Greetings, A note from design on changes to ship components. As all of you will be aware, as you all read the ETF patch notes. Manufacturer Characteristics has been implemented across the different ship components with the aim to add depth and choice between the different component, giving them their own strengths and weakness, but what exactly does that mean? What should you expect? Until recently most items had relatively the same stats with some small stat changes between them that didn’t really have any huge impact and ended up a linear choice of which was best in all situations. In 3.6 we introduced this style of behaviour to shields (although still being balanced) it did give players a real choice when in game to what shields to use. Now we want to roll this out across all the different ship items we currently have Power Plants, Coolers, etc. As always everything is subject to change and this is just the first iteration of something that will develop more over time. We currently have items broken down into archetypes Civilian, Military, Industrial, Stealth and Competitive. From there each manufacturer fits into one of these archetypes which determines how the items will behave. Civilian Manufactures SECO, BEHR, LPLT, SASU, WCPR, TARS, ARCC and RSI Military Manufactures GODI, AEGS, AMRS and WETK Industrial Manufactures BASL and JUST Stealth Manufactures RACO, TYDT and ASAS Competitive Manufactures YORM, ACOM and ACAS Each archetype will have pros and cons aimed at providing a specific type of experience and gameplay. Each manufacturer then puts their own little flair into each item i.e. (both TARS and ARCC make civilian quantum drives but each has their own way of doing it so, although they resemble the archetype there is then small pros and cons between those two choices) So now what we know what the archetype are and who makes them, what should you expect and be looking for when using them. In very general terms, Civilian Components, these can be considered the baseline, they are cheaper, run well, last a decent amount of time and are consistent through their lifetime with their average outputs and requirements. Military Components, these components are tailored to combat. They will be some of the more expensive items in-game to purchase and maintain but as a result, you get a lot for your money with very high outputs and high requirements to operate. They also have focused on making the components as sturdy as possible in both physical and distortion-based damage. Industrial Components, these are designed to run for a long time producing and much output as possible with the lowest requirements they can but are willing to sacrifice everything else to do so with high heat output, heavy masses and low distortion defences. Made to run forever to optimize profits these components are reliable powerhouses with no elegance. Stealth Components, these components have pushed everything to keep their operating requirements as low as possible reducing heat generation and signature output as much as possible to try and avoid detection in any way, these specialist components aren’t made for long term use and need careful looking after to keep running correctly. Competitive Components, these are tailored to the competitive racing scene designed to output only the bare minimum to achieve what they need, with super low mass these components are made to do just enough to get the job done. In addition to these behaviours, we have also added a lot of new items to fill out the selection a little more as well as added A-grade components. Players will be able to pick and choose between these different manufactures to make there ship their own and find combinations that they love, it is important however to remember not every component combination will work with each other if you fully kit you ship out in Military and Industrial Components then have a competitive power plant you probably won’t be able to keep everything running properly. We would love to get your input on these changes! Please be sure to give some of these a thorough gameplay test yourself in-game, then let us know your thoughts below. -Baior Lead Player Experience Analyst