NOTE TO READERS: This is a living document used by the Star Citizen team to develop the ships you will see. BIG DISCLAIMER: These are current specifications. Some of this is likely to change during the 3D design and game balancing process over the next 24 months. Despite this they should give you a good indication of the relative features and abilities of the 5 initial ships that are available to early backers
General Overview
Ships in the Star Citizen universe aren’t just pretty shapes, they are fully functioning vehicles with hundreds of of components, many of which move and articulate as you imagine they would on a real spaceship. Because of this when we design the ships of Star Citizen we have to do more than create something that looks cool, we have to actually think about how the parts of the ship fit together, how they move. If a missile pod or weapon folds into the fuselage we have to make sure there is room for it. We have to worry about the ergonomics of the cockpit, or living quarters inside a bigger ship, how a gantry or a ladder folds out to allow the pilot to climb in, how a door or canopy cantilevers out. In short we have to do industrial design and engineering as much as we do aesthetic design. This attention to detail extends to things like the engines, the various ship systems; avionics, life support, the various modular upgrade and the weapons.
How Star Citizen Engines Work
All spacecraft performance is based on a linear series of engine components which can be upgraded in thousands of possible combinations. Pilots will treat their engine systems like their PCs, adding modifiers to increase the performance, upgrading the engine as though it were a CPU and even overclocking them (and risking flame-outs!)
INTAKES | MODIFIERS | ENGINE | THRUSTERS
INTAKES are the hydrogen ram scoops on the front of the spacecraft which fuel it by gathering space borne hydrogen.. Upgrades alter the effectiveness and the profile of the vehicle; the more effectively a ship takes in fuel the more efficient its engines. The tradeoff is that, unless countermeasures are installed, this also increases the radar signature. The appearance of the ship is altered as well: more primitive intakes look like physical fan blades, others glow different colors as heat capacity increases.
MODIFIERS are a generalized slot for any kind of tech that affects the overall performance of the engine. The list includes engine coolers, overdrives, afterburners, over clockers and other similar systems. Different ships can have different numbers of modifiers in a chain. The Aurora has a single modifier slot and so a pilot must decide between an afterburner and a cooler… the 300i has two, the pilot has more options.
The ENGINE is the core power plant of the ship. Engine output varies depending on manufacturer, model and type (types include Fission, Fusion, Anti-Matter, etc.) Each selection offers you a different base performance. Engine model examples: General Fusion 3000, Merlin Agena-L, Korolev Atlas III, Suncom Omega.
THRUSTERS are the end of the chain, the physical output point of the engine. They modify the overall engine output: burn at different rates, impact the range, increase or decrease the radar profile of the ship (you might pay extra for “silencer” thrusters which don’t give off such a large drive plume,) etc. Here you will see a significant visual difference: different size nozzles, different colors of thrust, etc. THRUSTERS are defined by two values; its’ THRUST RATING (TR), which determines the amount of thrust it can deliver. The bigger the number the larger and more powerful the thruster will be.
A 10 rated thruster would be used on a cruiser’s main engines, and a 1 rated thruster would be a maneuvering thruster on a RSI Aurora. You can normally fit a thruster of the same or lower rating but you couldn’t attach a 5 rated thruster to a 3 rated thruster slot. Most ships have a combination of a few higher rated thruster slots for the Main Engine thrust and at least 4, but more usually 8 lower rated thruster slots for the Maneuvering and Retro thrusters. The maneuvering thrusters are used to change the ship’s orientation as well adjust its overall velocity vector. Retro thrusters arrest the ships velocity. Frequently a front mounted maneuvering thruster will also perform retro fire duties.
The second important value for a thruster is its ARTICULATION TYPE; Fixed doesn’t move. The thrusters on the Apollo lunar lander would be classified as fixed. Then there are Jointed thrusters; these are rigid nozzles that can rotate on one or two axis. After this there are Flex thrusters; which can articulate on one or two axis, but aren’t rigid. Think of these like the nozzles on a Harrier or an F-35. Finally there are Vectored thrusters – which have vector flaps that help direct the stream of exhaust.
As an example the Hornet has one 4 rated Vectored Main Engine thruster, four 2 rated flex maneuvering jets (with the front two also performing retro duties) on the top and four 2 rated jointed thrusters on the bottom.
Very good info on the ships. Thanks for posting, William. This game is going to be, EPIC.
Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you, and be sure of this, I will be with you always even unto the end of the age. Mathew 28:20
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son Of God.
All I can say is WOW just wow. That is soooooooo awesome. I wonder if we could somehow have the ability to merge our hangars if/when we form a squadron. They said on the video that it was a modular system. Wouldn't it be incredible to have one huge hanger for all the ships in our sqaundron? In any event even if that's not possible, this is an incredibly great new piece of news that I was not aware of. Thanks for posting it!!!
Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you, and be sure of this, I will be with you always even unto the end of the age. Mathew 28:20
I guess that is just one more thing to whet our appetites for the release of this thing!
Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you, and be sure of this, I will be with you always even unto the end of the age. Mathew 28:20
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