News: MULTI-CREW SHIP SYSTEMS

MULTI-CREW SHIP SYSTEMS


Greetings Citizens,
Can space be more fun with friends? We think so, and we aim to prove it. In gaming, the traditional space sim storyline pits the player against the galaxy. Sure, Colonel Blair had some wingmen … but when it came time to take on the Kilrathi, he was always in the driver’s seat. But now think back to your favourite film or television series: whether it’s the straight-laced crew of the Enterprise exploring strange new worlds or scruffy Browncoats struggling to keep Serenity in the black, great stories spring from Human interaction. Mowing down an alien armada by yourself is a lot of fun … but imagine taking Luke’s seat on the Millennium Falcon, fending off TIE Fighters with the turret while your buddy plays Chewie and tries to repair the hyperdrive.

That’s exactly what the team at Foundry 42 has been charged with replicating in Star Citizen! For Squadron 42, Chris Roberts asked us to develop a system that naturally encourages cooperative play and promotes teamwork rather than forcing anything specific on the player. Like every aspect of Star Citizen, it needs to be immersive, it needs to be engaging … and it needs to function beyond our particular piece of the puzzle. The multi-crew systems we premiere in Squadron 42 will go on to appear throughout the Star Citizen world!

Coming up with this system has been a major task for our designers. We are aiming for a very particular ‘sweet spot’: multi-crew ship positions that are both fun AND that make sense in the Star Citizen world. Some positions are easy: flying a ship will always be fun, manning a turret is great … but how do we find something real and important and fun that will encourage players to want to serve as navigators or engineers?

After a lot of research and a lot of thinking (and credit where credit is due: a lot of Star Trek viewings and team games of Artemis Bridge Simulator) we’re excited to share with you our plan. As with every design post, this information represents our current thinking, not necessarily the final details. We’re beginning to implement these systems as we look forward to Squadron 42 Chapter 1 and Arena Commander 2.0 … and like everything else in the game, they will be tweaked and improved as we see them in action and get real player feedback.

We’ve put this post together largely in response to backer questions about the Carrack. The specific answer to the ongoing question is that yes, you can operate a Carrack by yourself using the control system outlined below… but that we believe that it will be significantly more fun for users of such larger ships to take on the galaxy with friends.

Overview
When we first envisioned the concept of crew stations for capital ships, we thought they could easily be adapted for multi-crew ships. However it soon became apparent that the crew station actions available to a capital ship might be too involving for one of the smaller multi-crew ships, so we split the ships into three categories.

Ships such as the Hornet or 300i, would retain the single-pilot HUD similar to what you see in Arena Commander now (note that different manufacturers will have different style HUDs). This system is geared towards helping the pilot to make quick adjustments on the fly which is perfect for when you’re dogfighting or weaving through an asteroid field! However on larger ships you may have additional crewmembers who will be able to make adjustments and tweak to your ships systems with greater fidelity.

WIP Javelin turret interface
Capital ships such as the Javelin will require multiple players (or NPCs) to run all the various ships systems, man turrets and even perform tasks such as reloading torpedo bays or repairing power relays. As there are far more weapons and ship components to manage, the station interfaces need to be more complex and therefore require each crew station to be dedicated to a single action, at least for the first iteration.

However, with multi-crew ships such as the Retaliator, Freelancer or Constellation, we needed to approach the concept of stations a little differently. You, the fans, expressed an interest in being able to fly your multi-crew ships solo as well as having the option to invite friends to man the various support stations and turrets. Therefore we decided that you should be able to fly a multi-crew ship solo, having access to the same management system seen on the HUD of any single-pilot ship. However, should you want to invite your friends along to help manage your ship, you could access additional crew support stations, giving you a little more control over the ships’ various systems. In brief, multi-crew ships needed to be entirely more flexible than either single-seat or capital ships.


Crew Stations
Crew stations are the physical object that you interact with – a console that you either sit down or stand up at to perform your duties. These stations will have a single, fixed-ratio screen where the management UI, or “action,” is displayed. Keeping the screen a fixed size is important as it allows us to use the same UI across all ships and stations without having to reinvent the layout every time.

The screen itself will be similar to the holo-table in the hangar, in that information is displayed and updated in real-time in the game world allowing others to view your performance. This is good for the captain or commander, who make sure you’re not playing Galaga, and for you as you’re logged on to the station, as they you will be able to view any action on the bridge without necessarily having to exit your station.


Actions
In Star Citizen the various systems you install on your ship drive the functionality of your crew stations and other consoles. Each station has access to a number of pre-configured actions – the interfaces that you use to manage the ships various systems. Not every station will contain every action interface.

Each interface is linked directly to the installed component therefore if you fit a cheap power plant the interface will be rudimentary however a better quality component will come equipped with a superior interface allowing you to manage power to your sub-systems more efficiently. However should you decide not to install a particular component you would not have access to the associated action interface. For example if you install a shield generator you will have access to the shield configuration interface but if you’re feeling brave you might leave your hangar without installing a shield generator and the shield configuration interface would not be available to any of the ship’s crew stations.

