Carriers for your Smaller Ships?

[Citrus94]

I have briefly searched the forums for something similar, with no luck, but i'm curious to know if anyone knows if there will be larger "Carrier" type ships we will be able to buy later on in the development of ED. I've seen a few people, not so much complaining, but having issues with their Eagles and small ships being stuck within the confines of 4 stars or so because of the small ships' jump range, and i'm aware that there will be drive upgrades and what not available in the future, But it would be so awesome to own a "Carrier" type ship, or ships, that could transport these smaller ships around with large jump ranges. Maybe nothing of the scale of what the game like Star Citizen has, but a ship that would be just large enough to hold like an Eagle for fighting, then a Hauler or type 6 for when you want to trade and that's its' capacity and it cant hold anymore. For obvious reasons these ships initially wouldnt be able to enter the small holes of the current star-ports to refuel and what not, would have to think of other ways to do that. From the latest newsletter they did mention about storing your ships, but i think carriers would be much more convenient, like you're down in Keries trading, and Eranin is in trouble from the other factions and they need your help to fight them off, you could stop trading and go find your carrier parked up at a nearby star, warp to Eranin and then park it there and launch off with your combat ship and fight. It would seem easier to do that rather than warp to Eranin, cruise to Azeban, dock, change over your ship, then take off to the combat zone, and then you have to go back to Azeban to get back your trader, and what if this combat zone is out of your stored fighting ships' jump range, I think a carrier ship would be perfect for this and for people who want to show off
What do you guys think?

 

[Veljex]

This would be pretty nice to have, however for a ship to be capable of this I would presume it would need to be near the size of a capital ship, which would kind of take the major factions out of the equation if you are able to match them in power.

Also if there was a ship this large, nobody would buy one in my opinion as they would need to be too slow to make the game balanced, making them sitting ducks and too costly to run.

FD did however announce in their latest newsletter a new station type that does travel. This isn't player owned however is still a nice concept to get around. She shall have to see a guess but I haven't heard of anything like personally.

 

[Mazhurg]

There will be ways and means to move owned ships around.


http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6753

Players can store their ships at multiple locations

• Registering a new location for ship storage costs a fixed one-time fee
• Once registered a player can visit that location or any other registered storage location they have to arrange ship transfers between them which costs a fee to transport them, based on distance and law level of the intervening route (though the transfer happens magically – perhaps on a giant freighter).

 

[Ironhawx]

I believe I remeber them say the cutters which are larger ships than the anaconda, would be able to allow players to doc their ships. However a lot of the community wasn't to thrilled to learn that when you link your jump drives together to make jumps as a group its the smallest engine/range will be the common denominator. Which honestly makes no sense seeing as larger ships already cause the smaller ones to be mass locked and take much longer to jump b/c of this, which to me means that their mass would be able extend their jump range. Seems the rule set they are using for jumping is contradicting itself. I also feel that if they use any science when it comes to hyperspace and things that the greater the mass the more energy one needs to make a jump so a bit confused on why the smaller crafts don't have as much as larger ships jump range or close to considering they have much less mass therefore require less energy to move and attain higher speeds. Idk just my two cents.

 

[Vlodec]

Carriers are of course a great idea. I can't wait to read all the reasons why having them would destroy the game.

 

[Astraeus]

Seems the rule set they are using for jumping is contradicting itself. I also feel that if they use any science when it comes to hyperspace and things that the greater the mass the more energy one needs to make a jump so a bit confused on why the smaller crafts don't have as much as larger ships jump range or close to considering they have much less mass therefore require less energy to move and attain higher speeds. Idk just my two cents.

It isn't contradictory. While bigger ships may have more mass they are also equipped with more powerful hyper drives and bigger fuel tanks.

 

[Serpentstar]

However a lot of the community wasn't to thrilled to learn that when you link your jump drives together to make jumps as a group its the smallest engine/range will be the common denominator. Which honestly makes no sense seeing as larger ships already cause the smaller ones to be mass locked and take much longer to jump b/c of this, which to me means that their mass would be able extend their jump range.

How does it not make sense?

You go to run a bundle of cable and the furthest you are going to pull is the shortest one.

The old saying a "A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link" mentality applies here. If you are moving"as a group" then you can only go as fast as the slowest member and jump as far as the one with the shortest jump range.

Otherwise, you are not going to be "in a group" when you reach your destination.

 

[Nemesis-T-Warlock]

How does it not make sense?

You go to run a bundle of cable and the furthest you are going to pull is the shortest one.

The old saying a "A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link" mentality applies here. If you are moving"as a group" then you can only go as fast as the slowest member and jump as far as the one with the shortest jump range.

Otherwise, you are not going to be "in a group" when you reach your destination.

Think if it more like slipstreaming another vehicle. The bigger vehicle is doing the work and while you still need to do work the slipstream effect means you can go faster/further with less effort and fuel requirement.

 

[edguy]

That would be something I personally would love to see, flying into a friends carrier then exiting out to be in the carriers cockpit turret seat - destined to a system far far away..to perhaps commence in some battle that my small agile ship could not reach otherwise.

