Hi All 
The question is, was the decision to announce the Panther Clipper as a forthcoming ship having any connection with Colonisation.
I personally think it does, though why it wasn't included in the Colonisation features initial update I haven't a clue why not. You could say that it's a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted if we look at it this way.
The Corsair's release in this case perhaps should have been 'swapped' for the Panther's recently revealed (theoretical) entrance into the game.?
Was the general concept of a suitable ship for Colonisation trucking actually overlooked I wonder?... and were FD waiting to see how the Colonisation's Beta panned out with ships already in the game first as to whether 'another' ship was needed but with more cargo capacity than the ships we have presently.
The whole game at the moment seems to be still well and truly in the Beta stage, and I'm really not sure whether we'll ever get out of it in the next 6 months or so as with the introduction of both updates (BGS & Colonisation) imho has introduced so many unexpected consequences, bugs and all the other features and content having periods where they stop working as intended.
Anyway, I can see I'm getting off topic, though in a sense it could be seen as it's all connected to some degree.
Okay!
...The Panther's cargo capacity, I'm thinking somewhere around the 2000t mark or perhaps even slightly higher if we include those class 1 and 2 cargo modules.
Anything radically smaller than this (minus 500t or so) wouldn't be logical in the Colonisation sense. As for the ship being used for something else, CG's is one avenue of use with general trading being obviously another aspect of it's usefulness.
Though how would it affect the game in general (without Colonisation being a factor) might not be apparent at the moment, until it enters the game.
It was interesting seeing the bridge concept artwork, maybe we'll at some point actually get a more player interactive npc crew structure as some players are wanting. I'm all for this as I usually play in Solo, but I'd also like this interactivity, if programming of these npc's was carried out in a more complex (not complicated) manner.
To have the animation and interactivity with you 'npc friends' and crew would be a giant step up from the static aspect of the present npc's in some areas of the game.
I mean, we have animated npc's at various space stations we can interact with at the moment so...
The Panther (imagined) in it's present state isn't going to be a combat ship in the true sense imo, but like it's predecessor I'd imagine it's defensive capability would be enormous...(should it be?)...at least in potential shielding and defensive 'technology'. There might be some reasonably large weapons slots, but I have an idea that this might be where the Panther might be weakened. Some players might disagree with me here as they are already probably thinking of this ship in a more combat oriented situation with very large weapons slots being a 'must have'.
Frontier's FE2 Panther was really one of the 'end ships' in that game, only hampered by it's jump distance capacity and perhaps acceleration. In this game unfortunately there is a need for balancing the ships weapons and other criteria, so I think it will be interesting to see how Frontier accomplish this for the final product while still keeping this ships iconic character!
Edit...If you've read this long tome from start to finish I salute you!
...
Jack
Should it turn out much bigger to satisfy all the colonisers' wet dreams, it would mean a change of direction in development.
The question is, was the decision to announce the Panther Clipper as a forthcoming ship having any connection with Colonisation.
I personally think it does, though why it wasn't included in the Colonisation features initial update I haven't a clue why not. You could say that it's a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted if we look at it this way.

The Corsair's release in this case perhaps should have been 'swapped' for the Panther's recently revealed (theoretical) entrance into the game.?
Was the general concept of a suitable ship for Colonisation trucking actually overlooked I wonder?... and were FD waiting to see how the Colonisation's Beta panned out with ships already in the game first as to whether 'another' ship was needed but with more cargo capacity than the ships we have presently.
The whole game at the moment seems to be still well and truly in the Beta stage, and I'm really not sure whether we'll ever get out of it in the next 6 months or so as with the introduction of both updates (BGS & Colonisation) imho has introduced so many unexpected consequences, bugs and all the other features and content having periods where they stop working as intended.
Anyway, I can see I'm getting off topic, though in a sense it could be seen as it's all connected to some degree.
Okay!

Anything radically smaller than this (minus 500t or so) wouldn't be logical in the Colonisation sense. As for the ship being used for something else, CG's is one avenue of use with general trading being obviously another aspect of it's usefulness.
Though how would it affect the game in general (without Colonisation being a factor) might not be apparent at the moment, until it enters the game.
It was interesting seeing the bridge concept artwork, maybe we'll at some point actually get a more player interactive npc crew structure as some players are wanting. I'm all for this as I usually play in Solo, but I'd also like this interactivity, if programming of these npc's was carried out in a more complex (not complicated) manner.
To have the animation and interactivity with you 'npc friends' and crew would be a giant step up from the static aspect of the present npc's in some areas of the game.
I mean, we have animated npc's at various space stations we can interact with at the moment so...

The Panther (imagined) in it's present state isn't going to be a combat ship in the true sense imo, but like it's predecessor I'd imagine it's defensive capability would be enormous...(should it be?)...at least in potential shielding and defensive 'technology'. There might be some reasonably large weapons slots, but I have an idea that this might be where the Panther might be weakened. Some players might disagree with me here as they are already probably thinking of this ship in a more combat oriented situation with very large weapons slots being a 'must have'.
Frontier's FE2 Panther was really one of the 'end ships' in that game, only hampered by it's jump distance capacity and perhaps acceleration. In this game unfortunately there is a need for balancing the ships weapons and other criteria, so I think it will be interesting to see how Frontier accomplish this for the final product while still keeping this ships iconic character!
Edit...If you've read this long tome from start to finish I salute you!

Jack