Perihelion Interactive has posted a new update for The Mandate detailing the layouts of ships, the six different service branches and briefly touched on the coat of arms. The studio reveal why they’re important.
A ship’s layout will of course matter when managing the crew, especially if you’re repelling invaders. The service branches all provide distinct functions but also character progression.
The Mandate is supposed to be our own Battlestar Galactica/Star Trek soap opera, so handling our crew and looking after them is paramount to our fleet’s success.
”All capital ships have between one and three full decks (not counting the Bridge, Cargo Deck or the Observation Deck) but our frigate only has one full deck, the 0 deck. You may recall that our ships also consists of three sections: the front, the midship and aft section,” posted Perihelion.
They released a few images illustrating how the ships are laid out, with each major section sealed off with blast doors in case of an emergency. Ships can suffer significant damage during battles and so these sections could be crippled - threatening the lives of our crew.
”The rooms are connected via corridors and each room houses a number of consoles that can be operated by individual crew members. The consoles affect the behaviour and efficiency of your ship.” The rooms are colour coded to signify what service they represent. There are rooms you’d expect like engines, bridge, engineering, brig, crew berth, mess etc.
Six service branches mean our crew will be specialising in six different areas which is important to their progression. Perihelion also touches on crew ranks and how we’ll be making big decisions when it comes to promoting them, and even granting some their own ship as a captain.
”The officer does not represent a service branch but prior to his promotion he may have served with one of the service branches but more on that later. Keep in mind that both the headgear and colours for each service branch are not finalized. None are wearing combat armour as this would be too bulky and restrictive for normal ship operations.”
”…fresh recruits start out as “enlisted” and only have a few basic skills. They may be assigned to operate vacant consoles in a room and each room is operated by one service branch (with a few exceptions like the bridge). Consoles grant enlisted experience points over time and eventually they will qualify to become specialists. Upon becoming a specialist the enlisted joins one of the service branches and can learn new skills. Each service branch has unique skill types which corresponds with its focus area. There are skills that affect both space combat, boarding combat, away missions etc.”
Check out the full Kickstarter update for more on The Mandate’s ship layouts and service branches.
