Star Citizen | Behind the Ships: Gatac Railen

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   The Gatac Railen is an alien medium hauler from Gatac Industries and prioritizes speed of loading and unloading cargo by having it all on the exterior. The Railen is our first dedicated cargo hauler from an alien race and this is important moment in that a lot of our other alien ships are combat focused. Just like us, they also need an entire suite of ships to be able to fulfill what they do everyday in their lives. >> So, one of the things that we really wanted to push with our alien ships is just that distinction from kind of human manufacturing techniques and alien manufacturing techniques. We kind of developed this idea that they had this really kind of advanced systems that

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   would allow them to be able to almost kind of grow their ships in the shapes that they wanted. So, things like the really big armor plates that are on the front of the ship. The idea was that these were naturally mined materials rather than having to kind of go in and extract these materials and then refine them and refine them and refine them. >> I had to uh stop thinking like human and I start thinking like J'ean. How would an alien design shapes, movement, and technology? >> With the J'ean specifically, they have a lot of control over how they can manipulate different structures. So, with the Railen, it has this really distinct state change between its flight silhouette and its landed silhouette. >> The original concept had triangular

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   cargo containers themselves holding the cargo inside, but now during production we changed that to use standardized cargo grids. That means you are not constrained by any of the mission types that you would have had before, having to manually load all these cargo units into custom cargo containers. Now, you can just turn up to any location. It supports up to 32 SCU containers, so you can just load them on easily, offload them easily. We have two size two tractor turrets that sit on the bottom wings. Two rear bridge seats each control one of these turrets and can use them to add and remove cargo from the cargo grid as they like. The turrets move with the wings. You

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   have an okay view when the wings are deployed, so when you're flying around in space, but when your wings are in the landed position, you have a really, really good view over the cargo grids. And for those who really appreciated the original aesthetic of those triangular cargo pods, we've retained the signature triangular elements of that as a deployable armored shield over the cargo grids. The shields themselves are a physical barrier that stop projectiles from hitting the cargo themselves. Obviously, having it deployed makes the cargo very hard to take off, but offers that protection. This essentially makes a sort of hybrid interior-exterior cargo ship. You get the benefits of both systems. You have the ease of loading of exterior cargo, as well as the protection of interior cargo. And then there's a further benefit for those of you like counting boxes, we

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   also managed to increase the cargo capacity from 320 to 640 with these changes, as well. >> On the right hand, you can enter the ship one of two ways. So, if the ship is landed, you enter through a lift at the very bottom. And if you are in flight or you're in space, you have a docking collar on the top rear. >> The elevator shaft is a really nice like central part of the whole ship. It's the first thing you see as you walk in, and it leads you through every floor. You can see all the way up. >> A lot of our human ships tend to be quite black, quite long, whereas what we tried to develop is this idea that the aliens prefer a little bit more kind of verticality to their ship. The middle floor of the ship is all habitation. >> The Habs are

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   very strange when you first walk in. You kind of have a big bank of these pods that feel quite strange and different to the kind of habitations you might be used to in a typical human ship. But at the same time it's it's incredibly cozy in there. You kind of have to crawl into the space. You have all this really nice stonework that covers the bed. We carry on this same sort of motif of these ribbons that sort of run around every part of the ship, which you can imagine is kind of carrying the energy and the power from the engineering and powering all these rooms. >> We tried to make it feel quite relaxing, quite calm, so they brought in these waterfalls that run down the sides of the walls in the mess area. On one side you've got the bathrooms and on the opposite side you've got the food preparation area. As this is an alien ship, it caters to

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   both the Gorn and the humans. So for the humans you've got a chow line where you're able to get your food and your drink >> alongside the very specialist Gorn food area. >> Are these the ones that eat poop? >> Uh these are the ones that eat poop or these are the ones that poop squares? I can't remember. These are the turtles but they behave like birds. >> Then off to either side we have a small room that has a small bench and like a viewing out over the front of the ship. We've got the two escape pods on either side and also the tower access. Finally, if you take the elevator up to the top floor, it takes you straight into engineering. >> The engineering is really kind of imposing and it just feels very important. You can tell that there's like a lot of power running through this room. You've got different component bays all around the room facing you and they all open up with like the

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   impressive GM tech grab plating all moving out of the way. >> The alien design comes in with quite how wide these component bays are. Like there's a lot of room that accommodates more space needed to access them than just a slim little engineer who's who's making his way in. You also have these beams that are coming across the ceiling. And you can tell that there's power thrumming through like these ribbons that are coming from each of the component bays. It's a really really interesting room and it was a lot of fun to work on. >> As you go towards the front of the ship, you're into the bridge area. And this probably has one of the best views out of of a lot of ships that we've done. >> There is four seats floating on air. So, that feels like it's totally alien and

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   kinetic. When you enter the seat, they're rotating with a fancy flying animation. I hope that they feel really wow effect cuz it's pretty different than the usual ships we have. >> The cargo capacity of the ship now lends itself to the vast majority of cargo missions, so it's great for cargo players. And it's not short in the firepower category either. It has great turrets and pilot control weapons as well as missiles. >> I think all the team did their job so fantastic. >> It looks cool, sharp, aggressive. >> Very happy with it. >> I really like the the overall aesthetic on the interior and the design is an interesting way to use this sort of tall

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    three-story ship. In still actually quite a small space. >> The ship is for someone that wants to go out with their friend. They don't mind taking on a bit of danger. And they want to look a little bit different, a little bit cooler doing it. >> Mhm.