Frontier, please tell us if the Panther Clipper will ever leave spacedock

[Tifu]

I don't think nested ships are coming soon. I think there would have to be a fundamental shift in how the game works under the hood to allow for it, in regards to being able to switch ships outside of a docking area, having multiple ships outside of the docking area, the persistence/tracking of leaving a ship on a planet, or some random place in space, dealing with the rebuy calculation if you get blown up in a Panther with another ship in its hangar.

Destructible faction fleet carriers are supposed to be arriving though in PP 2.0 - these will be present in stronghold systems.

I could be docked in one aligned with the Power I have allegiance to while it's being attacked by a hostile power. What I'm not sure of is if FD will allow it to be totally destroyed while I'm docked or if it will just be driven off (though heavily damaged). Guess we'll find out near the end of the month .

I guess what I'm saying is the Panther could be implemented as a mini-carrier - with persistence but destructible. It's a possible design option

 

[Monk]

Thought about this when I woke up...and Tifu mentions it above

I was thinking, if the OG design for the Panther was shelved and hoped to release some day, then is that why they didn't just call the Fleet Carrier the Panther Clipper?

 

[GJ51]

Thought about this when I woke up...and Tifu mentions it above

I was thinking, if the OG design for the Panther was shelved and hoped to release some day, then is that why they didn't just call the Fleet Carrier the Panther Clipper?

Cuz it can't dock???

 

[Monk]

Cuz it can't dock???

b/c it's massive, holds a lot of cargo and yes, can't dock.
Really just a passing thought though...if another fleet carrier class were just called Panther Clipper and looked slick as heck, maybe folks would forget about it. I'd be sad, being a non-FC commander (one day, maybe!).

 

[bangermsuk]

The Panther Clipper would be one of those ships for which Frontier will first need to add the ability to either dock to stations outside (ala X2) or to use smaller shuttles.

It would also require new content to make use of it: people are already complaining they can't find enough missions to fill their Cutters, and bulk trading pays peanuts compared to the absolutely mental payouts on the mission board, this would still be true with the Panther clipper.

we have carriers so where are they fitted certainly not inside,

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

I facepalm every time someone says "it can't dock", because it totally can in the previous games.

 

[bangermsuk]

in the orginal elite i never got that far. i think i was too busy shooting everything up to care about 1 ship or dieing

 

[Pville_Piper]

It can only dock at rexala....

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

in the orginal elite i never got that far. i think i was too busy shooting everything up to care about 1 ship or dieing

In the original Elite you only ever had one ship.

 

[bangermsuk]

yeah, but why so many people want an npc ship is beyond me, it takes so much materials just to grade 5 one new ship.now they want a panther. we are getting newer ships over the year wait to see what we get and not pester Fdev into more old style ships. it propbably wouldn't lasted that long in a space fight anyway.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

yeah, but why so many people want an npc ship is beyond me, it takes so much materials just to grade 5 one new ship.now they want a panther. we are getting newer ships over the year wait to see what we get and not pester Fdev into more old style ships. it propbably wouldn't lasted that long in a space fight anyway.

Correct, because nothing should be able to masslock it, so it could low and high wake at any time.

 

[Alien]

If Frontier ever did add the Panther Clipper, I'd like it to be so large it can't fit through the docking slot or a large landing pad and you have to transfer to a fleet carrier or station with a small pad ship you can dock on the Panther Clipper. And if you're now wondering how you buy one then if you can't dock it at a station or fleet carrier, the same way you buy a fleet carrier now, you go into a station, buy it and it's there outside waiting for you (I hope you are in a small ship, otherwise you'll have to get one).

 

[Monk]

I facepalm every time someone says "it can't dock", because it totally can in the previous games.

in previous games...yes

Though I believe I remember FDEV saying the design they had for this game wouldn't fit the mail slot...is what I mean by it can't dock

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

If Frontier ever did add the Panther Clipper, I'd like it to be so large it can't fit through the docking slot or a large landing pad and you have to transfer to a fleet carrier or station with a small pad ship you can dock on the Panther Clipper. And if you're now wondering how you buy one then if you can't dock it at a station or fleet carrier, the same way you buy a fleet carrier now, you go into a station, buy it and it's there outside waiting for you (I hope you are in a small ship, otherwise you'll have to get one).

in previous games...yes

Though I believe I remember FDEV saying the design they had for this game wouldn't fit the mail slot...is what I mean by it can't dock

double facepalm

 

[aRJay]

Thought about this when I woke up...and Tifu mentions it above

I was thinking, if the OG design for the Panther was shelved and hoped to release some day, then is that why they didn't just call the Fleet Carrier the Panther Clipper?

Because the Panther Clipper is a very large ship that can be flown in super cruise as opposed to a Fleet Carrier which is a mobile station that can only jump between locations defined by some sort of system body but not otherwise travel.

I don’t remember too much about the PC from the second and third version of Elite but all reports of this version basically say it is a brick with corners trimmed off that is just small enough to fit in the large hanger bay. So it could land on a carrier.

 

[Fizzatron]

I facepalm every time someone says "it can't dock", because it totally can in the previous games.

It has to be flyable, which is why it couldn't be a fleet carrier IMO.

 

[Monk]

double facepalm

lol, fair enough.

Though, I think I can say with some confidence that if the PC comes to ED that it will not match whatever visions folks have for it...

 

[Tifu]

It can only dock at rexala....

I was just thinking that only specific orbital stations could handle the Panther Clipper docking. For the rest, a special connector for cargo transfers and the like.

 

[aRJay]

lol, fair enough.

Though, I think I can say with some confidence that if the PC comes to ED that it will not match whatever visions folks have for it...

True, I have visions of some intern or AI in the depths of FDev towers going through the forums to derive our expectations of it then inverting them.

It is going to end up doing 600 without boost, out jumping an FC and being small enough to dock in a Sidewinder.

 

[Imo]

Getting the Panther Clipper through the mail slot should be easy. We already have ships with moving parts like thrusters. While the mail slot might be limited in width and height the ship can be quite long to fit through. It just needs clever moving body parts.