Should the bar to entry for professions be hi?

RoughGalaxy

Commander
Nov 2, 2017
74
372
100
RSI Handle
RoughGalaxy
I was chatting with some Star citizen buddy's tonight and the thought came into my head. If I want to be a mechanic... it should have a decently steep bar to entry. If it doesn't, Every tom dick and jane in the verse is going to fix their own stuff, and being an engineer/mechanic isn't going to be a real profession.

What are your thoughts? what do you think CIG should do to make choosing a profession matter?

I, for one, would be happy to trade my main weapon slots for mechanic tools. Maybe the gear for doing things like on site mechanics or mining is bulky and you can only carry a side arm?
 

NaffNaffBobFace

Space Marshal
Donor
Jan 5, 2016
11,755
43,210
3,150
RSI Handle
NaffNaffBobFace
In regard to repairs, I think in the s42 vertical slice there was a blowtorch thing that may turn out to be some kind of Multi-tool.

That'd be basic mechanics. Break this or weld that or carry this spare part to this computer bank and replace it to stop the ship from running out of air in two minutes... Not advanced repairs, but good enough to get something working again in an emergency to get to you where it can be fixed permanently - Remember one of the aims of the game is to have one of your crew running around the Jeffries Tubes in your Starfarer repairing the thing as it's taking a beating.

Thats not going to replace a lost wing which is vital for Cooler performance through. There will be bigger tasks for higher up mechanical tasks and that'll probably be the progression.
 

Bruce

Grand Admiral
May 23, 2017
520
1,889
1,350
RSI Handle
ABAP
What are your thoughts? what do you think CIG should do to make choosing a profession matter?
I believe Chris answered to entry / progression questions long time ago - this game barrier will be equipment and skill ( i.e. anyone WITH MONEY could buy tools and pretend to be a mechanic, but results will be skill based) .. so yes - you have tools and ability - go fix your plane and face the outcome :)
 

Bambooza

Space Marshal
Donor
Sep 25, 2017
5,682
17,881
2,875
RSI Handle
MrBambooza
In regard to repairs, I think in the s42 vertical slice there was a blowtorch thing that may turn out to be some kind of Multi-tool.

That'd be basic mechanics. Break this or weld that or carry this spare part to this computer bank and replace it to stop the ship from running out of air in two minutes... Not advanced repairs, but good enough to get something working again in an emergency to get to you where it can be fixed permanently - Remember one of the aims of the game is to have one of your crew running around the Jeffries Tubes in your Starfarer repairing the thing as it's taking a beating.

Thats not going to replace a lost wing which is vital for Cooler performance through. There will be bigger tasks for higher up mechanical tasks and that'll probably be the progression.
I believe Chris answered to entry / progression questions long time ago - this game barrier will be equipment and skill ( i.e. anyone WITH MONEY could buy tools and pretend to be a mechanic, but results will be skill based) .. so yes - you have tools and ability - go fix your plane and face the outcome
Here is the Design Notes that still seem relevant if you want more details then what @NaffNaffBobFace and @Bruce have stated.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/15062-Design-Notes-Ship-Repair-And-Maintenance
 

Ezz

Space Marshal
Feb 4, 2016
943
4,805
2,510
RSI Handle
Pfen
Getting better with time. So if you repair stuff on your own ship .. you're a hobbyist and not high skilled, takes you more time and not always succeed. If you repair all your org-members ships you are a professional and comes with more skill/knowledge. Ingame wise it could be like skyrim-skill system. Not spending skill points but becoming good at something by doing it.
 

DoctorProfessor

Space Marshal
Jul 14, 2016
43
166
1,700
RSI Handle
Doctor_Professor
A mix of gear/equipment and actual skill would be best, but at the end of the day, it can't be too complex because this game needs to cater to both the hardcore gamers and the more casual gamers too -

Easy to use, hard to master has always sat best with me personally, if the system's not all that difficult but you can only really do a slap-dash job of it without practice or skill, seems fine to me.
 

RoughGalaxy

Commander
Nov 2, 2017
74
372
100
RSI Handle
RoughGalaxy
Thanks for the input guys. I agree. low bar to entry but skill based means if you want it done WELL you want someone who does this as a profession, not a hobby.

Edit: Reading the design notes it really exciting. It seems like they had the idea for what they wanted to do in place for a long time. If this is in fact the way they intend to do repairs (as of 3 years ago) all the components to do this job should nearly be in place.

I particularly like that there is a mobile repair tool, which I think may only be limited by the amount of materials you have on you. In theory, someone like me could have materials in their titan and still manage to do a form of mobile garage (at least until the crucible is in)
 
Last edited:

NaffNaffBobFace

Space Marshal
Donor
Jan 5, 2016
11,755
43,210
3,150
RSI Handle
NaffNaffBobFace
I'll just use my repair bot and feed it the materials and buy blueprints.

