Fleet Carriers, what do you want to see

[Wes_7569]

side note, was wondering if they are going to be like Capital Ships or Stations if they are attacked.
but for what I want to see, have squadron leaders assign goals like mini CGs but no time limit for building, collecting resources, or moving to another location. If at war or something it would only last as long as that is going on in the system.

 

[Wes_7569]

Just thought of another if they are still designing it still. Have launch bays or pads for the medium and small ships under it while the large ships have pads on top

 

[lenna]

Given past discussions on the Fleet Carriers, I would say they should not be introduced at all as either squadron or player owned/controlled assets... stick with the jurisdiction custodian based roaming Megaships we currently have and concentrate on ships we all may want to fly instead - for example: Panther Clipper.

 

[Chaparral]

I think the megaship asset moving on a tick is a terrible model. A Panther clipper with a few berths would be a better model imo.

 

[[VR] Goooost]

I imagine that the carriers could be more than just passive stations that can move every week. When controlling a carrier, you could be given an orrery map of the system that you are in, with markers for the various POIs (with maybe a scan limit of 100,000ls or so). A carrier could select any of these, and aid in player operations by dispatching limited numbers of NPCs or by using a small amount of fuel jumping to it directly in the same manner as a capital ship to any destination within a star's influence. Secondary stars would have to be jumped to using much more fuel and prep time for the jump (several hours so as to not ruin hutton orbital) and other systems would probably have to be done on a weekly basis through fleet goals of harvesting jump fuel.
Fleet carriers could contract directly with system minor factions to make whatever their current operation profitable, be it combat, or mining, or piracy. My intention is to make some of those activities massively profitable through faction contracts. Fleets would take on a percentage of ship insurance costs for their NPCs, so there is some risk in performing unsuccessful operations, and the carriers would have to have weaknesses just as capital ships do to add risk and prevent farming.
You can create squad goals to deliver materials to it for different end of the week functions like jumping, adding services, maybe aesthetics, so that eventually with a lot of work it can be as functional as a station. With enough work you can jump it out somewhere far away, and perhaps if enough fleets follow suit you could make a little bubble of sorts.
In order for us to effectively take them outside the bubble fdev would need to give us the ability to harvest and synthesize our own cargo. For example surface extractors, and for stuff like hydrogen fuel just let us scoop and turn it in.

 

[sandkid]

I just hope they don't look like existing non-combat mega-ships.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I like them...but they are very civilian and tubular. They don't look like what I'd imagine for a squadron of elite independent pilots. But hey, that's my lens. I guess if my squad was all traders, they would make sense.

I suppose what I'm suggesting is: I hope there are multiple models (even if there is no actual difference in stats/capabilities) to help fit the aesthetic and ethos of a given squad. Kind of like there aren't very many station variations, I'd hate to see squad carriers implemented and they all more or less look identical beyond a logo and name you can't see but up close.

 

[Chaparral]

If FDEV were willing to limit the asset presence to solo or PG, they could probably manage to have player-controlled real time movement of the asset. If it is also going to exist in open, then it has to be available to be updated in every player's instance, so making it appear would essentially require a full tick update. Personally, I'd rather have it limited to solo/pg so that I could drive the thing.

 

[Nadreck]

We've been told they will be upgradable, and the Gnosis has Universal Cartographics onboard, so I'm hoping that will be an available upgrade. A mobile base of operations for deep-space exploration.

Also handy if I want to operate from a system where there isn't a shipyard available, and still have several different ships to choose from. Of course this assumes we'll be given a way to load multiple ships onto our own Carriers, something not possible with the Gnosis unless you have multiple accounts (though I do currently have 3).

One interesting possibility is that Carriers might give us a new way of moving around, such as making a long voyage through hyperspace at ship-transfer speeds.

 

[VR CMDR Novindus]

I'd like them to have the ability to act as portable refuelling points, restocking points, outfitting points, and shipyards. Savvy leaders can stock them up and place them well to earn a profit for their squadron/group. There's little to no chance of that happening though.