New ship: Panther Clipper

[Silaz Carbryck]

I only saw the news on The Burr Pit last night, and there was no mention of how many Utility mounts there are. Does anyone know this? Or is it just something that no-one knows yet? I'm probably still going to want to utilise one of the Class 6 compartments for a Prismatic, as I don't think my class 5 Prismatic is going to work, and I wouldn't mind knowing how much power I'm going to need to get a decent enough amount of sheilds from my boosters, and whether there will be enough mounts for a couple of PDT's as well, like on my Cutter.

If the PP is as large as that then it's looking positive that there will be the full eight Utility mounts, not just four or six. That's my hope, but does anyone know for sure?

 

[Rubbernuke]

If a Chieftain ate all the pies.
I'm happy with it's cargo capacity...looking forward to flying it.

Yes, and no. The rear Chieftain legs yes, but the PC is more like

 

[DjVortex]

SCO optimised will give it another advantage, I just hope it can manage at least equivalent jump distances to the T9 with an A rated engineered SCO drive.

I think they hinted in the stream that it would have a jump range comparable to that of the Type-9 and Cutter. Of course we'll see when it actually become available.

 

[DjVortex]

D&D’s “bag of holding” has found its way into ED.

I think it can be explained in-universe:

Cargo holds are not just empty dumb boxes, like seaship shipping containers. Instead, they have to be hi-tech storage units with internal compartments and both passive and active technology to protect the cargo from sudden acceleration, which the ship can do, when accelerating, turning, or colliding with something. After all, the cargo needs to remain intact even at very high g's.

These new enhanced cargo racks use newer technology and newer materials to significantly reduce the internal space taken by these protective structures and mechanisms, thus allowing for more cargo to be fitted inside the container. However, the drawback is that the ship needs to be specifically fitted for these special cargo containers. They won't fit nor work in existing ships.

 

[Surprize960]

I only saw the news on The Burr Pit last night, and there was no mention of how many Utility mounts there are. Does anyone know this? Or is it just something that no-one knows yet? I'm probably still going to want to utilise one of the Class 6 compartments for a Prismatic, as I don't think my class 5 Prismatic is going to work, and I wouldn't mind knowing how much power I'm going to need to get a decent enough amount of sheilds from my boosters, and whether there will be enough mounts for a couple of PDT's as well, like on my Cutter.

If the PP is as large as that then it's looking positive that there will be the full eight Utility mounts, not just four or six. That's my hope, but does anyone know for sure?

Six at least:

And someone has seen 8:

I looked at the video from the stream, and what i can tell is there is four on the engine nacelles, two on the rear engine rails on the main body, and two on the bottom in the middle. So it should be a total of 8 utilities.

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi

...
imo if anyone wants to make colonisation less painful then they should champion adding extra features into colonisation via the missionboard or what not other than plain hauling.

...

Yep, I agree with this. ...Colonisation, the main mechanics of this feature start off as an interesting and fun exercise, the implementation of claiming a system (bar one obvious flaw) works pretty much as one could expect, thereafter the means of building stations then descends into questionable gameplay.
So ... the Panther Clipper isn't going to radically change this imho.

As for the Panther Clipper itself...... my personal view is it's a good aesthetically pleasing design, keeps pretty much close to the original FE2's specs compared to the other ships we have from that era, the animation of the four engines is excellent, and the cargo carrying capacity, hardpoints and internal modules interesting, and is pretty much as one might expect too.

As for the ship's 'kit' we've been briefly shown...I'm not overly impressed at the moment, the 'spoiler' part of the kit seems a bit old hat now, but that's my own personal view, other players might think different. The 'Prong' at the front would be a better concept if one of the larger hardpoint weapons could be swapped (by choice) to that position, and when fired the graphical animation representation of firing also swapped to the 'prong' graphic. The graphic might also represent which type of weapon one chose too, so not every prong was the same, for example..a multi cannon would be one type of graphical animation while a beam laser another.

