I’ve been thinking about the interesting multi-purpose tools and one of the things I’d like to see is a new hanger for big ships available as a size 7 module. I’d call it a Shuttle-Craft Hangar because it would ideally not be combat support focused; I’d go so far to say shuttle-craft cannot be launched while in combat as that’s the role of SLF’s. Instead it would hold a smaller shuttlecraft for other uses. Big ships are great fun but there’s always that moment in the black or even in the bubble where you want to pilot something more agile; Ship Launched Fighters are OK, but their limited ranges are frustrating and leaves your ship in a lot of potential danger be it over planet surfaces or in combat zones. They are very much designed to be used in conjunction with a combat focused mothership in combat situations. Shuttle-craft would be used independently from the mothership for alternative or complementary uses. It’d also make low-tier ships still relevant and most importantly useful once you own the bigger ships and allow for more mixed playstyles.
Imagine being able to take a smaller ship like a Sidewinder with its own loadout and being able to dismiss the mothership and then mess around on a planet or even explore a system with the shuttle-craft before docking back at the mothership and jumping to your next destination. You could even carry a dedicated bounty-hunting vessel to mix things up between doing other jobs in a non-combat outfitted mothership. Maybe you want to take your heavily engineered Imperial Eagle canyon runner on your deep space exploration. Perhaps you don’t want to land your big ship to go SRV exploring or just need a break from the sluggish supercruise handling of the mothership while scanning those ELW’s on the other side of the galaxy. Maybe use one as a cargo shuttle to deliver missions to stations without a large pad?
So how would this actually work? You’d equip the Shuttle-Craft Hangar just like you do the current SLF Hangar. From there you assign a ship that you own (or buy one from the stations shipyard directly from the outfitting screen) that is small enough to fit in the hangar. The size of the module dictates the laden weight of ship that can be stored in it, so being only available at Size 7 means that the maximum laden build would be 128T to match an equivalent cargo rack. That’s enough for a Hauler, Sidewinder, Adder, Imperial Courier, (Imperial) Eagle, or Viper! Only one ship may be stored, and like SRV’s they don’t have rebuilds stored on the ship. Once they’re gone, they’re gone until restocked/bought. It’d be set-up exactly the same way your current builds are with one restriction; no witch-space jumps (admittedly making the FSD useless). You can explore the entirety of a system but you must recall and board the mothership to wake out. You can upgrade and engineer any hangered shuttle-craft in your current ship as normal through a sub-menu in the outfitting/engineering screens.
Launching a shuttle-craft would only be available when in open normal space, so not in supercruise or when landed/too close to a planet; basically the same rules as an SLF. Going to supercruise or exceeding a distance from the mothership in the shuttle-craft would dismiss the ship ala SRV dismissal. To recall the mothership the same parameters apply so you’d need to get away or attain a suitable altitude from a planet and/or drop out of supercruise to recall it. You would see your mothership wake in and prepare for your arrival.
If your assigned shuttle-craft gets destroyed you will be back in the mothership just like when an SRV is destroyed. To get a destroyed ship back use the restock option at a station to pay for the rebuy (same value as it would have been had you been in the ship independently) similar to restocking destroyer SRV’s. If your mothership gets destroyed the rebuy includes the cost of the rebuy of the shuttle-craft. If your shuttle-craft includes an SRV and it is destroyed then the restock option when docked in the mothership automatically includes the shuttle-craft’s SRV.
When in a shuttle-craft scan data, bounty tickets, fines, etc are synchronised to the mothership. Cargo and SRV’s (if the mothership has an SRV bay itself) can be transferred from mothership to shuttle-craft and back as needed.
So what do you guys think? Am I on my own here or is this actually an interesting idea?
Imagine being able to take a smaller ship like a Sidewinder with its own loadout and being able to dismiss the mothership and then mess around on a planet or even explore a system with the shuttle-craft before docking back at the mothership and jumping to your next destination. You could even carry a dedicated bounty-hunting vessel to mix things up between doing other jobs in a non-combat outfitted mothership. Maybe you want to take your heavily engineered Imperial Eagle canyon runner on your deep space exploration. Perhaps you don’t want to land your big ship to go SRV exploring or just need a break from the sluggish supercruise handling of the mothership while scanning those ELW’s on the other side of the galaxy. Maybe use one as a cargo shuttle to deliver missions to stations without a large pad?
So how would this actually work? You’d equip the Shuttle-Craft Hangar just like you do the current SLF Hangar. From there you assign a ship that you own (or buy one from the stations shipyard directly from the outfitting screen) that is small enough to fit in the hangar. The size of the module dictates the laden weight of ship that can be stored in it, so being only available at Size 7 means that the maximum laden build would be 128T to match an equivalent cargo rack. That’s enough for a Hauler, Sidewinder, Adder, Imperial Courier, (Imperial) Eagle, or Viper! Only one ship may be stored, and like SRV’s they don’t have rebuilds stored on the ship. Once they’re gone, they’re gone until restocked/bought. It’d be set-up exactly the same way your current builds are with one restriction; no witch-space jumps (admittedly making the FSD useless). You can explore the entirety of a system but you must recall and board the mothership to wake out. You can upgrade and engineer any hangered shuttle-craft in your current ship as normal through a sub-menu in the outfitting/engineering screens.
Launching a shuttle-craft would only be available when in open normal space, so not in supercruise or when landed/too close to a planet; basically the same rules as an SLF. Going to supercruise or exceeding a distance from the mothership in the shuttle-craft would dismiss the ship ala SRV dismissal. To recall the mothership the same parameters apply so you’d need to get away or attain a suitable altitude from a planet and/or drop out of supercruise to recall it. You would see your mothership wake in and prepare for your arrival.
If your assigned shuttle-craft gets destroyed you will be back in the mothership just like when an SRV is destroyed. To get a destroyed ship back use the restock option at a station to pay for the rebuy (same value as it would have been had you been in the ship independently) similar to restocking destroyer SRV’s. If your mothership gets destroyed the rebuy includes the cost of the rebuy of the shuttle-craft. If your shuttle-craft includes an SRV and it is destroyed then the restock option when docked in the mothership automatically includes the shuttle-craft’s SRV.
When in a shuttle-craft scan data, bounty tickets, fines, etc are synchronised to the mothership. Cargo and SRV’s (if the mothership has an SRV bay itself) can be transferred from mothership to shuttle-craft and back as needed.
So what do you guys think? Am I on my own here or is this actually an interesting idea?
Last edited:
