New ship: Panther Clipper

Hmm. There is a scenario which seems to fit both Frontier's wording and the larger capacity being claimed by some:

1. The Panther has two size 7 and two size 8 slots. Of these, one size 7 and one size 8 are restricted to cargo racks or fuel tanks only (so you can't have both a size 8 shield and a size 8 fuelscoop, for instance).

2. There is a new module, the Optimised Cargo Rack, available in two sizes (7 and 8), offering 50% more capacity, that can only be fitted to the Panther.

3. These will fit any size 7 or 8 slots on the Panther, not just the restricted ones.

Analogy: Saud Kruger ships and Luxury passenger cabins. These can only be fitted to SK ships, but even when these had restricted slots, we could still fit Luxury cabins in unrestricted slots too.

If true, that would add 192t to previous calculations.

I'm hopeful for this, but watching the stream the exact wording is this:

"... it has two slots that are specifically designed to only take specific modules... storage modules, specifically cargo racks and fuel tanks. But along with this - and this is the bit that is more unique to this slot than the military slot... there are specific modules that only fit in these slots so only the panther can have them. And that is, specifically, a size 8 and a size 7 on the panther."
 
I would've thought the most obvious inference from my reply would be that I don't spend time on things I dislike. I find this leaves me with more time for stuff I enjoy, so I merely suggested you adopt the same approach. Do as you will, of course.
thank you for your permission.
 
Re-listening carefully to the stream, I think it's definitely two class 7 slots, one of them being of the special kind, and the same for the two class 8 slots. Which would make 1238 tons the correct total.

Given that I'm currently having to transport 794 tons at a time, I'm quite happy with 1238.

Anyway, I was genuinely not expecting new cargo rack modules. That was a positive surprise.

If I understand correctly, these will be the only modules in the game that are specific to one single ship?
 
If I understand correctly, these will be the only modules in the game that are specific to one single ship?
Kind of, kind of not; if I recall correctly there was a time when the Orca was the only ship that could fit luxury-grade passenger cabins.

(Later would come the Dolphin and Beluga.)

Similarly, the Panther Clipper would be the only ship currently able to fit the enhanced cargo racks, but that state of affairs might not last
 
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FE2/FFE ships don't compare 1:1 with E: D ships. If you consider everything that goes into the Anaconda in each game, the E: D Anaconda is way bigger than the FE2/FFE Anaconda, since PP, thrusters, life support PD and sensors were effectively part of the hull in FE2/FFE, and FSD & fuel came out of hull capacity.

So, comparing FE2/FFE Panther Clipper with E: D Panther Clipper Mk II just doesn't really work. They're different games, and FDev can do whatever they want.

However, if we compare the sizes of the most closely-related ship, the Imperial Cutter, using the size of each slot, whether hardpoint, core or optional internal as being 2 to the power of slot size (or the capacity, if larger), the cutter has 794t cargo + 1088t core + 64t military + 48t hardpoints, for 1994t.

The PC2 has 1238t cargo + 960t core + 40t hardpoints, for 2238 total.

That means that the PC2 is 122% the size of the iCutter. However, the PC2 has a far greater volume than the iCutter, probably more than double the internal volume... so where is all the extra space going? To the articulation for the engines?

Realistically, going by the volume of the game models, the PC2 ought to have at least 3988t total volume, less 960t core = 3028t cargo

However, I'd say that the easiest compromise would be to make the PC2 like Saud Kruger ships which are the only ships that can take luxury passenger cabins: make the PC2 the only ship that can take enhanced cargo racks which have +50% capacity, and allow every optional internal slot in the PC2 able to take an enhanced cargo rack... and make enhanced cargo racks in every size slot the PC2 has. That would give it a maximum cargo capacity of 1569t.
 
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