FC Support Ship forms part of FC?

[Nutter]

Not much has been mentioned regarding how the Fleet Carrier interacts with the support ship. So I went back to the original images and noticed something rather interesting...

Using the Mercenary support ship as the example....

Now the image above is a weird angle (Probably deliberate) but that said, look at the front...
It is a carbon copy of the front of the fleet carrier front below

Also notice the tower located mid ship of the Mercenary Support ship...
Now look at the rear of the fleet carrier showing the same tower

Has this been pointed out before? I'm sure someone with more spare time than myself could photoshop the pieces together.

But for the record, I'm going to suggest that the fleet carrier shown in all of the art we have seen so far is in fact... a Mercenary Fleet carrier

Apologies if i'm late to the party on this one, but i've not found any similar conclusions..

Thoughts?

Nutter o7

 

[varonica]

Has this been pointed out before? I'm sure someone with more spare time than myself could photoshop the pieces together.

But for the record, I'm going to suggest that the fleet carrier shown in all of the art we have seen so far is in fact... a Mercenary Fleet carrier

Apologies if i'm late to the party on this one, but i've not found any similar conclusions..

Thoughts?

Nutter o7

Yes we had a huge discussion about this previously, I was originally of the same opinion as you, but after reviewing the information supplied by FDEV and linked to by posters who held the opposite opinion I have changed my position, videos and images posted by FDEV show support ships of such a design that they can't possibly be incorporated into the main FC body!

This is the video, starting at 25 seconds you will see the first support ship, exploration;

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNNj97HznUU


You will see it appears to be modeled on the orbis stations with a huge rotating ring habitat section, this could not possibly be connected to the existing FC base, the FC base appears to be just exactly that, a docking platform only, and all other functions of a deep space survival and exploration mission such as living, research, manufacturing etc would take place on the support ship.

In fact the exploration support ship appears to be far larger than the FC itself, I expect the other support ships for different professions are also of the same scale.

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

just the usual megaship-kitbash system in place

 

[Dagwit]

You will see it appears to be modeled on the orbis stations with a huge rotating ring habitat section

I think what you're looking at is a megaship; the Fleet Carrier is in fact the smaller object to lower right of the shot.

I'm currently wondering if the core Fleet Carrier is the central array of docks, and the Support Ship is a two-part affair that separates and mates with the core both to front and rear.

 

[[VR] Goooost]

Not much has been mentioned regarding how the Fleet Carrier interacts with the support ship. So I went back to the original images and noticed something rather interesting...

Using the Mercenary support ship as the example....

Now the image above is a weird angle (Probably deliberate) but that said, look at the front...
It is a carbon copy of the front of the fleet carrier front below

Also notice the tower located mid ship of the Mercenary Support ship...
Now look at the rear of the fleet carrier showing the same tower

Has this been pointed out before? I'm sure someone with more spare time than myself could photoshop the pieces together.

But for the record, I'm going to suggest that the fleet carrier shown in all of the art we have seen so far is in fact... a Mercenary Fleet carrier

Apologies if i'm late to the party on this one, but i've not found any similar conclusions..

Thoughts?

Nutter o7

It has been pointed out before

View attachment 141385View attachment 141386

Basically, the carrier is one ship, but with a single size 4 docking structure on the front. The support ship can move around on its own like a regular ship to some degree, but it probably cant high-wake without the carrier.
Thinking about how you move the carrier around, it probably doesnt let you move around in supercruise at all. You have to jump it from the system map. So you can put it around any body in the system with the snap of your fingers, but if you want to get in close, say, inside a ring system or conflict zone, the smaller support craft can supercruise (though the handling and speed is probably terrible).
I kind of hope this is like an actual huge ship, but just not something that would be practical to use carelessly in every scenario.

