The Mandate Compendium 04012015

8/18/2019 The Mandate Compendium 04012015

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Introducing the Mandate CompendiumCurrent as of 04/01/2014

This is a compendium of all known information and snippets from the developers regardingthe game to date. Everything you ever wanted to know aout the !andate" in its pure and uneditedform. #traight from the horse$s mouth" as it were.

%ow does it work& 'ell" this is designed to e reference material" not read end to end (although you certainly can do that. )f you$re discussing some feature or thinking of a suggestion to

e implemented in the game you can refer here" either y searching *use CT+,- or following thetale of contents to the appropriate chapter. 'hat we$re hoping to accomplish is to reduce thenumer of places you need to search in order to make informed comments and suggestions aoutthe game.

s with all things" however" this is not without its flaws. lthough we endeavour to ensurethat the Compendium stays current delays in updates are to e epected. )t$s also uite possile thatold information remains in the Compendium for longer than it should. The format we$re using" othto keep our sanity and make the whole thing manageale is to use unedited developer comments.There is no way of knowing if these are still accurate si months down the line. 'e assume thatthey will e unless we$re told otherwise ut if you read something in here and a developer comesalong and says that it$s different" then it$s different. !uch of the information contained herein"especially at this stage" is developer commentary from during and efore pre3production. ameschange all the time during the development phase" so there$s a limit on the accuracy of developercomments" especially older ones. 5evertheless" we elieve this will prove an interesting andeffective repository of information on the game.

lso" ecause every good superhero needs an origin story so too does the Compendium haveone. 6uring a discussion on the *soon to e old forums regarding co3op and how it would work oneof our oldest *though" at this stage" everyody was fairly new forum memers" kardi" lamentedthat 7) really need a source pile of 6evs had said aout such such on this topic. !aye that$ssomething 8eneke or ) could do if we have enough motivation and free time.9 rom here ) *8eneke

roached the su:ect with kardi" and we uickly agreed that a pro:ect of this scale needed a groupeffort. #o it was that Count Thalim" one of the more senior and active forum memers" was roughtinto the pro:ect. ;uite some time and effort later" and here we are.

'hat we$ve done here is" y and large" thankless and tedious work. 'e$d do it again" thoughhopefully that won$t e necessary< 2014 is going to e a long year" and while this won$t make it goany faster" maye it will give us a firmer grounding to talk aout what will" we all hope" e comingour way in 201=. or now though" ours is the long wait.

Authors

kardiCount Thalim

8eneke


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Table of contents

Introduction p.1-3

Crew and officers p.4-13

Light craft p.14-15

Ships p.16-!

"a#epla$ p.%-3&

Ship co#bat p.4'-44

(oarding)*wa$ #issions p.45-53

Setting)+istor$ p.54-65

,actions)eputation p.66-6&

S$ste# p.!'-!6

ic/starter)(ac/er/it p.!!-%'

0ther p.%1-%6

odding p.%!

eferences p.%%-%&

*ppendi2 I *nastasias Twitter p.&'-&4

*ppendi2 II 15'' $ears of +istor$ p.&5-&!


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Crew

(asic #echanics)n The !andate we want you to have a core team of trusted individuals as well as ancillarycharacters. This is similar to the T8 shows that we are inspired y. #o when we talk aout yourcrew we are really talking aout minor and ma:or characters. >our minor characters make up

roughly ?0@ of your crew" your enlisted" specialists and warrant officers. >our ma:or charactersmake up the remaining 20@ and include all your commissioned officers. These are your futurecaptains" starase commanders and ridge officers. s you level up your crew you may turn minorcharacters into ma:or characters. There are a few key differences etween minor and ma:orcharacters worth notingA

•or minor characters you set their focus and decide on career choices every si levels

•or ma:or characters you get skill points to assign each level

•!a:or characters unlock additional skills that you can invest points into like diplomacy"logistics" command etc

•!a:or characters can gain additional traits

,astly" we have some ground rules for how a character can progress and get promotedA

• character can stay as enlisted to eventually ecome a senior enlisted or non3commissionedofficer. lternatively the enlisted may :oin a service ranch as a career choice rather thanstaying as an enlisted

•Bnce a character :oins a service ranch *she cannot switch to another service ranch or go ack to eing an enlisted

• specialist may focus on specialiing in advanced skills or ecome a warrant officer *fromlevel 12

• warrant officer may focus on advanced skills inside his/her service ranch or ecome a etterwarrant officer

•t level D0 a warrant officer can attend the war academy and attempt to ecome acommissioned officer. 5ot all warrant officers are suited to ecome commissioned officers"however

•#u3alterns ensign" cornet etcF cannot e trained ut must e recruited from factions. This isalso where we add in acker3designed officers

rmed with this understanding of how skills" traits and character progression work" we can noweplain roles like ire team leader" #uad leader and Glatoon leader *and their pilot euivalents. llthree roles reuire the ,eadership skill and their reuirements are D" H and I *out of 10"respectively. ,eadership is a skill that warrant officer and senior enlisted can learn.

or enemy crew" several options eistA airlock them" ship ack to stand trial *especially in the caseof pirates" forced laor *we were toying with the idea of having penal colonies thatreuire/consume prisoners to output valuale ore etc" sell as slaves" interrogate *certain officers orcaptains or perhaps try to recruit.

There will e asic and advanced skills that are useful oth during and outside comat. Certainadvanced skills are restricted to specific service ranches.

There is definitely gender parity.

6epending on how strict you are with discipline" your crew and officers may stop to salute you" or


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this to your 1st officer. 8ia the shift roster you can manage how the crew will e deployed fordifferent action3statesA 7attlestations9" 7repel oarding party9" 7ramming speed9" 7condition clear9etc. >ou create templates for each action3state and customie crew deployment for later use.

The formation determines how many" and where" the crew is deployed" which in turn affect the performance of your ship. This way you can effortlessly switch etween different action3states as

needed without having to switch etween D6 space view and isometric view.

)nitially your crew will e a mi of veteran and green crew. #ome are pulled from the ranks of theremnants of the rand leet while others are adventurers or maye e3cons like yourself. This maycreate some friction on your ship and it is important that you and your officers do not let things getout of hand or there might e a stand off in the mess hall or worse...

+omanovA very good commissioned officers" ecellent captainsJlack EagleA ecellent marines" very good non3commissioned officersEuropaA ecellent science officersrkwrightA ecellent engineers

The assets on the ship will change ased on the @ of crew you take on from any particular faction.#o if you are a pirate ut manage to keep all your original crew alive then ) image your shipwouldn$t change too much. Jut when you ring in more pirate crew and uy more materials fromthem then the decks of the ship will start to reflect that.

>ou are the captain and your word is the law aoard your ship. They serve at your pleasure.

Can you throw random crew into the rig if you feel like it& solutely< eel free to e as paranoidand unpredictale as you wish. Keep in mind that your enlisted" your 5CBs and your commissionedofficers will look to you for guidance. 6ifferent factions may respect different types of ehaviour oreample as well. 5ow" whether or not you care aout winning a popularity contest or ignore them isof course up to you. )t may e smart to have a loyal detatchment of marines and keep the keys to thearmoury safe" you know" :ust in case LcoughL %!# Jounty LcoughL

)f ) see any crew3memer saying something like MCaptain" our uantum trinitum ora:uicer mk=could e coupled with the inverse power throttle to increase shield powerou have a either 1/D or 1/2 of your crew assigned or all crew assigned to stations" crew off dutywill go sleep" meditate" play holo mini3golf or study to ecome 5CBs etc A

'e will find a right alance here" the point is not really to simulate 12 or ? h shifts. 6epending on

the alert state you are in *attle stations" repel oarders" condition green or what you want to call it"more or fewer of your crew are working at their assigned stations. The ones off duty will eithersleep" play mini3golf on the holodeck" attend a lecture if you have an auditorium etc etc


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or uniform/euipment >ou order your starase to produce uniforms" y rifles etc" then load upyour ship with those Jased on what is availale in the ship armoury" you can then euip and reeuipyour crew !akes sense& A

orale ,atigue

!orale is an important crew statistic" especially during oarding operations. )f morale drops toolow" a crew memer may panic and no longer respond to orders. %aving veteran 5CBs andcommissioned officers close y to rally and lead y eample" can help offset low morale. %owever"if an 5CB or even worse a commissioned officer is killed in attle" it can have a devastating effecton the crewmen in his immediate vicinity.

)n addition to morale" we also have fatigue which models the level of physical ehaustion. Thismeans that as the comat drags on" oth you and your opponents will start to tire out. >ou can euipyour crew with various utilities and consumales that help replenish fatigue" however. )n additionmaking sure your crew gets ample rest will remove fatigue and conseuently improve morale.s for eating" we have not decided eactly how to handle this" after all you are the captain and your

uartermaster will see to the provisions of the ship. >ou may e ale to provide eotic foods thatcan oost the morale of the crew" however.

