when they get home etc. They can’t exactly load up the
game client and fire up the old Holotable. ShipSpecs
provides a way for them to work on things without using
the game client. There is a time and a place for both the
holo-table and for ShipSpecs.
PULSE: MechWarrior Online has a less diverse collection
of ‘Mechs (vehicles) than Star Citizen’s ships. There’s
not much variation between a light scout ‘Mech and a
super-heavy assault ‘Mech when it comes to their load
out. Considering the differences between an Aurora and
an Idris or Bengal, were there any difficulties scaling
ShipSpecs to handle such a range of ship designs?
GRIMM: There are always difficulties with new and
complex projects. MechWarrior Online has far fewer
assets to work with (even two years after launch) than
Star Citizen will have when they launch so yes, it has
required a good deal of planning, especially on the
Shiplab portion of things. Imagine having to plan for
variants, of the same chassis, that may have hardpoints
in completely different locations of the ship. Still, the
challenge is something that Smurfy and I enjoy and for
us part of the satisfaction comes from figuring it out and
making it work.
PULSE: How many people are working on ShipSpecs?
Did you all have experience with this kind of
development before working on MechSpecs and
Smurfy’s Mechlab?
GRIMM: There are currently three people attached to
the ShipSpecs project; myself, Bolththrower and Smurfy.
Bolt and I handle day to day admin, content, etc. and
Smurfy and I are working on the Shiplab together. We
may bring more people on in the future for content
generation, especially video content.
As for experience? Well Smurfy has the experience of
building and running the Smurfy Mechlab and I have the
experience of creating and running MechSpecs. We both
have experience in growing our projects into standard
community resources. Bolt hasn’t been involved with
either previous project but brings a wealth of Star
Citizen knowledge with him as well as a real passion for
this game. Dude has himself an Idris, so yeah, he’s “all
in”.
PULSE: Any plans to integrate ShipSpecs with the
Persistent Universe? Something along the lines of EVE’s
BattleClinic or World of Warcraft’s WoW Heroes, for
example?
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GRIMM: This is something that I would love to do, and
I am sure the other guys would too. It really depends on
what tools C