I didn't really use a FC until the Trailblazers update and I will never get rid of it. It makes everything so much easier, and once I made about 15 jumps with a carrier, I realized the potential (slow learner). I have 2 carriers with 30 ships on each. Right now they are barebones to fit 25k cargo - building an orbis is a major endeavour.
I have had no difficulty using fleet carrirers, no problem scheduling jumps and no problems planning my play around variable jump times even at the peak of the first week of trailblazers. An hour and 15 minutes is perfect to haul thousands of tons of cargo to the carrier before the jump. If you are just waiting around for the jump, I think you are doing it wrong. I finish up hauling before the carrier lockdown and dock. Then I go get a snack and stretch my legs. When I get back, my carrier is in the new system and I get right back to it.
As for upkeep, irrelevant since exobiology became a thing. I have a decade worth of upkeep already paid for. That is a decade in real life... I don't need any credits for my carriers until 2035. And that is if I make no credits between now and then.
Sure the game can be maddening but that is what makes it so addicting for me. This game is a problem solvers paradise. So many problems everywhere you look!
I have had no difficulty using fleet carrirers, no problem scheduling jumps and no problems planning my play around variable jump times even at the peak of the first week of trailblazers. An hour and 15 minutes is perfect to haul thousands of tons of cargo to the carrier before the jump. If you are just waiting around for the jump, I think you are doing it wrong. I finish up hauling before the carrier lockdown and dock. Then I go get a snack and stretch my legs. When I get back, my carrier is in the new system and I get right back to it.
As for upkeep, irrelevant since exobiology became a thing. I have a decade worth of upkeep already paid for. That is a decade in real life... I don't need any credits for my carriers until 2035. And that is if I make no credits between now and then.
Sure the game can be maddening but that is what makes it so addicting for me. This game is a problem solvers paradise. So many problems everywhere you look!