Buyers Remorse, Thy Name Is Beluga

Why pick a Beluga over an Orca when outfitting with luxury cabins, especially if for sightseeing missions?

I don't use the luxury cabins. I'm all about the ecconomy seats. I want a mass comercial transport. A "People Express" to the stars, if you will. Really dating myself with that refrence, aren't I?
 
I don't use the luxury cabins. I'm all about the ecconomy seats. I want a mass comercial transport. A "People Express" to the stars, if you will. Really dating myself with that refrence, aren't I?

Indeed, if you just want to do as many bulk economy passenger haul missions as possible (the Elite version of Ryan Air) for rank grinding or pure CR/hour, the Anaconda is the "best" ship for that role for sure. When I am grinding Imperial Rank (taking a break for a while, just got to Count this week) I actually will mix passengers with cargo slots in my Conda. Post the recent passenger nerf, haulage pays about the same and having 2 mission boards to look at instead of 1 increases the chance I get more missions to the same destination. I'll mix high paying missions like taking 20 tourists to location A and haul 140 tons of Beer to location A with VIP missions (REP+++).
 
Yeah, my Beluga is a pure grinding ship. I have it parked at Rhea and take my Asp over there when I'm low on Credits. I had been using my Anaconda for that but I didn't want to have it out of action as a passenger ship there or have to make the long haul every time I wanted to use it for that, not to mention the pain in the posterior from having to reconfigure it every time.
 
Also I don't think the ship is useless. I quite like it in some ways it just seems to me a ship THAT big, and designed for passengers, should be able to handle more of them, especially since it really has no other practicle use.
 
I don't use the luxury cabins. I'm all about the ecconomy seats. I want a mass comercial transport. A "People Express" to the stars, if you will. Really dating myself with that refrence, aren't I?

Okay, I get that. Someday I want to turn a T-7 into a "space bus", because the cockpit reminds me of a bus for some reason :D

Actually, with a proper paint-job, the entire ship could pass as an old bus or train (without windows).
 
I think they should tweak the passenger missions a bit so that there are more luxury missions and so that luxury missions pay noticably better than the others.

At the moment any of the 3 passenger ships is a hard sell. Luxury missions don't seem to be all that different from the others, often as not the best paying ones tend to be 20+ economy going someplace with a high LS, and you can take those from any ship.

It would be nice to scroll through the board, see a luxury mission with a dozen seats required and big pay day.

But Frontier seems to be allergic to that kind of thing. As soon as it happens, by bug or accident, they stamp it out. All missions must pay garbage!
 
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Deleted member 38366

D
...now if only the Dolphin/Orca/Beluga Luxury Cabins made any sense and gave that exclusive Premium to separate these Ships from the other Multirole Ships outclassing them in almost every single aspect :D

Oh wait, that was suggested a long time ago. Never mind.

PS.
To me, it never made any sense that rich VIPs or important Politicians would trust their trips even to a rusty and poorly maintained Type-6.
That's like paying Millions for an exclusive Cruise trip - and then boarding a 30 year old bulk Container vessel.
 
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I find it kind of funny that the Beluga for all intents and purposes is not far off from the same dimensions as an actual cruise ship. It's roughly 2/3rds the size of the Disney Dream. The Dream can hold roughly 4000 passengers and 1500 crew members, and that's for all levels of luxury down to economy. It has a bunch of restaurants, theaters, tons of stuff.

With a shield and a discover scanner the Beluga can hold 148 Economy passengers... Those are some big rooms we're giving these passengers!
 
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They are very very sparkly ships though! :)

BUEurvB.jpg
 
Just nerf the bloody Anaconda. Double the hull mass to some reasonable value and strip out a class 6 and a class 5 optional internal slot. Strip out a few slots from the Python while you're at it.

A big increase in the spawn rate of Luxury missions and a moderate increase in the payout would then leave us in a better situation.
 
I find it kind of funny that the Beluga for all intents and purposes is not far off from the same dimensions as an actual cruise ship. It's roughly 2/3rds the size of the Disney Dream. The Dream can hold roughly 4000 passengers and 1500 crew members, and that's for all levels of luxury down to economy. It has a bunch of restaurants, theaters, tons of stuff.

With a shield and a discover scanner the Beluga can hold 148 Economy passengers... Those are some big rooms we're giving these passengers!

Huh....
 
Just nerf the bloody Anaconda. Double the hull mass to some reasonable value and strip out a class 6 and a class 5 optional internal slot. Strip out a few slots from the Python while you're at it.

A big increase in the spawn rate of Luxury missions and a moderate increase in the payout would then leave us in a better situation.

That's the problem although id say not the solution, FD tried to make balanced ships with positives and negatives but its kinda spoilt by the cobra/asp/python/conda that can just do everything.

