Cargo/Ferry/Passenger equivalents of Farragut / Majestic

[GraXXoR]

I would love to see cargo / ferry / passenger equivalents of the two capital ships.

Firstly, before the "OP" brigade arrive in force, I would clearly state that they would NOT be player controlled.Instead, they would follow set itineraries across the bubble. your ships could dock with them and trade with them, much like mobile stations and there could be competitions to load them with desired goods from the local station or ferry their much needed cargo to the local stations.

More importantly, you could drop your ship off and have it delivered for a price to one of the stations on its route.

There could be stories/CGs based around besieged/stranded ferries or whatnot or you could even receive a mission to help slow one down (as with the other capitals, they would just jump out with cargo still on board rather than being destroyed, however, to keep consequences simple) or interfere with the loading and unloading etc.

Would solve the shipping ones ships problem, too.

 

[hunvagy]

I would love if the LRC would make a return.

"'The wealth carriers'

Also used as generation ships due to their extreme size. LRCs are numerous in affluent systems, and are mostly used to carry prodigious amounts of simple goods."

 

[Deleted member 38366]

I'd see no issues with super-sized Player-controlled Cargo Ships, Exploration- or Mining Rigs...

So if someone can stomach the Multi-Billion base cost and the Multi-Billion equipment costs - let 'em have it.
Arguably, such Ships would be created for a rather thin "top 0.1%" wealthiest part of the Player base. Not sure Frontier would want to go through the hassle of Ship design for such a small target audience.

Eventually, however, they'd have to offer such Players something interesting to still purchase or look forward to.

 

[Becks]

Such superfreighters would make sense for federal and imperial Navy, too.
If you have God-knows-how-many Million tons of equipment to transfer from one planet to another, you want something bigger than a conda
But not only for logistics. They could be used as designated carriers (don't know exactly how the Capitals handle this) or mobile repairstations etc.

I like the idea.

 

[Miklos Atreides]

Such superfreighters would make sense for federal and imperial Navy, too.
If you have God-knows-how-many Million tons of equipment to transfer from one planet to another, you want something bigger than a conda
But not only for logistics. They could be used as designated carriers (don't know exactly how the Capitals handle this) or mobile repairstations etc.

I like the idea.

me too, as they can make the BGS delivery of commodities across the bublle visible. They can be handled like stations (undestroyable with powerfull defense capabillities)
so they don't fall to be victims for BGS manipulation.

 

[tarragon]

I would love to see cargo / ferry / passenger equivalents of the two capital ships.

Firstly, before the "OP" brigade arrive in force, I would clearly state that they would NOT be player controlled.Instead, they would follow set itineraries across the bubble. your ships could dock with them and trade with them, much like mobile stations and there could be competitions to load them with desired goods from the local station or ferry their much needed cargo to the local stations.

More importantly, you could drop your ship off and have it delivered for a price to one of the stations on its route.

There could be stories/CGs based around besieged/stranded ferries or whatnot or you could even receive a mission to help slow one down (as with the other capitals, they would just jump out with cargo still on board rather than being destroyed, however, to keep consequences simple) or interfere with the loading and unloading etc.

Would solve the shipping ones ships problem, too.

You think big. I would just like to see those big ferries used to transport goods as per BGS expectations.

 

[tarragon]

I'd see no issues with super-sized Player-controlled Cargo Ships, Exploration- or Mining Rigs...

So if someone can stomach the Multi-Billion base cost and the Multi-Billion equipment costs - let 'em have it.
Arguably, such Ships would be created for a rather thin "top 0.1%" wealthiest part of the Player base. Not sure Frontier would want to go through the hassle of Ship design for such a small target audience.

Eventually, however, they'd have to offer such Players something interesting to still purchase or look forward to.

These ships should exist outside of player reach simply to provide game play for pirates, missions and realism. Also, proper infrastructure for these ships should exist. Ferries shuttling stuff between stations and planets. FSD capable ferries slowly shuttling goods between secure systems. Docking capabilities for these colossal ships need to exist. The way it is, it is simply shallow, superficial and unworthy of old elite games. It was acceptable back in alpha. But we are now in beta of elite. If i remember correctly, alpha ended with Horizons.

For full release, unless fixed, this would be absolute disaster.

 

[Talarin]

Agree. They could almost be mobile stations, including the ability to collect missions from (including escort duties).

The same idea could be applied to military capital ships - it would give them more of a place in the game universe.

 

[GraXXoR]

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful comments. I agree with each and every one made above...

There is definitely a place for colossal carriers of bulk goods, ships and so on. Imagine docking with the ship and hearing the warning:

"Warning, ferry departure in 5 minutes, will all those wishing to alight at this port please do so immediately, remember travelling without a valid permit is a crime and punishable by death."

You could disembark or purchase the ticket to the required system (and designated station).

If you'd purchased the ticket, you'd have two choices, purchase a hauleaglewinder and disembark, leaving your ship on board to be deposited at the selected station or sit in your ship and take the 100+ LY jump with the station.

Seems fun to me.

 

[tarragon]

Agree. They could almost be mobile stations, including the ability to collect missions from (including escort duties).

The same idea could be applied to military capital ships - it would give them more of a place in the game universe.

Consider difficulty of adding "engineers" mechanics. Increase standing(already in for factions), collect rare minerals(already in), ?collect trade goods->get % bonus to some ship attribute or laser color. I know, colossal amount of work. However, this is nothing compared to what we are pondering.

