in flying and making everyone be able to hit shots too easily and fights come down to loadouts rather than skill, there might even be more issues with jousting in PvP.
There does seem to be a lot of PvP vs PvE balancing conversation here as both are vastly different in the way they are approached.
My suggestion is play the Master Modes in 3.22.1’s AC tests, and then give feedback. There are however a load of Spectrum Questions and Dev Responses that I think are worth going thru.
With due respect, @YogiKlatt-CIG You said you need our “input so we can work together on this space combat game.”
Watching the latest videos announcing the salvage missions, distribution centres, now MMs, and many more it seems that this is nothing but a SPACE COMBAT GAME, and in your own words that is exactly where it is heading it seems.
I don’t care for PVP, but I am not against it at all, nor am I against piracy or aggressive NPCs that pirate and thrill kill or whatever.
But the diverse universe that CR pitched us where players would all have their place and be able to enjoy the game has all but disappeared in the last few years as it has appearing to be moving toward being a “space combat game” with videos released before any new content showing how hostiles and combat is going to be forced on players in the new missions.
Throw PVE players a bone every once and a while, and at least attempt to make it look like we have something to look forward to besides being content for PVP.
YogiKlatt – Principal Vehicle Programmer
When we do the recordings, we have a limited time slot of about 60 mins to get all the recording takes. For me as somebody who does not do this every day it comes with a certain level of anxiety… I am a dev, not a moderator … so having multiple cameras in my face is probably not something I will ever get used to easily. That also means I cannot take long to formulate what I have to say. So sure, I have misspoken when I said SC is a space combat game, but we all know that Star Citizen is more than space combat (you will find exact quotes from me on Spectrum if you search). But really this is just me talking about my work as somebody who deals with the flight experience and space combat on a daily basis.
So please do not overanalyse what I say. I speak only for the area for which I am responsible for not for the entirety of the game.
The core message is that there is a big push to streamline the combat and flight experience for everyone. And combat can happen to you anywhere in the verse in any ship … so that means that all ships need to be placed in balance a scheme that is consistent across the game.
That is what the segment was about, nothing else.
richt-CIG – Rich Tyrer – FPS Game Director for Star Citizen & SQ42
Also weighed in with a follow up to this…
First off, I would like to thank Yogi for taking his time out of development to actually go on ISC and talk about his work – and for the fantastic job he is doing. I know firsthand because I am always asking him for things
Secondly, I wanted to quickly address the feeling that SC is all about combat and nothing else. As someone who is responsible for the big picture, I want to personally reassure all citizens out there that combat is just one facet of the game we are making.
I know all the features that are currently in development, and we spend a huge time on things that are nothing to do with combat.
For example, in 3.23 we should be introducing Freight Elevators which is a long-standing feature that should enhance the cargo hauling gameplay loop. We are also pushing for brand new Cargo Hauling missions to greater support this.
Post 3.23 we also have huge plans (not ideas for the next ten years – but tangible plans in action) that we talked about at CitizenCon which will involve lots of non-combat gameplay loops like Base Building and Crafting that will also unlock further missions and loops like Research for crafting blueprints, exploration, scanning and excavation of materials both in space and on planets etc etc – not even including the Dynamic Economy (Quantum).
Combat is one of many core loops that exists in Star Citizen, but it is not the only one. So, if an ISC or email or segment seems to focus on one aspect of SC – that’s exactly what it is – it’s a focus on one aspect, not all of SC.
Also, in regards to PvE and PvP – again rest assured that the plan includes systems like Stanton being heavily policed with swift retribution for criminals and shield technology that will protect Landing Zones and stations. This does not mean criminality cannot happen, but the risk should be great. Then we will have systems that are lawless like Pyro and those systems will offer greater rewards for traders/haulers but at an increased risk to piracy. All of these systems will come into the game. We will also have some dedicated gameplay just for PvP players in lawless systems but that’s for another time.
I also know our community can only react to what you see from us – so hopefully this post gives a little more insight to the bigger picture at hand.
From 3.23 onwards you will not be able to mount fixed guns on your ship
The game is going to be greatly simplified when we no longer have to make the decision between gimbals or greater firepower.
This seems like a step in reducing the skill ceiling of the game. There will be far less precision and risk required for lining up attack runs when we always have gimbals and can attack off-axis. It also removes decisions from the ship loadout process.
It seemed like a great trade-off to get more damage for the cost of using your whole ship to aim with. This feels like something that’s not broken that’s getting “fixed”.
My understanding is that there will be some rate of fire penalty or something when using the gimbals, but to me that’s a far cry from choosing a loadout on a ship that’s built around the biggest weapons you can carry, at the cost of having no gimbal mode available.
Fixed guns are one of the few actual risk/reward decisions that exist in our loadouts, it’ll be really unfortunate to thin the game’s strategy out even further by removing that decision.
YogiKlatt Responds:
The pure DPS difference is a pretty big factor. After we changed the system most players actually stay fixed as the DPS output is higher this way.
The actual skill difference was not in using gimbals or not, it was specifically in using auto gimbals. And auto gimbals will not be allowed for pilots anymore.
am a bit let down that this ISC that talks about master modes does not even talk about industry ships or trading ships.
Is there not an architype for a ship like the prospector or the MOLE?
The tuning mentioned so far
Snub
Lightfighter
Medium Fighter
Heavy Fighter
Corvette
Frigates
What is a C2 considered, what is a MOLE considered. This system seems purely designed around Combat and it will negatively affect the cargo and industry player.
Can CIG please explain what they are thinking for the non-combat player?
YogiKlatt Responds yet again!
Prospectors or moles start in an archetype that is most suitable to their size and then get adjusted from there.
E.g. the Aurora (hardly a combat ship) starts as a light fighter due to the size … obviously we don’t want the ship to be as agile as a specialized dogfighter. So, it gets adjusted from there … in that case that roughly equals to trading agility for durability. So, you can expect an Aurora to take quite a bit more punishment than e.g. a Gladius but really not be able to outmanoeuvre it.
I currently don’t have the C2 and Mole in my head (that’s rather for Mattia) but A2, C2 and M2 e.g. will be based on the same archetype.
From a balance POV however there is no differentiation between combat and non-combat ships. Combat can (and will) happen to all of them. Ships are usually balanced around offensive capabilities, agility and durability, so they all need to fit a scheme that provides fairness and options for pilots on both sides. There is ofc a lot more detail work in there, e.g. how “pleasant” the ship handling is, how long the master mode swap times are, etc.