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Q&A: Drake Cutlass Steel

Drake Cutlass Steel Q&A
Now that the Cutlass Steel from Drake Interplanetary has been added to the 'verse, we posed a few questions to the vehicle team about the new dropship. Here are the answers, straight from the designers themselves.

Does the front/pilot area differ from the other Cutlass variants?
There are no differences in the Steel from the door into the cockpit area forwards.

Can any cargo be stored on the Cutlass Steel (commodities, vehicles, delivery boxes, food)?
There is no dedicated cargo grid on the ship, so full SCU crates cannot be loaded or secured. However, you can of course manually place smaller items in there. No vehicles are officially supported for loading, and the additional door guns and jump seats block most of the entranceways.

How does it stand apart from the other dropships?
Compared to other dropships, the big bonus is the increased amount of weaponry available to cover troops on the ground.

Are the door weapons bespoke, or can they be replaced?
They will be replaceable in the future, though they are currently locked to ballistic Gatlings.

Are the rest of the components on par with any of the other Cutlasses (shields, armor, etc.)?
Component-wise, the Steel is identically specced to the Black.

Are there weapon/armor racks on board?
The pilot and co-pilot retain their weapon racks in the cockpit room. Each jump seat in the rear also has space for one FPS weapon.

Does the co-pilot control the backward-facing remote turret, or can it also be controlled by one of the passengers from within the troop area?
The rear-facing remote turret is exclusively controlled by the co-pilot.

Does the Cutlass Steel have any medical equipment on board?
There is no medical equipment on board the Cutlass Steel.

Does its mass differ from the other variants? If yes, does it gain any benefits or disadvantages in terms of speed and maneuverability through this?
The Steel weighs more than the Black due to the extra jump seats and turrets, so has marginally reduced performance compared to the Black.

Does the Cutlass Steel have any special features to better withstand or evade incoming defensive fire from ground positions?
There are no additional features on the Steel aside from the jump seats, remote rear turret, and manned door turrets.

Is the pilot's visibility in line with the other Cutlass variants, or are there any advantages as it is a dropship variant that would benefit from better ground visibility?
The pilot and co-pilot positions are shared across all variants, and the canopy is the same as the Black, so it retains the same visibility. We are aware of issues with alignment and visibility in the Cutlass series and will be adjusting it in a future update.

Will it be possible to equip the backward-facing remote turret with AI-blades?
As always, blades will be able to slave remote turrets to pilots. However, as the remote turret on the Steel faces backward, it would be of limited usefulness as, with freelook/headtracking, the pilot would only be able to use it looking extreme left or right.

Disclaimer
The answers accurately reflect development’s intentions at the time of writing, but the company and development team reserve the right to adapt, improve, or change feature and ship designs in response to feedback, playtesting, design revisions, or other considerations to improve balance or the quality of the game overall.

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Comm-Link Metadata
ID 18479
Release 22.12.2021
Category Development
Channel Engineering
Series Concept Ship Q&A
Url /comm-link/SCW/18479-API
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