Large ship designed for handling in planetary atmospheres

[DemiserofD]

I've been doing rather a lot of hauling into planetary ports recently, and I've really noticed the annoyance of flying in a planetary gravity well. Trying to land a Cutter on a high-g planet is painful, massively and painfully.

What about a large ship designed to handle in planetary atmospheres? A little less capacity than a cutter in exchange, but much better thrust capabilities. Perhaps some big honking wings? That'd be neat.

Just an idea.

Edit:

I'm thinking something like this:

The wings would fold back when the landing gear is deployed.

Tentative stats:

Large
Cargo: ~712
Max Boost Speed: ~450
Hardpoints: 3 Huge, 3 Small
Fighter Bay Capable
SCO optimized.

Powerful vertical and lateral thrusters, but less rotation speed than the Corvette, and less cargo capacity than the Cutter.

The goal is to make a ship optimized for planetary deliveries, but not quite as good as the Cutter for straight hauling or mining.

 

[metatheurgist]

But what does gravity wells have to do with planetary atmo? If we had planet atmo, flying would be completely different again.

I'd prefer they actually thought about how the game world works. Maybe big clumsy ships just don't do planet deliveries? Small ships exist for a reason. Maybe big ships distribute to orbital hubs and small ships disperse the load, for the very reason that they can do it quickly and well. Even Elite 84 had regular traffic coming and going from planets. But there appears to be no thought into how stuff actually works in this game.

 

[DemiserofD]

But what does gravity wells have to do with planetary atmo? If we had planet atmo, flying would be completely different again.

I'd prefer they actually thought about how the game world works. Maybe big clumsy ships just don't do planet deliveries? Small ships exist for a reason. Maybe big ships distribute to orbital hubs and small ships disperse the load, for the very reason that they can do it quickly and well. Even Elite 84 had regular traffic coming and going from planets. But there appears to be no thought into how stuff actually works in this game.

Ideally you'd use a medium ship, but even with the annoyance of navigating in a gravity well, large ships just have too much cargo to not use.

We do have SOME atmo to work with. Not much, but enough to aerobrake against. Combine that with some really powerful lateral and vertical thrusters and you could make it work pretty well.

I'm imagining something like a Type 11; a big, flying wing, maybe even with even longer fold-out wings, a high boost speed(comparable but maybe a smidge slower than a Cutter), but slightly lower cargo capacity.

I'm thinking, 4 small hardpoints, 2 larges, 2 huges. And, of course, SCO optimized.

 

[Ameeleean2]

Flying large heavy ship is a bit different than medium or small ship. As far as I can tell gravity matters only on take off and after leaving glide/supercruise mode. I recall even in space while going through mail slot I had to cut throttle to half just to have enough time to correct approach from step angle due to ship inertia (so called drift). I did many planetary landings too and even on world with 0.5g my cutter was hitting hard landing pad under autodocking computer management but it was all absorbed by ship shield so it was fine for me (I like to cut throttle right above landing pad which is when autodocking computer is taking over ship positioning vs landing pad).
Instead of new specialized ship we can have special module, usable in military compartment slots too, which would enhance ship vertical thrust or reduce ship inertia while operating under heavy gravity at the cost of increased fuel consumption or power draw. I think this solution would be better than new specialized ship.

 

[Pville_Piper]

The only way I found to land the cutter on a high g world is to drop out of glide far enough from the pad so you can fly level over the pad. Any nose down attitude will cause the ship to sink down in an uncontrollable manor that can quickly become unrecoverable, resulting in a rather graceless thud on the pad.
It would have been nice if they didn't skimp on the vertical thrusters and install something larger than the current ones sourced from a sidewinder...

Instead of new specialized ship we can have special module, usable in military compartment slots too, which would enhance ship vertical thrust or reduce ship inertia while operating under heavy gravity at the cost of increased fuel consumption or power draw. I think this solution would be better than new specialized ship.

This would be awesome.

 

[BackToTheMud]

Large ship should move like hobbled pigs.

 

[Pville_Piper]

Large ship should move like hobbled pigs.

Why?

 

[GroG79]

Must have been a long time ago you tried cornering a T9 while landing on a planetary atmosphere. The Cutter turns fine as it is.

 

[BackToTheMud]

Why?

Because you should feel the size of the ship you're flying.

 

[Pville_Piper]

Because you should feel the size of the ship you're flying.

There should be difference between ships, but there is no reason for them so "hobbled".

 

[DemiserofD]

Edited main post to expand on the idea:

I'm thinking something like this:

Tentative stats:

Large
Cargo: ~712
Max Boost Speed: ~450
Hardpoints: 3 Huge, 3 Small
Fighter Bay Capable
SCO optimized.

Powerful vertical and lateral thrusters, but less rotation speed than the Corvette, and less cargo capacity than the Cutter.

The goal is to make a ship optimized for planetary deliveries, but not quite as good as the Cutter for straight hauling or mining.

Here's another example.

 

[Tryohazard]

Man I just want atmospherics. I want fire to chew through my shields while im trying to enter the atmosphere at a specific angle just like real astronauts. Then if my shields and hull are undamaged, I want to feel the pull of random wind gusts blowing my non-aerodynamic ship around as I find a good spot to land. I want to miss a beach for the shimmering bay, and create a smooth concave water dome with my shields as I splash down, allowing me to see underwater like a window underneath my ship. Then deploy jet skiis and submarines... sigh... never to be probably.

 

[GroG79]

I did land my shieldless hauling cutter on the 46G planet in the most horrible terrain I could find....

 

[Tifu]

Even the T8 shakes and becomes a bit unpredictable during glide mode in planetary landings. The T9 is worse.

What surprised me was the rock steady performance of the IEagle in glide mode. I think the wings do make a difference.

You're on the right track

 

[Ameeleean2]

I did land my shieldless hauling cutter on the 46G planet in the most horrible terrain I could find....

I assume it has taken more than minute so pilot body had to experience extended period of time under ~40g. While it is possible to survive few seconds under this gravity (example various accidents) even 5g can cause a loss of consciousness after few seconds due to blood pressure issues (to make it short lack of oxygen in brain).
Cutter bare hull weight is 1200t*, which turns into 55200t of vertical thrusts, just to keep ship at the same height. Typical human would weight around 3.6t, human male arm is said to be 15kg on average which under this kind of gravity is almost 700kg. That means pilot has to be able to operate 700kg of weight with one arm alone (say hi to all supermen/superwomen in pilot suits...)
That indicates:
1. Cutter ship thrusters are able to lift 55k tons under 1g, that is insane acceleration in zero-G- just imagine going 100% thrust with such engines while docking through mail slot (ship would turn into kinetic weapon most likely).
2. Pilot suit enhances pilot strength to the point of moving freely under such gravity. That also means it could give pilot superhuman abilities under 1g.
3. Pilot suit does "magic" to keep pilot organs, blood pressure, bones intact.
Conclusion:
ED world has some kind of wonder technology that either reduces ship weight during landing or provides boost to engine performance (might be related to FSD drive, a kind of mini supercruise mode). The same tech is applied to pilot body in suit and SRV.

Well we have a lot of other things that do not make sense so lets just not think about realism and simply enjoy game
One more thing 1kg is around 2.2pounds.

Edit: * It will weight more with internals and cargo but I have used this value just to show how insane ED ships,suits and SRV capabilities are.