Firstly let me just say that this is by no means what I expect to see from the addition of fleet carriers but rather what I would like to see. Perhaps just some food for thought if nothing else.
Ideas:
1: construction/purchasing of the fleet carriers themselves:
I'd prefer there not just be a straight credit cost for the fleet carriers, as to scale the cost up from the more expensive ships we would be looking at billions of credits. While the amount in and of itself is not really a problem, having newer or even some end game level players having to grind their way up to multiple billion credits to pay it all at once to get the “base” model of their fleet carrier would be a bit of a wall to the face. What I’d like to see is a more progressive building up of what is needed to get your hands on a carrier. Perhaps a community goal style of contribution system where the members of the squadron may purchase commodities such as power generators, reactive armour or superconductors etc in order to “build” their carrier, much like the CGs from the super powers to build more capital ships for example. There can be options for how the cost is covered, there could be some credit donation portions as well or simply just the commodities. If payment were to be required for the delivery of the goods then there would have to be a pool of money to pay everyone that could be funded by a squadron bank account so to speak, although there would be little difference between that and simply having the squadron account pay for the ship wholesale. Perhaps that could be a more lore friendly way of doing it as otherwise one would have to assume that there is some organization that has a yard of these things waiting to be purchased. The ongoing contributions could also give a means for the squadron to observe their progress with the carrier docked at a capital shipyard or something similar while under construction.
2: The carriers themselves:
While I would definitely like to see some never before seen ships, I would also like to perhaps be able to purchase the already existing capital ships from the federation or the empire. In order to do this and have it make sense for some lowly freelance group of players to be operating out of a full on interdictor or farragut class cruiser, all the members would perhaps have to have max rank with the respective superpower. This would give the top ranks a bit more purpose as currently as far as I’m aware there is little to gain from higher ranks beyond Duke or Rear Admiral aside from being able to say that you’ve done it. While this would cause problems with accessibility for those without the appropriate rankings, that would only be for groups that specifically want those ships. Having multiple options for those with the alliance, independent and even perhaps lower ones in the federation and empire without such restrictions would allow for those who put in the time be able to get something special while still allowing others to fully utilize fleet carriers as well. I’ve also never really cared for the look of the megaships much. While their look makes sense as they can have commodities markets and what not in them and as such would require the modular industrial or agricultural segments to produce those goods, I’ve always much preferred the more smooth and sleek looks of the capital ships. I’m hoping that the fleet carriers have a similar style or at least an option for such a style rather than the bulky, blocky look of the megaships.
3: Hyperdrive
Since above I suggested allowing players to own and operate the capital class ships the problem that is brought up is hyperdrive capabilities. With those ships being able to jump to wherever they want whenever they want that brings up massive balancing issues resulting in players being able to jump to wherever in the galaxy, explore, put their name all over everything and jump home again. This would be incredibly frustrating for any players that went all that way before the update and explored the hard way. Well what I propose is that in order to balance this having a limited hyperdrive. (kind of like how in the description of ship launched fighter capable ships the “civilian model” is said to be restricted to only one fighter launched at a time despite that no longer being the case with multi crew) That is to say a player must summon the carrier, similar to when recalling your ship on a planets surface. This forces at least one player to reach the area normally and then bring the carrier and anyone else docked onboard to the location.
4: Working from the ship:
With the ability of hyperdrive and the coming quality of life improvements to mining and exploration it would be awesome for a player group to be able to operate from their carrier in a remote location having been summoned as described above. What I’d like to see is the ability for players to mine commodities and gather exploration data and store them on the fleet carrier to be returned and sold back in the bubble. This then bring up two issues, how much cargo space should the carrier have? And once back in the bubble how would materials mined by one player be differentiated from those mined by another player if at all? Well when I look at the larger cargo ships in game with anywhere from 500-700 tons of cargo space or so on average having anything less than 5K cargo space on the carrier would barely be worth the effort. While yes it would have massive benefits saving the increased mass from slowing the player down on the trip back with a full hold I’d like to see an “expedition” with the carrier last for a little longer than a few days with multiple players all gathering minerals. Now it may not even be that big an issue, not separating the minerals mined by each player, but it may be prudent. It could be that if one player owns a ship capable of carrying a substantial amount more than another player, with most refineries working around the same speed it would be possible for that one player to sell more than their fair share of the minerals. As for exploration it more or less would organize itself. So far as I can tell if it’s got your name on it then it’s your data to turn in. Mostly storing it on the carrier would just be a safety measure in case the explorer in question were to accidentally pancake at some point and loose all their hard earned scan data. Also as a side note bringing hydrogen fuel and limpets (perhaps ammo?) in the carrier for such an expedition would be vital as players would be needing to re-arm and refuel there regularly especially if the carrier is located far from any scoopable stars.
These are just some ideas / thoughts I had on the subject of fleet carriers.
