Ahoy everyone!
We're happy to share some progress on our Crew Deck Layout System!
How does it work?
In Solar Sails, crew members operate the different battle stations on the ship. A crew member assigned to a station contributes their active and passive abilities to its functionality. Different layouts of crew members assigned to stations offer a variety of play styles, each providing a distinct set of abilities.
Are you a flanker who relies on speed and agility? Or a tactician who snipes enemies from afar? Or do you prefer to go in cannons blazing? You can try different builds by creating different crew layouts on the ship.
Ship’s Stations
The ship has several stations, each serving a purpose. Stations must be manned by crew members to function.
Steering:
Responsible for the ship’s movement and maneuvering.
Weaponry:
The station that controls all the weapons installed along the ship.
Deck (x3):
Serve as supporting assault stations. Every crew member on the deck increases the ship’s attack speed.
Drone:
A remotely-controlled drone used to magnetize and release objects. Useful for setting explosive traps and tossing objects at enemies. Grants a special weapon slot on top of the drone.
Mast:
A cozy place for a mast bird, which allows it to spot treasure, traps, and hidden objects.
Crew Abilities
As you level your crew members, you can train them for the roles you want. Each of them has 6 ability categories - Navigation, Weaponry, Drone, General, Interaction, and Ultimate.
Navigation:
Active and passive abilities related to movement, maneuvering, dodging, and setting traps. They only work when the crew member mans the Navigation station.
Weaponry:
Active attack abilities, passives, or masteries for certain types of weapons. Active weaponry abilities only work when the character mans the Weaponry station. Passive weaponry abilities work on the Weaponry and on any of the Deck stations.
Drone:
Passive abilities and masteries for certain types of weapons that can be mounted on the drone. They only work when the crew member mans the Drone station.
General:
Passive-only abilities that work regardless of which station the crew member operates.
Interaction:
Abilities that are available upon interaction with certain types of objects, regardless of which station the crew member operates. For example: interact with enemy buildings to plunder them, or interact with asteroids to harvest minerals.
Ultimate:
Powerful abilities that can be used regardless of which station the character operates. The crew member marked as “Visor” contributes their Ultimate ability to the arsenal.
Abilities Display
When you assign a crew member to a station, you will see all their abilities available for that station.
At the bottom panel, you will see the arsenal of abilities based on the current crew layout. These abilities will be available to you in combat.
Use in Combat
Once you configure your crew layouts, you can switch between them in-game, during combat, by pressing the Quick Access buttons (1,2,3,4, etc). You can see the currently selected crew layout in the bottom left corner of the screen.
What's next?
Our next major milestone is a demo for Steam! We aim to release the demo in Q2 2026. But we will be posting updates once every 1-2 months