Beluga Buff?

[Red Martian]

I purchased a Beluga and spent way too many credits on an A fit-out for passenger missions. The real expense was finding out when you use this ship it seems to attract a large queue of very large ships attempting land as your exiting the station. Leaving a station with this ship is like a horror movie with jump scares and the ticket price for the show is an 8 million re-buy. I have also let the occasional criminal on board my ship, unintentionally. So far its cost me about 32 million in re-buy and passengers run from my ship in terror due to reputation. I'm afraid to fly the thing.

I think I would need FD to buff me personally as I am the problem with this ship. I may come back to it when I have a much larger credit balance and have managed to grow a much larger pair. Be warned practice with this ship is expensive. Alternatively, a large military grade bull bar on the front with a military grade sonic air horn could be fun.

This is why I traded mine in for an Orca. I couldn't leave a station for several minutes at a time, because it never failed that something was coming through the mail slot right as I was about to exit. Once, I was exiting, and right about halfway through, a Hauler decided it was going to try and squeeze around me. Guess who got a fine for reckless flying (I wasn't being reckless!) and had to return to pay it? Yep. The giant, slow moving Beluga. So before I ever get another one, FDev needs to either reduce mass just a bit, or create a functional ATC/STC system. I'm really hoping for the latter, because as of now I get "the corridor is clear, CMDR," only to see a T9 come through as I approach.

 

[A D]

Hi Frontier,

Yeah, it's me again. I know. I'm starting up a lot of threads lately. Sorry about that.

I was just wondering. Would it be possible to buff the Beluga a bit? Ever since the Orca got it's mass cut in half, and then the Dolphin got introduced, there seems to be very little reason to own a Beluga.

- The Beluga is by far the slowest of the three.
- The Beluga has *four* reserved internal slots.
- Due to the nature of VIP focused passenger mission board, there's no real advantage to having so many optional internals. Many VIPs are time sensitive, demanding, secretive, or have any number of other issues that making carrying many of them simultaneously impractical at best, impossible at worst (*especially* Secretive VIPs).
- In nearly every regard right now, the Orca is better than the Beluga for significantly less cost.
- Due it's weight, the Beluga HAS TO equip a class 6 shield. No choice here. On top of that, even a 6A can only output 222 MJ pre-engi. Compare this to the 321 MJ from an Orca's 5A shield.
- While the Beluga *could* equip a class 6 Fighter Hangar, it actually can't. It only has another usable class 6 slot, and pretty much everyone will drop a fuel scoop in there. So while the option is there, it's really quite impractical to do so.
- It heats up like a stuck pig on a spit.

My suggestions?

- Cut the weight by 25-35%. Yes, it's a really massive ship. But so is the Orca. And the Orca weighs as much as an Asp Explorer in a *significantly* larger frame. Even the dolphin, while small, weighs very little compared to many other small pad ship. So there is precedent here. Call it some sort of ultra light ship frame technology patented by Saud Kruger. Doing so would give the Beluga even more jump range and a boost in thruster speed. Still not fast by any stretch, but faster than it is currently. It would also boost it's shield strength. And speaking of which ...
- Give it three reserved slots instead of four so as to allow one of the class 5s to be used however people wish. This combined with the above mass drop would allow a class 5 shield to be placed in that slot. Or maybe a player can use a class 6 shield with a class 5 Hangar bay. The idea here is to allow more options and to allow players to be able to use fighters AND a fuel scoop at the same time, hence making fighter support practical like it is on all the other hangar capable ships.
- Maybe cool it down a little? I'm always afraid of setting fire to my passengers when fuel scooping.

It's not a huge buff, at least in my opinion, but it would indeed allow this ship to feel worthwhile again. And I do miss playing it because it's so damned pretty. What do you think?

Regards,
Kaybe

Dev's, don't forget to increase the power module class and reduce the size of the fins while your at it.

 

[Phazon Xenomorph]

The Beluga imo needs both to have its heat generation reduced, it needs to be further allowed lower mass or a higher grade FSD for it's jump range (since its a tourism ship aka needs to reach places with excellent views fast), and if its mass is kept a thing, then it needs better hull values so it can hulltank ram things like the Orca.

 

[ShinyDewott]

Eh. To me, the Beluga is only good for clogging up the mailslot. (NPC Belugas are infamous for that!)

 

[Captain Willard]

Gonna haffta disagree with ye on the beluga. It has already had one big buff, it cut the mass from 1100 tons to 950. I run a g5 7a fsd, 6a pp with a g1 overcharge, g5 clean drive thrusters and a g5 6a prismatic shield with 2 class a boosters. After scooping it rarely goes over 68% heat when I jump. The clean drives do help but the biggest heating factor I found was the power plant, it now runs at 90% load at max use. This caused most of my heat problems until I got the percent power down. 1 c6 luxury cabin, 2 c5 1st class cabins, 1 c4 bus. cabin, the rest cargo racks. speed 250, boost 350, max jump is 33lys. I carry no weapons or fighter bay. just saying. OH and the shields are 569.

 

[Schmack]

I rarely use the boost in my Beluga. She cruises fine and can jump sans boost just like all ships. It takes a little longer but it's not a fighter ship, it has luxury cabins. Pretty sure those folks don't want to have their heads slammed against the walls as I boost and hard roll toward the vector.

 

[Schmack]

The Beluga imo needs both to have its heat generation reduced, it needs to be further allowed lower mass or a higher grade FSD for it's jump range (since its a tourism ship aka needs to reach places with excellent views fast), and if its mass is kept a thing, then it needs better hull values so it can hulltank ram things like the Orca.

There are plenty tourism ships in the world that don't go faster than military ships. They don't need to. Tourists aren't in that much of a hurry. The ship captain, on the other hand...