I think the exploration vessel might be the only one that can make its own H-Space Jumps, because no true explorer only maps one system every 500 light years. It can probably send DSS probes from way further away as well, mapping whole star systems remotely. It can probably take a ton of tourists as well. You can probably also transmit your discoveries instantly. Yeah, it will be OP but then again you'll give up the perks that come with the other vessels.
The mining ship can probably deploy surface harvesters, and synthesize raw materials into tradable commodities like weapons and such. Maybe it can help prospect from afar or at least when you find an asteroid worth blowing up it can snipe it in one shot with a cannon.
The mercenary ship can probably scramble support fighters, maybe offer a MAC Gun strike (think huge railgun with enormous delay. Perhaps you have to laser-paint your target for a solid 10 seconds and the cooldown is 2 minutes.) Though I still really hope this thing can just fly straight into a fight and be a big huge target but powerful as all hell. You'd get the multicrew gunnery view if you wanted to fight with it.
Search and rescue would probably have the ability to not only fuel, but also boost the FSD of stranded individuals. It might have tractor beams as well as refueling limpets that can go deep into gravity wells. Basically anything the fuel rats have had to scratch their heads over, this would have the answer, as well as being able to detect distress signals nearby and on planet surfaces (escape pods) and it might open up the possibility of rescuing lost NPC crew, a long requested feature.

Perhaps Fleet carriers could contract directly with system minor factions to make whatever their current operation profitable, be it combat, or mining, or piracy. You could essentially create a signal source, contract a select amount of faction ships for a task, and split the profits or losses. Maybe it could be like a game of risk played in the orrery, maybe you have direct involvement, or maybe you only intervene when things turn for the worse.

 

[pzykozomatik]

It has been pointed out before

View attachment 141385View attachment 141386

Basically, the carrier is one ship, but with a single size 4 docking structure on the front. The support ship can move around on its own like a regular ship to some degree, but it probably cant high-wake without the carrier.
Thinking about how you move the carrier around, it probably doesnt let you move around in supercruise at all. You have to jump it from the system map. So you can put it around any body in the system with the snap of your fingers, but if you want to get in close, say, inside a ring system or conflict zone, the smaller support craft can supercruise (though the handling and speed is probably terrible).
I kind of hope this is like an actual huge ship, but just not something that would be practical to use carelessly in every scenario.

I think the exploration vessel might be the only one that can make its own H-Space Jumps, because no true explorer only maps one system every 500 light years. It can probably send DSS probes from way further away as well, mapping whole star systems remotely. It can probably take a ton of tourists as well. You can probably also transmit your discoveries instantly. Yeah, it will be OP but then again you'll give up the perks that come with the other vessels.
The mining ship can probably deploy surface harvesters, and synthesize raw materials into tradable commodities like weapons and such. Maybe it can help prospect from afar or at least when you find an asteroid worth blowing up it can snipe it in one shot with a cannon.
The mercenary ship can probably scramble support fighters, maybe offer a MAC Gun strike (think huge railgun with enormous delay. Perhaps you have to laser-paint your target for a solid 10 seconds and the cooldown is 2 minutes.) Though I still really hope this thing can just fly straight into a fight and be a big huge target but powerful as all hell. You'd get the multicrew gunnery view if you wanted to fight with it.
Search and rescue would probably have the ability to not only fuel, but also boost the FSD of stranded individuals. It might have tractor beams as well as refueling limpets that can go deep into gravity wells. Basically anything the fuel rats have had to scratch their heads over, this would have the answer, as well as being able to detect distress signals nearby and on planet surfaces (escape pods) and it might open up the possibility of rescuing lost NPC crew, a long requested feature.

Perhaps Fleet carriers could contract directly with system minor factions to make whatever their current operation profitable, be it combat, or mining, or piracy. You could essentially create a signal source, contract a select amount of faction ships for a task, and split the profits or losses. Maybe it could be like a game of risk played in the orrery, maybe you have direct involvement, or maybe you only intervene when things turn for the worse.

That's a lot of probablies.

 

[[VR] Goooost]

That's a lot of probablies.

You're probably right.

 

[Kloppage Time]

Thanks for this. Not all of us are ever-presents on the forum.

Very interesting!! (you might like to do a German accent for this part!)

 

[Alec Turner]

The role of the support ship intrigues me greatly, I feel like it hasn't actually been discussed that much (maybe I've just missed it). I haven't seen any really persuasive speculation on what it will actually do. I certainly don't believe it's just a cosmetic adornment to the main fleet carrier to indicate the carrier's role - I reckon it's functional. Perhaps a trade support ship can be missioned to take the commodities we've deposited on the carrier to a designated trade market? Perhaps a combat support ship can be sent into a CZ to act like our own capital ship? Perhaps an exploration support ship can be sent off to fully scan the current system for us?

