Greetings Citizens,

Day Two of questions and answers! On Thursday, we kicked off the concept sale for the new Avenger modules. Today, we’ll be answering questions collected on the forums, and coming back Friday for the Anvil Crucible Q&A. For this, special thanks to Calix Reneau and Randy Vasquez for answering your questions. Enjoy!

What’s the deal with the variants / modules thing? Why are the exteriors the same? Will there be new packages?

The EMP and cargo versions of the Avenger are currently being offered as single unit ships because the system that allows captains to switch modules is not yet active in Alpha 2.0. Once that system goes live, separate cargo, bounty hunting and EMP modules, like those offered in concept for the Retaliator, will be made available. For now, pick the Avenger you most want to fly so that you’ll get to enjoy it in the ‘Verse!

How does the Warlock’s EMP work? Is it a fire-at-target weapon like a gun or does it generate the EMP blast around the ship? If the ship generates a bubble/field around itself for the attack, will the ship itself be subject to the effects of the EMP ?

That second one – generate an EMP blast around the ship. The ship is subject to the effects of the EMP, but if a component is powered down at the time of the blast, it will not be affected, and will be able to turn on again immediately.

How will the Warlock’s EMP blast affect larger ships like the Idris compared to smaller Constellation and Hornet sized ships?

EMP has no effect on ship hull, only on components. Components that are affected take distortion damage relative to their distance from the source of the EMP blast, so it’s far more likely to only partially disrupt a capital ship than a smaller ship. Larger components also have higher tolerance for distortion damage, generally speaking.

Does the Warlock have any remaining cargo room?

No.

Are there any other ships we can use the EMP module in?

The EMP module is an Avenger specific object. EMP generators are components that will fit into our existing component system, and so should eventually be available to other ships. This particular EMP generator, however, is only available to the Avenger.

What can people do to defend against EMP ? Does EMP affect all ships equally?

When you see an EMP about to detonate, you have three options – kill/disrupt the target (the EMP generator requires power to build up and maintain charge); get far enough away from the EMP blast to not be affected; turn off the components on your ship, so that when they get hit by the EMP blast, they will not be affected. That third option definitely favors multi-crew ships with engineers who are primed and ready to power cycle the ship at a moments notice.

Is there going to be a limit on how long you can keep a player in the holding cell of the Avenger? It seems like purposefully keeping someone for extended periods of time could be used to grief other players. Also, what would happen to a prisoner if you switched out the holding cell module for a cargo hold module before the bounty could be claimed?

This is a balance issue that we will want to hold off on until we’ve done more live testing. One solution being proposed internally is that the passenger would become a ‘commodity’ at some point, with the player respawning elsewhere to continue playing themselves while you transport an NPC prisoner. With regards to the module change, you would simply be physically unable to remove the module while it contained prisoners (or any standard commodities.)

Where is my trainer cockpit?

The actual asset for the entire double seater cockpit has been completely made and is ready to go when some gameplay is achievable with it, the main problem we have is that two seats can’t share direct control over a single component currently so for a dual seat trainer one pilot would fly and the other would be unable to override this. When that problem is resolved we can look at bringing it back.

How we gonna enter to the cockpit of a fully loaded Avenger Titan? Or Warlock?

The Avenger now comes with an alternate direct cockpit entry via a side ladder, which is available only on the current Warlock at the moment due to the EMP module totally blocking the rear entry. It is on the Titan/Stalker at the moment but disabled as we currently don’t support multiple methods of entry/exit to the same seat, when this feature is added it will be enabled on those versions.

Where is the Avenger supposed to fit in the overall scheme of things, combat-wise?

The Avenger is intended to be a more rugged dogfighter, with performance hits coming from the larger cargo hold and the in-lore age. Think the sort of ship that can’t necessarily avoid enemy fire, but it can take a fair number of hits… while having the firepower to hit back. In general, a focus on arms and armor instead of maneuvering and thrusters.