Allow us to slot classic Sidewinder Mk.I ships to fighter bays!

[TheCyanDragon]

Title really says it all. The classic Sidewinder Mk.I, with no jump drives, as a ship launched fighter (maybe only from large ships?)

It was a huge letdown that the Anaconda's description mentions being able to store and launch one, but you can't actually do it.

 

[Fendalton]

Why?

 

[TheCyanDragon]

Why not? Elite is a game about the freedom to do what all you want to do. Plus, if it's in a description for what's arguably the most used/owned ship, why not implement it?

It's in a similar vein to why the Imperial Eagle was added... it's also a nostalgia factor for those of us who played the original games.

 

[Alexandr]

It's hard to predict the results of such upgrade. So the chance of crash the balance not under control.

Btw there are carrier-class ships are in plans for future development. I think this is a good variant.

 

[Fendalton]

It's only the most used ship because 100% of people had to start in one.

It says we can have 2 ship launched fighters, and if you're the highest rank in the Federation your Corvette still can't have 2 NPC SLF, even though you could have 2 additional crew?

 

[MK Regular]

My thoughts on having a SLF Sidewinder are that it cannot be hyperspace capable, although it could be capable of using supercruise. If you can swap out components in the Sidewinder, you should not be able to rebuild it in the fighter bay (similar to an SRV), as this would lead to a nigh unending onslaught of sidewinders with railguns. You should not be able to engineer the modules on the Sidewinder.

I think the best option here would be to allow players to buy a Sidewinder and kit it out, but make the players go back to a station to rebuy the sidewinder if it gets destroyed. For escort and utility duties, I think that the Sidewinders should be able to supercruise, but will need to dock with the mothership to go to a new system and that the mothership must drop from supercruise in the next system to redeploy the Sidewinders.

Putting a Sidewinder in the SLF bay should be a trade-off. Yes, it has the potential to be more capable in combat than a regular SLF, and infinitely more useful outside of combat, but if it gets destroyed you can't just rebuild it and launch another one, and the rebuy on it wouldn't be cheap compared to regular SLFs. Also, engineering the Sidewinder would allow players mitigate most of its weaknesses, and reduce the choice to "You Must Use A Sidewinder", and would completely break the game balance.

TL;DR: I think this is a good idea, but the Sidewinder cannot be hyperspace capable, cannot be rebuilt in the SLF bay, should be more expensive than regular SLFs, and must have some outfitting limitations.

 

[Commander_Brucitor]

The sidewinder could let your AI buddies go do interesting things like pick up cargo scan stuff, live longer ... Also might be fun for multi crew. Plus it'll give us all reasons to buy one of those cool sidewinder paint packs

 

[Frenotx]

The could add a new wedge-shaped SLF and CALL it the sidewinder mki. The Taipan already has to fold to fit in the fighter bay door- something the size of the current sidewinder would have a hard time. I wouldn't expect new mechanics with it though, unless it used it's own unique bay module.

 

[ebbrell]

To be honest, when fighter bays got mentioned originally, I was thinking all size one ships would fit.

Eagle
Sidewinder
Cobra
Vulture
Adder

Etc.

I would love to sacrifice the space of 2 current fighters for the ability to hold 1 vulture as an option

 

[ebbrell]

Imagine corvette with 2 vultures as fighters.. omg serious hardware

 

[SushiCW]

Why?

For one thing, you could use it as a cargo shuttle at outposts that don't have a large pad. Or, for combat, as a ship with less speed/firepower but a bit more toughness.

Dreaming a bit, I'd love if as an alternative to 6-8 replicated stock SLFs you could instead have one upgradable ship (Sidewinder or Condor or whatever fits) in the bay. So there's your tradeoff: disposable stock fighters, or one customized ship that you have to dock (and pay a bunch more) to replace.

Dreaming a bit more, while I'm at it: let's unify the SLF and SRV mechanics, so that you can dismiss your ship while in an SLF (at the cost of it no longer being telepresence, and working like an SRV if you explode), or run telepresence in SRV (as long as the ship stays in range), or be able to replicate several stock Scarabs, or be able to upgrade one Scarab, or let SRVs work with multicrew or NPC crew.

 

[Chaparral]

Why not just let slf's land at outposts? That would be an improvement that would allow large ships to visit small stations. Permit slfs to shuttle 1 T at a time. Would allow for refueling, data missions, etc.etc.

 

[Becky]

It's only the most used ship because 100% of people had to start in one.

I still have one, fully RNG'd - it's one of the fastest, most manoeuvrable and fun ships I have. C1 hard points do sweet f.all damage but, people run out of ammo trying to kill it