Fleet Carrier Support ship - why?

[Cmdr Aeries Hunter]

I know it is early days, but why would we need a support ship for fleet carriers? Look at how big a fleet carrier is. Why do we need a puppy to follow it around? Why can't the fleet carrier change its appearance (similar to the support ship) depending on what task it does. Yes it might loose (or gain) the amount of landing pads depending on what it does, but that is what would make it more interesting (dare I say immersive) to have to make that choice and sacrifice?

As an alternative to losing/gaining landing pads, each fleet carrier could change in size depending on the role it would be chosen to do. There is no longer a restriction on ships size as there is no mail slot to deal with. Look at the mega ships we already have in game and how varied they look depending on the task they do. Why couldn't fleet carriers be like that? I just don't get the support ship idea. Will wait and see what Fdev have to say, just right now it makes no sense, and would think a fleet carrier on its own would be a nicer option. Would be interesting to hear what others think on this.

On a quick side note.....whatever happened to the dredging ships in the 2.4 beta? Will that make a comeback with fleet carriers? Can we become the sanitation department of the bubble? So many questions

 

[Kissamies]

I am guessing there is some gameplay element for those. Perhaps they can be used to easily identify the types of services your carrier can provide and maybe they can even temporarily make those services unavailable by knocking out or driving away the support ship. This is purely speculation, of course.

 

[Cmdr_Ajay31091]

Ummm, most of you info is a little... 'Skewed' Cmdr, have a look at a few of the other threads, they'll explain it better than I bro. The carriers themselves are the support ship, its modulated an can be customized to suit, mining, bounty. Hunting, trade and many other ways to suit the individual cmdr's out in the black!
o7

(I think) lol

 

[Cmdr Aeries Hunter]

Ummm, most of you info is a little... 'Skewed' Cmdr, have a look at a few of the other threads, they'll explain it better than I bro. The carriers themselves are the support ship, its modulated an can be customized to suit, mining, bounty. Hunting, trade and many other ways to suit the individual cmdr's out in the black!
o7

(I think) lol

Is it? Because those images show different. It shows two ships and it states support ship, not fleet carrier. Fdev really need to clear this up asap. From what I have seen they are two different ships. Don't get me wrong I hope that is true but nothing I have seen says otherwise

 

[Factabulous]

You should watch some of the streamer vids, they seem to understand the support ships better than forumites - OA / burrpit both good.

Still need more info though.

 

[Cmdr_Ajay31091]

Is it? Because those images show different. It shows two ships and it states support ship, not fleet carrier. Fdev really need to clear this up asap. From what I have seen they are two different ships. Don't get me wrong I hope that is true but nothing I have seen says otherwise

You could be right, as I said man, I'm not to sure myself to be honest,

But I'm pretty sure that the very front of the carriers module, (the nose?) is quite different depending upon how its set up ie: Mining/bounty hunting.

The latter having more of a mega-type- ship shape.. Thingy. Lol

Where as the mining hull is more, idk umm industrial looking!
\\0//

I may be completely wrong though Cmdr, as I've not been on the forum much today,
And tbh I've only seen the same footage as yourself, but I'm sure all will become clear soon. (I hope lol) o7

 

[Cmdr Aeries Hunter]

Indeed. Been reading some of the posts and people seem to have two very different ideas on what it is. Some say it IS the Fleet carrier just reconfigured for the role it has been chosen (which is what i hope it will be), while others believe that it is a separate ship with some kind of support role.
Please Fdev could you clear this up in the next live stream?

 

[Cmdr_Ajay31091]

You should watch some of the streamer vids, they seem to understand the support ships better than forumites - OA / burrpit both good.

Still need more info though.

Need to have a look myself to be honest.. I'm a little confused too irl lol

 

[Cmdr_Ajay31091]

Indeed. Been reading some of the posts and people seem to have two very different ideas on what it is. Some say it IS the Fleet carrier just reconfigured for the role it has been chosen (which is what i hope it will be), while others believe that it is a separate ship with some kind of support role.
Please Fdev could you clear this up in the next live stream?

2nd this

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

I know it is early days, but why would we need a support ship for fleet carriers? Look at how big a fleet carrier is. Why do we need a puppy to follow it around? Why can't the fleet carrier change its appearance (similar to the support ship) depending on what task it does. Yes it might loose (or gain) the amount of landing pads depending on what it does, but that is what would make it more interesting (dare I say immersive) to have to make that choice and sacrifice?

As an alternative to losing/gaining landing pads, each fleet carrier could change in size depending on the role it would be chosen to do. There is no longer a restriction on ships size as there is no mail slot to deal with. Look at the mega ships we already have in game and how varied they look depending on the task they do. Why couldn't fleet carriers be like that? I just don't get the support ship idea. Will wait and see what Fdev have to say, just right now it makes no sense, and would think a fleet carrier on its own would be a nicer option. Would be interesting to hear what others think on this.