A 'special' paint job and ship kit supplied with the stellar version?...surely, one of the paint jobs supplied should be a form of Black based colour theme, as befitting the feline name!

(Footnote...My only real gripe is the Panther doesn't seem to be supplied with a dedicated cargo bay for an MB4 mining machine or Energy Bomb bay....other than that I'm happy! ).

Jack

 

[angusmadmac1]

I think it's a great idea actually. It's a feature I have in my ideas doc for the game, in fact! Between that, supercruise overcharge and the Panther-Clipper being in this quarter, my predictions are on a roll.

The Saud Kruger reserved slots were a less good idea because SK ships weren't all that good in that state. Related and compounding that, passenger transport just isn't very fleshed out.

I've an idea for an Asp competitor in the Constrictor, which would have a mix of military internals and cargo only internals, making it a little OP as a pirate ship without overpowering it as a pure trader or pure combat ship. They're right that they've given themselves a new lever to help make original ships, and I'm looking forward to how they use it.

The Panther itself is slightly odd for introducing the feature though. There should be something interesting that this ship has almost 600t cargo by default, before making build choices. But I haven't thought of a build to make use of that yet – the optional internals and everything else don't suit making it a pirate ship or even really a miner.

Why not just up the cargo size rather than some hand wavium idea ? Are we going down the specialised weapons rack route if you put plasma on this ship you get another one ?
We don't get any extra for the military slots with many people wanting to get rid of them , the reserved passenger slots came and gone .
I just don't like the hand wavium spacey wacey oh if you put a 7 cargo in here we give you an extra 64 t and if you put an 8 in you get 128 ? Why not add another 6 and 7 and lock them unless the 7 and 8 are being used as cargo . Makes sense no makey up stuff or "magic" .
But these are justu thoughts . I hold Elite as quite factual in the broadest sense. And it just affects my silly sensibilities.
And I still won't pay for early access noatter whose echo chamber it is

 

[Bigmaec]

On the other hand, those specialised cargo slots & racks open up the upgrade of the other cargo ships like the T7, without giving them more slots.

 

[SlickPBW]

I think it can be explained in-universe:

Cargo holds are not just empty dumb boxes, like seaship shipping containers. Instead, they have to be hi-tech storage units with internal compartments and both passive and active technology to protect the cargo from sudden acceleration, which the ship can do, when accelerating, turning, or colliding with something. After all, the cargo needs to remain intact even at very high g's.

These new enhanced cargo racks use newer technology and newer materials to significantly reduce the internal space taken by these protective structures and mechanisms, thus allowing for more cargo to be fitted inside the container. However, the drawback is that the ship needs to be specifically fitted for these special cargo containers. They won't fit nor work in existing ships.

Nah, they are just boxes, like seaship shipping containers. We now have magic.

 

[angusmadmac1]

On the other hand, those specialised cargo slots & racks open up the upgrade of the other cargo ships like the T7, without giving them more slots.

Well if they did open up for all ships with double 7 or 8 spots ,cutter, type 9 and corvette as standard I could live with that . So if you used 1 of the slots as cargo you get an extra slot (. 8+128 , 7 +64) . Then it's a standard

 

[Shurimal]

surely, one of the paint jobs supplied should be a form of Black based colour theme, as befitting the feline name!

I think you meant pink?

 

[DjVortex]

Nah, they are just boxes, like seaship shipping containers. We now have magic.

Why do you deliberately want to erode your own willing suspension of disbelief?

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

If they opened those racks for the other ships, you would look at Cutter and T9 scraping the 1000t mark, greatly diminishing the Panther in the process.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

If they opened those racks for the other ships, you would look at Cutter and T9 scraping the 1000t mark, greatly diminishing the Panther in the process.

still 200+ish tons and SCO optimised however .... imo that is enough for a new ship.

in reality how much better is a Mandalay vs a krait phantom

 

[Mr Lindsay]

On the other hand, those specialised cargo slots & racks open up the upgrade of the other cargo ships like the T7, without giving them more slots.

