More ships from old games!
- Thread starter Foopster
- Start date
Clipper is the imperial trader.
It's been often suggested. Based on previous polls and threads, the most commonly requested are:
Many of the other ships that were often on the "please give us the old ships" list have already been given to us: the Krait and the Mamba, most noticeably, though their ED size, appearance and function are radically different than the legacy designs.
And yes, the Imperial Clipper is called the "Imperial trader" in-house at FD, and in some of the game files visible to players. I know, it's missing the third dorsal nacelle that gave the Trader its unique appearance. They've decided that "all Imperial/Gutamaya ships have twin nacelles now".
- Panther Clipper
- Moray Starboat
- Imperial Explorer (if not the "Actual" FFE Imperial Explorer, then an Imperial designed-for-exploration ship of some kind)
- Worm shuttlecraft (assuming we could use it like an SLF to dock at Outposts while flying a big ship)
- Constrictor
- Quest class a.k.a. Turner class, like the Turner's Quest and Argent's Quest from the FFE storyline, with the wiggly tails.
Many of the other ships that were often on the "please give us the old ships" list have already been given to us: the Krait and the Mamba, most noticeably, though their ED size, appearance and function are radically different than the legacy designs.
And yes, the Imperial Clipper is called the "Imperial trader" in-house at FD, and in some of the game files visible to players. I know, it's missing the third dorsal nacelle that gave the Trader its unique appearance. They've decided that "all Imperial/Gutamaya ships have twin nacelles now".
Don't forget the Boa and the Tiger Trader!
It was never a particularly good ship and the T-7 is already filling its niche in Elite Dangerous [1], but the Lion Trader from FE2/FFE looks pretty much exactly like a Zorgon Peterson heavy trader would.
Bringing back the Osprey X from FFE, but giving it the Mamba treatment and sizing it up to Medium, to give the Empire some sort of tanky heavy fighter for CZs, might be a good idea.
[1] A problem with a lot of the ships - they'd just be largely cosmetic variations on a ship which already exists, but without the Fed/Alliance/Krait-series advantage of looking like that existing ship and therefore being quicker to model/paint. Moray when we get water worlds is an obvious exception.
Bringing back the Osprey X from FFE, but giving it the Mamba treatment and sizing it up to Medium, to give the Empire some sort of tanky heavy fighter for CZs, might be a good idea.
[1] A problem with a lot of the ships - they'd just be largely cosmetic variations on a ship which already exists, but without the Fed/Alliance/Krait-series advantage of looking like that existing ship and therefore being quicker to model/paint. Moray when we get water worlds is an obvious exception.
That's true but you could say that about many of the current ships too. The Eagle mk2 and Imperial eagle aren't THAT different
Sure, but they look similar - there's 38 ships, but only 25 substantially different hulls once you say "Eagle ~ Imperial Eagle" and "T6 ~ Keelback" and so on - but generally the similar-looking ones also fill roughly the same niche.
There isn't a lot of what there was in FFE (and especially FFE over FE2) of completely different-looking ships which basically do the same thing. And that'd certainly be nice to have for visual variety ... but with so many other parts of the game where the lack of visual variety also means a lack of gameplay variety (SRVs, capital ships, stations) it's understandable if Frontier want the Panther Clipper to be more than "a T-9, but longer, thinner and with an extra internal", for example.
It is now. It was probably tied with the Krait, up until they re-introduced the Krait.
I'd have said Clipper is the old Courier and Cutter is the Trader
You could say that, but when the files weren't encrypted that was how they were clearly label in the game folders.
I'd still agree with Gauntlet on how they match up with old games, in spite of the filenames.
I'd love to see a three-nacelle Gutamaya ship, though. The best two roles would be a dedicated imperial explorer or something fitting the FdL/Mamba niche- a medium ship carrying a huge hardpoint.
In the latter case, though, Imperial ships are noted for straight line speed and shields, so I don't know exactly what would differentiate it from its counterparts besides looking like the Liberator from Blakes 7. Tweak it to perfection for piracy and call it the iCorsair?
I'd love to see a three-nacelle Gutamaya ship, though. The best two roles would be a dedicated imperial explorer or something fitting the FdL/Mamba niche- a medium ship carrying a huge hardpoint.
In the latter case, though, Imperial ships are noted for straight line speed and shields, so I don't know exactly what would differentiate it from its counterparts besides looking like the Liberator from Blakes 7. Tweak it to perfection for piracy and call it the iCorsair?