Greetings Citizens,
On Thursday, we kicked off the concept sale for the new Anvil Crucible repair ship. Today, we’ll be answering questions collected on the forums. If you’re interested in further details of the new repair mechanic, please check out the design post here. Special thanks to designers Calix Renau and Randy Vasquez for taking the time to answer these questions. Enjoy!

If the Crucible has the enclosed repair bay installed, can it navigate a jump point with a ship in the bay?
Yes, at that point, the ship will be treated like cargo since it will be landed and locked down within the enclosure. The only impact to the Crucible’s performance will be any changes resulting from the increase in total mass.

To what extent will a Crucible crew be able to repair damages sustained to their own hull and components?
The Crucible can repair anything… except itself. Really makes you think. No, there’s a good amount of capacity for self-repair. Internal components are fully accessible for repair, and most minor damage should be handled by the ship itself through use of EVA, onboard tools and drones. Major hull repair might require a dry dock visit or another Crucible, as the repair arms don’t reach the entire ship.

Can the garage unit be left “floating” in space while the Crucible repairs larger ships like the Constellation?
Yes, the Crucible garage is meant to be able to undock and re-dock. But to repair larger ships, one does not necessarily need to undock from the garage, the larger ship repair arms and drones should be used in making repairs on ships larger.

What’s the largest ship a Crucible can repair? How are ships larger than this repaired?
Right now, we have fit in most of the single seater ships without issue, but the Cutlass actually fits within the garage with the top open. We are still in development designing the details of the Crucible and when the ship starts to be built up more we will be able to release more detailed dimensions on the garage and clearances within. Part of the ‘in world’ design spec was that it needed to handle all of the military single seaters, with a particular focus on the Anvil designs; as a result, you can be sure it’ll hold the Hornet and Gladiator!

From the sales page, “… which will be necessary for larger repair and salvage operations.” Can we expect a different salvage scarab module in the future?
The ship will have limited salvage capabilities due to salvage and repair sharing some actions and mechanics. But we will be going into more detail on salvage hopefully soon. Stay tuned!

Will the AI be able to perform either role described in the “Ship Repair and Maintenance” post? (AKA, can I operate the Crucible solo)
Eventually, yes, although no AI crew will ever be as efficient as humans working together. To answer the question more broadly, the Crucible is specifically designed for a single captain to both operate and engage in repair tasks… hence the ‘moving restaurant’ design that lets the main set change between the forward view and an overview of the Scarab.

Will be able to repair fighters en-route or will we need to be stationary until the repairs are complete?
Right now we plan for external repairs to be done while the ships are stationary. But we do plan to allow for fixing smaller ships within the garage during transit. Think of the Crucible as a dry dock for small ships, and scaffolding for larger ships. Ships that fit inside the garage can properly land, and so will move with the crucible.

Does the Crucible still have the Miller ERS or the towing capabilities?
“Yes.” The Miller ERS has been replaced by repair drones while we explore how to meaningfully enable construction actions on the scale implied by the Miller ERS. We have also discussed how towing might be handled, but don’t have solid answers on that implementation yet. Towing actions are likely to be fairly limited for a single ship, if they are ultimately factored in at all. We are also thinking about a dedicated tug variant, which would replace the Scarab with towing equipment.

Is there any gameplay that would require multiple Crucibles to be working in unison?
The crucible is capable of repairing a majority of damages attained by a ship. We do not have multi-Crucible gameplay in our plans for the near future, but we are looking ahead to scenarios where multiple ships might more quickly repair a crippled, larger capital ship (such as a Bengal.)

Can I use my Reclaimer to salvage ship components and then use my Crucible to reassemble them?
The Crucible does not fabricate components, it can only repair components that already exist. So, “yes”, but you will use the salvage materials to repair other components, not to assemble new ones. We are still in the process of designing Salvage, but ideally we want both systems to work in tandem so that one could salvage materials and then use those same materials in repairing another ship.

How long do you anticipate it taking to repair a single heavy damaged hornet?
Our current balance plans suggest that a Crucible with a repair crew of one would probably need fifteen minutes to repair a heavily damaged Hornet. A full crew would find it a struggle to repair the same ship faster than 2 or 3 minutes. Note that these are early ‘whiteboard’ estimates that will likely change significantly once the system is in place and tested by the community.

--- Fri Nov 27 2015 00:00:00 GMT+0100	
+++ Fri Nov 27 2015 00:00:00 GMT+0100	
@@ -8 +8 @@
-The Crucible can repair anything… except itself. Really makes you think. No, there’s a good amount of capacity for self-repair. Internal components are fully accessible for repair, and most minor damage should be handled by the ship itself through use of EVA, onboard tools and drones. Major hull repair might require a dry dock visit or another Crucible, as the repair arms don’t reach the entire ship. 
+The Crucible can repair anything… except itself. Really makes you think. No, there’s a good amount of capacity for self-repair. Internal components are fully accessible for repair, and most minor damage should be handled by the ship itself through use of EVA, onboard tools and drones. Major hull repair might require a dry dock visit or another Crucible, as the repair arms don’t reach the entire ship.