The Beluga is however cheaper than a conda so it depends what you're after.
 
See, the problem I have is when we compare the beluga to the orca. The orca IS slightly smaller, but it's slots are much better designed. You can fit a class 3 shield, and a class 4 fuel scoop (works like the DBX), and not give away valuable passenger space.

On the beluga, you have 2 class six slots for the shields, fighter bay or fuel scoop (that is inadequate), so you have to be choosy, becuase you can't use any of the class 5 slots for the fighter bay or shield, then add to that the fact you now have less passenger space becuase you can't use both class 6 slots, or sometimes any if you want added extras, and the ship, for its price, isn't worth it over the orca. Oh, and the orca jumps further too.

So, why get a beluga, when you can have an orca, or you know what, even a python if you don't need the luxury cabins/want to use a medium pad.

That's not to say I don't want a beluga, but let's be honest, it's a fashion statement, not a ship.
 
My Beluga is the money maker in my fleet. If I need credits I run passenger missions from allied systems and make millions per/0.5 hour. Depending on whether I have 3 or 4 passenger cabins installed, I also have either 64 or 96 tons of cargo space which is full of high profit cargo. Its so maneuverable in SC, I have yet to be interdicted after dozens and dozens of attempts. My Beluga will always be in my fleet. It makes me lots of credits.

I have a Python with five passenger cabins installed. In the last hour I made 44.2m credits. Works for me.
 
I find it kind of funny that the Beluga for all intents and purposes is not far off from the same dimensions as an actual cruise ship. It's roughly 2/3rds the size of the Disney Dream. The Dream can hold roughly 4000 passengers and 1500 crew members, and that's for all levels of luxury down to economy. It has a bunch of restaurants, theaters, tons of stuff.

With a shield and a discover scanner the Beluga can hold 148 Economy passengers... Those are some big rooms we're giving these passengers!

You do realize you're comparing an non-pressurized aquatic vessel to a pressurized space vessel, right?! Those are two COMPLETELY different vehicles.

The Disney Dream can use most of the floor space to devote to passengers, crews, shops, restaurants, etc. since it doesn't have to have pressurized cabins or hull. Whereas the "spaceship" passenger liners needs a pressurized cabin(s)/hull so you lose A LOT of floor space to properly pressurize the cabin(s) so your passengers don't suffocate in the void. Also might I mention all of the high tech sensors/scanners, engines, thrusters, weapons, shields, life support, docking computer, cargo racks, etc. your spaceship and/or you need to function.
 
I find it kind of funny that the Beluga for all intents and purposes is not far off from the same dimensions as an actual cruise ship. It's roughly 2/3rds the size of the Disney Dream. The Dream can hold roughly 4000 passengers and 1500 crew members, and that's for all levels of luxury down to economy. It has a bunch of restaurants, theaters, tons of stuff.

With a shield and a discover scanner the Beluga can hold 148 Economy passengers... Those are some big rooms we're giving these passengers!

Except the beluga, and all ships, fly through space. A lot of that room is likely taken up by things required for space travel, never mind all the pipes and wires and vents hidden away to keep the ship flying and livable in the vacuum of space.
 
Main benefit is you will face much weaker pirates. Beluga is worthless for luxury cabins because VIPs are almost always wanted/secretive and the ship is too slow to reliably evade security scans.
 
The Beluga is a highly capable ship, and I've taken mine on both of my lengthy sojourns outside the bubble - the first 5200 Ly out to unlock Professor Palin. The second, 6500 Ly out to celebrate the new and improved Route Plotting with Cone Boost.

If long range travel wasn't so tedious, I'd take it to the galactic rim - that 128 ton fuel tank is impressive.

Oh, and both trips I took a single, decent paying passenger in a single luxury cabin.

Plus all the amenities for exploration, and a fighter bay.

I also use one for bounty hunting, as 5 medium hard points are no joke (I run 3 PA's and 2 beams).

Even as a mining ship it's quite capable, being incredibly nimble for such a large ship.

I think where the real issue lies is in expectations.

Too many people think of these as Norwegian Cruise Lines sardine-cans for cramming as many people into every available space and charging a premium for enough room to change your mind.

They're not.

The Dolphin - This is a Maybach. Just a couple passengers and a whole lot of performance.

The Orca - This is a Limousine - bigger than it needs to be, look at me. You can cram a few more people in it and they'll still enjoy the ride.

The Beluga - This is a Yacht. It's massive, expensive, stylish, screams to be noticed. Sure, it has room inside, but it's not about quantity, it's about Quality.

You want a cram-packed Japanese subway style mass transit, complete with pushers to cram one more person on board, then fly an Anaconda, or a Type-7.
If you want a penthouse suite of 1500 square feet, with marble floors, down pillows, satin sheets and private cinema, then fly a Beluga.
 
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