MOAR SMALLS

[N124Hawk]

So, so far, the mediums ships are FAR more numerous. And the imperials are so far the only superpower to offer a small ship. So here's a few ideas.

FEDERAL INTERCEPTOR
Imagine if the viper MkIII and eagle had a baby. Good speed, and insane maneuverability. 2 medium hardpoints and one large. Decent shields and armour, but not enough to rely on in a fight. Relatively long legs for a fighter. Made by Core Dynamics.

ALLIANCE SCORPION
Basically a downsized chief. Hybrid hull/shield tank. 3 small hardpoints, 2 medium. Decent speed and agility. Made by lakon (obviously)

ZORGON PETERSON MAMBA LIGHT
This concept has appeared in a leak detailed by CMDR Exigeous, but I'd like to speculate. A small ship that's basically a downsized mamba/FDL. 2 large hardpoints, 3 small. Poor agility made up for with good straight line speed, and strong shields.

 

[here_it_comes]

I'd like to see more small ships too, but hardpoint layout is tricky to do with them without stepping on toes. There's already plenty of 2M 2S, and 3M is kinda the Courier's thing. The layout that could be added and be fresh is all Small hardpoints (5 or 6), or heavy on smalls like 3/4S 1M . 2M 3S would work and provide an alternative to the Cobra mKIV, but would have to be sluggish for a small and likely wouldn't be popular because of this. Those would stay within the realm of Small ship firepower and allow new possibilities without stepping on toes.

Large should be reserved for Vulture imo. 2M 1L is just flat-out superior to 2L unless you want dual Pacs/APA. 2L 3S is just obscene; triple Cytos and dual Pacs on a small ship? Absolutely insane. You're talking 1M away from a full Chieftain offense.

 

[Craith]

As much as I like small ships, the above sound more like mediums in disguise. Making small ships like mediums does tackle the problems of small ships.

I think making small hardpoints more useful would go a long way in that regard, currently options are quite limited here (cytoscramblers + some module killer, mostly, although retributors work well too). Shield bloat is one problem, shield cells require you to have a rail to counter, and small ships can't (and shouldn't) overpower the regeneration. I currently outlast them in conflict zones and switch target, since the ammo efficiency of rails is not good enough for prolonged combat. DPS is fine for small ships (don't run pulse turrets though), but total damage potential is to low (when you run out of ammo after one or two ships with many loadouts)

limited utilities is another problem, all combat ships should at least have 2 utilities (it is even modeled in the eagle at least).

If smalls would have some benefits from stealth (shorter distance to show up as a resolved contact, disappearing when out of sight, like in CQC) they'd have a more defined role in conflicts.

 

[Gleitfrosch]

The problem with small ships is, many would try them because they are new and soon after mothball them and retun to their old ships.
Small ships are curretly mostly useless except for a few use cases like canyon racing. Even a newbie can easily earn enough money within a short time to jump directly to medium or even big ships.

 

[Achtung-Goomba]

Even a newbie can easily earn enough money within a short time to jump directly to medium or even big ships.

And then jump back down again when they realise that credits are meaningless and that small ships can be jolly good fun to fly

 

[GJ51]

First - let's get the missing Gutamaya and Saud Kruger Medium sized ships...

 

[N124Hawk]

As much as I like small ships, the above sound more like mediums in disguise. Making small ships like mediums does tackle the problems of small ships.

I think making small hardpoints more useful would go a long way in that regard, currently options are quite limited here (cytoscramblers + some module killer, mostly, although retributors work well too). Shield bloat is one problem, shield cells require you to have a rail to counter, and small ships can't (and shouldn't) overpower the regeneration. I currently outlast them in conflict zones and switch target, since the ammo efficiency of rails is not good enough for prolonged combat. DPS is fine for small ships (don't run pulse turrets though), but total damage potential is to low (when you run out of ammo after one or two ships with many loadouts)

limited utilities is another problem, all combat ships should at least have 2 utilities (it is even modeled in the eagle at least).

