Hello Citizens!

Welcome to another episode of DevChat, this time covering August 11th!

First, a brief explainer. DevChat combs through the RSI chat logs, and picks out any interesting comments made by Devs. It amalgamates them, and puts them here, with quotes. While I try to provide context to the comments made by Devs here, these comments sometimes have a very off-the-cuff nature, and everything here should be taken, maybe not with a grain of salt, but for what it is. Interesting, helpful, though not always 100% official, information.

That said, here comes DevChat!

DevChat

Note from Erris: Today, I’d actually just like to thank all the CIG Devs that take time to sit in chat and answer questions. Their patience, knowledge, and understanding are amazing.

Tuesday, August 11

Lots of news Tuesday, in particular a lot of talk about the role of the Cutlass.

CS

Customer Service currently have a 2,200 ticket backlog that they’re working through, so give them time to respond.

(11:48:44 AM)Mike-CIG: Just another reminder for everyone. CS have over 2,000 tickets at the moment so anyone still waiting for a response: We will get to you! Apologies for the delay. :)

(4:23:58 AM) Mike-CIG: Morning everyone! UK CS team are currently working their way through our e-mail backlog (2,200+ and rising). We’re working as fast as possible to get back to everyone so if you’ve got a ticket, I apologise! :)

Connie

The base Connie Andromeda needs to be finished before the other variants will be built out. Also, the Connie’s top speed is 150.

(1:49:39 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: variants continue to be a thing, as far as I am aware (1:50:40 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: baseline Constellation Andromeda needs to be finished before the variants would get built out. (1:51:17 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: also, the phoenix was getting uppity, we had to put it in its place (1:51:27 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: you don’t train spaceships by just letting them walk all over you (1:51:30 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: uppity hot tubs…

(3:50:49 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: Constellation only goes 150. Why are you trying to plunder from m50s?

Modularity

The modules that exist for the Tali right now are concepts, and will not be changeable with the current holotable. As well, they’ll only announce modules and features when they have them planned, not before.

(1:57:05 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: Not going to pre-emptively promise any modules or features for any ships. Wait till we get the baselines flyable, then we’ll move to the variants, and we’ll be evaluating modules and loadout allowances then. (1:57:33 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: The modules for the Retaliator are just in concept right now, so they will not be changable with the current holotable.

Modularity won’t make every ship viable in every role. It will add flexibility, that’s it.

(2:16:46 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: @Miriel: Not entirely, the modularity is going to help for role flexibility, but it’s still going to have limits and restrictions. It’s not a catch-all to make every ship viable in every role.

Details on the Tali modules here. The 275$ Tali has torpedo bays included. If you buy the 150$ Tali, with two torpedo bays, the price would be the same.

(9:01:59 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: The 275 Tali has the torp bays included. If you bought the 150 Tali with the 2 Torp bays, the price would be the same. (9:02:12 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: It’s not ‘disarmed’, it just isn’t shipping with live torps. (9:04:32 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: There’s going to always be more equipment, but it’s planned as more horizontal expanse than just a raw linear treadmill. (9:05:07 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: When something new comes out, it’s more to add a choice to loadouts, and not just be some linear progression of power.

Components will affect acceleration, but while Calix Reneau would like components to affect top speed, there’s no guarantee they will.

(4:08:35 PM) [W-I] TheMightyWashburn: Will ship components directly affect ship speed? (4:09:17 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: will definitely affect acceleration, I cannot confirm that it will affect top speed (4:09:27 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: but that is a thing I want

Cutlass

Ok. Let’s begin. There is a LOT of talk about the Cutlass today. There are some very very vocal people out there, who believe the Cutlass is not good enough at everything. Before I delve into the actual notes, please remember. No ship will be the best at everything. The Cutlass, right now, is fighting against ships it has no intent to take on in the PU. The Cutlass is designed to take on larger prey, Freelancers and Connie’s, not Super Hornets and Gladius’.

The Cutlass has always been sold as a cargo-fighter type ship, even back to the original sale. It is both fighter and cargo, not one over the other. For the Cutlass’ size-weight, it will maneuver better than any other ship. It’s not evident now because only ultra-lights and fighter craft are flyable to weigh it against now.

(2:13:07 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: I guess my question is this, since the Cutlass was always sold as a more cargo-fighter type ship since the original sale back in 2012, and it was the second ship I bought and still own on my personal account, what was the actual performance you were expecting compared to any of the other currently flyable ships? (2:14:12 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: It always a split of the 2 though, both fighter and cargo, not one over the other. (2:15:39 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: It’s also consistently been described as having cargo being a prominent aspect of the ship, and for its maneuvering, that’s part of why it has a very distinct boost-profile compared to every other ship. (2:17:14 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: For it’s size/weight, it’s going to have better maneuvering than any other ship. (2:17:28 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: It’s just you only have ultra-lights and fighter craft to weigh against it right now. (2:18:39 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: Less maneuverable un-boosted, yes, but more nimble while boosting, and more maneuverable than things like a Connie, Lancer or Tali.

