Q&A: Ship Customization
Today, we’re diving deep into a new and exciting development in Star Citizen. Starting with the 300 series, we’re giving you the ability to make your ship yours, with customization options ranging from exterior paint jobs to decorative items, and more. The Star Citizen universe is one that allows you to travel among the stars and be whoever you want to be – with your ship being an extension of who you are. And it’s not just ships, “be who you want to be,” is core to everything we do – think about all of the new character features, armor and clothing options added in Alpha 3.5 – all allowing you to truly define who you are with thousands of possible combinations.
Ship customization is our first foray into personalizing ships, and we’re looking forward to hearing your feedback and seeing some amazing designs. While this initial rollout is built around your pledge, our intention, as we’ve said in the past, is that you’re never required to pledge more than an initial starter package to play the game. For those that do decide to pledge additionally, thank you for your support and rest assured that all pledges go directly to the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42.
See you in the ‘verse,
Chris Roberts
Will these customizations be available to be obtained in-game for in-game currency?
Absolutely. While you’ll have the option to pledge for customizations (and some of the options are free), as we’ve said from the beginning, nearly everything will eventually be available and earnable in-game. In fact, many of the components are already obtainable with in-game currency in the game today.
What happens to the aspects of the ship you customized when your ship is destroyed or reclaimed? In these scenarios, manufacturer customizations are covered under the base insurance, meaning when you respawn your ship, it will already have your customizations/loadout equipped. This means no more having to re-equip your customizations after your ship has been destroyed/reclaimed. We’re very happy to share that with the rollout of 3.5.1, this is not only exclusive to using the customization tool – changes you make to your ship in-game will persist after being reclaimed. Longer term, your insurance deductible will be based on the equipment/attachments on your ship.
Will more options be available? Of course! We’re aiming to give you tons of different options for making the ships of Star Citizen into your ships. This first iteration is customization “from Origin,” similar to how you’d experience buying a car in the real world, directly from a manufacturer. As we continue to create more customization options, we plan on some of the wilder and off-manufacturer branded items to be available at “chop shops,” and similar locations that provide aftermarket upgrades / customization.
What’s the difference between customizing with your manufacturer vs. a chop shop? When you head to a manufacturer, you’re getting the manufacturer’s vision for what makes their brand look best. So, as an example, you probably won’t see orange flames on a purple 300i offered by Origin, but you might find this at those aftermarket suppliers.
How long before we can customize other ships? We don’t have an exact ETA, but we’re definitely excited to introduce more ways for you to make your ship yours. Like everything in Star Citizen, we want your feedback. Tell us how you like this first iteration of customization and let us know what types of ideas you have.
Will customization include more options than just cosmetics and packages? In our initial rollout, we also have some fun decorative additions including things like a stereo, a holo-clock, a coffee machine, and more. We’re also looking forward to hearing more about the types of decorations you all would like to see!
Why did you pick the 300 Series? Since this is really our test-bed for customization in Star Citizen, we wanted to roll it out with a ship that a vast number of you already pledged for. The 300 series are some of our most popular ships, and with three existing variants, gives us a huge number of choices.
Can you customize your ship over and over again? Short answer: yes. Long answer, just like in the real world, when you customize a car with a manufacturer, you would be unlikely to return and make additional aesthetic changes. Because this is a first roll-out, and we want to get as much testing as possible, you can still trade in customized ships via your hangar by selecting the exchange option for store credit that equals the value of your ship + the customizations you’ve added in the past. Longer term, you would need to visit a “chop shop” or aftermarket dealer to make additional customizations.
Will you continue to iterate on this feature? As with everything in game-development, absolutely. We’re looking forward to both introducing additional functionality in the future and also taking into consideration your feedback when shaping this new aspect of Star Citizen.
A while back you promised ship modularity, could this customization tool you’ve created be used to swap out modular aspects of a ship? Absolutely, that is our plan. The work creating the tech behind customization will be the backbone for the future for ship modularity. While you are seeing this initial rollout utilize this tool for things like paint and trim, it can also be utilized for entire modular rooms/attachments.
Will existing pilots of the new ships be able to repaint/change the looks and features of the ships? Yes. Existing 300 series owners will find that upon launch, the customizer will guide you to add customizations to your already existing ship.
Will the props you can add to your ship via the customization tool eventually be usable/interactable? Definitely! We’ve got some pretty fun stuff being worked on in the background, and we’re looking forward to blasting music over a cup of coffee in our 300 series in the future.
Will decals and other similar customization options eventually be an option?
Yes, that’s the plan! This first iteration of customization is purely focused on the experience you can have with a specific manufacturer. We’re exploring additional tech in the background that will help sort through some of our community’s more “eccentric” decals and allow additional personalized customization like ship names, registration #, and more. We plan on exploring this for future iterations.
Could this system eventually give us a choice of ship voices?
Potentially. We’re not ready to go into detail with what types of additions we are considering, but we’re excited to hear feedback about what you all would like to see.
How come the colors in-game don’t perfectly match the colors I selected in the customizer?
The Star Citizen universe is made up of many different environments and biomes, each presenting different lighting based on various factors. Just like in real life, your ship is going to look quite different bathed in the blazing sun on a Hurston savanna than it does under the neon of ArcCorp. The physically based rendering system we use takes all this into account, along with the materials of your ship, and more, to generate the most realistic visuals possible.