Star Citizen is introducing significant changes to its multi-crew gameplay, allowing players to run ships with crews of people, NPCs, or AI blades. These changes include evolving turret gameplay, introducing a permission system for assigning roles and access levels, and the addition of AI blades and NPC crew members to assist in running ships effectively.
Star Citizen is introducing big changes to its multi-crew gameplay, allowing players to run small, medium, and large ships with crews of people, NPCs, or AI blades. Currently, multi-crew gameplay is limited to piloting and gunning, but the game plans to add more gameplay options this year. This includes evolving turret gameplay with more weapon options and precision targeting. Manned turrets are important for covering sections of the ship that the pilot cannot. Different ships will have specific stations for various gameplay, such as electronic warfare, scanning, mining, and salvage.
The game will introduce a permission system that allows players to give certain seats and stations additional access. This flexibility allows players to assign specific roles to their crew members and set their access levels accordingly. However, the main pilot operation of a ship will only be accessible to one person. Some ships may have a battle bridge that can override this limitation. The goal is to create a sense of specialization and teamwork within multi-crew gameplay.
Roles on a ship include pilots, gunners, engineers, security personnel, medics, and command crew. Engineers play a crucial role in resource management, maintaining and repairing ship components, and managing power systems. Ships will have physical components that can be targeted individually, and damaging these components will disable or impair the ship’s functionality. Larger ships will require larger crews, but the game aims to make capital ships runnable with smaller crews than originally expected. Players can also hire NPC crew members and use AI blades to automate certain ship functions.
The game plans to introduce AI blades, which are modules that can be installed in ships to provide additional or automated functionality. AI blades can control turrets, fire countermeasures, access bounty hunter databases, and enhance ship capabilities for specific roles like salvage or mining. While AI blades are not as capable as player crew members, they can assist in running a ship with fewer crew members. NPC crew members will also be available for hire, but the game does not plan to allow players to control large fleets of NPCs.
Overall, the evolution of multi-crew gameplay in Star Citizen is adding more depth and variety to the game. Players can now engage in a wide range of roles and activities on ships, from combat to industrial tasks like mining and salvage. The game allows for scalability in crew size, with smaller ships manageable with a few crew members and larger capital ships requiring more personnel. The introduction of AI blades and NPC crew members further expands the options for running a ship effectively.