Who needs a mechanic when I can just fit new parts myself and 3D print replacements for the broken ones.
I always wondered why they didn't make the ship call/ship store mechanism more like a 3D printer? You land in an Avenger, the pad melts it down into raw material. You then buy a blueprint for a Hornet and the pad reconstructs the AvengerGoo into a Hornet for you.

Yeah your custom paint and fuzzy dice would not survive but it just seems like a more futureistic way of having a fleet of ships with you wherever you go in the 'Verse. You don't buy ships, you buy Blueprints that landing pads construct the ship for you instead of just materialising it out of nowhere.
 

SullyQuindarius

Admiral
Dec 24, 2017
951
3,625
700
RSI Handle
SullyQuindarius
I always wondered why they didn't make the ship call/ship store mechanism more like a 3D printer? You land in an Avenger, the pad melts it down into raw material. You then buy a blueprint for a Hornet and the pad reconstructs the AvengerGoo into a Hornet for you.

Yeah your custom paint and fuzzy dice would not survive but it just seems like a more futureistic way of having a fleet of ships with you wherever you go in the 'Verse. You don't buy ships, you buy Blueprints that landing pads construct the ship for you instead of just materialising it out of nowhere.
But how does 1x AvengerGoo™ equal 1x Reclaimer? How would you fit that into bigger ships vs smaller ships?
 

NaffNaffBobFace

Space Marshal
Donor
Jan 5, 2016
11,755
43,210
3,150
RSI Handle
NaffNaffBobFace
But how does 1x AvengerGoo™ equal 1x Reclaimer? How would you fit that into bigger ships vs smaller ships?
A tank of raw Goo sits under the pad. A Caterpillar comes in and sells it's wares. You've either got a very long, slow, boring trip back out or downsize to a Freelancer and halve your trip time. What happens to the excess? well, leave it there. You get to place Z, reclaim some Goo someone else left and you're in a Cat again.

You wouldn't have to pay for more/less goo, as it would be a "take a penny leave a penny" system where everyone understands they wouldn't be able to take the goo with them if they downsized from a Starfarer to a Constellation Phoenix.

Actually scratch this idea, it's retarded. How are you going to have "Luxury" ships if a pad can print up whatever materials it's made of... You could print yourself up a luxury Herald if that were the case: Maybe an idea for a different game.
 

maynard

Space Marshal
May 20, 2014
5,123
20,284
2,995
RSI Handle
mgk
if you can suspend disbelief to where you're living in 2948 is credible, why not believe you are a world-class industrialist, bounty hunter, or whatever?

there should be no barriers to entry to any in-game occupation

however, the ability to earn credits should depend on experience and skills learned with an investment of time

so, no pay-to-win

the n00b who pays cash for the most massive mining ship with the best mods won't make as much as the vet who earned his big ship with the profits from operating his smaller ships
 

Lorddarthvik

Space Marshal
Donor
Feb 22, 2016
2,740
9,487
2,860
RSI Handle
Lorddarthvik
The Entry to the Bar should be Hi, nothing more.

I want to be able to try everything, without going all out for it for months, but I don't want to necessarily succeed at everything just by trying.
Blocking off professions behind an ingame paywall is never compelling to me. Giving meaningful progression to professions is important though!

The entry into a profession should be as low as "just do it", nothing complicated or really expensive. But, the low entry shouldn't really pay off!
Going out with your Aurora and mining a rock with a hand tool should be okay for special cases (mission related maybe) but should not pay the bills, but scraping enough together for the smallest mining ship should also be achievable with some time investment, so you can start a career and see if it works out for you.

Patching up a hole on a ship just enough to stop it falling apart, fine, but doing a proper repair should require more investment in tools (like repair bots, or a whole ship for that) and experience/skill , like using the tools fast but precisely and such (owning extra "blueprints" for repair methods/materials was talked about a long time ago).


I'm afraid that the progression for professions like repairs and mining will be somewhat barred from those who like to play alone, with both higher tier mining and repair ships requiring a quiet large crew to run effectively.
Those who tried making money mining in EVE will understand this. You can get a mid-tier mining ship in EVE without much hassle but it's still kinda low income compared to the investment, and then you hit a wall where you have to make soooo much money for the next tier (and literally spend half a year to research the skill for it ) that it only pays off if you are part of a clan that supports you as a miner, with cargo ships, protection and organized mining "raids". This was the moment I stopped playing eve for good, I just didn't want a second job where another random guy tells me what to do and when to do it... I wanted to play a game for fun.
 
Forgot your password?