On a quick side note.....whatever happened to the dredging ships in the 2.4 beta? Will that make a comeback with fleet carriers? Can we become the sanitation department of the bubble? So many questions

Given what was presented yesterday...

Spoiler

indestructible e-peens for solo players who have mined lots of void opals and will continue to mine lots for the material neo-jumponium that carriers run on

I actually have more hope for "fun" to be had from the support ships than any other aspect of the carrier release...I mean, the carriers we cannot fly, or one of nigh on 40 ships only really able to scan/shoot/scoop (not necessarily in that order) the new support ships could, in the hands of brave developers, bring new much asked for gameplay. You know? Thinks like salvaging modules from wrecked ships in cz's - mining slf's - coop trading runs, load up a carrier with cargo and resupply a station doing shuttle runs in a 500t "bulk shuttle" etc...

Less sardonically; its common practice for carriers, and other military ships, to be supported by "tenders". They are essentially convoys of things like tankers and cargo ships that shaddow the main naval vessels and resupply them out at see by ship to ship cargo/fuel transfers. The British ones are operated by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, as opposed to the Royal Navy who operate the "warships" (ones with guns, and missiles, and or aircraft), I imagine most countries will either have the "tenders" integrated more into their main navy, or annexed out like our RFA, but they will have tenders, after all those cruisers and frigates aren't going to refuel/rearm themselves, and thats why we have support ships.

Realistically though I suspect the "support ships" will be tailored for busy work just to keep the carriers lights on and not anything fun or meaningful...

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Completely unimaginable. No idea. If you're going to have to drop into an instance / signal source to see them not much?? They would have to be some sort of slf to do anything interesting.

 

[Speedcuffs]

You could be right, as I said man, I'm not to sure myself to be honest,

But I'm pretty sure that the very front of the carriers module, (the nose?) is quite different depending upon how its set up ie: Mining/bounty hunting.

The latter having more of a mega-type- ship shape.. Thingy. Lol

Where as the mining hull is more, idk umm industrial looking!
\\0//

I may be completely wrong though Cmdr, as I've not been on the forum much today,
And tbh I've only seen the same footage as yourself, but I'm sure all will become clear soon. (I hope lol) o7

If you've not read all the current carrier threads, you should be ashamed!

 

[[VR] Goooost]

I know it is early days, but why would we need a support ship for fleet carriers? Look at how big a fleet carrier is. Why do we need a puppy to follow it around? Why can't the fleet carrier change its appearance (similar to the support ship) depending on what task it does. Yes it might loose (or gain) the amount of landing pads depending on what it does, but that is what would make it more interesting (dare I say immersive) to have to make that choice and sacrifice?

As an alternative to losing/gaining landing pads, each fleet carrier could change in size depending on the role it would be chosen to do. There is no longer a restriction on ships size as there is no mail slot to deal with. Look at the mega ships we already have in game and how varied they look depending on the task they do. Why couldn't fleet carriers be like that? I just don't get the support ship idea. Will wait and see what Fdev have to say, just right now it makes no sense, and would think a fleet carrier on its own would be a nicer option. Would be interesting to hear what others think on this.

On a quick side note.....whatever happened to the dredging ships in the 2.4 beta? Will that make a comeback with fleet carriers? Can we become the sanitation department of the bubble? So many questions

The support ships look way better than the carriers, too. I think it should just be the support ship, ditch the carrier. The support ships could have one landing pad with multi-level docks underneath so you can fit the same number of ships with less pads.
The problem is they never made a focused feedback thread for the carriers so they really dont know what we were expecting.

 

[Cmdr_Ajay31091]

If you've not read all the current carrier threads, you should be ashamed!

I am, .. The head is hanging.... Lol

 

[[VR] Goooost]

Indeed. Been reading some of the posts and people seem to have two very different ideas on what it is. Some say it IS the Fleet carrier just reconfigured for the role it has been chosen (which is what i hope it will be), while others believe that it is a separate ship with some kind of support role.
Please Fdev could you clear this up in the next live stream?

It's definitely a separate ship that parks near the carrier. Probably just there for show.

 

[Stealthie]

The support ships look way better than the carriers, too. I think it should just be the support ship, ditch the carrier. The support ships could have one landing pad with multi-level docks underneath so you can fit the same number of ships with less pads.
The problem is they never made a focused feedback thread for the carriers so they really dont know what we were expecting.

This.

First time I watched the video, I saw the "Orbis" ship, the "Hammerhead" ship and the "rocket" ship and I thought they were suggesting Carriers were going to be like a "Build a Bear", where you could pick different components, depending on your intended purpose and what facilities you wanted, and your resultant Carrier could end up looking like one of the 3 different ships they showed.

