Exploration Scout

+1

I've used ship launched fighters to scout for volcanism on planetary surfaces, and found them pretty useful, but they're not ideally suited to even to that, due to their short range from the mothership. An exploration scout with no weapons, that could fly independently from the mothership, including entering supercruise, would be revolutionary for explorers. It would speed up scanning of planets, let commanders cover more ground on the surface, and turn exploring into something that is actually social and co-operative. I just love this idea.

On my personal fantasy wishlist, this feature is brought in alongside the military Asp, which gets a ship launched fighter bay ;)
 
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Lestat

Banned
I think this would require a larger ship then the fighter ships we have right now that can use super cruse. Maybe a Sidewinder we can hold on board so 40 system could be done in half the time.

But the idea good.
 
I think this would require a larger ship then the fighter ships we have right now that can use super cruse. Maybe a Sidewinder we can hold on board so 40 system could be done in half the time.

But the idea good.

Unfortunately, FD have said they don't want full-size ships "nesting" inside Anacondas, etc. Which is a shame, because the Anaconda in-game description still says they can house a Sidewinder docking bay...

If the scouts are based on the fighters, though, then it could be less difficult for the developers to implement (no new docking animations, don't have to deal with child ships high-waking away, etc.), and they could explain the ability to supercruise (but not high-wake) by not having weapons and thus having more power available for a supercruise drive. Scouts would need to rendezvous with the parent ship before it leaves the system, or the scout is left behind/destroyed.
 
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It's a neat idea but Im guessing there's some technical (P2P networking/instancing) hurdles that would require a lot of work.

All this has already been implemented. Some improvements necessary, of course, but it's not a global changes.

P.S. Although. Seeing how many problems FDev have with the network code, it may be hard, really. :D
 

Lestat

Banned
Unfortunately, FD have said they don't want full-size ships "nesting" inside Anacondas, etc. Which is a shame, because the Anaconda in-game description still says they can house a Sidewinder docking bay...
Ya I know that.

If the scouts are based on the fighters, though, then it could be less difficult for the developers to implement (no new docking animations, don't have to deal with child ships high-waking away, etc.), and they could explain the ability to supercruise (but not high-wake) by not having weapons and thus having more power available for a supercruise drive. Scouts would need to rendezvous with the parent ship before it leaves the system, or the scout is left behind/destroyed.
Thing is the fighters are fighter ship. They don't have Super cruse. or FSD They are all combat base. Now they could setup the Sidewinder or maybe another ship like the GECKO in the same way. It has Super cruse and Advanced Discovery scanner and surface scanner with no weapons and cant use hyperspace and is a non combat ship.
 
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