'ell" first of all" your ehaviour and conduct will set an eample for your crew. )f you are a piratecaptain it makes sense that you ehave like a pirate" especially if most of your crew lean in the samedirection. lternatively" acting like a pirate captain who plunders and attacks merchantmen withoutcause while having a crew of mostly loyalist rand leet crew" may not e such a smart idea 3unlessyou fancy yourself commanding an escape pod< %istorical reference %!# Jounty...F

#econdly" winning attles" while taking minimal losses" and taking prie ships will also improvemorale. )f your crew is mostly loyalist rand leet" and you ehave mostly in accordance with the

rticles of 'ar" your crew will respect you for this. That does not mean that you need to e agoodie two shoes all the time" ut you should e ale to :ustify your actions" especially towardscivilians and merchantmen.

Thirdly" you may customie what type of facilities is installed on your ship. acilities will e used y crew that is not on duty. or eample a holo3deck or an auditorium or a cafO. >ou could addfacilities that will let crew rela to improve morale and reduce fatigue more uickly.

#ure" depending on the sie of your ship" you may add several non3essential facilities. or eampleyou could add additional crew rooms to house more crew" or an armoury to euip your crew with

etter weapons. lternatively you could install a gym which will let crew low off some steam andincrease or maintain their physical attriutes at the same time. n improved sickay would speedthe recovery of wounded or sick crewmen etc.

Crew custo#i7ation #aintenance!ost likely *in terms of euipment/customiation we will let you control the followingA3 >our captain uniform3 5GC Captain Template3 Commissioned Bfficer Template3 5on3commissioned Bfficer Template3 #pecialist Enlisted

3 Enlisted

5o" we have not decided on the level of control *over uniform templates. rom a technical point of


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view you could proaly go nuts at least with colours" patterns etc.

Keep in mind that for the full game" you as captain will e ale to modify the colour pattern of theuniform for your captain" commissioned officers" 5CBs and enlisted" similar to in our interactiveship designer. Bne area you will not e allowed to customie is the service ranch colour scheme.

h yes. 'ell for uniforms we will include a rank service ranch c unit adge and possily dship crest *as discussed elow. #pecifically with respect to officer ranks" scroll down a it onhttpA//yourcrew.mandategame.com/ to see the rank structure for the rand leet. Jottom right is#uvarov$s rank insignia. Enlisted ranks are 5BT shown. lag officer ranks start at last rank insigniaon row D.

+enaming Bfficers and non3commissioned crew is a tricky uestion. 'e know it$s something some people have asked for" ut it$s difficult for us to :ustify renaming crew that are named" and have a ack3story. That said" renaming crew can e a matter of deleting their name" and typing in a newone. )f and where that fits" we$ll proaly do it" ut we still need to discuss aout who that$d workfor" and in what contet.

>ou will not e allowed to rename any 5GCs that have een designed y ackers" e.g. officers"captains" marines etc. or new crew that you recruit" you can change their names as you see fit.s for crew salaries and such 3 the upkeep of the ship hasn$t actually een a topic for discussion*yet. !ostly this is ecause there are still some systems we need to check up on in order to do

proper alancing 3 ut it$s uite possile that there will e some sort of upkeep system in place.%owever" how this plays out eactly is too early to say.

ecruit#entCrew P is TJ6" we epect the asic frigate to start out with D03=0. The largest ships will have manytimes more crew. )t is primarly a technical and performance challenge ut also we want to avoid

overwhelming the players *this should not happen since you gain igger ships at a slow pace"however. >our star ase will e ale to hold a lot of crew" oth off duty or +Q+ as well as serving.)t is here you have your pool to draw on when you must replace losses from attle.

+egarding eing ale to pick a first officer at the start of the game this is TJ6" we need to evaluatethis proposal in con:unction with our tutorial and progression plans.

Certain officers" captains etc may have additional reuirements or demands efore they let yourecruit them.

)!GB+T5T< >ou will e ale to search for and recruit named marines and enlisted at yourrecruitment facilities in your star ase. The same is true for officers and captains with one igdifferenceA they have an allegiance or faction that they are loyal to. 6o not epect to e ale to callin a captain who is loyal to The !andate if you yourself are playing as a Girate<

>ou will e ale to recruit your own named marines and enlisted. To recruit officers and captainsyou will need to have matching allegiance" however. #o if you design a pirate captain ut you playas a rand leet officer" do not epect that pirate captain to come willingly to aid you...

>es" your crew will come from different factions. These factions may e at odds with each other. )naddition there may e tension etween the enlisted" the 5CB and the commissioned. 'hat eample

do you set& %ow much of a disciplinarian are you& 6o you play y the ook or overlook minortransgressions& Take heavy losses with a loyal crew and replace them with new and unfamiliar facesand you may suddenly discover there is a saoteur or spy lose on your shipR


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Crew officer traitsJut first things first" letSs start with character progression" skills and traits. #ince The !andate willlet you acuire uite a few characters we think it is critical to keep the numer of stats at amanageale level. Bur approach uses the following elementsA

•

Character traits instead of character attriutes•#kill reuse

•!inor and ma:or characters

•Clear and simple rules for progression

irst off" we are skipping traditional character attriutes like #trength" 6eterity" Charisma etc.)nstead we have character traits which can e one of several types. Character traits may e inherentto a character and gradually revealed as part of character progression or the result of an eperiencethe character has undergone during play. n eample of the latter would e a marine who is the solesurvivor in his eight man suad after a particularly loody oarding operation. %e could gain

eneficial traits like 7,one 'olf9 or 7To the End9 or alternatively a detrimental condition like

7GT#69. #kill3related traits can e eneficial or detrimental. or eample a particular character mayhave the trait 7#targaer9 from spending his or her childhood looking at stars. That character may

e a good candidate to transfer into the astrogation service ranch due to a skill onus to theastrogation skills

inally" we have traits and anti3traits that model interpersonal relationships. )f you put a characterwith the trait 7Jrave9 in the same marine suad as a character with the trait 7Cowardly9" there will

e an effect *and you hopefully know the cause. ltimately" as captain you decide the progressionfor each character and their individual traits may or may not fit with your overall plan or needs. )nthe case of 7GT#69 and similar we aim to provide you with a set of tools to allow you to respondand treat or cure such conditions.

)t$s worth noting that traits that have an effect on character progression are revealed efore anyimportant character progression decisions are made. 'e do not want scenarios where negative traitsshow up only after you have chosen the characters progression path.

)n parallel with acuiring different skill types you may discover that certain crewmen have vice Qvirtues which define their personality and make them more or less suitale for specific roles. crewman that 7hates pirates9 could e useful as a marine ut proaly not as a chef< Certain vice Qvirtues may e acuired as a result of specific events in the gameA an 5CB who is discovered to e7unfit for command9 will proaly not make a very good commissioned officer. marine who gunsdown 10 enemy crew who have surrendered" may have uestionale morals and proaly not the

ideal candidate for shipSs counsellor.

'e decided to revamp oth crew progression and service ranches *name may change. The firstchange is now that enlisted is a separate career track in the progression for your crew. 'hilespecialists will focus on a narrow set of skills" enlisted are more a :ack3of3all3trades. >ou will needto strike the right alance etween the numer of specialists and enlisted in your crew as this willaffect your shipSs performance and also redundancy *in case of attle losses enlisted are morefleile. The chart elow shows the revised career track for your crew. Keep in mind that thedistinguishing features for each crew type is not finalied and :ust for illustration purposes.

The second change is that we decided to remove the logistics ranch altogether" and so we cutservice ranches from seven to si. #everal others tweaks have taken place as wellA infantry andcavalry have een merged into security" artillery has een renamed to weapons" science has een


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The uniforms have een updated to reflect these changes and we also decided to use some special patterns" for eample for astrogation and medical.

Bur character system is uite fleile and supports over 200 morphs. >es" we will have oth femaleand male crew memers. >our captain can e either male or female.

Enlisted have asic skills/personal skills. 5CBs have leadership skills that affect enlisted in close proimity. Commissioned officers have command skills that affect 5CBs in close proimity andallow them to command the smaller ships. Captains affect commissioned officers and can commandany ship as well as star ases. s occur your crew may gain traits *or vices Q virtues since youmentioned Total 'ar ut these will e logical. s you send your crew to training which is areuirement for promotion from enlister to 5CB to commissioned officer etc" you may alsodiscover that for eample an enlisted is Munfit for commandM.

Crew 0rgani7ation#pecifically for marinesA

• fire team leaderA this is a :unior warrant officer

• suad leaderA this is a warrant officer

• platoon leaderA this is a senior warrant officer

• company commanderA this is a commissioned officer

#pecifically for pilotsA

• flight leaderA this is a :unior warrant officer

• suadron leaderA this is a warrant officer

• wing leader/commanderA this is a senior warrant officer

• group captain *CA this is a commissioned officer

)t is true that we are taking inspiration from multiple sources" not necessarily modern day" and weare also making certain ad:ustments for a moving things 1=00 years into the future game alance/ character progression c we are not only looking at how country U operates with respect toofficers" warrant officers etc

There are no ig differences etween how the security ranch is treated with respect to numer ofwarrant officers" commissioned officers etc relative to other service ranches. Bverall" we do wantto keep the numer of *commissioned officers at a manageale numer" since the players will emuch more hands3on with their development" which skills to focus on etc.

