You missed out Beluga... Way too many damned Beluga!
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Puma Clipper
- Thread starter shadragon
- Start date
You missed out Beluga... Way too many damned Beluga!
Nice thought, but I think you'll be disappointed.
Puma Clipper from FE2
It would be a nice cherry on top of the delicious ice cream sundae that will be 2.4.
Krait for me - with a wireframe paint job 
I pictured the Puma in Elite Dangerous as a better armed/armoured alternative to the Type7. (Caveat:-This was imagined before the T7 got the buff to cargo space.)
I imagined the T7 being allowed to fit in medium docking bays, and the Puma as entry-level Large freighter. Puma upgraded on the T7 in every way except cargo space, having class 5 core internals, except life support and sensors, at class 4.
Optional internals just like a T7 has now. 3x6, 3x5, 2x3. Armament of 2 medium hardpoints in the nose, and 2 large turrets, one center dorsal, one center ventral. Seems like a lot, but with only a class 5 distributor, it would lack staying power in a fight. 4 Utility hardpoints round out the craft. Handling would be sluggish, FSD range mediocre but serviceable.
This creates a ship with a trade/mining focus, with enough teeth to swat at light harassers, but not enough to be a true multi-role. A sound entry to Large shipping, (assuming the T7 were permitted in medium landing pads, as I think it should be.) Does not invalidate IClipper, Python, T7 or T9, but fills a role equally spaced between these other ships.
I imagined the T7 being allowed to fit in medium docking bays, and the Puma as entry-level Large freighter. Puma upgraded on the T7 in every way except cargo space, having class 5 core internals, except life support and sensors, at class 4.
Optional internals just like a T7 has now. 3x6, 3x5, 2x3. Armament of 2 medium hardpoints in the nose, and 2 large turrets, one center dorsal, one center ventral. Seems like a lot, but with only a class 5 distributor, it would lack staying power in a fight. 4 Utility hardpoints round out the craft. Handling would be sluggish, FSD range mediocre but serviceable.
This creates a ship with a trade/mining focus, with enough teeth to swat at light harassers, but not enough to be a true multi-role. A sound entry to Large shipping, (assuming the T7 were permitted in medium landing pads, as I think it should be.) Does not invalidate IClipper, Python, T7 or T9, but fills a role equally spaced between these other ships.
Sewn together quotes from above video:
"The machine of Death ... the deadly Asp Explorer!"
My My how things have changed...
Also: Nostalgia Overload! Warning! Warning! Eject! Eject!
More importantly, all the mechanics are already there aside from the ship, which they could add a variant to each fighter until they made something else. Imp carries 4t, Condor 6t, Taipan 8t and none have weapons. The amount of missions I've accepted and then later ditched because the game didn't do the leg work to see I couldn't land on a medium pad is more than 10 until I started checking. I assumed I wouldn't have been offered a mission I couldn't complete. This would solve that, too.
I for myself am fully in for more ships, as long as they fill up the brand lineups. Names are like smoke rings, nice to see but not the core importance to me.
What is to be considered about is that designing a model is taking considerable time. At least for a fancy one. Once the model is in place the balancing is
to be done where an increased complexity with growing number of ships will take lots of time for having a balance of speed, agility, offence, defense, jumprange,
shield, modules and hull being fine tuned.
Due to the limited resources FD has, there is not much hope they will release a bigger number of ships in the near future. Maybe we get some when reaching
Major Version 3 in a distant future. I don't believe they will make it this year.
Regards,
Miklos
What is to be considered about is that designing a model is taking considerable time. At least for a fancy one. Once the model is in place the balancing is
to be done where an increased complexity with growing number of ships will take lots of time for having a balance of speed, agility, offence, defense, jumprange,
shield, modules and hull being fine tuned.
Due to the limited resources FD has, there is not much hope they will release a bigger number of ships in the near future. Maybe we get some when reaching
Major Version 3 in a distant future. I don't believe they will make it this year.
Regards,
Miklos
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I'd like to see shuttles emerge as large drones which service capital ships. they could run automatically or optionally be piloted.
Glad you enjoyed it - Jim has a few other FFE vids on his channel here;
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYrTgnLsQebvJJv6K3gseVw
As soon as you got a winner, people will buy it, just as IRL.
We only got ASP X and the other thing, becasue they are better in some way. Jump distance or cargo/landing platform size.
to even that out you will need something different, like the ability to hire a NPC helmsman, or installing an AutoPilot (this is just an example so don't freak out just yet).
Ah, the Puma Clipper (nostalgia endorphins kicking in). That was my fave boat in FE2. Loads of hardpoints and you could pretty much stuff anything you wanted in it. Jump range was decent. Could trade, haul passengers, mine and fight in it - which was handy if you like dabbling. It was called Puma Shuttle in the manual though. I had a fondness for the Lion too but the bugged turret made it unusable for me (was that an Amiga-only problem or did it affect the other versions as well?).
Not sure if there is a niche for the Puma in ED though. The Python can do most of the above which is probably why it is one of my favourite boats now. Although having said that I don't necessarily feel it would be a bad thing to have ships with similar stats but have different appearances. It would add some visual variety at least.
Not sure if there is a niche for the Puma in ED though. The Python can do most of the above which is probably why it is one of my favourite boats now. Although having said that I don't necessarily feel it would be a bad thing to have ships with similar stats but have different appearances. It would add some visual variety at least.