Mega Ships

[Jonesy42]

So basically:

Be able to own:

Ship	Superpower	Requirements	Usage	Services
Farragut Battle Cruiser	Federation	Rank - Admiral |+| Credits	Mobile command base / Combat vessel / Mobile Starport	Landing pad / Refitting services / Ship launched fighter pads / little cargo space / small discovery scanner / Alot weapons / Module storage / Ship storage / Reload services
Majestic Class Interdictor	Empire	Rank - King |+| Credits	Mobile command base / Combat vessel / Mobile Starport	Landing pad / Refitting services / Ship launched fighter pads / little cargo space / Interdiction ability (duh) / Alot weapons / Module storage / Ship storage / Reload services
Bulk Cargo Ship	None	Credits	Hauler	Landing pad / Cargo transfer hatch / Massive ammounts of cargo space / little weapons / Refuel services
Dregder	None	Trade Rank - Elite |+| Credits	Miner / Mobile base	Landing pad / Cargo transfer hatch / Lots of cargo space / little weapons / Ship storage / Repair/Refuel services
Science Vessel	None	Exploration Rank - Elite |+| Credits	Explorer / Mobile base	Landing pad / Advanced system scanners / little weapons / Ship storage / Module storage / Repair services / Refuel Services / Reload services
Tourist Vessel	None	Credits	Passenger Hauler / Mobile base	Landing pad / Passenger cabins / Repair services
Carrier	None	Combat Rank - Elite |+| Credits	Mobile base / Combat vessel	Landing pads / refitting services / a bit more than little weapons / Module storage / Ship storage / Refuel services / Repair services / Reload services
Wells-Class Carrier	None	Combat Rank - Elite |+| Exploration Rank - Elite |+| Credits	Mobile base / Combat vessel / Mobile Starport	Landing pads / refitting services / a bit more than little weapons / Module storage / Ship storage / Refuel services / Repair services / Reload services / medium cargo space / Discovery scanners

So how does it work?
First of all:
You do not need any crew, everything done by machines (hiring crew would be way too expensive).

You need to pay a start fee, different for each ship.
However, you can then as construction progresses bring materials & ressources to lower the costs of building & Increase build time.
There could be like 3 building stages or 4.

1. Building skeleton
2. Building inertal systems
3. Choosing modules / services & building them in
4. Building Hull

How do they move?:

From system to system with the nice capital ship warp, they can drop out wherever you want in a system. If you have discovered the system you can choose the location. Around stellar objects you can then choose a more precise location.
Inside systems they will fly well pretty slow. Unless stelar objects are locked, then they will enter some sort of slow super cruise.

You can not control them, you only tell them where to go. Also possible if you are docked on the ship.

Why different ships?:
All ships have (probably) different jump ranges so depending on what you want to do, you have to switch ships.

The Hauler well, exceeds at hauling cargo. Either good for alot of cargo runs & community goals.
Dredger flies near asteroid fiels and collects all sorts of ressources (if there's a hotspot it will collect more of those).
Science Vessel is for exploring stuff
Tourist vessel if you really like to haul alot of tourists at once
Carrier well.. carrier?
Wells-Class carrier is a good allrounder, mobile base, carrier and perhaps explorer if fitted with right modules.

Farragut Battle cruiser - For battle or mobile bases, whatever youw ant
Majesit Class interdictor - Same as Farragut, just not as good in combat. However it is faster than the Farragut and can interdict oder megaships in witchspace and interdict all ships that come too close to it while the interdictor is activated. It creates a exclusion zone. (This does not work near starports).

Destruction?
I personally say no. They should just jump out like the current battle cruisers do when they are under attack. Why? Well, when you have one you probably grinded for alot of time. Losing that would be well.. You know pretty bad.

Anything I forgot?
Anything you disagree with? Write it in the replies.

 

[RELSPI]

The expenses for these ships are undoubtedly so colossal we'd probably need trillionaires to even make them plausible. Just look how much bigger than a Corvette the Farragut is, and consider that cost generally grows exponentially with size.

