An Observation on Fleet Carrier

First off, I'm super stoked these are designed as personal carriers - absolutely what I hoped for but genuinely did not expect. That said, I find the hangar slot layout a little curious. Before I explain why, allow me to point out some past observations from Frontier:
  • Traditionally, Frontier has said that large ships are meant to be stronger than medium and smaller ships. Put another way, the 'balance' of the ships in Elite is fairly linear across class size. From a credit cost perspective, there are a few outliers (the chieftain, FDL, Krait Mk. II, Python) but generally this holds up to be true.
  • Frontier has entertained the community suggestion of small ships having gameplay designed specifically for them to make them relevant beyond 'fun to fly on occasion'. That credits are the primary resource for the game to expand and/or acquire anything (before engineering it) doesn't help the plight of small ships as they simply do not compete when it comes to credit gains.
  • Recently, we've seen more medium ships released that directly compete with large ships in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in multiple arenas. Except for certain 'quantity beats quality' professions (trading in bulk, bulk passengers) most means of credit gain can be done nearly as efficient (or even better, such as in mining) by medium craft than large.

So you can probably guess where I'm going with this...Why does the carrier have eight (8) large hangars? The corollary to that question is why so few small and medium. Among all of the large ships most late-game players will not have more than three they use regularly (and it has become normal to see these 'three' be the same ship outfitted different ways!). Between the slew of slots the end-game large ships have and the general lack of diversity, eight large hangar bays seems...impractical?

I don't want to complain - there will be plenty of that (from me and the fine forum folks) as time goes on - so again, it's more an observation than a complaint. Every commander has their own fleet variation so I know I'm not necessarily 'the norm'. In my case, my 'fleet' that I would tote around if I could (and very soon will!) consists mostly of medium ships, a DBX (like a trusty pocketknife that ship is), and my three large ships of which I only use one regularly.

SO...discuss!
  • Does the pad layout seem reasonable given the current state of the game when it comes to the available ship lines?
  • Do you think Frontier is planning on releasing more large ships such that the class is as fleshed out as medium?
  • Do you think this implies Frontier is moving away from attempts to 'justify' late-game usage of small/medium ships, instead relegating them to just 'the progression' for newer players?
 
You know you can land a small ship on a large pad, right?

I did not, actually - I've never encountered this even in busy stations. I figured the videos I saw were just bugs.

So...does that just mean when you request to dock the 'fifth' medium or small, it will take one of the other larger pads?
 
I did not, actually - I've never encountered this even in busy stations. I figured the videos I saw were just bugs.

So...does that just mean when you request to dock the 'fifth' medium or small, it will take one of the other larger pads?

Yep, that's right. So you'll be able to carry 16 small ships if that's your thing.

I did once get directed to a large pad in my AspX. It felt weird :)

Edit:
To clarify, your 5th small ship will occupy a medium pad. Your 9th will use a large.
Your 5th medium will go on a large pad unless your medium pads are already full of smalls.
 
You know you can land a small ship on a large pad, right?
Sorry but I am lost. I always thought that landing pads where assigned to you when you request docking at a station and that same mechanic would be applied to the fleet carriers. How do you request a large/medium pad when in a small ship? Did I miss something in an update?

As for the number of large pads.....either new large ships incoming or due to some Frontier data collection, they know large ships are the most used? Will find out eventually
 
Sorry but I am lost. I always thought that landing pads where assigned to you when you request docking at a station and that same mechanic would be applied to the fleet carriers. How do you request a large/medium pad when in a small ship? Did I miss something in an update?

As for the number of large pads.....either new large ships incoming or due to some Frontier data collection, they know large ships are the most used? Will find out eventually
If all the smalls are full, they'll assign you a medium. You can't specifically request one, they'll give you the first available pad that is big enough to take your ship.

Getting a large pad in a small ship at a regular station is pretty rare since it's pretty unlikely for all the small pads to be taken up before the mediums and larges, but it happens at megaships sometimes.
 
Chances that you will land your medium or small ship on the top deck are very slim, you are bound to the side pad on your own carrier. And that is a big disappointment
 
Back
Top Bottom