Computer

Computers (formerly Avionics Motherboards or Modules) are the "brain" of a ship in Star Citizen, performing the functions of flight control, target tracking and identification, life support management, and more. It is unique among systems in that it can be upgraded with other systems (which are now known as "Blades" or "Job Blades", similar to real life server blades).

Computers have a limited number of slots for Blades depending on their size and manufacture.

Job Blades

Job Blades are a physical, miniature computer in the form of a thin, wide block that can be inserted into larger computer components to be operated. Each job blade performs a specific job.

By far the most commonly known type of blade is the Autonomous Control, or AI Blade. This type of blade is used to automate a turret in place of an NPC or Player Character. Point Defense Turrets, or the ships that mount them, are expected to innately possess these blades in order to operate the said turrets. It is expected that AI Blades will have inferior performance to players, and that they will consume power while operating.

The first type of Job Blade to release into the Star Citizen Alpha is the Flight Blade. This type of blade controls a ship's flight systems, such as their main or maneuvering thrusters. Every Flight Blade is limited to operating a single model and configuration of a ship; for example, a Scorpius cannot use the Flight Blade of a Scorpius Antares, or vice-versa. Ships cannot fly without a controlling Flight Blade, and all ships have one installed by default. As of Alpha 4.1.1, Flight Blades can be replaced with versions optimised to favour either a ship's main thrusters or maneuvering thrusters, increasing speed and acceleration in exchange for reducing the capability of the ship's maneuvering thrusters or vice-versa.

Comparison to NPC crews

Blades should not be confused with NPC crews. While they can both fulfill some identical functions, such as using a turret to shoot at an enemy, an AI blade is a sub-component on a ship, it can be plugged in, assigned a turret, but blades will be worse than NPCs. An average player will be better than an average NPC, and an average NPC will be better than an average blade. The turret blades are going to occupy a valuable blade slot, which means the player can't equip a blade for another functionality. There won't be enough blade slots for every single turret. AI blades are automation without personality nor skills. They can only do what they do, unable to take another job at all, as opposed to AI crew members who can take another job even if they're bad at it.

Source: StarCitizen.tools. Source content is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.