#ince ge of #ail was rought up as a reference" it may e interesting to review the crew muster forthe %!# 8ictoryA

httpA//h2g2.com/editedVentry/?WW?1H?4

httpA//www.memorials.inportsmouth.co.uk/dockyard/victory3muster.htm

#o for eample out of a crew complement of ?20- there were 14H +oyal !arines onoard the %!#8ictoryA

• 1 captain *!andate euivalentA company commander" minimum :unior commissionedofficer

•

D lieutenants *!andate euivalentA platoon leader" minimum senior warrant officer• 4 sergeants *!andate euivalentA suad leader and/or fireteam leader" minimum warrant

ffi


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• D corporals" 1 trumpeter and 2 drummers *!andate euivalentA 120 minute soundtrack

• 1D2 privates *!andate euivalentA marines Q specialist marines e.g. comat engineer"comat medic etc

)n one of the recent Kickstarter updates we talked aout a full company of marines totaling around100 marines which 3in terms of structure" organiation and numers3 matches up rather nicely with

the marine complement aoard the %!# 8ictory.)n The !andate you would need a minimum of 1 :unior commissioned officer and D seniorwarrant officers in order for your suads to enefit from leadership onuses from a companycommander and platoon leader roles. %owever" there is nothing stopping you from assigning moreeperienced security ranch officers to occupy those roles or lead suads *ut more likely you willinstead want these senior security officers to command escort ships" serve as ridge officers ormanage starases....

XEnlistedS make up the ulk of your crew and are the seaman" ale seaman" petty officers etc thatrun your ships

They *enlisted are lead y non3commissioned officers *5CB who report to you" the captain. Bnlarger ships the non3commissioned officers may report to an intermediate level which are thecommissioned officers who in turn report to you.

+ememer" you are at the top of the chain and get to handpick your officers who will serve elowyou and direct your crew. Each officer can e put in charge of a work crew that manages one systemaoard the ship" like the reactor" engines" weapons or defensive systems like shields or cloakingdevices. s your ship takes damage and your crew is wounded or killed" each system will work at areduced efficiency" and if you do not issue orders to repair in time" the damage may e permanentand reuire a refit at a friendly starase.

Bnce you ecome a flag officer" you may commission your own flagship and pick a capale captainas your 1st officer while you yourself command and oversee your attle suadron and focus on the

ig picture. Bf course you are free to continue managing your crew as efore if you prefer this.

S/ills TrainingGrogressing from company commander to ship captain is a completely valid progression path. Jothreuire skills like command and leadership. %owever" there may e certain skills specific to

oarding operations that are no longer as relevant once the character sits in the captain$s chair. >ouwill have to think aout how narrow vs general you allocate skill points for your companycommander ased on what you plan to use the character for later in the game. )n addition there may

e inherent traits/characteristics which means *she would make a etter company commander thana ship captain *or starase commander for that matter. That eing said our goal is to let you

promote the officers you favour into captains irrespective of which service ranch or role theyinitially had *and this also matches with the T8 shows we are inspired y.

lso" we are trying to reuse skills as much as possile where this makes sense and can e :ustifiedfrom a gameplay point of view. 5ew characters start out as enlisted which provides them with twoskillsA Jasic weapons and Console Bperations. s long as a character levels up as an enlisted" he orshe will ecome more proficient in those two skills.

)f you decide to switch a character from the enlisted path to a specialist path" new skills will e

acuired. Each of the si service ranches have one asic skill and two advanced skills. specialistmust get to a certain proficiency in the asic skill efore he or she can start to learn the advancedkill Th ti h i th # it h * il t d i hi h i kill f


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other service ranches for its marine and pilot specialists. or eample a marine who laterspecialies as a comat engineer would learn the engineering asic skill. marine who specialiesas a comat medic would learn the medical asic skill.

That eing said you would not want to put a specialist engineer to perform reaching operations*which is what the comat engineer is good at and you would not want to use a comat engineer to

run the powerplant *which is what the specialist engineer is good at.

crewman that successfully completes 5CB training will receive a limited amount of talent pointswhich can e invested into different leadership skills. These leadership skills allow the 5CB toaffect enlisted in close proimity" either oosting their efficiency" morale etc. 5CBs will continue toacuire talent points which the player can invest. Bnce the 5CB reaches ma rank you can sendhim/her to the war college to train as a commissioned officer. Commissioned officers gaincommand skills which allow them to command 5GC escort ships in your fleet and affect 5CB inclose proimity. ma rank commissioned officer can e promoted to a full3lown captain. captain can command a starase as well as starships of any sie. Together this makes up our humanchain of command in The !andate.

Crews are indeed a separate research ut we will track them individually.

,eadership skills affect any enlisted in close proimity. n 5CB who reaches veteran status can e promoted/trained to ecome a commissioned officer. Commissioned officers gain command skillswhich allow them to a affect 5CBs in close proimity and command the smaller vessels.inally" veteran commissioned officers may e promoted to full captain and can e assigned tocommand a starase or any ship in your attle suadron.

Jeyond the ovious skill difference and efficiency" a veteran crew will generally have highermorale and it will take more to reak him or her during attle. 8eteran crew may also have a

positive morale effect on the crew in their close proimity who feel reassured that they havecompetent crew acking them up. 8eteran marines will e less likely to e suppressed in comatand more deadly.

Eventually a crew memer will reach a natural plateau and cannot acuire more skills. s captainyou have three optionsA

• Keep the crew memer in his/her current position" the crew memer will continue toimprove in terms of efficiency ut not acuire any new skills

• Enroll the crew memer in an officer training course at your starase provided the necessary

upgrades are uilt• ssign the crew memer as an instructor ack at your starase to improve the uality of raw

recruits so they have more eperience efore you take them into attle.

6epending on the crew memer" you may need an officer school" a war college or naval academyfor either some or all of these options to e availale.

ll crew will gain eperience over time as a function of how long they have served on the ship. )naddition crew that are eposed to particularly dangerous situations like taking part in a oardingoperation or defending against a hostile oarding" will gain eperience uicker. There is a clear riskQ reward element here and as such your marines will level up fast" ut they are also the first to e

put in harms way. )t is important to euip them with the latest and greatest personal arms anddefence to increase the likelihood of them surviving. Bnce they hit an eperience milestone" theywill 7level up9


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#o what gameplay impact do the service ranches have& 'ell" fresh recruits start out as MenlistedMand only have a few asic skills. They may e assigned to operate vacant consoles in a room andeach room is operated y one service ranch *with a few eceptions like the ridge. Consoles grantenlisted eperience points over time.

Each service ranch has uniue skill types which corresponds with its focus area. There are skillsthat affect oth space comat" oarding comat" away missions etc.

'e have min/ma players on the dev team as well. >our eample aout U3Com assuming you aretalking aout the original gameF is very relevant as psychic potential is discovered late in the game.irst you have to invest significant amount of time in each soldier and afterwards a ma:ority ofenemy encounters will have some form of psychic ailities. The hidden personality traits in The!andate will have less impact and not cause you to stop using particular soldiers altogether.

ltimately it is up to you as captain how you manage your crew and how to get the most out ofthem. Joth senior specialists" senior warrant officers and commissioned officers are valuale. >ou

need to train all types to replace attle losses and also grow your fleet. )t is up to you to select whowill stay as specialists" who will ecome warrant officers and who should ecome :uniorcommissioned officers *and later on full captains. 'e elieve the approach outlined aove will feelorganic and intuitive. >ou will make the decisions that really matter ut not e ogged down with

pointless" repetitive micro3management.

>ou will e ale to upgrade your home ase over time. >ou could send your senior specialists"senior warrant officers and commissioned officers there to train" teach and level up new enlisted. )naddition you could spend faction currency/influence to recruit more eperienced crew *not only

acker3designed captains and officers.

*ttrition Crew +ealthCasualties are inevitale on oth sides. Bne of our goals with The !andate is to properly representattrition and make this a natural part of the game. >ou will lose ships and you will lose crew. ,osinga capital ship is a ig deal and we do not want this to happen too often" especially on the lowerdifficulty settings. )nstead we plan on letting you lose less ut more oftenA marines and light craftare ideal candidates here since they are easier to replace. Then again" as seen in the recent MhostsMgameplay trailer there will e a roll of honour on each ship. t your main ase there will e a roll ofhonour for each ship lost. 'ill you end up like the captain in MhostsM or shrug it off&

U numer of men control > station" and > station reuires Y numer of men to function. nything elow J amount will cause issue/statistical limitation.

