[Ship Suggestion] Talos, a massive hauler

[Charonys]

In Greek mythology, Talos was a giant automaton made of bronze to protect Europa in Crete from pirates and invaders.

I've been diving into trading/hauling commodities lately and I really feel like there is a lack of a huge hauler that is able to transport massive amounts of cargo through space. I'm not sure what is planned with the upcoming update regarding fleet carriers, so this suggestion might be an interesting alternative either way.

When I'm thinking about logistics of an interstellar civilization that has started to colonize a larger region of space, it seems almost impossible to build big space stations and support planetary settlements without a proper ship that can haul larger amounts of materials through space. Everyone who is involved in rebuilding stations already knows how many tons of resources are required and how many trips it takes. The existence of ships with roughly 800 tons max cargo only is somewhat unrealistic if you think about it. Sure, Elite is a game, etc. but I still would like to see a more realistic approach when it comes to this aspect of the game.

I can understand that current ships have limited cargo space and it does make sense - but I also think there should be a bigger ship available that has the potential to move a few thousand tons per trip.

Let me introduce you to the Talos, a massive hauler and new ship class that is purely dedicated to logistics.

Here are a few (debatable) characteristics:

• hull tank, no shields
• very long FSD charge time, very slow
• high jump range (e.g. minimum 25 ly laden)
• lower than average number of regular internal compartments (example 1, 1, 5, 5)
• mainly special internal compartments for cargo racks only (example 5x8E, 5x9E)
• minimum cargo capacity: ~ 4000 tons
• passenger transport limited to economy class only

One can discuss other characteristics - there sure is a lot more balancing needed to make the ship fun to play as well as fun to hunt.

Since the Talos would be really slow, it would be an easy target. However, the basic, unengineered variant should allow players to survive most encounters - but at the same time, attackers should be able to take it down - slowly, yet steadily. The longer FSD charge time would make this possible, as well as lack of shields. An engineered variant would be able to overcome any type of assault, unless the attacking pilots are skilled enough to take it down in time.

Basically: if you want to take it down you have to be good at it. If you want to survive in it, you need to know what you are doing.

What I envision here is that the Talos would be mainly a target for wings. A solo pilot would be able to interdict it, but not be able to take it down in time unless circumstances (mistakes, really fragile build, etc.) allow for a take-down. Instead, attacking a Talos would have to be a coordinated event for wings looking for a challenge, especially for those who are interested in sabotaging big scale trading/hauling initiatives.

Now, what I would love to see is a way for Talos pilots to be able to deal with attackers, specifically pirates, in a more constructive way - which is why I think the Talos should be able to drop entire cargo racks. This may sound crazy, but hear me out.

The Talos is such a huge hauler, it has plenty of cargo on board. Instead of getting popped, leaving almost nothing behind - and instead of opening the cargo hatch and dropping single items, dropping one (or more) cargo racks would result in two things: for one, the overall collateral damage is reduced for the Talos pilot - the ship is not lost, time is not lost, etc. For the attackers, this is also beneficial because now they have a huge amount of cargo floating in space - all they have to do is open it up and collect it.

One could introduce security systems, so that these cargo racks would need to be hacked - which I think would be a great addition to the game.

So while the pirates are trying to crack the rack, the Talos pilot can move on with some minor losses, yet alive and well on his/her way to the destination - win-win imho.

These cargo racks would be the "special" cargo racks that can only be fitted in those special internal compartments. They will appear in the inventory where one would usually find the passenger cabins. CMDRs can access the inventory, scroll to the bottom and drop these special racks with the press of a button. By doing so, their overall mass gets reduced as well - it would be cool to see FSD charge time reduced by doing so - the mechanic would allow to drop a cargo rack right after interdiction, charge up faster than usual and get out asap with a slight time bonus. More racks dropped = faster FSD charge time compared to a fully fitted, fully laden Talos.

Basically, the Talos is like a flying space depot. It can function as a cargo vessel to haul massive amounts of resources for most of the time - but it can also provide resources locally by dropping stuff for players, be it hostiles or friends. It could also work as some sort of logistic support ship as well, e.g. by providing a temporary cargo vault for miners - which obviously will require protection; a Talos should attract (NPC) pirates like a smelly thing attracts flies.