The initial pitch for the Cutlass was that it’s a pirate ship being sold like it isn’t a pirate ship, but everyone knows it’s really a pirate ship. As a pirate ship, it needs guns to take down fat targets, and a place to store loot it steals from ships that can actually store loot. Also, it has a focus on crazy maneuvers, which it can pull off with boost.

(3:46:40 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: copied to chat from a PM with Rasumus Kane: CIG Calix Reneau Also, both of those quotes are fairly squishy metrics, so I have a hard time seeing them as contradictory. 12:43:56CIG Calix Reneau The initial pitch of the cutlass is that it is a pirate ship that is being sold like it isn’t a pirate ship, but everyone knows it’s a pirate ship 12:44:35CIG Calix Reneau as a pirate ship, it needs the guns to take down fat targets, and a place to store the loot. It happens to also focus on being able to pull crazy maneuvers, because pirates be cray 12:45:47CIG Calix Reneau With the recent changes, the cutlass requires the use of boost to perform those crazy maneuvers, but it can still whip around something fierce, and as such, I consider its performance in line with the intended role

The Cutlass’ maneuverability is focused on boost, not all-time maneuvering. Also, the cutlass’ boost should recharge from empty in ~40 seconds.

(4:01:05 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: Actually, Cutlass can tango with its boost-profile. (4:01:16 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: It doesn’t get all-time super maneuvering, it uses the boost for that. (4:01:45 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: the cutlass should recharge from empty in about 40 seconds\

Pirates go after things worth going after. A SuperHornet with no cargo is not a valuable target for a Pirate. Pirates go after Freelancers, which are slower than Cutlass’, so it works.

(4:14:08 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: no, pirates are supposed to go after fat slow targets (4:14:17 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: which they can do, because the cutlass is faster than the larget ships

That’s enough about the Cutlass’ role now. I know I’ll get some angry messages about this, but oh well. I’m just re-iterating what the Devs say. And don’t go badger them anyway. Right now, they answer our questions, but if we annoy them and badger them with the same question they’ve already answered, eventually they might stop, and that would really suck.

Moving on!

Glaive / Scythe

The Glaive’s mass is an error right now. Should be heavier than the Scythe, lighter than the Cutlass.

(3:25:26 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: looks like the glaive is the same mass as the scythe (3:25:28 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: which is an error (3:25:52 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: but the glaive is lighter than the cutlass

Quantum Drive

Quantum Drive includes acceleration and deceleration, so if you aren’t far enough away from a target, then you won’t reach full speed before needing to decelerate. This explains the time it took to travel 3,000km in the Gamescom demo. (the time in the demo was significantly longer than it should have been, were quantum drive instant)

(3:32:13 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: quantum drive includes acceleration and deceleration, so if you aren’t far enough away from a target, then you won’t reach full speed before needing to decellerate

General Gameplay

Bounty Hunting is a matter of tracking a target.

(4:11:47 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: so bounty hunting is a matter of tracking a target. If you can’t get the drop on them, you might indeed need to bring a fast wingman to help catch the target, but that’s on you (4:12:54 PM) CIG Calix Reneau: Rasmus, have you ever seen a police chase? (4:12:54 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: Catch them off guard, get the alpha-strike against the target before they’ve really been able to scan you.

CIG want power management to be a more tangible thing, but how that’ll end up is still up in the air.

(6:47:36 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: We do want power management to be a more tangible thing, but how that will all roll out in terms of gameplay is still up in the air as we get everything implemented.

A bit of talk about how ships might be manufactured in the PU.

(7:26:44 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: For ships, a shipyard would basically have its alloted ships it can produce. Players won’t ever be dealing with ship blueprints to get something fabricated. (7:27:05 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: Anvil, Aegis, etc aren’t going to give out their proprietary designs. (7:27:52 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: If it’s an Aegis-shipyard, they’ll probably build Aegis ships, and the yard will just have those plans from the manufacture. (7:33:14 PM) CIG Matt Sherman: More so, you won’t be holding a stack of prints to get a ship made. No player will be directly fabricating any ships in the PU.

Freelancer

The Freelancer has many, many issues right now, and they’re known by CIG, and have been for quite a while. Since the ‘Lancer still isn’t flight ready, they’ve not been fixed.