)f we do implement this *ship doctor/psychiatrist" we would want to tie it also to the starasesomehow" e.g. you might e ale to Mput out firesM on the ship" for eample as suggested the C!Bcould have a secondary role here. %owever" to diagnose and treat more serious psychologicalconditions/states" you may need to return to ase for proper care. )t would flow uite well withother reasons for returning to aseA repair/restock/upgrade" crew training and advancement" to holdcourt martials provided you uilt an admiralty court *or you could dispense with the paperwork andthrow the othersome person out the airlock.

6epending on your difficulty setting" your officers can e severely wounded" or die permanently*roguelike. Bn the higher difficulty settings you may need a constant stream of new recruits andofficers to replace your losses. %owever" the officers that do survive will ecome attle3hardened


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veterans and may ualify for command of a starship or a star ase. Train your crew into a welldrilled war machine.

'hen it comes to crew loyalties 3 as the captain" it$s up to you to inspire and lead your crew. %owthis is done is your choice and the path you take will affect morale and loyalty levels of the peopleon oard. Certain crewmen might e very upset aout you pillaging and looting every ship you

come across" while others would happily cheer you on.

)nevitaly" you$ll have crewmen that disagrees with you on policies or actions ut as you ecome a etter and more inspiring captain" the type of captain you are will draw a certain crowd" likely to e more likeminded.

#o while you can$t choose your crew through some screening process" you won$t e stuck playing acertain type of captain simply ecause that is what your crew wants *the game is aout you afterall

nd of course" if you have a particularly troulesome or annoying crewman 3 when life gives you

lemons" you flush them out the airlock<

Crew 89entsCertain uests given y factions may reuire you to ring along or escort 5GCs" like a dignitary*rand 6uke or high ranking officer.

>es" sometimes there might e an opportunity to accept a uest from one of your crew memers.This could involve helping them somehow with a prolem they might have" resolving a conflict orsimilar.

rom time to time" and depending on the state of your ship" we may have certain events. Events are

not uests ut more situations where you as captain must respond. or eample" if during a oarding operation one of your crew disoeyed orders" perhaps due to panic" this is a reach of therticles of 'ar and may prompt a response one way or the other. Bf course if you are a pirate youare free to ignore the rticles of 'ar completely. This also comes down to what type of captainyour crew see you asZ are you a y3the3ook captain or more pragmatic and prefer to improvise&Bther eamples of events could e saoteurs" stove aways etc.


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Light Cr ft

>es" ,ight craft *fighters" interceptors" omers" heavy fighters etc are more escorts to the large*capital ships than the other way around. ,ight Craft can still play an important role during comat"however.

'e have not elaorated on the entire ranking structures yet. The flight will most likely e the asic

tactical unit that you will issue orders to *similar to in #tar 'arsA Empire at 'ar" where D3H fightersare grouped together. The comparison stops there" however" since comat in The !andate will workdifferently and e in D6.

The C is a position *commander air group and would e responsile for the suadron/wing/airgroup which is a separate military formation. The marine platoon*s would e as well. Jut you cantake crew in and out from these" and transfer to your Mgeneral crew poolM if that makes sense&6epending on the sie of your ship" the hierarchy may e igger or smaller. or eample" assumingyou have a very ig ship" the hierarchy for your air group alone would eA 1 group captain 2 3 Dwing commanders H 3 I suadron leaders >es" the pilots would report to the C. Jut the Cwould report to the captain. Jy the time your ship is ig enough to have a group captain as your

C" your player character is proaly flag officer rank anyway.

#o as a carrier captain" feel free to start thinking aout the order of attle for your emarked lightcraft. s mentioned the C *commander air group and hierarchy will correspond with the sie ofthe shipA #uadron leader 3 1231? fighters 'ing commanderA 23D suadrons roup captain 3 23Dwings #o y the time you get access to the iggest ships" you can deploy a small armada of lightcraft. They are launched and controlled in flights/groups of 43H.

The sie of the emarked military formation will depend on the sie of your ship. #pecifically"depending on the sie of your ship *if it is fitted with a carrier module" your C *commander airgroup" will ma have the following ranksA suadron leader *1231? light craft wing commander *23D suadrons group captain *23D wings 'e are using the ranks of the +oyal ir orce *+" Ksince the )mperial +ussian ir orce modeled its uniforms after the + designs near the outreakof the +ussian +evolution.

'e are doing some things differently with The !andate as you may well know. Bne area where wewill stay relatively conservative is when it comes to small craft like fighters and omers.

'hy are we not re3inventing the wheel here&1. familiarityA fighters and omers are relatively familiar to players as a concept" oth historically"in the modern age and in a lot of other sci3fi universes

2. synergyA we want different player captains to e ale to specialie their ships" some may go forclose range assault or oarding operations" while others prefer to form more traditional Mlines of attleM and fire roadside. Then again some players may favour more of a utility function and willdeploy turrets or mines or conduct long range strikes with fighters or omers. +econnaissance orinterception of enemy warheads are two prime eamples where small craft can prove very useful.D. attrition" a key design element for The !andate is that armed conflict should result in casualtieson oth sides. t the same time losing a capital ship may e a traumatiing event for players and ourgoal is to design the eperience such that you will not lose capital ships on a whim or roll of a die.'hen you lose a capital ship you should go Mok" well that was stupid" ) should not do that againMrather than Momg" perihelion your system designers can$t alance" give od mode now


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will e the E!# *electromagnetic signature which your ships generate. #mall fighters and omersgenerate much less E!# than larger capital ships and so may remain undetected y long rangesensors and maintain the element of surprise much longer and strike the enemy efore they can raiseshields and mount a proper defense.

'e do have concepts of fighters" heavy fighters" interceptors and omers ut we will release these

a it later as part of a design update.

+egardless if your goal is information overload and tons of units on the screen" you could euip allsi capital ships as carriers.

5o the limit is si capital ships *frigate and aove. 6epending on the sie of your capital ships" youmay euip and launch multiple suadrons with light craft from each.

The asic tactical unit is the flight with 43H light craftD flight make up a suadron *CA #uadron leader23D suadrons make up a wing *CA 'ing commander

23D wings make up an air group *CA roup captain)f you have si players that all go full carrier there will e some interesting endgame scenarios. >ouare sacrificing uite a it of capital ship firepower y going with fighters for all your ships and ifyou come up against a faction that is well euipped to deal with light craft... Z


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Ships

":I

The Bridge Layout

'hen it comes to the Captain$s position 3 while some of this certainly falls under the M+ule of CoolMmentioned in previous posts" one of the functions for the captain is to inspire his or her suordinatesand we wanted the captain to stand out somewhat in terms of position.

Interfaces

ll the interfaces shown in the mockup are actual interfaces from inside the game. oing from the ottom and counting clockwise" the interfaces areA Gower llocation" 'eapon roups"Communications rray" #canning and E!# *Electro3!agnetic #ignature" and finally Targetingrray. The middle Mpool taleM is also part of the in3game ) and at the moment a !odule#elector is eing shown on it.

t some point we will release more detailed information aout the )" there$s :ust a lot of otherstuff to do as well [ so e patient" we$re getting there.

Holographic Display

The main pro:ector can indeed do more than simulate a window" and yes" it can pro:ect o:ects intothe ridge space *not physical o:ects though.

Command and Control

The degree of automation on a ship varies 3 it$s ultimately up to you as the player to determine whatyou want to deal with and what you want to have handled y your crew and what to haveautomated.

Bur goal when we created oth the gameplay design and ) design was that we wanted the playerto e ale to have an easy overview of actions while at the same time not e ogged down inminiscule details *unless he or she wants to. )t was a tough nut to crack ut ) think we got there. Bfcourse 3 input from the community will greatly help on this and we don$t epect to have gotten it100@ right from the get3go.

The Strategic Map

)ndeed. 'hen it comes to target finding and identification a numer of factors come in to play. E!#*as mentioned efore" mass" acceleration" distance as well as any kind of stealth3field *and a whole

unch of other stuff all make up for your aility to stealth/scan for targets.

Ship creation)design'ell there will also e different types of ship sections" so the front of the ship might e fitted withramming capailities" or having etra gun ports *various sections have various opportunities forcustomiation. The uality tier is a way to have an easy visual identifier for the ships and how

powerful they might e *at a uick glance. ;uality tiers might also have additional differencesfrom ship to ship other than :ust material type.