 

[CMDR Yates]

I would definitely not assume any real-time, "commander's chair" piloting of either the FC or support ship.

Cool if it happens, but the path of least resistance here is that they'll be straightforward megaship assets with a management screen showing capacity, amount of materials gathered for a jump, and a button to open the galaxy map and pick a body to orbit. And I wouldn't risk getting hopes any higher than that.

In this scenario, the FC will be what we do most of our interacting with, and the support ship is a big visual indicator of what kind of services/modules are available on the FC, and something else we can buy cosmetics for.

If I'm wrong, great, but that's what I'm expecting, and I wouldn't have many problems with that.

 

[Dommarraa]

Gnosis has been used to test automatic insertion around any given body for a few years.
To begin with it was awfull, appearing inside planets and all sorts of malarki. It is much better now, but a week or 2 ago, the Gnosis Signal Source was close to a star, and travelling too fast to catch in SC (like a few stations). You had to sit in front of its orbit and let it catch you, so still some work to do, or a sub-optimal behaviour for you to deal with.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

Not much has been mentioned regarding how the Fleet Carrier interacts with the support ship. So I went back to the original images and noticed something rather interesting...

Using the Mercenary support ship as the example....

Now the image above is a weird angle (Probably deliberate) but that said, look at the front...
It is a carbon copy of the front of the fleet carrier front below

Also notice the tower located mid ship of the Mercenary Support ship...
Now look at the rear of the fleet carrier showing the same tower

Has this been pointed out before? I'm sure someone with more spare time than myself could photoshop the pieces together.

But for the record, I'm going to suggest that the fleet carrier shown in all of the art we have seen so far is in fact... a Mercenary Fleet carrier

Apologies if i'm late to the party on this one, but i've not found any similar conclusions..

Thoughts?

Nutter o7

The FC can be customized for specific roles (combat, mining, exploration...) and it can have a support ship (mercenary, mining, exploration...).
It is my opinion that:

Case 1: the modules that gives specific roles to the FC are very similar (or even the same in some case) to the modules installed in the Support Ships. In the specific case analyzed by the OP we can see a combat module installed both on FC and the Mercenary Support Ship.

Case 2: the image shown in the preview is a draft version of the final product so they made some lazy copy-paste just to present a concept.

 

[Nutter]

The FC can be customized for specific roles (combat, mining, exploration...) and it can have a support ship (mercenary, mining, exploration...).
It is my opinion that:

Case 1: the modules that gives specific roles to the FC are very similar (or even the same in some case) to the modules installed in the Support Ships. In the specific case analyzed by the OP we can see a combat module installed both on FC and the Mercenary Support Ship.

Case 2: the image shown in the preview is a draft version of the final product so they made some lazy copy-paste just to present a concept.

I did consider Case 2: but was trying to avoid being negative

 

[Nutter]

I hope we can agree that the mercenary support ship 'nose' is exactly the same asset as the fleet carrier then?

So it either 'docks' with fleetcarrier or a lazy mockup? I hope the former...

 

[Rubbernuke]

I think for simplicity the support ship is a separate 'avatar' for what role you have.

 

[varonica]

I think what you're looking at is a megaship; the Fleet Carrier is in fact the smaller object to lower right of the shot.

I'm currently wondering if the core Fleet Carrier is the central array of docks, and the Support Ship is a two-part affair that separates and mates with the core both to front and rear.

Did we really watch the same video. The one that shows a FC with a large ship in the background with a rotating ring, and then on the right the two boxes with the FC and the support ship shown one above the other? Because it appears you were watching a different video altogether! Why would they create a video that appears it imply that a megaship was a support vessel for a exploration FC? Why would they use exactly the same layout to then show the mining and mercenary support ships?

I know what the FC is, it's quite clear in the video which one is the FC, everyone knows which one is the FC, it's the one with all the landing pads, you don't need to try an imply that I'm an idiot for not noticing the one with all the landing pads and that I thought the large exploration support ship with the habitation ring was the FC. It's also quite clear that each FC comes with a "support" ship that is customised for each task, it says so in the video, and there are three different support ships shown in the video using the same visual layout. Why on earth would they put a megaship not related to the FC's in one part of the video in the same way they put support ships related to the FC's in the other part of the video?