 

[Talarin]

Consider difficulty of adding "engineers" mechanics. Increase standing(already in for factions), collect rare minerals(already in), ?collect trade goods->get % bonus to some ship attribute or laser color. I know, colossal amount of work. However, this is nothing compared to what we are pondering.

Just because an idea might be difficult doesn't mean that we shouldn't kick it around.

I suspect that FD are going to look at how stations are integrated into the engine at some point - so throwing an idea out like this isn't unrealistic. That's no guarantee that they'd do it, of course...

 

[lysan]

No problem with this, actually I would love to see it too. I don't believe that player controlled ships would be an issue the problem is that if the players can't control it 24/7 then what. That is why they would need to be NPC controlled.

 

[shadragon]

Would be a neat rare encounter for explorers to encounter a monster ship like that in deep space ferrying colonists. Refuel, repair facilities and off you go.

 

[777Driver]

+1 have been asking for this since Early beta. Never quite understood why huge NPC bulk transports weren't part of of the initial release. Graxxor, if you do a search you'll find a lot of threads on the subject. Am fairly certain the devs said those ships will eventually be ingame.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=127974

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=173265

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=80385

 

[Boomer Kay]

+1 have been asking for this since Early beta. Never quite understood why huge NPC bulk transports weren't part of of the initial release.

They did skip quite a bit of "fluff".
Huge transporters are probably even part of the trade streams you see in the Galaxy Map. All those billion inhabitant systems are not supplied with an army of T9s.
Adding them as scenery or even interactable objects would be awesome, though.
Seeing one "parked" next to a station or in the orbit of a planet with a small armada of T6/T7 shutteling goods back and forth (already as POI in-game for the capital combat ships .. including the trade shuttles, but only 1 or so per instance? that should be swarming with supplyships).

Or even as interesting piracy POI, when you need to take out their fighter wing, then shoot their hangar doors open, then dock (maybe under fire) with them to get to the valuable goods.

As for player controlleable. Don't know if you had a panther clipper in Frontier, but that thing was already amazingly dull to fly around. Powerfull? Profitable? yup, and dull. So one of the megacarriers would be 5 minutes of "ooooh" and then 2 hours of waiting until it reacts to your input. Makes the T9 look like a nimble ballerina.

 

[tarragon]

Just because an idea might be difficult doesn't mean that we shouldn't kick it around.

I suspect that FD are going to look at how stations are integrated into the engine at some point - so throwing an idea out like this isn't unrealistic. That's no guarantee that they'd do it, of course...

On the contrary. fdev no longer does huge additions. Only small ones that can be delivered with small amounts of engineers and keep the bare minimum level of iv fluid drips to keep the interest in the game alive.

 

[777Driver]

As for player controlleable. Don't know if you had a panther clipper in Frontier, but that thing was already amazingly dull to fly around. Powerfull? Profitable? yup, and dull. So one of the megacarriers would be 5 minutes of "ooooh" and then 2 hours of waiting until it reacts to your input. Makes the T9 look like a nimble ballerina.

Many here call high inertia slow turn rate ships dull, personally I call it challenging. I would love to get my hands on a superfreighter.

X3TC for example, I have an entire empire in that game, 90% of my time is in my flagship Tokyo class Carrier/Freighter. I only ever jump into fighters to help train up new hire combat pilots.

 

[Boomer Kay]

Many here call high inertia slow turn rate ships dull, personally I call it challenging. I would love to get my hands on a superfreighter.

Well, I did expect that answer from you.
Was more thinking of the average player that considers any of the current large ships to turn way too slow and boost into the back wall of a station, because they never slow down.

 

[GraXXoR]

No problem with this, actually I would love to see it too. I don't believe that player controlled ships would be an issue the problem is that if the players can't control it 24/7 then what. That is why they would need to be NPC controlled.

Star Citizen is facing similar questions with the mechanics regarding their Bengal Carriers (Currently the biggest ship to be implemented in game, not in lore). These are persistent and continue to exist in the 'verse after all the players have logged off.

There will be a campaign called "capture the Bengal" where groups of players will fight over one. but it's going to be a right royal pain in the Rs to hang on to it, defending it 24/7.

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They did skip quite a bit of "fluff".
Huge transporters are probably even part of the trade streams you see in the Galaxy Map. All those billion inhabitant systems are not supplied with an army of T9s.
Adding them as scenery or even interactable objects would be awesome, though.
Seeing one "parked" next to a station or in the orbit of a planet with a small armada of T6/T7 shutteling goods back and forth (already as POI in-game for the capital combat ships .. including the trade shuttles, but only 1 or so per instance? that should be swarming with supplyships).

Or even as interesting piracy POI, when you need to take out their fighter wing, then shoot their hangar doors open, then dock (maybe under fire) with them to get to the valuable goods.

As for player controlleable. Don't know if you had a panther clipper in Frontier, but that thing was already amazingly dull to fly around. Powerfull? Profitable? yup, and dull. So one of the megacarriers would be 5 minutes of "ooooh" and then 2 hours of waiting until it reacts to your input. Makes the T9 look like a nimble ballerina.

Yup, pretty much how I envisage them. They have to exist, at least in the lore because there is no way that T9s, cutters and panthers could keep the galaxy afloat when one considers that a single Earth train can carry more than 10,000 tonnes.