To clarify a it how the ship customiation will workA

• The numer" sie and placement of rooms for the interior is ased on the comination of the

ship class *frigate etc and ow-midships-aft sections• Each room either has a static set of consoles *mess hall" gym etc or a strict list of consoles


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consoles in the engine room or a less strict list *main engineering" where variousengineering consoles 3ut not engine consoles3 may e installed

,arger ships may have au and tertiary versions of important rooms. or eample a asic frigatemay have only Mmain engineeringM" while an upgraded frigate with the #ystem/u aft section mayalso have Mau engineeringM. attleship" on the other hand" would have Mmain engineeringMZ Mau

engineeringM and Mtertiary engineeringM y default. s captain/admiral/naval architect it would eup to the player to decide on the level of ackup/redundancy vs additional uniue systems. >oucould imagine the ackup/redundancy dimension also carrying over to various factions as thiswould affect the performance of ships during protracted engagements *as systems get knockedoffline

)t would e cool to e ale to reak a ship in half ut #pace 8oyager is correct. rom a gameplay point of view we think it would e doale. %owever" we have a few technical limitations *also dueto Drd party middleware which prevents us from reaking ships completely in half.

The interiors are put together using one of the content design tools that we are developing for The

!andate. These tools are used y us during development and we epect to release these to the modcommunity after launch. The tool used to uild the interior levels is actually referred to as theTileEditor internally.

The interior levels are uilt on a per ship section asis. Each ship has three parts *ow" midships"aft which are merged together into one level for the purpose of oarding operations. rigates haveone full deck as well as a cargo deck" a ridge deck and an oservation deckF while the iggestships will have two additional full decks for a total of three. s seen in our frigate layout in theKickstarter pdate PD? most rooms elong to a service ranch and have a sie property. Thesedefine the numer and type of consoles that can e installed in any given room.

Each console allows for the operation of a systemZ for eample a weapon or a scanner. 'hat goesinto each rooms is decided y the player when outfitting or upgrading his/her ship at a shipyard.!ost consoles must e manned y a memer of the crew and may have skill reuirements to eused effectively. )f the console is unpowered" unmanned or damaged then the associated systemgoes offline. #u3system targeting to disale enemy systems y taking out console" crew or thesystem itself is important to secure victory in space comat.

rom a technical point of view there is no hard cap on the numer of decks. lso there is nohardcoded relationship etween the interior level and the eterior hull section. This means youcould create additional interior levels and link these to the same eterior hull section *to randomie.

Cargo can either e stored inside your cargo hold as pallets or a numer of pallets can fit inside adedicated cargo container. The cargo hold will e a physical room inside your ship where oardingoperations may also take place.

Typically a warship would have only a limited cargo hold and carry pallets whereas a dedicatedcargo freighter could carry additional cargo inside cargo containers.

,ike warships the cargo ships must have a front and aft section" ut unlike warships the cargofreighter can have more than one midsection. This allows us to chain multiple mid sections.There will e different tech levels *or uality tiers for armor" shields and weapons

5et up we thought we should give an update on the progress with ship interiors. 'e are alreadyuite happy with how our ships look eternally and we are pushing to get the same level of detail

d i f h hi i i


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#hip interiors are important oth for oarding gameplay as well as walking around and interactingwith your crew *for eample during the events mentioned previously. Bur deck plans should not

:ust feel like interior levels 3they should make us feel that we are actually inside a ship. Thereforewe are eperimenting with ways to add the feeling of depth and cramped spaces. 'e are addingelements like pipes" sustructures and ulkheads. This is an iterative process where we go ack andforth etween the concept team and the D6 art team. Jelow you can see an earlier D6 model of one

of our rooms.

)t is often useful to show rather than tell" so the concept team will do paintovers to clarify whatdirection to take the D6 model in. %ere is an eample of a paintover for the room in the previousimage where the concept artist has added self3illuminated tetures" o:ects to help make the roomfeel more usy and cramped as well as transparency on the floor to reveal pipes and lights elowwhich help add depth to the scene. The D6 artists then do a 2nd pass on the room to ring it morein3line with art direction.

ll the work on the interiors is starting to pay off. The procedural tetures were uite new to uswhen we started ut now we have more eperience with this technology and can push it further. 'e

are getting close to where we want to e visually and are now playing around with how to light theinterior scenes. )n parallel we have also done stress testing to check how epensive it is to havemany uniue characters on the screen at the same time. Bur aim is for The !andate to lookappealing on modern GCs yet scale well to run on older hardware" too.

>ou may rememer the floor plan for the ridge deck from the previous update and we decided toepand it slightly y adding a few more rooms. 'e are using this ridge deck to prototype assemlyof corridors and rooms. lso we are testing out crew interaction" pushing the visual uality"

performing lighting tests" animation tests and pathfinding tests. #tay tuned for more details on the ridge deck in a future update.

or now" though" we are focusing on the ship interiors as this is important oth for oardinggameplay and how our chain of command will work. #o how will this work eactly& Each roomwill have a numer of consoles which must e staffed y crew. )f a console is unmanned ordamaged" this can impact your ship in a numer of ways. Jroadly speaking each room will haveone or more of the following consolesA

• Jasic consoles which allow a room to function *normally placed in the center

• #pecialist consoles which add new euipment or ailities *walls and corners

• Command consoles which confer onuses to all other consoles in the room *corner

To put things into perspective" letSs look at a series of tactical consoles which are used to controlsome of the shipSs weapons. 'e have different types of asic consoles that allow us to operate the

weapons on the ship. )n addition we have specialist consoles that allow us to install more or etterweapons and finally we have a command console which is operated y a warrant officer who is indirect contact with the ridge.

Bn the topic of the ridge we will have a series of command consoles here which are operated yofficers. These officers direct the warrant officers in the various rooms around the ship and interfacewith the captain *you


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ll ships shown so far in our campaign are ased on standard designs for the rand leet. They are produced at various shipyards spread across !andate space. ,ike with nastasiaSs dress" priority isgiven to function Q roustness. The angular hull shapes are designed to allow for mass production"fleiility and etended deployment. The ships of the rand leet may not e as sleek" comfortaleor visually impressive as some faction specific ships. %owever" few ships can match the

comination of speed" firepower Q armour/shielding and go to to toe with the largest warships ofthe rand leet 3unless trickery or superior numers are stacked in their favour and no" we havenot revealed the largest ships yet...F.

'ell if you find and use legendary ships" and you otherwise uild your own ships" you will erather low maintenance for the rand leet. s opposed to spamming them every uarter forsupport" so ) am sure #uvarov would appreciate that A inders keepers< These legendary ships arenot necessarily from the rand leet... LwhistlesL

Bur uality tiers 3especially when it comes to ship sections3 will e more comple than a -1 or -2sword which modify 1 or 2 stats only. +est assured you will e ale to research upgrades for oth

your ships" your crew" your star ase and your light craft *fighters" omers etc.

lso" the escape pod has another use. )n case the crew decides to start a mutiny and you are not aleto suppress it" they may decide to give you a MnewM flagship" your very own escape pod<

The current ship is actually a heavy cruiser and H00 m long. This is also why it may look a it ulky. The frigate is MonlyM 200 m and will look more nimle and agile. That eing said" thedirection for The !andate / rand leet is that those ships are uilt for resilience and duraility.

5ot all ships are configured in the same way or has the same hardpoint layout.

'e stuck a unch of guns into the current ship ecause we wanted to show the fact that we havethem *if we hadn$t done it" ) suspect there would e a lot of Mwhere are the guns&M uestions flyingaround The current layout of the guns *or the placement of them shouldn$t really e taken as anindication of what the final hardpoint layouts for the ships will e. 6epending on your preferencesyou *proaly could make a Mporcupine shipM ut in order for you to do so" you would have tomake sacrifices in other areas. ,ikewise" you could opt to go for massive armor3plates and puresurvivaility or a mi.

The sie category of a ship determines the ase numer of turret mounts and heavy weapon slots. )nthe ship uilder you have two options for the middle ship section which allow a different numer of

turret mounts and heavy weapon slots to e installed. lso" heavy weapons have only one siecategory while turret mounts come in different sie categories. frigate may allow tiny and smallturrets to e installed while a heavy cruiser may allow medium and a few large ones. Jigger shipswill also generally have space to hold additional or igger su systems etc. 'e will cover ships inmore detail in a future design update.

symmetrical ship designs are TJ6.

'ell the ships we have shown so far all elong to the rand leet. >ou could switch to the piratesand still continue to use a rand leet hull design. There will e %ouse fleet designs *+omanov"rkwright" Jlack Eagle" Europan and there will e other factions as well as specific Girate ship

designs yes. )n addition there will e legendary derelict ships that you may find while eploring. sfor customiing the eternal visuals we show a few of the options in the ship designer ut the finalversions will contain additional sliders that you can tweak to get the ship to look eactly like you


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want.

Each ship class will y default have D front" D midship and D aft sections. #o a !andate destroyerthis gives 2W mesh/Dd model variations. 'e may do additional pieces" and we may decide to createdestroyer P2 with new D/D/D pieces as well. Bn top of this comes weapons customiation" teturecustomiation *which you only saw a glimpse of in the ship designer" and weapon/module

customiation" which also affect the eternal visuals.

This gives 2W possile cominations ut if we had = pieces that could give 12= cominations... Eachship sections has a room configuration as well. #o you get minimum 2W possile room layouts foryour ship. 5ow... we are planning uality tiers for ship sections as wellA common" uncommon" rareetc. These will alter a ship section y adding onuses and may also modify room layout as well.#ome rooms are prearranged with euipment while others are free for you to install new euipmentor ship modules into.