Regarding the cargo rack dropping, I'm aware that this would kind of change the current state of non-existing player trading. I'm not familiar with the developer's stance on this, so I'm not sure if such a feature would be even implemented - the main idea behind this is to provide another option for hostile encounters, however the ship's concept doesn't really rely on this and one could just implement the Talos into the game without drop-able cargo racks .

While the Talos would make wing missions much easier to achieve in general, one has to think about some restrictions or challenges that would make those cargo missions less trivial. Since the Talos would be able to haul such huge amounts of cargo, I'd like to see special missions that make use of that cargo space.
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I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and it would be cool to further develop this idea into something that could actually be implemented.

PS: the attached concept art (not by me) is just to illustrate what I think the Talos could look like.

 

[Lestat]

The best idea is to wait until Carriers are released. I think the ships that move the Carriers are what you are asking for.

 

[metatheurgist]

There are megaships in lore, but not in game. You could see them in Frontier; another thing I'd rather have seen done than CQC, PP, PMFs or Fleet Carriers.

 

[Stabby_Dave]

What happens to the BGS when a group of players all get together on discord and agree to all run a specific commodity to the same station in solo?

Wouldn't this have the same effect as the whole station storage argument?

 

[M00ka]

How does one get cargo/PAX to and from this Talos? Can it enter a mail slot and dock in a station? How does it defend itself from these attacks, it has no shields so eventually the hull will break down?

 

[Charonys]

What happens to the BGS when a group of players all get together on discord and agree to all run a specific commodity to the same station in solo?

Wouldn't this have the same effect as the whole station storage argument?

I didn't give that much thought. You are correct, a ship like the Talos would break the game.

Now that I think of it, the entire concept is a stupid idea to begin with.

Sry for wasting everyone's time.

 

[Exterminatus93]

The problem is that we don't have manageable ships beyond 210 meters.

 

[Jason Clearbrook]

Not a waste of time. Maybe too extremely specialized. When fleet carriers do come, something like this may be a variant of said carriers. They could have massive cargo capacity, but no way to dock and transfer cargo directly. In other words, they are good for taking cargo long distances, but require other ships make the actual delivery.

If one of the variants is a merchant, (and such has specifically been mentioned as a configuration), I might expect something along this line. Large cargo hold. Ability to buy and sell goods. Maybe even store a certain amount of goods for the owner. 4k tons would be low for such a ship, IMHO.

Like the first comment said, lets see what the fleet carriers look like. Since they are supposed to be configurable to some extent, suggesting this, if not already included, could satisfy your general desire.

But I will expand a little, in the hyopthetical.

Lets just say it could carry 10k tons, a certain portion of which is reserved for the owner. It would take me ~20 runs, back and forth from a station, to fill it up with the ship I run cargo the most with now. If you had to stay outside 10km from any station or planetary orbital zone, this would take some time to accomplish, but could still be worth it if you are taking said cargo for a long and prifitable jump.

If you can operate as a market and set buy and sell prices, you can buy some commodities at one location where they are cheap, buying them at prices that are slightly higher than those normally in the area, and if other pilots could land and trade there, you could have it filled rather quickly, without having to do the brute lifting yourself. The caveat should be obvious: You have to have the credits to buy that merchandise. You jump, (probably easily within 500 ly range purported) and set prices and open up your market on the other side. I would think you would have to have some limitation on rare goods. It might just be that certain markets can only absorb so much of said rare goods at a time. (the other side of the mechanics now that limit how much you can buy.) That could leave rare goods as rewarding, but increase the risk that you cannot find any demand high enough to sell at a profit.

You can limit the "market" to only specific players or groups of players. You can open it up. You could find another ship making the exact same choices you are making, and end up driving each other's profits way down.

And then there is that "special" fuel. That is probably going to decide whether or not this is a viable way to operate. If not, why bother even making the merchant variant? I think it could be useless, if the cost to operate it exceeds the benefits gained...

Wait and see. Best advice. I will be watching this myself...

;'{P~~~