Lander Launcher?

Jaxran

J
I had this strange brain worm while at work thinking on exploration outfitting for a potential early-Odyssey exploration endeavor, and I thought about how difficult it is to land on high-G planets even in small ships.

From that, I started thinking 'Would it be possible to implement a low-mass lander craft that you launch like a fighter from Orbital Cruise?' I figured this would make High-G planets more accessible, especially if they can deploy their own SRVs. The concept would be that the lander wouldn't be able to leave Orbital Cruise altitudes, but would instead have to re-dock with your ship in orbit, dropping in on it like you might a station.

I know it's probably too much to ask, but a thought that I still wanted to put out there, if someone hasn't already.
 

Achtung-Goomba

Achtung-Goomba
skananote said:
I have to say that I like this idea. For now I avoid high G planets like a plague...
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I like high-G planets because I can pretend it’s my animal magnetism pulling the planet closer.

But seriously, an orbital shuttle or lander would give me a fun reason to look at lorge ships. It doesn’t even have to carry an SRV... but maybe it transforms into one! A man can dream...
 

Exeider

Exeider
So something like in the first mass effect where you got jettisoned out the Normandy's bay and then hard landed on the planets. I always loved that.
 

Jaxran

J
Exeider said:
So something like in the first mass effect where you got jettisoned out the Normandy's bay and then hard landed on the planets. I always loved that.
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That's more of an aerial drop, but yeah, that was still fun.

I'm thinking more along the lines of dropping from Supercruise at Orbital Cruise altitudes and then launching a lander from the same port as a fighter bay that can Supercruise and Glide the rest of the way to the surface. So an orbital deployment.
 

Exeider

Exeider
Jaxran said:
That's more of an aerial drop, but yeah, that was still fun.

I'm thinking more along the lines of dropping from Supercruise at Orbital Cruise altitudes and then launching a lander from the same port as a fighter bay that can Supercruise and Glide the rest of the way to the surface. So an orbital deployment.
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So basically a sidewinder with a supercruise only drive and an SRV. That would be pretty cool actually and it would give sidewinders a use for owners of larger ships.
 

Jaxran

J
Exeider said:
So basically a sidewinder with a supercruise only drive and an SRV. That would be pretty cool actually and it would give sidewinders a use for owners of larger ships.
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skananote said:
I was always wondering why you can not park Sidewinder in those larger ships. There is plenty of space in them by the look of things. That would be very useful...
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That would be interesting, but I think a little too much to expect. More along the line of thinking that you'd have landers with standard loadouts, or at least different designs.

I would love to fit this sort of thing onto an explorer-fit Type-10. Because good luck getting that monster up off of a high-G planet.
 

Chrystoph

Chrystoph
The lore behind the FSD is that it is not actually One drive, but rather a suite of drives, so it would make sense to have a vessel that lacked the Witchspace module if you weren't looking for an Interstellar ship.

That would also explain the Orbital Cruise differentiation:
  • Stage One FSD - Sub-Orbital
  • Stage Two - Orbital Cruise
  • Stage Three - FTL
  • Stage Four - Witchspace
 

Jaxran

J
Chrystoph said:
The lore behind the FSD is that it is not actually One drive, but rather a suite of drives, so it would make sense to have a vessel that lacked the Witchspace module if you weren't looking for an Interstellar ship.

That would also explain the Orbital Cruise differentiation:
  • Stage One FSD - Sub-Orbital
  • Stage Two - Orbital Cruise
  • Stage Three - FTL
  • Stage Four - Witchspace
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Exactly this. The landing craft would have the first two stages, allowing it to use both sub-orbital and orbital cruise FSD so that it could take off and relocate to a different part of the same planet, but would need to link up with it's mothership in orbit in order to completely leave the planet's orbit. It would limit your nav options like it does in the SRV to pre-scanned locations planetside, as well as the mothership's current orbit so you can drop in on it to redock.
 

CMDR Deano The Imperial

CMDR Deano The Imperial
Jaxran said:
I had this strange brain worm while at work thinking on exploration outfitting for a potential early-Odyssey exploration endeavor, and I thought about how difficult it is to land on high-G planets even in small ships.

From that, I started thinking 'Would it be possible to implement a low-mass lander craft that you launch like a fighter from Orbital Cruise?' I figured this would make High-G planets more accessible, especially if they can deploy their own SRVs. The concept would be that the lander wouldn't be able to leave Orbital Cruise altitudes, but would instead have to re-dock with your ship in orbit, dropping in on it like you might a station.

I know it's probably too much to ask, but a thought that I still wanted to put out there, if someone hasn't already.
Click to expand...
Reported for having a sensible idea. Something unheard of here on the forums. ;)

But seriously that sounds great. The closest thing in game at the moment is to launch a Dolphin from a Carrier and land on an high-G world and then launch the SRV.

I suggest that the lander should be able to leave orbital cruise and land or why call it a lander in the first place. Besides, I don't think an SRV would survive the drop from orbital cruise on high-g worlds. It would be like dropping a glass anvil from the top of a 10 mile high skyscraper to the street below. The lander should be able to land to safely deploy the SRV.
As for the Lander, it probably shouldn't be much bigger than a SLF so it could be stored in an hangar bay on your main ship.
 

Jaxran

J
CMD Deano The Imperial said:
Reported for having a sensible idea. Something unheard of here on the forums. ;)

But seriously that sounds great. The closest thing in game at the moment is to launch a Dolphin from a Carrier and land on an high-G world and then launch the SRV.

I suggest that the lander should be able to leave orbital cruise and land or why call it a lander in the first place. Besides, I don't think an SRV would survive the drop from orbital cruise on high-g worlds. It would be like dropping a glass anvil from the top of a 10 mile high skyscraper to the street below. The lander should be able to land to safely deploy the SRV.
As for the Lander, it probably shouldn't be much bigger than a SLF so it could be stored in an hangar bay on your main ship.
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That's what I mean, it would be a landing craft that you launch like an SLF, but of course it would be much bigger, both to house a basic FSD and an SRV that comes standard. What you'd do is you'd drop out of Supercruise in your mothership at Orbital Cruise altitudes, launch the Lander, lander uses Supercruise to finish the approach and the Glide sequences, lands, and then you disembark from there. Would also be very useful for when you want to walk around once Odyssey hits.

Plus how inconsiderate would it be for someone to land their gigantic ship at a walk-in settlement and take up all the good parking?
 

Azmuth Divarchchron

Azmuth Divarchchron
+1 a method of exploring high g worlds and potentially getting better rewards like diamonds due to high pressures on the planet at risk of encountering dangerous terrain or other hazards
 
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