[hypothetical] your specs for a bulk ship transporter.

[Flin]

With few poll on ship transport concluded, the though about what the specs for bulk ship transporter could be and the possibility to seeing them and interacting with them in the game.

The objective here is to realize or materialize an element of the game in ED universe that would be both consistent with the game world and also fun.

I think it would be:
* able to transport at least one or two largest playable ship.
* have decent jump range
* prioritized hull reinforcements over shields
* good fuel tanks
* packs defensive weapons
* standard design and behavior is to jump as far as you can, survive any attacks while FSD spools

Gameplay integration:
* could be just eye candy to admire near star ports like Long Range Cruisers of old.
* could be integrated with BGS to impact ships and parts availability if supply lines are disrupted

Just some quick thoughts.

What's your views?

 

[Ashnak]

Too small.

- should be able to carry at least four of the largest player ships
- either minimal survivable jump range (given the currently estimated transfer time) or a capital class ship hyperspace engine
- other stats similar to capital ships, i.e. essentially unkillable, minus guns and fighters
- powerful organization (one of the independents/Alliance?) behind it, so if you mess with one of them, you'll find out that that really wasn't a good idea. Think Wells Fargo in the 19th century.

 

[kofeyh]

Given the panther clipper was supposedly able to perform planetary bombardment and be virtually impregnable to weapons fire (lol good luck with that frontier!) I would expect the following:

• It's very, very big, think near space station big, room for dozens of large ships; it's bulk transport and those things only make money if they are gargantuan
• it's like a station, so virtually impervious to even class 4 weapons fire; there is no ganking this thing because even a majestic interdictor would struggle to down one
• won't be a player ship because the game engine literally cannot cope with something that big, actually dogfighting because everything must be able to dogfight in ED
• will be demanded as a player owned ship option the minute anything like this is added

Frankly at best we'd see some kind of thing similar to the large fleet ships. Wakes in next to the station, disgorges contents, a bunch of ships fly out to it and are parked & locked down, it wakes out again. It's plausible you could try and embargo a station by having a mechanic similar to the fleet ships (they run when the turrets are shot out) but it's effectively an oversized container ship.

Absolutely no relevance to the timers and delays, and I can't imagine actual commander ships could be carried (imagine outcry of insurance claims!) but would look cool and give some flavour to the whole ship transport concept.

 

[wenkman]

Too small.

- either minimal survivable jump range (given the currently estimated transfer time) or a capital class ship hyperspace engine

yeah that! able to travel to beagle point in 1 jump that takes like 4h and consumes 1million tons of fuel.

 

[mossfoot]

What about something like this?

 

[kofeyh]

yeah that! able to travel to beagle point in 1 jump that takes like 4h and consumes 1million tons of fuel.

Might end up somewhere else though. And then there will be confused people with ships that don't turn up and something about aliens singing. We know how that ended.

 

[wenkman]

yes, that too.

to finally be able to have hyperspace failures and see where all those missing ships went.


thinking about that: what if suddenly your drive fails, you start up the galaxy map and see your "you are here" pointer in one of the other galaxies in the background.

 

[kofeyh]

thinking about that: what if suddenly your drive fails, you start up the galaxy map and see your "you are here" pointer in one of the other galaxies in the background.

Please no. The game should be consistent from a ship usage perspective for players; I have no issue with some eye candy doing something a bit amusing, but players ships, not so much. There's doing things for reasons, and then doing things because you can (and not because you should). That sits squarely in the latter, imho.

A bit of flavour in transport ships jumping in and out and causing commanders to seek a new pair of pants the first couple of times would be cool. It's adding "life" to the galaxy; there's no way it should extend into actual game play and mechanics because it's just so ripe for abuse and would create endless frustration.

People have their delay. I think we can probably move on to more constructive improvements.

 

[Flin]

What about something like this?

http://wiki.alioth.net/img_auth.php/7/79/AnacondaCarrier5.png

Yeah, that looks like what I imagined.

I like to see big capital ship carriers, but I had imagine in the world of ED where independent pilots can compete with the larger fractions and corps simply because we are nimbler around galactic economics and politics.

So, having a place for independent pilots to provide point-to-point transports. Hence the smaller carriers.

The big ships are ~2,000t laden while FDL is ~400. So a small carrier with capacity for say 5000t can fit more than 10 FDL, volume not withstanding.

 

[Thetele]

Bulk ship doesn't need weapons. It would have own small living area, engines and fsd. The ship wouldn't have a lot of hull because it would be meaningless weight. It could be size of capital ship. Instead one big hull the bulk carrier would be like skeleton. And ships would be attached to that not inside in some kind of hangar. I mean something like ISS but bigger and ship just attached to main structure plus couple engines and big fsd.