!erchant ships will not follow the standard D3part front/midship/aft reakdown for warships.)nstead they will have a skeleton core" and you can attach containers etc to those. That means you

can see the euivalent of supertankers.

The largest ships of the rand leet you can see on httpA//ships.mandategame.com are the attleshipand attlecruiser classes. %owever" there are igger ships *note the plural availale. 'e have so faronly shown you guys ships from the rand leet" however" other factions will have other ships withdifferent visuals and different gameplay onuses. The rand leet" however" is a very alancedfaction" and few other factions can match their comination of duraility" firepower and defensivesystems. s we all know" most of the rand leet is scattered and lost" however.. A

Joth the frigate and the heavy carrier have a mid section variant that allows it to function as acarrier. 5aturally the heavy cruiser can support more light craft *fighters" omers than a frigate A

The answer is Mto an etentM 3 )$ll eplain.

%ardpoints are not possile to place 3 their placement come with the design of the ship section*L.Certain ship sections have more hardpoints than others. %owever 3 what you stick into thehardpoints will e up to you.

) won$t talk at length aout the customiation options ut trust me 3 there are many more optionsMunder the hoodM of each system" hardpoint and ship section than what can e currently seen in theship designer.

(*Ship sections are !hat !e call the segmentation of the ship " as you can see in the ship designer#

a ship is segmented into the $ront# Middle and Bac% section (I %no! these aren&t the proper nautical

terms 'ut ust to ma%e things a 'it more collo)uial

>ou can name the ships and rename them as you see fit.

That eing said we will e providing a set of naming guidelines which you can chose to follow orignore. 'e will apply these name guidelines to ships you meet inside The !andate if they makesense for that faction. or eample you can epect the ships of the rand leet to follow the namingconventions of )mperial +ussiaA

Battleships

+ussian Jattleships were named afterA


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Jattles ( e.g." angut" Getropavlovsk" Goltava" #inop" Chesma" Jorodino+oyals ( e.g." )mperator Gavel ) *MEmperor Gaul )M" Gyotr 8eliky *MGeter the reatM" Tsesarevich#aints ( e.g." eorgy Goedonosets *M#t eorge the 8ictoriousM" ndrey Gervovanny *M#t ndrewthe irst3calledMenerals ( e.g." Knya #uvorov *MGrince #uvorovM" Knya Gotemkin Tavricheskii *MGrinceGotemkin of TauricaM

Traditional ( e.g." +etvian

Cruisers

+ussian Cruisers were named after !ythical figures ( e.g." +urik" skold" Jayandmirals ( e.g." dmiral !akarov" dmiral ,aarevemstones ( e.g." Yhemchug [ pearl

Destroyers

+ussian destroyers were named after ad:ectives e.g. Jurnyi [ #tormy" #meliy [ 8aliant

Frigates/Gunboats 5amed after irds or animals ( e.g." latrossEthnographic names ( e.g." 6onskoy Kasak [ 6on Cossack

Submarines

5amed after fish or animals ( e.g." !orh [ 'alrus" kula [ #hark

#o far we have shown up to attleship sie" ut there are ship classes *yes plural larger than this.

Bne challenge when designing games is to find the right alance etween realism and gameplay/funfactor. )n The !andate we deal with large capital ships and even the smallest are 200 meters long.#o how do we represent these inside the game in a way that makes it possile for players to managethem and keep a good overview without needing to first read and memorie a =00 page technicalmanual that lays out the lueprints for each deck&

'e had to come up with a few ground rules and since we had already decided to divide our shipsinto sections" it made sense to start from thereA

• The asic capital ship in The !andate is the frigate" each ship section eing H0 to W0 meterslong.

• or the interiors we want to show a living and reathing ship" with crew milling aout toattend to their duties.

•'e wish to reuse the same layout during oarding operations.

• !ake it easy to navigate the ship" as well as avoid oarding operations taking too muchtime" we settled on 1 to D fullF decks.

• 'e want a certain level of customiationA if you install special modules" they should erepresented in the interior.

• 'e want the interiors to e dynamic and show the status of your ship at a glanceA if su3systems take damage and that su3system is housed in a room" that room should also lookdamaged.

• Jased on the aove we came up with the following approachA

• 'e will use a standard unit of scale which is == meters.

•

Each ship section will e arranged in a grid structure that uses the standard unit of scale.• 'e can uild a standard corridor with a == lock" or we can fill it in to create a more

narrow or cramped corridor.


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• Bur doorways will e 1.=" D.0 and 4.= meters wide. The most common eing 1.= especiallyon the smaller ships. 1.= m wide doors create natural chokepoints.

pplying the guidlines aove to a frigate each ship section is H0H0 meters and consists of a 1212grid. Together the length of the internal ship sections for the frigate add up to 1?0 meters whichmatches uite well with the eterior dimensions.

5ow" if you swap out one ship section this will inlude not only modifying the eternal looks andnumer of hardpoints ut also the internal grid structure for that particular ship section. The numerof rooms and corridors may change as indicated in the illustration aove. +ooms in this contetcome in two typesA pre3installed and free. Certain functions on your ship are so asic that they areconsidered mandatory" like crew uarters and the cantina. These are already placed out when youeuip a new section. %owever" there will also e free rooms where you can install additionaleuipment like a sensor array" an auditorium" a gym etc.

The rooms inside your ship may reuire a minimum crew to function optimally and it may also e possile to assign additional crew to oost efficiency. or eample if your ship has taken heavy

damage you may wish to reassign crew to sick ay or engineering to heal wounded crew and repairthe damage your ship has sustained. Br perhaps you acuired some eotic food or drink that could

oost morale on your ship. )f your cantina is empty like aove" then those eotic foods may rot orspoil efore you get a chance to use them. >ou are the captain 3not the cook<

5ow that we have ecome a it more familiar with the internals of the ship" the net design updatewill investigate oarding operations<

#o we$ve made the clear choice of Girates vs !andate simply ecause of the dichotomy etweenthese two factionsA The !andate is efficient and rigid" where the Girates are makeshift andanimalistic. The way ) like to approach visually designing the separate game elements is to putmyself in the place of an engineer responsile for creating the ships" weapons and armor for eachfaction. 'hatSs the psychology of each faction& 'hat are their priorities and philosophies&

The rand fleet is uilt y the !andate to serve the military needs of their forces across alloccupied systems. The fleet has a ridged style made from interlocking parts that were produced inmass to allow each sector admiral to adapt their forces ased on the specific defense reuirementsof a given sector. s a result the ships may take on an ugly aesthetic as they are designed forfunction rather than flare. The rand fleet ships would e considered the standard on how ships areconstructed in the galay. #o" although ships from other factions don$t look identical" they doepand on the modular design approach first estalished with the rand leet designs.

The Girate faction is an unorganied group that operates from all the dark corners of the galay.They are driven y fear" desperation" psychopathy" and motivated y greed. Their ships are uilt ygalactic lack market designers" and they focus on closing distance with their prey" making the killwhichever way they can. )t$s this or starve. The pirate fleet can steal some designs from otherfactions ut are most notale for the menacing designs of the forecastle section. Girates will eitherrecycle prie ships or occasionally uy custom ship which focus on speed and maimiing thefirepower of the forward atteries. 'hen engaged in oarding operations and fighting in crampedcorridors" pirates tend to prefer versatile weapons with a secondary melee capaility.

lso" in the name of efficiency we are testing how we can create a unch of hallways and roomsthat reuse similar types of tetures. Jelow you can see concepts for three different hallway types

which are all standard !andate / rand leet. 'e will show the actual D6 models and tetures in afuture update.


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#o we have started to plan out how the rooms will look" what functionality they will add to yourshop *and what gets turned off if they get damaged or destroyedou may recall that our shipsalso consist of three sectionsA the front" the midship and aft section. Each ship section is also

separated y last doors.

s mentioned" our frigate has one full deck and this is where most of the rooms are located. Therooms are connected via corridors and each room houses a numer of consoles that can e operated

y individual crew memers. The consoles affect the ehaviour and efficiency of your ship.

)mmediately aove this deck we have the ridge deck. This deck holds the ridge as well as thecaptainSs uarters and on larger ships additional staff rooms and security checkpoints. The ridgeitself is well protected inside the ship and a myriad of sensors and scanners ensure that the captainand officers have all the necessary data to coordinate the crew during action. )n general the ridgewill e heavily guarded and rushing it may prove costly. s for the little orange suares they could

e used to install defensive turrets" force fields etc.

ove the ridge is the oservation deck which has several functions. or eample this is the placewhere you may conduct ceremonies such as promotions" funerals and dignitary visits ut we arealso discussing a few other interesting options.