 

[Northpin]

Anything I forgot?

yes, pvp-ers will want megaship battles.
then someone will find a loophole and an z-95 eagle will manage to nuke down a megaship.
everyone at fdev will dry out under the salt avalanche.

 

[Berpol]

Anything I forgot? Write it in the replies.

The Alliance is missing it's own capital ship.

 

[Jonesy42]

yes, pvp-ers will want megaship battles.
then someone will find a loophole and an z-95 eagle will manage to nuke down a megaship.
everyone at fdev will dry out under the salt avalanche.

Ah yes. I forgot to mention that these ship should just jump out - like the current megaships if they are on low health.

The Alliance is missing it's own capital ship.

This is about using exsiting megaships, not adding new ones. I don't really know the Alliance so I don't know if they need one or not.

 

[Jonesy42]

Bump

 

[varonica]

Bump

Rule 8;

8) Refrain from bumping or hijacking threads.

While you may feel strongly about it, the fact you have had very little response to the idea probably means there is very little interest.

Ah yes. I forgot to mention that these ship should just jump out - like the current megaships if they are on low health.

Personally I would be strongly against any player owned assets that are essentially indestructible.

 

[dxm55]

Personally I would be strongly against any player owned assets that are essentially indestructible.

U mean fleet carriers?

 

[varonica]

U mean fleet carriers?

That's a bit of a misleading point because a fleet carrier can't be owned by a single player, it's a group asset, it's also a permanent in game asset, in other words I expect fleet carriers, even when all the players who have a share in it log out, will still remain in game in it's last location, so having it indestructible would be necessary because it will often be undefended.

The OP's proposal also includes thing like switching ships, as we do with our current ships, so that's not the same as a fleet carrier. The fleet carrier I expect will operate more in the way the gnosis works, however the player in control at the time will have direct control over the destination and when to jump rather than having to wait for FDEV to move it each week.

So yes I am against player owned, indestructible mega-ships because that removes some of the dynamics of the game, purchase, insurance, rebuy, whereas with the fleet carrier we are still tied in to that mechanic because we all still have to fly around in our own ships.

 

[Jonesy42]

That's a bit of a misleading point because a fleet carrier can't be owned by a single player, it's a group asset, it's also a permanent in game asset, in other words I expect fleet carriers, even when all the players who have a share in it log out, will still remain in game in it's last location, so having it indestructible would be necessary because it will often be undefended.

The OP's proposal also includes thing like switching ships, as we do with our current ships, so that's not the same as a fleet carrier. The fleet carrier I expect will operate more in the way the gnosis works, however the player in control at the time will have direct control over the destination and when to jump rather than having to wait for FDEV to move it each week.

So yes I am against player owned, indestructible mega-ships because that removes some of the dynamics of the game, purchase, insurance, rebuy, whereas with the fleet carrier we are still tied in to that mechanic because we all still have to fly around in our own ships.

Its the same concept as the fleet carriers.
You can move it whenever you have enough ressources to move it, not until FDev decides to move it.

 

[MK Regular]

This is very similar to the idea behind fleet carriers, just with the ability for single players to participate instead of being limited to groups of players. I think it would probably be easier for FDev to use the same system as fleet carriers for any megaship owned by a single player.

On the subject of being able to buy a Farragut or Majestic, I don't think any self-respecting navy would EVER sell a multi-trillion dollar capital ship (my estimates put the hull of each ship at ~333 billion CR or ~16.7 trillion USD, not including any subsystems) to a random person with very little social, political or economic influence. That said, I think that they may consider selling a capital ship to a group of people that have officially aligned themselves to an allied faction with influence over an area of space.

As for only being able to purchase one of the pre-existing classes of megaships, I think that this would be give unnecessary limitations to what a player-owned megaship or fleet carrier could do. I would much rather have a modular system where players buy a standard megaship/fleet carrier frame that could be expanded on by purchasing additional modules (cargo pods, scanners, shipyard/outfitting, defensive measures etc...) to suit the players' requirements.