Apologies, I know it's a lot to read I just wanted to get my ideas out there.
Ideas:
1: construction/purchasing of the fleet carriers themselves:
I'd prefer there not just be a straight credit cost for the fleet carriers, as to scale the cost up from the more expensive ships we would be looking at billions of credits. While the amount in and of itself is not really a problem, having newer or even some end game level players having to grind their way up to multiple billion credits to pay it all at once to get the “base” model of their fleet carrier would be a bit of a wall to the face. What I’d like to see is a more progressive building up of what is needed to get your hands on a carrier. Perhaps a community goal style of contribution system where the members of the squadron may purchase commodities such as power generators, reactive armour or superconductors etc in order to “build” their carrier, much like the CGs from the super powers to build more capital ships for example. There can be options for how the cost is covered, there could be some credit donation portions as well or simply just the commodities. If payment were to be required for the delivery of the goods then there would have to be a pool of money to pay everyone that could be funded by a squadron bank account so to speak, although there would be little difference between that and simply having the squadron account pay for the ship wholesale. Perhaps that could be a more lore friendly way of doing it as otherwise one would have to assume that there is some organization that has a yard of these things waiting to be purchased. The ongoing contributions could also give a means for the squadron to observe their progress with the carrier docked at a capital shipyard or something similar while under construction.
2: The carriers themselves:
While I would definitely like to see some never before seen ships, I would also like to perhaps be able to purchase the already existing capital ships from the federation or the empire. In order to do this and have it make sense for some lowly freelance group of players to be operating out of a full on interdictor or farragut class cruiser, all the members would perhaps have to have max rank with the respective superpower. This would give the top ranks a bit more purpose as currently as far as I’m aware there is little to gain from higher ranks beyond Duke or Rear Admiral aside from being able to say that you’ve done it. While this would cause problems with accessibility for those without the appropriate rankings, that would only be for groups that specifically want those ships. Having multiple options for those with the alliance, independent and even perhaps lower ones in the federation and empire without such restrictions would allow for those who put in the time be able to get something special while still allowing others to fully utilize fleet carriers as well. I’ve also never really cared for the look of the megaships much. While their look makes sense as they can have commodities markets and what not in them and as such would require the modular industrial or agricultural segments to produce those goods, I’ve always much preferred the more smooth and sleek looks of the capital ships. I’m hoping that the fleet carriers have a similar style or at least an option for such a style rather than the bulky, blocky look of the megaships.
3: Hyperdrive
Since above I suggested allowing players to own and operate the capital class ships the problem that is brought up is hyperdrive capabilities. With those ships being able to jump to wherever they want whenever they want that brings up massive balancing issues resulting in players being able to jump to wherever in the galaxy, explore, put their name all over everything and jump home again. This would be incredibly frustrating for any players that went all that way before the update and explored the hard way. Well what I propose is that in order to balance this having a limited hyperdrive. (kind of like how in the description of ship launched fighter capable ships the “civilian model” is said to be restricted to only one fighter launched at a time despite that no longer being the case with multi crew) That is to say a player must summon the carrier, similar to when recalling your ship on a planets surface. This forces at least one player to reach the area normally and then bring the carrier and anyone else docked onboard to the location.
4: Working from the ship:
With the ability of hyperdrive and the coming quality of life improvements to mining and exploration it would be awesome for a player group to be able to operate from their carrier in a remote location having been summoned as described above. What I’d like to see is the ability for players to mine commodities and gather exploration data and store them on the fleet carrier to be returned and sold back in the bubble. This then bring up two issues, how much cargo space should the carrier have? And once back in the bubble how would materials mined by one player be differentiated from those mined by another player if at all? Well when I look at the larger cargo ships in game with anywhere from 500-700 tons of cargo space or so on average having anything less than 5K cargo space on the carrier would barely be worth the effort. While yes it would have massive benefits saving the increased mass from slowing the player down on the trip back with a full hold I’d like to see an “expedition” with the carrier last for a little longer than a few days with multiple players all gathering minerals. Now it may not even be that big an issue, not separating the minerals mined by each player, but it may be prudent. It could be that if one player owns a ship capable of carrying a substantial amount more than another player, with most refineries working around the same speed it would be possible for that one player to sell more than their fair share of the minerals. As for exploration it more or less would organize itself. So far as I can tell if it’s got your name on it then it’s your data to turn in. Mostly storing it on the carrier would just be a safety measure in case the explorer in question were to accidentally pancake at some point and loose all their hard earned scan data. Also as a side note bringing hydrogen fuel and limpets (perhaps ammo?) in the carrier for such an expedition would be vital as players would be needing to re-arm and refuel there regularly especially if the carrier is located far from any scoopable stars.
These are just some ideas / thoughts I had on the subject of fleet carriers.
Apologies, I know it's a lot to read I just wanted to get my ideas out there.
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