The I realised that those ships don't have any visible landing pads so I'm assuming they're a completely separate ship.
Shame really because it'd be nice if we could customise our Carriers in various ways.

On the bright side, the fact that we have support ships as well as the actual Carrier would seem to suggest there's some extra gameplay attached to them.
I mean, if the Carrier just jumped you into a system and then you had to fetch fuel and provisions for it so you could jump again, you'd be able to do that with one of the regular ships you had aboard the Carrier.

TBH, I'm struggling to think of stuff (gameplay related) that you could do with a Support Ship that you couldn't just do with the Carrier itself.
Maybe the Carriers won't be able to move in-system so you'll always need to take a Support Ship to go and do stuff like mining or, erm, whatever and then the Support Ship will shuttle stuff back and forth to the Carrier.

From a development POV, it seems like a lot of extra game-assets and a lot of extra effort so there must be a pretty significant reason to include them.

 

[Cmdr Aeries Hunter]

This.

First time I watched the video, I saw the "Orbis" ship, the "Hammerhead" ship and the "rocket" ship and I thought they were suggesting Carriers were going to be like a "Build a Bear", where you could pick different components, depending on your intended purpose and what facilities you wanted, and your resultant Carrier could end up looking like one of the 3 different ships they showed.

The I realised that those ships don't have any visible landing pads so I'm assuming they're a completely separate ship.
Shame really because it'd be nice if we could customise our Carriers in various ways.

On the bright side, the fact that we have support ships as well as the actual Carrier would seem to suggest there's some extra gameplay attached to them.
I mean, if the Carrier just jumped you into a system and then you had to fetch fuel and provisions for it so you could jump again, you'd be able to do that with one of the regular ships you had aboard the Carrier.

TBH, I'm struggling to think of stuff (gameplay related) that you could do with a Support Ship that you couldn't just do with the Carrier itself.
Maybe the Carriers won't be able to move in-system so you'll always need to take a Support Ship to go and do stuff like mining or, erm, whatever and then the Support Ship will shuttle stuff back and forth to the Carrier.

From a development POV, it seems like a lot of extra game-assets and a lot of extra effort so there must be a pretty significant reason to include them.

Yes that was my first impression, that those are the ships a fleet carrier could be configured into. However it isn't clear and looks like it could also be a separate ship.

I'm beginning to be a little concerned that the devs are not on the same page as the players. Many people would like the Carrier to be modular like our current ships, but with a more specific task focus for each configuration like they showed in the trailer. I really can't see what a support ship would do, that the fleet carrier couldn't do on its own or as part of using your current ships that are stored aboard, especially once it has been configured to do a certain type of game play. It does indeed seem like a lot of extra work/assets for the devs for something better suited to just one ship. Making it modular could also add gameplay for players to work toward getting extra functionality to their carrier. If the support ship for example is for exploration, making it possible to buy/sell exploration data, sell exploration gear and so forth, why couldn't the carrier do that on its own, once you have unlocked/worked for/bought the exploration makeover kit and it could change the appearance of thew carrier as a result. Sigh.

I hope the devs have something really cool in mind, but fear they may have missed the mark in some way. Can't put my finger on what, just a hunch.

 

[Stealthie]

Making it modular could also add gameplay for players to work toward getting extra functionality to their carrier. If the support ship for example is for exploration, making it possible to buy/sell exploration data, sell exploration gear and so forth, why couldn't the carrier do that on its own, once you have unlocked/worked for/bought the exploration makeover kit and it could change the appearance of thew carrier as a result. Sigh.

I hope the devs have something really cool in mind, but fear they may have missed the mark in some way. Can't put my finger on what, just a hunch.

The scary part is, you just KNOW that there's going to be something cool about at least 2 of the different ship choices which will really make you wish they were modular so you could have all the good bits in one ship.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Maybe (I've got no real clue either) the support ship is the thing you use to gather the unique material to fuel the ship.

It would save FDev having to create another module (and all the issues around slot numbers/sizes).

 

[Stealthie]

Maybe (I've got no real clue either) the support ship is the thing you use to gather the unique material to fuel the ship.

It would save FDev having to create another module (and all the issues around slot numbers/sizes).

See, I wouldn't mind having to build a dedicated ship for gathering Carrier supplies/fuel.
To me (and my OCD) that's tidier than having a Carrier trundling along surrounded by Support ships.

Weird thing is, originally I seem to recall FDev rejecting the idea of CMDR-owned Carriers on the basis that having, potentially, 100,000 carriers punting around the galaxy would melt the servers.
Now it seems that not only are they okay with that but they're also down with the idea of doubling (at least) the amount of large assets that'll be trundling around the galaxy.
They must either have a very good reason for it or they've figured out some superb ways to minimise server load.

Or, on a slightly less optimistic note, they plan to set the price of Carriers so freaking high that they figure only an insignificant number of people will be able to buy them, thus minimising any additional server load.