Star Citizen players given answers about its flight model, input controls

Following the recent public release of Star Citizen's dogfighting module, Arena Commander, creator Chris Roberts took to the space sim's blog to address player feedback about its flight model, input controls and why craft manoeuvre in the in-game space the way they do.

The blog post looks at yaw versus roll and mouse control versus joystick control. It also features an in-depth overview about the game's Intelligent Flight Control System, a system designed to assist the pilot in operating a spacecraft, from CIG physics programmer John Pritchett.

"This document is not an in-fiction description of the Star Citizen IFCS, it is an accurate description of the true flight control model implemented for the game," Pritchett  wrote. "This level of realism was necessary in order to deliver a flight control system that could be fully integrated with and influenced by the environment, damage states, changing mass distribution, power allocation, thruster placement, etc. IFCS is an emergent system, and therefore may be imperfect at times. But this mimics reality."

"And finally, great effort has been made to limit spacecraft control to only the command pathways provided by IFCS," he added. "No player, AI or even IFCS itself will ever modify the position, velocity, rotation or rotational velocity of a ship directly, with the exception of initialization and network correction. This guarantees that all spacecraft control is consistent and the game will never have an unfair advantage over a player."

Arena Commander version 0.8 launched earlier this month after it was delayed a week due to unresolved bugs and outstanding issues. Version 0.9 is expected to include improvements to client and multiplayer server stability, audio refinements, additional character animations and flight model upgrades. A new multiplayer game mode for public testing along with hangar bug fixes, cockpit polish, additional weapons and more will also be introduced.

Players are invited to offer feedback about the module on the official forums. Be sure to watch the video below and read our impressions of Arena Commander's unveiling to learn more about the game.