,ast ut not least we have the cargo deck which houses the ship reactor" cargo hold and shuttle ay*s. The latter is important since it allows you to launch assault transports to oard enemyvessels or send shuttles on planetary investigation a.k.a. away missions.

1=D0 crew erth can easily serve ?0- crew. >our starting frigate has a skeleton crew initially.Jigger ships will have multiple crew erths.

The reactor has additional last doors to protect it against unauthoried access and there is a guardroom close y as well.

'e want the frigate to feel especially cramped. The player should feel a sense of relief once theyupgrade to something igger A

'e do plan on having H deck tall ships *D full decks.

The captain" officers and crew have their own uarters. The ma:ority sleeps in the room called crew erth which is located in the front section.

"etting new ships%ow will ships e acuired&3N Grie #hips *captured3N 6erelict ships / rescued ships of the rand leet3N Jought from friendly star ases3N +esearched and manufactured at your main starase after you have started to epand its

production capailities

'hile last option will e resource intensive" it will allow you the greatest degree of customiation.lso" ships can e salvaged to reclaim metals which can e used to fuel your war effort andconstruct new ship sections to create or upgrade eisting ships.


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Ship weaponsThe Jattle Brchestrator video showed off the ships euipped with M#mallM attling type of gun"which is very useful for smaller ships" there will also e M!ediumM types of guns and M,argeM guns.There will also e other types of weapons" like rockets / particle cannons and all sorts of fun things.#o don$t e sad< The rand leet will show it$s might and power and there will e no uestion of

who rules the alay< A

'e are evaluating infantry weapons vs ship weapons and whether to treat them the same way ordifferently. or ship weapons we want to offer more customiation options *that affect gameplay.>ou will have relatively few ships and these ship weapons will e very visile in game *whendeployed. Their impact will e seen whenever you go into attle. There is a strong connection

etween your ship weapons and the survival of your ship *and ultimately the player character" thecaptain.

>es" for each weapon hardpoint you will e ale to decide what type of weapon to install" providedthat weapon satisfies the reuirements *sie and type. Check out the weapons update for

more httpA//ships.mandategame.com/Pweapons

Jroadly speaking a ship has a numer of weapon hardpoints. or smaller ships these are centeredalong the amidships section while on igger ships oth the forward and aft sections mounthardpoints.

%eavy weapons will e very powerful ut have limited ammo whereas turrets will do significantlyless damage ut have an ample supply of ammo *or perhaps totally energy ased.

%eavy weapons ammo is in limited supply and you have limited options to repair a ship in space.E.g. a ship module or weapon could have none/light/ma:or/critical/destroyed damage state. )f you

have a component that is either critical or destroyed" you may need to visit a star ase to fully repairit.

'e will have ship ramming" so if your ship has a reinforced ow" you could use it to do a lot ofdamage to the other ship" ut you would launch assault shuttles separately.

'e will have weapons with different properties like shield piercing and armour piercing" ut itcomes down to game alance as well" we are not going to create one mega weapon that is est in allsituations. #ome weapons reuire ammo" others energy" some have short range" others long range.Certain weapons can e used for su system targeting to disale enemy weapons or modules etcwhile others are more Mrute forceM.

There will e a mi of energy3ased and pro:ectile3ased primary weapons.

'e distinguish etween primary weapons *various turret3mounted weapons and heavy weapons*oms" torpedoes" missiles" rockets etc etc. 5ow" we have not talked that much aout crafting andhow it relates to weapons utA 3 for primary weapons you will design new ones and upgrade thesewith etter internal components *think of a gem slot system here for eample a la many action+Gs 3 for heavy weapons you will create your own custom ammo" which you can trade with yourfriends as well. #o you could imagine swapping out the seeker" propulsion" warhead etc for differenttypes. Gerhaps you need missiles that are shielded against EC!" so you design new ones& Gerhaps

you want a torpedo that you can remote trigger to do a fragmentation last to knock out fightersuadrons&

http://ships.mandategame.com/#weaponshttp://ships.mandategame.com/#weaponshttp://ships.mandategame.com/#weapons


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'ave !otion un / #pinal !ount does not work for the heavy weapon and primary weaponhardpoints we have presented so far. 'e have shown ships up to and including attleship sie.%owever" we have mentioned that larger ship classes *not the plural eist. 'hether these may havea third type of hardpoint *spinal mount is TJ6" we have had design discussions aout this andwhat the implications would e from a alance point of view. 5o promises and no final decisionshave een made yet.

%eavy weapons are very powerful and will carry limited ammunition. Grimary weapons can eitheruse ammunition *which will e in plenty supply or energy3ased *so as long as your reactor cansupply sufficient :uice" you can go pew3pew all day long. >ou can install additional magaines onyour capital ships to allow you to carry more ammunition" ut that space could e taken up y crewuarters for marines. %eavy weapons are not gonna do you a lot of good if you get oarded Z\+andA air point for pirates" ut we may have some surprises in store Z

arret is allergic to eam3ased infantry weapons" so we are proaly going more towards hard sci3fi or pro:ectile ased weapons" time will tell A

'eapon hardpoints are divided into two main categoriesA Grimary weapon hardpoints" %eavyweapon hardpointsThe primary weapon hardpoints are the most numerous and allow you to install various types ofturrets. urthermore" primary weapon hardpoints come in different sies from tiny to small tomedium and igger which dictate the maimum sie of a weapon that can e installed. enerallyspeaking igger ships have more and larger primary weapon hardpoints ut there are eceptions aswell.

nlike primary weapon hardpoints the heavy weapon hardpoints are more standardied and fall in aone sie fits all category. %eavy weapons are very powerful ut have limited numer of reloadsavailale and as such a spray and pray approach is not recommended. )n contrast primary weaponscome with ample supply of ammunition and some types do not reuire ammunition at all.

ll heavy weapons deploy from the same type of socket. 'hen This is analogous to the tall ships ofthe age of sail where as long as the cannon ports were closed" it would e difficult to know eactlywhat type and sie of guns were carried. )n The !andate acuiring intel aout what type of heavyweapons your adversary can use against you is crucial information and may affect your tactics.Each heavy weapon type functions in a specific way. %ere are four eamplesA Torpedo" Jom"+ocket" !issile.

'e will cover these four eamples in reverse order. !issiles are fully autonomous and can lock

onto and e fed data from the ships targeting computers. fter they have locked on" they can launchand will guide themselves to their intended target. !issiles are uite versatile and many differenttypes eist. 6ue to their high speed they can e difficult to intercept and shoot down. !issiles"however" are susceptile to :amming and counter3measures.

The third type of heavy weapons is the rocket. These are unguided pro:ectiles which can e fired enmasse and while individually they cause low damage" a full arrage of rockets can cause severedamage. +ockets are fast" they cannot e :ammed and the sheer volume of them can make itdifficult to deal with them efore they hit their intended target. Bn the flip side rockets have theshortest range of all the heavy weapons and have a very narrow firing arc.

The space om is a dum fire and long range weapon which is est employed against stationarytargets like space stations or disaled enemy ships. Joms do not have an independent propulsionand this has oth pros and cons Joms generate almost no E!# signature and so can e difficult to


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detect y non3visual means. urthermore they have the longest range of the four heavy weaponsdiscussed in this update. )t is possile to configure oms to detonate ased on either impact/directcontact or proimity. Bn the flip side oms rely on the speed of the launching platform for theirspeed which make them impractical to use at low speed. Their firing arc is limited and so thelaunching ship must line up for its shot. )f the target repositions itself while the om is on its way"the om will miss.

The torpedo is a very powerful heavy weapon with its good mi of speed and damage potential. )t isalso armoured and can withstand some damage. The torpedo can e manually piloted which allowsthe operator to pick the optimal angle of attack and minimie chance of detection and interception.Torpedoes are resistant to :amming and can e remotely detonated. The two main drawacks are thelower speed which makes it possile to intercept with light craft and the torpedo also has limitedammunition. captain who plans to go on etended patrols or a long campaign may wish to installetra magaines or include a fleet resupply ship in his/her attle suadron.

]ust as with ship sections we will have uality tiers for weapons. %igher uality tier weapons aregenerally more efficient or have reduced drawacks compared to lower uality tiers. %owever"

eyond stat increases we also aim to offer a it deeper customiation optionsAGrimary weapons can enefit from the installation of special focus crystals or superior electronicswhich can e researched" purchased" captured or manufactured. These will either oost their

potential or provide them with utility functions.

)n the case of heavy weapons we are taking a slightly different route and you will e ale to designyour own custom warheads/ammunition. )f you know that you will e going up against a factionthat relies heavily on :amming or EC!" you could design ammunition that is especially shielded towithstand EC!. lternatively" if the enemy employs fighters to defend against and intercepttorpedoes" perhaps you may wish to consider a torpedo with a cloaking device or more armour atthe epensive of damage potential&

Ship defences da#ageEactly how shield arcs will work is TJ6 ut you will have the aility to oth overload andincrease recharge rate of shields y allocating more power.