 

[ZeeWolf]

There were several sources (including an interview with DB) where he said there would be a ship capable of carrying a smaller non hyperspace equipped sidewinder like craft for dog-fighting. Haven't heard anything for a while, maybe somebody else can remember it mentioned several months back?

 

[ZeeWolf]

..ah here we go interview with DB for PC Gamer http://m.pcgamer.com/2014/05/30/david-braben-on-the-ambitious-future-of-elite-dangerous/

“There’s a huge range of ships. There are 25 you can pilot, ranging from very small ships—smaller than the Sidewinder—going up to bigger ones like the Anaconda. Big ships can carry other ships, so you’d be able to launch a small fighter from it, which is more nimble. We've got ships that are glorified Transit vans. What I mean by that is they can’t take much damage, and don’t have many hardpoints, but they have cavernous cargo holds. The Sidewinder and Anaconda are multi-purpose ships. They’re reasonable at everything. But we’ll also have specialist ships. Military, trading, and so on.”

 

[forger]

There will be such possibility, but as far as how they will be called and more information is not know currently.

The very large ships will be able to carry the smaller ships in the game, by sacrificing cargo space.

 

[>WP< Troublepilot]

There were several sources (including an interview with DB) where he said there would be a ship capable of carrying a smaller non hyperspace equipped sidewinder like craft for dog-fighting. Haven't heard anything for a while, maybe somebody else can remember it mentioned several months back?

Not remembering, but from a search:
Elite-Dangerous-David-Braben-Answers-Questions - see page 37 (thanks to Kornelius Briedis!)

Is there any chance of larger ships swapping out
cargo space for some 'fighter bays' which small ships
could dock at and be launched from? This would be especially interesting when we get multi crew ships as well as having NPC pilots... Not only this but will there be add ons to the ships like in frontier which take up cargo space such as better shield generators, engines ect ect so making your load out a decision and leading to 100's of individual styled ships?
Yes. The very large ships will be able to carry the
smaller ships in the game, by sacricing cargo space. Similarly we will have the ability to t shield
generators, larger engines etc out of cargo space. This should indeed lead to a good deal of variation.

 

[Armored]

It isn't contradictory. While bigger ships may have more mass they are also equipped with more powerful hyper drives and bigger fuel tanks.

Right... I thought this was a no brainer. Once in hyper jump mass means nothing.

 

[Ghost1]

Carrier class capital ships are huge. They've already confirmed capital ships will be in game. So i imagine those will be the ships to carrier our smaller ones around

 

[Citrus94]

Some of you guys are sort of getting the wrong idea about what I kinda meant, i put carrier in quotations to paint a vague picture about the idea. What i mean and had a good think about, is that these small "carrier" type ships could possibly actually enter and dock into star ports if designed properly. For a start you wont have to make this "carrier" ship any wider than the current small star port holes, you could store these ships in front of each other, rather than beside each other, so width isnt a problem, and either is height for that case either, the Eagle and type 6, for example, still have plenty of breathing room above and below their heads when they enter the star ports. What I am Suggesting, is that they use the sort of idea that they are going to use on those smaller ports where you actually dock on the outside of this place, but this docking port then moves inside the "carrier" and a roof closes over the top, considering the design of the mentioned ships, eagle and type 6, it would be possible to actually store both, type 6 at the back, eagle in the front/middle, and you will still be able to dock and possibly use the same Pads inside the starport as what the Anaconda and Type 9 use. This ship could ONLY carry 2 small ships or so, but thats the whole point. You could sort of imagine a Semi Truck with a trailer that can fit a small sports car and a large 4X4 truck in the back and can still drive on the same roads as everyone else while keeping a large Jump range to get to far systems that your smaller ships cant reach. But talking about what would you do when you undock a ship and leaving your carrier, the devs could always make this "Parking Zone" a safe haven for you. You could leave your "Carrier" parked up and orbiting a sun, and since the engines will be off, basically running silent, it wouldnt send off an odd signal, and no one would bother it, you could fly back to it and be safe as no one would bother you, and then you can have your friends pop in for a visit to, it could be like a "Hangout" area that no one else will intervene with.
OR
You could in fact dock your carrier at a starport, choose one of your docked ships inside your carrier and undock with that to do what you want, in a way that does defeat a certain purpose towards the use of carriers, but this star system might be somewhere that you couldnt reach, and could not afford to equip a small ship with large jump drive or fuel tanks, since you might just be an explorer, plus, you wouldnt have to keep buying these small ships on the edges of the discovered systems to find new worlds, no, you could have ONE dedicated ship parked on your carrier that can transport it around and then use it like a ferry to get to the edge of these systems and then go find new ones!

 

[Veljex]

..ah here we go interview with DB for PC Gamer http://m.pcgamer.com/2014/05/30/david-braben-on-the-ambitious-future-of-elite-dangerous/

Thank you sir, I do hope this is a legitimate source =)