Action List
Shield Management: The shield management action gives the user more granular control of the ship’s shields and generators:

• Reinforce shield segments which increases the segments’ maximum expansion potential as well as prioritizing its recharge position
• Boost the recharge of shield segments which have been damaged
• Tune the generator to be more effective in one of three areas: shield strength, recharge rate or recovery time

Radar Ops: On a basic level the radar ops action allows you to identify targets, easing the workload of the pilot. This action will be expanded to include the ability to send commands to other fleet members:

• Identify targets so that the pilot does not need to
• Focus the radar array to find potentially hidden targets
• Flag weakened targets, allies in distress or particularly dangerous enemies
• Scan and identify sub-systems on larger ships

EWAR: The electronic warfare station gives you the ability to hinder an opponent’s systems, bringing a new tactical edge to dogfighting. Use of the EWAR suite requires the installation of a specialised electronic warfare module which generates the effect in a radius. You can also fit an emitter to target specific enemies. Electronic warfare breaks down into the following areas:

• Dampening: Reduce the range of opponent systems
• Disruption: Hinder the operation of opponent systems
• Disable: Disable an enemy system, forcing them to restart it
• Debuff: Make the opponent more vulnerable

Communications: The most basic form of communication will allow you to open a channel to another vessel, set up a conference call or deliver information data such as cargo manifests or ship complement. However, when additional components are slotted, automated messages become available for you to use. For example if your ship has a docking ring, you may request to dock with another ship with a docking ring.

Fuel: On a basic level this action will enable you to decide which tank is being refuelled via the ship’s hydrogen scoops. Players with a refuelling arm gain additional functions for managing, refining and refuelling.

Scanning: The information that appears on this action depends on what scanner array you have installed.

Avionics and CPU: This action allows you more granular control of the ship’s avionics package specifically relating to CPU power. For example, you may prioritize certain systems, such as ITTS or missile lock, to gain a marginal deduction in lock-on time.

Power Management: Every component and weapon fitted to your vessel will appear in the power management screen. At multi-crew level you gain more control over the individual power level each component is receiving.

Navigation: This is where you might plan a route to another star system or plot a series of waypoints. Additional information will be made available to you such as fuel usage, time to destination and speed-through-point. These tools will allow you to generate routes based on fuel efficiency or time taken.

Station Interface Overview
When designing the overall interface we focused primarily on functionality and layout. Firstly each element on the interface must have a function – either being an object that you can interact with or a readout with relevant information. We didn’t want any fluff animations which would clutter up the screen and distract you from the task at hand. We also wanted each action to share information globally, such as the 3D schematic view pane.

(Of course the layout shown here is still WIP and subject to change!)


Action Shelf
The action shelf functions in a similar fashion to the management screen seen on the single-pilot HUD. You can flick between all available actions and choose one or more to log on to. Once logged on, you can access specific ship systems.

For multi-crew ships all available actions are shown on the action shelf. These will change from seat to seat; some command seats may offer multiple roles from a single point, others may be incredibly specific. This allows you to view important information from other ship systems without having to exit your own station.

Ship Statistics
This section shows valuable information regarding the ship’s emissions and resource usage and is available to all actions.

• Emissions: Bars showing the ship’s current electromagnetic and infra-red emissions, plus a secondary bar which approximates the exterior electromagnetic and infra-red noise. If your ship’s output is significantly less than the environmental noise, you can be certain that you will be invisible to radars tuned to that emission type.
• Power and CPU usage: Tracks the current power and CPU every three seconds, then marks any timeframe where these systems were bottlenecked due to heavy usage. This can be a useful tool for engineers attempting to track down the components causing the bottleneck.

WIP weapons control point
Schematic View
The schematic view shows a 3D hologram of the ship and is designed to allow a crewmember to instantly appraise any issues with a glance. You can rotate, pan and zoom the hologram.

• View Mode: You can choose from a number of default orthographic views by selecting one of these buttons. For example, if you simply wish a top-down orthographic view, you would select the “T” button.
• Display Mode: This allows you to shift between display modes which draws the ship and its components according to the mode selected. Only one display mode may be active at any time.
• DF (Default): The ship hull and components are drawn monochromatically without any specific highlighting.
• HT (Heat): In Heat mode components generating the most heat are shown brighter than those generating relatively little heat.
• EM (Electromagnetic): In this mode components generating the most electromagnetic signature are shown brighter than those generating less EM emissions.
• DM (Damage): This view adopts the same technology seen on the single-pilot HUD. Components and hull parts which have sustained damage are shown in a color appropriate to the damage level. Damaged items are shown in amber whereas critically damaged items are shown in red.
• PW (Power): This view highlights any potential power issue to the ship’s components. Systems that are at risk of stalling when active are shown in amber, whereas systems that are not receiving enough power even when idle are shown in red.
• Component Filter: These check-boxes toggle the visualization for all the ship’s components. These include:
• Hull: Show/Hide the ship’s exterior
• Weapons: Show/Hide the ship’s weapons, including turrets and launchers
• Systems: Show/Hide the ship’s systems, including shield generator, power plant, etc.
• Propulsion: Show/Hide the ship’s exterior engines and thrusters
• Shields: Show/Hide the ship’s shield segments

Presets
Presets allow you to save a number of configurations per action. This can be particularly helpful if you wish to create individual builds or loadouts tailored to specific situations. The preset boxes can easily be renamed.

Log
This panel shows a list of messages from a number of sources including player chat, player requests, system critical information and server information. You can also enter chat text into the box below.

Notifications
This panel shows a list of notifications from other players — in other words a list of objectives from players who require you to perform a task for them. This panel is always contextual to the currently active action. For example, if the power management action is active, notifications will be related to increasing/decreasing power to the ship’s systems or turning those systems on or off.

Going forward
Multi-crew stations are just beginning, and the list of actions above will be expanded as new mechanics come online. Additionally the multi-crew stations will feed naturally into the capital ship crew stations, expanding on the amount of control you have and the complexity of the systems.

We firmly believe that multi-crew ships and the ability to come together to form a crew and manage your ship is something that’s never before been seen. Although the system may seem initially quite complex, we’re hoping that you’ll gain the tools to create personalized builds and loadouts specifically tuned to the many situations you will face in the ’verse.