If smalls would have some benefits from stealth (shorter distance to show up as a resolved contact, disappearing when out of sight, like in CQC) they'd have a more defined role in conflicts.

Look, my solution would be a small hardpoint plasma weapon. Or make shock cannons live up to expectations/stated purpose and turn them into plasma weapons... Especially since they literally have plasma written on the gun itself

 

[gorankar]

And then jump back down again when they realise that credits are meaningless and that small ships can be jolly good fun to fly

They are great fun to fly, but I always find myself back in a medium to get anything done that does not involve a narrow canyon.

 

[Sybine]

When gimballed/turreted weapons encounter some failures aiming small ships (as it should be) people will jump into small ships again. Love them, but totally useless the way weapons work on big ships (plus these big ships turns fast, so you can always face the small ones practically). Frontier uses small ships as credit progression, not as role ships, and this is Frontier´s biggest mistake for me. Big ships should be tanks, but sooo slow that small ships can evade it. I assume a small ship can´t damage the shield of a big ship, and if the small one can damage it, the big one can use fighter deployment to countermeasure. Today the game works like killing mosquitos with bazookas.

 

[Northpin]

I approve moar smalls

They could start giving Cobra Mk4 to everyone
Aaand maybe do a really tiny slight adjustment to T6 height so it can actually land on small pads *()

*(yea, T6 is a really small ship, but a bit too tall for small pads, pretty much like T7 is a really medium ship, but a bit too tall for medium pads.)

 

[Ashnak]

FEDERAL INTERCEPTOR
Imagine if the viper MkIII and eagle had a baby. Good speed, and insane maneuverability. 2 medium hardpoints and one large. Decent shields and armour, but not enough to rely on in a fight. Relatively long legs for a fighter. Made by Core Dynamics.

2M 1L: Diamondback Explorer. Could be rescaled to a combat ship. Reduce FSD and fuel tank to size 4, in exchange convert one of the size 4 slots to size 5 for a decent shield.

ALLIANCE SCORPION
Basically a downsized chief. Hybrid hull/shield tank. 3 small hardpoints, 2 medium. Decent speed and agility. Made by lakon (obviously)

3S 2M: that's a Cobra Mk.IV. A similar spec'd ship as an Alliance build for the masses? Why not? Remove some of the optinal slots to give it a larger PD.

ZORGON PETERSON MAMBA LIGHT
This concept has appeared in a leak detailed by CMDR Exigeous, but I'd like to speculate. A small ship that's basically a downsized mamba/FDL. 2 large hardpoints, 3 small. Poor agility made up for with good straight line speed, and strong shields.

No can do. 2L (in the Vulture) or 2M/1L (in the DBX) is the upper end for a small ship. 1L/3S should be doable.

 

[Ashnak]

They could start giving Cobra Mk4 to everyone

No. I don't have one - but the Quattro was given out as a unique gift, and FD should stay true to their promise.
Instead, have someone else build a ship with similar specs - Alliance may be a good choice. Although, instead of making it a kin to the Chieftain series, I'd prefer it to be a downscaled Krait.

 

[Chrystoph]

Let's be honest here, there are 2 reasons for small ships:

• They are cheap and cost effective for NPCs to fly in wings (one combat fitted Anaconda = a couple of hundred Eagles)
• It allowed a financial incentive progress ladder when the game was young

Honestly, you should see almost nothing from Security except Smalls in a Low RES.

 

[CMDR Yates]

They need to add more reasons to use small ships.

Odyssey seems to do so, a bit. I think some settlements are small pad only, and rough terrain makes landing in larger ships tricky and gives small ships a very slight advantage there...

But if there was stuff like ruined old starports to fight inside, a lot more combat and other tasks around installations with tight spaces and internal areas, better enemy AI that actually uses cover and will draw you into enclosed areas, then that would give small ships more of a strength, and might go some way towards making it viable to have high-end, expensive small ships.

But even if the small ships weren't actually competitive, it would be good to have more of them just to add back that sense of scale for the larger ships when flying around stations etc.