Star Citizen developers touched on Master Modes in the latest video of the IAE Show and they revealed some massive changes coming to the current flight system in the game that was originally introduced back in Alpha 3.23.
According to CIG developers, both SCM and NAV modes will be demoted from Master Modes to Operator Modes, and the ship will have a cohesive unified speed at the level of the current SCM Speed. This is more like what we had before Master Modes in Star Citizen.
Now, SCM will mostly remain the same, but NAV will lose some of its current restrictions. While the shields will still remain off in the NAV mode, the players will have access to their weapons. Also, the speed at which the current NAV mode operates will be transferred to Quantum Boost.
So, if you want to speed up, you will switch to NAV Operator Mode, which will be a lot faster but will still take your shields off, and then you will initiate a Quantum Boost which will quickly shift your speed to 10% of Quantum Travel speed. And, you can shoot your weapons while you are off the SCM mode.
The developers also revealed that players will be able to upgrade their thrusters with the crafting gameplay, which will add up to the max speed and agility of the ship, even in SCM mode.
The ultimate goal of these changes is to eventually allow players to completely customize their flight experience. According to Richard Tyrer, senior game director, the ships will eventually come with a default flight experience, which is what the developers think is the best, but each pilot will reserve the right to customize it as much as they can.
However, there will be a few permanent restrictions, such as the contrast between Quantum Drive and Shield Generators, as they can never be active simultaneously. So, only one of them can be active in each flight preset.
These changes are probably planned for the distant future of Star Citizen when crafting is a thing, but we should receive them gradually starting in 2025.
Quantum Boost and Surface Control were showcased back in CitizenCon 2953 and it was recently revealed that they are still in active production. So, we can expect Master Modes to get at least one big change next year towards its final shape.