The fact they re-use some modular components for both in some cases is pretty much irrelevent and doesn't imply in any way that you can stick them together with some sort of space blu tac to make a bigger ship.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

I think for simplicity the support ship is a separate 'avatar' for what role you have.

And FDEV delayed FC for this useless toy
No I don't think so. I mean, common sense suggests it would be a meaningless and ugly content.
I already find it hard to accept that I need to take 2 mega ships with me for a single role... How will they jump then? Do I need to attach a tow cable between the two?

Ok ok let me see through my crystal ball...
Support Ships can fold and bind to the Fleet Carrier with cool animations. Then 1 week after people will start complaining that animations are too long and suggest to make them faster or remove them at all. FDEV will ignore these requests anyway, like they always did with all other requests.

 

[Cmdr Nemo]

It has been pointed out before

View attachment 141385View attachment 141386

Basically, the carrier is one ship, but with a single size 4 docking structure on the front. The support ship can move around on its own like a regular ship to some degree, but it probably cant high-wake without the carrier.
Thinking about how you move the carrier around, it probably doesnt let you move around in supercruise at all. You have to jump it from the system map. So you can put it around any body in the system with the snap of your fingers, but if you want to get in close, say, inside a ring system or conflict zone, the smaller support craft can supercruise (though the handling and speed is probably terrible).
I kind of hope this is like an actual huge ship, but just not something that would be practical to use carelessly in every scenario.

I think the exploration vessel might be the only one that can make its own H-Space Jumps, because no true explorer only maps one system every 500 light years. It can probably send DSS probes from way further away as well, mapping whole star systems remotely. It can probably take a ton of tourists as well. You can probably also transmit your discoveries instantly. Yeah, it will be OP but then again you'll give up the perks that come with the other vessels.
The mining ship can probably deploy surface harvesters, and synthesize raw materials into tradable commodities like weapons and such. Maybe it can help prospect from afar or at least when you find an asteroid worth blowing up it can snipe it in one shot with a cannon.
The mercenary ship can probably scramble support fighters, maybe offer a MAC Gun strike (think huge railgun with enormous delay. Perhaps you have to laser-paint your target for a solid 10 seconds and the cooldown is 2 minutes.) Though I still really hope this thing can just fly straight into a fight and be a big huge target but powerful as all hell. You'd get the multicrew gunnery view if you wanted to fight with it.
Search and rescue would probably have the ability to not only fuel, but also boost the FSD of stranded individuals. It might have tractor beams as well as refueling limpets that can go deep into gravity wells. Basically anything the fuel rats have had to scratch their heads over, this would have the answer, as well as being able to detect distress signals nearby and on planet surfaces (escape pods) and it might open up the possibility of rescuing lost NPC crew, a long requested feature.

Perhaps Fleet carriers could contract directly with system minor factions to make whatever their current operation profitable, be it combat, or mining, or piracy. You could essentially create a signal source, contract a select amount of faction ships for a task, and split the profits or losses. Maybe it could be like a game of risk played in the orrery, maybe you have direct involvement, or maybe you only intervene when things turn for the worse.

I read somewhere that all the FC's will be able to jump "UP TO" 500, which means one can jump less, thus explorer's shouldn't have an issue.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

I read somewhere that all the FC's will be able to jump "UP TO" 500, which means one can jump less, thus explorer's shouldn't have an issue.

I remember they said that FC can be engineered. Bad, very bad in my opinion. But that it probably means that you need to engineer at least the FSD to reach that performance.

 

[Hanerib]

Gnosis has been used to test automatic insertion around any given body for a few years.
To begin with it was awfull, appearing inside planets and all sorts of malarki. It is much better now, but a week or 2 ago, the Gnosis Signal Source was close to a star, and travelling too fast to catch in SC (like a few stations). You had to sit in front of its orbit and let it catch you, so still some work to do, or a sub-optimal behaviour for you to deal with.

Hmmph. I have modules stored on that megaship, like a 3A fuel scoop for example. I wish they were more careful. Who is going to compensate if the electrodynamic tethers on that thing are all radiated? It's an old model from Alpha Centauri.