 

[Armia]

I would very much like to see this in the future.

Possibility of larger vessels (albeit not flyable by players) that can dock side by side to stations has been always a thing.

 

[Flin]

I would very much like to see this in the future.

Possibility of larger vessels (albeit not flyable by players) that can dock side by side to stations has been always a thing.

In the early concept art for stations I recall something similar for shipyards. It also included shuttles and repair ships. So have high hopes for the incoming shipyards and associated background activity 'eye candy'

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Bulk ship doesn't need weapons. It would have own small living area, engines and fsd. The ship wouldn't have a lot of hull because it would be meaningless weight. It could be size of capital ship. Instead one big hull the bulk carrier would be like skeleton. And ships would be attached to that not inside in some kind of hangar. I mean something like ISS but bigger and ship just attached to main structure plus couple engines and big fsd.

Well ED is a dangerous world so instead of hulls it'll need large shields.

Appearance wise it could look like the Lynx transport.

 

[veryinky]

An outpost version of Station Construction. Take the thruster section, a few of those space station sized storage containers, a "loading dock" of about 10 large outpost style hangars, and a small crew section/bridge at the nose.

That'd fit the "Long Range Cruiser" slot from Elite 2. Found occasionaly at stations or as points of interest in systems.

Here's the old Elite 2 Lynx bulk freighter for inspiration:

How about medium+ security systems getting bulk tankers as refueling stations at their nav beacons, just landing pads that give no protection docking is instant and tosses you off automatically as it refuels you for 10x the cost of at a station. Tanker ships could show up as objectives in combat zones.

Destroy the tankership/bulk freighter or protect it to "win" the combat zone battle.

Game does need something between Battlecruiser and Corvette sized ships, there's a huge gap, and even if they're never player controlled frigate/destroyer/cruiser or light carrier or bulk freighter/tanker would add variety and life to the game. Especially if these things are destroyable as the Battlecruiser/Interdictor aren't. Those two big ship classes are made up of literally unique ships with dev picked names, can't kill them, but a nameless pirate operated bulk freighter forced into service as a combat ship? Nobody'll miss it.

Love the idea of a pirate base made from a bulk freighter, hidden inside an asteroid field so it only shows up if you surface scan it. And nobody surface scans asteroids.

Oh and bulk freighters should have company logos on the sides.

 

[Certacito]

I like the idea that when your ship is delivered, you should have to go out to it either by shuttle or if its big enough, in your ship launched fighter. Dock and you are away! Primarily, I was thinking along these lines because I can't think of many people who would want their prized Corvette navigating into the letter box on Docking Computer without them at the controls to stop it messing it up! (and the answer is no, before anybody asks, I don't have a docking computer on my prized Corvette!)

 

[Spacemarkl]

I imagine a guild heighliner... maybe a bit smaller.

 

[Seroto]

If they want a 'cheap' way of doing it - dev-time-wise - FD could just use the Ocellus starports.

It would be nice to see one of those moving in space, even if it's a bit too large for purpose...

 

[Lightspeed]

Anyone recall the cradle ship that was around the damaged Enterprise at the end of Star Trek: Nemesis? Something like that would be a simpler construct (a kind of skeletal structure).

 

[Phil^]

Should be the same size or larger than the lynx bulk carriers or long range cruiser from FE2

a 6000t, or 15000t payload - so divide by ship weight and send sufficient numbers of them to transport the ships it needs to

 

[jprelph]

Bulk ship doesn't need weapons. It would have own small living area, engines and fsd. The ship wouldn't have a lot of hull because it would be meaningless weight. It could be size of capital ship. Instead one big hull the bulk carrier would be like skeleton. And ships would be attached to that not inside in some kind of hangar. I mean something like ISS but bigger and ship just attached to main structure plus couple engines and big fsd.

That's what I imagined, maybe something like a massive space-version of the Skycrane ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_S-64_Skycrane ) where there's an engine, cockpit and room for cargo to be slung underneath. Give it a capital class FSD and ridiculous shields. I wouldn't bother with weapons although it could maybe deploy some fighters that were attached to it's surface.

 

[Hellhawk666]

If these things are supposedly waiting on standby to transport ships from anywhere to anywhere at a moment's notice then think small. It's an on-call commercial delivery service.

In relative terms it's less this:

Spoiler

more this:

Spoiler

or this:

Spoiler

and probably in several shapes and configurations, the biggest capable of carrying a few Anacondas.