Looks like a way to customize your ship’s flight characteristics.
I’m hoping this will be a good comeback for racers, but it will be interesting to see if this affects other areas of play such as industrial players.
Context:
With the latest PTU update, you may have spotted a new loading screen mentioning “Flight Blades”. Coming with Invictus, this new component will let you fine-tune your ship’s flight characteristics. We’ll be sharing full details in an upcoming dedicated Spectrum thread—stay tuned!
- Nicou-CIG
The OP from spectrum was referencing a message from Todd Papy 5 years ago when they were discussing blades in Star Citizen. A lot has probably only changed since then, but it might offer some hints at what this flight blade could mean:
Tap for outdated info
October 2020
TPapy.CIG:
Here is some things that have been discussed that are being thought of for hardware (new blade) or software (loaded on computer or blade), these would be types of ideas that we would bring online over time:
- Missile Defense System (Combat) - Automatically fires correct countermeasures to avoid being hit by missiles
- Encryption/Decryption Blade (Data Runner) - Able to keep data encrypted to prevent theft and also provides the means to attempt to decrypt data.
- Emissions Controller (Combat) - Allows the pilot to set strict limits on emission production, providing additional warnings and shutting down unnecessary systems automatically.
- Offensive E-War Blade (Combat) - Enhances existing offensive e-war capability, could speed up or strengthen offensive programs/viruses or offer new ones to run.
- Defensive E-War Blade (Combat) - Enhances existing defensive e-war capability, grants further protection and reduces potency of offensive programs.
- Mining Blade (Mining) - Speeds up mining scans and provides additional information (pinpointing pockets of ore, mineral density etc.)
- Salvage Database (Salvaging) - Speeds up scanning wrecks and provides additional information (pinpoints valuable ship items, shows materials contained within wrecks etc.)
- Criminal Database (Bounty Hunter) - Provides a list of known criminals or unlawful activity and the ability to accept bounties to track them down and bring them to justice.
- “Hit List” (Pirate) - Similar to the criminal database but to be used by criminals. Bad people can view and accept contracts to take care of people.
- Enhanced Route Navigation (Trade / Exploration) - Essentially enhanced starmap/navigation options. Lets the pilot know how dangerous the route is that they are taking, enables them to pick routes based on speed, safety or avoiding certain areas.
- Trade Database (Trade) - Allows traders to view buy/sell prices in different places in the universe while on the move, rather than having to be at a trade station.
- Shield Management Blade (Combat) - Provides advanced shield control options to allow finer control.
- Stellar Charting System (Exploration / General) - Makes it easier to discover jump points if/when they move elsewhere, possibly also makes jump travel easier.
- Item Lock Blade (Combat) - Further enhances the targeting system to allow the pilot to lock onto specific parts of the ship, so they are able to take out individual systems.
- Cargo Manifest Masker (Smuggling) - Disguises the items in your cargo manifest to allow you to hide contraband from initial ship scans.
- Internal Security System (Larger ships) - Provides internal ship info, positions of lifeforms aboard the ship and the ability to lock/unlock individual doors.
- Drone Management Blade (Larger ships) - Allows ships to control on-board drones
Edit: Autocorrect strikes again