'hen defending against enemy heavy weapons" it is important to employ a mi of countermeasures" light craft" EC! and point defences.

>ep" we want to support this *automated internal defence systems. 6o not epect a full 6ungeon!aster or Evil enius assortment of traps" ut sensile things like force fields" turrets etc could erelevant to support and give players the aility to install *as well as face when assaulting enemyships.

>es< )f you take a lot of damage to your ship" epect casualties. Enlisted may die uickly" however"since the player has invested a lot of time and effort into his/her officers and captains" we will

provide difficulty setting options so you can decide whether they die or only get wounded.

)f you power up your shields" you will need more power from the reactor. This increases your E!#*electromagnetic signature and makes you easier to detect from further away. eel free to haveshields up all the time ut that may reuire a more crew on duty increase your E!# so you areeasier to detect c wear down euipment more uickly&

s for armour our goal is to let you specify this on a per ship section asis" and the outer layer ofthe ship will update to reflect this. E.g. you could euip your front section with unotanium to make


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it really strong< #hips from other factions which you meet in space will also feature a wide varietyof weapon and armour configurations. )t will pay off to scan and oserve enemy ships to find theirweak spots efore engaging in comat.

They are uilt to sustain heavy punishment" especially ships of the rand leet. %ouse fleets mayecel in particular roles ut e less roust etc. That eing said" going up against a attleship in a

frigate *which we are pretty sure a lot of players will try at least B5CE is not generallyrecommended... A

#pecifically for comat we are doing away with the standard hit point ars which when depletedmake your ships go oom. )nstead we are developing a sophisticated damage model where susystems can e knocked out and taken offline. Knock out engines or the artificial gravity well and itis fairly ovious what the implications are" oth for ship comat and oardingR

:pgrades and other ship features]ust to clarify" the Mwall of heroesM will e in your star ase as a permanent fiture. The Mroll ofheroesM seen in the trailer will e specific to each ship and list all crewmen who were lost in action

under your command. )f you fill up one plaue" then additional plaues will e added on a newwall. 5ow" if you run out walls then you are proaly not a very good captain" doing somethingvery wrong and should read up on health and safety protocols as well as study rand leet navaldoctrine. lternatively get a new and igger ship *with more walls Z

+est assured you will e ale to research upgrades for oth your ships" your crew" your star aseand your light craft *fighters" omers etc

)f you want to emark a full air group with a C group captain" you etter start saving metals andresearch tech to epand your ase. attleship is not gonna cut it.. Ap


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" #epl $

"enerals part of developing the oarding comat prototype we also worked in parallel on the art side todefine the different room types and investigate scale dimensions. 'e have put a lot of effort intoensuring that a ship deck will feel like it has depth and mass. s you know a deck will contain many

rooms and each room can have several consoles. Each console can e manned y one of your crewand the consoles in turn affect ship performance and dictate whether certain systems are online oroffline during space comat. >ou may recall our previous Kickstarter update which included a videothat demonstrated su3system targeting where you can detect and take out individual consoles androoms with precision fire.

'e have plans to track and log a lot of events relating to your player$s eploits as we need this tomodify the sando. This data could e used to create some kind of MreplayM feature similar toCivliation and the other games mentioned. The idea is cool. 'hether or not we have time toimplement this ourselves or someody else does it" is of course MTJ6M.

>es" we are not going to preach or demonie the players actions. 'e think you should e ale to dowhat you want *within reason and suffer the conseuences. This should also help increase thereplay factor *and some cool stories to share with friends.

There are a few design elements that touch on how your captain" your crew" your ship" your fleetand your pocket empire relate to things like slavery" drugs etcA

irst are your +G choices during uests" events

#econdly we discussed in a previous K# update the rules of engagement which will affect how your

marines react when they come across enemies that surrender as well as unidentified contacts *shootfirst" ask uestions later&. 'hat do you do with survivors after the attle is over&

#econdly you can define policies for what sort of ehaviour is tolerated on your ship/fleet" e.g.Mcaptain$s standing ordersM. This is linked to the rticles of 'ar. 6epending on which factions youare working for" violating or following these may have conseuences *esp rand leet path>ou will also e ale to set certain policies that affect your home ase" supply network etc

Together these should allow you to play as an evil #courge Girate" a +oin %ood Girate" a loyalistCorsair" a rigid rand leet officer" a +eel etc. >ou get to put your mark on the world ut theremay also e conseuences and reactions from crew" factions etc.

)n The !andate the primary focus is not to uild a monopoly or ecome a successful usinesstycoon. 'hile you may dale in this" rememer that you are a spaceship captain first and foremost.)t naturally follows that your focus will e on epanding and supporting your own war efforts. Todo this you must estalish resource etraction and production centers and set up trade convoys

etween these. %owever" once set up y you" these trade convoys will run y themselves. They mayreuire protection" either from enemy factions or pesky pirates.

There will e oth short term *gain/loss of resources and long term *faction strength" diplomaticrelations" availaility of goods conseuences depending on how well you defend your own tradeconvoys and intercept those of your enemies. >our *inaction*s will resonate throughout the game

world/sando.

#pecifically when it comes to trade convoys we are taking inspiration from 'orld 'ar 2 and the


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war in the tlantic. The trade convoys will contain a numer of cargo ships and also escort warshipswhose :o it is to ensure the trade convoy arrives safely at its destination. )f you decide to hoist the]olly +oger yourself" you will proaly e targeting trade convoys and we epect there to e a it ofMcat and mouseM gameplay where a pirate player will attempt to sneak up on the cargo ships whileavoiding or distracting the escorts. ]ust like pirates in the 1Hth and 1Wth century would have done"you may force cargo ships to surrender or drop their cargo which you can then use/trade for your

own enefit.

'e have not finalied the list of cargo/resource types" ut they will e used for research as well ascrafting and constructing ships" consoles and infantry weapons. #ome resources may e needed torecruit personnel *manpower and we are also discussing whether to have strategic resources *whichyou unlock y controlling a resource node similar to in Civiliation.and create really long cargo freighters. These will feel oth vulnerale and can carry a lot ofvaluales *which is oth good and adour main concern will e to set up the infrastructure*ases" trade agreements and provide resources *freighters" escort ships etc. fter that the tradeconvoys will run automatically while you go off to plunder the galay

; ships is an interesting concept and something we have toyed around with ut we will need to seehow it will fit in with our eisting art udget.

%ow we deal with narcotics" slaves and alcohol is TJ6. )deally we want this to e a decision on the player$s side" with pros and cons. Keep in mind that if you intend to play as a rand leet officer"you may wish to review articles of war P2 and P12 Z

'e elieve cutscenes can serve a purpose ut they should e used sparingly and only for importantevents. lso" cutscenes can easily ecome epensive oth in terms of tool support" etra assetsneeded" additional devs etc.

Two eamples of a games that handled cutscenes well would e good old +ed Jaron and T)Eighter. The former mostly had medal and promotion cutscenes. The latter in addition had intro andoutro *per campaign& to help advance the story. These were fairly short" however. T)E ighter alsohad launch seuence cutscenes which could e skipped/were very short.

The reinstated rand leet officer path may not e suitale for everyody" and it may notnecessarily e a very good idea for the first play3through either.

]ust to add to thisA3 'hile the game should take around 40 hours to play through the storyline" this would meanskipping out on a lot of optional uests and passing y the end3game challenges3 #ince we are adopting a sando approach similar to #kyrim" !ountQJlade" Girates< etc you will

e ale to continue playing after the story is completed *and the story will ranch depending onyour decisions" with more incentive to replay as a different character3 )t should e possile to en:oy The !andate for at least 100 hours ut we would like to push this

further via eploration *derelict ships" hidden treasures" progression *ship" ase" infantry and techupgrades" conuering enemy factions etc3 s for coop it is entirely optional and should fit seamlessly into a singleplayer session the host


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player may invite/kick other players and the guest players cannot grief his/her sando3 'e are planning several features that will help facilitate coop play" or the features are playeragnostic" e.g. whether you interact with 5GCs or other players does not matter to the feature itself"one eample eing the attle orchestrator Jut we still want the player*s to research and design their own upgrades. +esearch andmanufacturing is an important part of the progression design.

#o to clarify asically what you are asking isA). Can ) visit my starase in character&)). Can ) go on a general inspection of the ships in my fleet&))). Can ) :ump into a shuttle and leave my ship whenever ) feel like it&

The answer to these would eA). >es" ut how detailed this interaction will e" depends on stretch goals as well)). >es" ut there may e certain limitations as to when you can do this. To e decided.))). To e decided.

>ou will conclude the story long efore you run out of research options. Bur research"manufacturing and ase management portion will e uite deep and you can sink many" many hoursinto it. The coop element also kicks into play here though" you might :oin a friend$s campaign andvisit his/her main ase to get some special upgrades that you yourself have not research yet. This isone of the aspects of our coop mode which we hope players will en:oy.

The Mandate Compendium 04012015

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