Indeed.
Part of the reason the phrasing in that section was so confusing was because they were at pains to say that this new system wouldn't just apply to the Panther Clipper.

The question is, will any of the older ships see re-fits or will it just be for future ships.
And, if older ships are included, will it only be for the some of those seven ships that have Size 7 and 8 slots, or will the tech be brought to smaller ships too.

 

[Bigmaec]

If they opened those racks for the other ships, you would look at Cutter and T9 scraping the 1000t mark, greatly diminishing the Panther in the process.

As I understood it the racks only work in combination with the optional slots, so they could refit T7s without touching the difference between T9 and PC.

 

[snotface]

Well if they did open up for all ships with double 7 or 8 spots ,cutter, type 9 and corvette as standard I could live with that . So if you used 1 of the slots as cargo you get an extra slot (. 8+128 , 7 +64) . Then it's a standard

Thought they said that those extra slots were special slots. 50% bigger. Which means 2x type 7 slots. This means you get 2 x 192 cargo space, or fuel space.
An extra 384t cargo could come in handy, but still it is very Low. They should have had 3 x 1 slots for Docking computers and so on as additional slots.

 

[DjVortex]

If they opened those racks for the other ships, you would look at Cutter and T9 scraping the 1000t mark, greatly diminishing the Panther in the process.

That would then just mean that the cargo capacity of all ships would be increased by 50%, making the Panther Clipper not that special after all.

I think how they have planned this is a good idea. It allows a larger cargo capacity without going overboard with a ginormous amount of optional slots.

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi

That would then just mean that the cargo capacity of all ships would be increased by 50%, making the Panther Clipper not that special after all.

I think how they have planned this is a good idea. It allows a larger cargo capacity without going overboard with a ginormous amount of optional slots.

Indeed.
Part of the reason the phrasing in that section was so confusing was because they were at pains to say that this new system wouldn't just apply to the Panther Clipper.

The question is, will any of the older ships see re-fits or will it just be for future ships.
And, if older ships are included, will it only be for the some of those seven ships that have Size 7 and 8 slots, or will the tech be brought to smaller ships too.

Good question.

As I understood it the racks only work in combination with the optional slots, so they could refit T7s without touching the difference between T9 and PC.

It's a bit confusing all round at this point in time...the main question I'm asking myself now is why do this, and the only explanation I can come up with at the moment is...Is it to bring some of the 'trading' potential of some present ships under the 'Colonising' umbrella potential? (for various reasons).
I mean, why mess about changing the cargo capacity of current in game ships now (or namely when the Panther is released).
Interesting.

Jack

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I think they hinted in the stream that it would have a jump range comparable to that of the Type-9 and Cutter. Of course we'll see when it actually become available.

That depends what they meant by "comparable", of course, since jump range - unlike shield generation or engine performance - doesn't have a "magic ship constant" number involved.

If it's carrying ~400t more cargo than a "normal" Cutter, with at least similar hull mass and as reported fairly similar core internals, it almost inevitably loses about 15-20% jump range as a result.

the main question I'm asking myself now is why do this

Assuming that they have more plans in this direction, I expect it's to encourage ship specialisation. If they're to keep bringing out 4 new ships a year they need those ships to be different enough from each other that people want to buy them rather than sticking with what they have (and different from the pre-SCO ships, too). Making it so that two ships can have the same optional internals, but aren't interchangeable, gives them a bit more design space to work with and an easier job of coming up with new concepts.

Ultimately the same reason that the military slots exist, to allow a distinction between a hulltank combat ship and a multirole. Before they were added, the Python was a better hulltank than the Federal bricks; giving the Federal bricks those military slots as unrestricted ones would have turned them into excellent freighters too.

(Passenger-only slots were removed, yes, but that was I think because the Orca was released far too early - it took almost two years after the Orca's release with those locked slots for passenger cabins and missions to be made available, so until they unrestricted it there was literally no module that would go in them! - and if they'd released the Orca alongside the passenger missions it'd probably still have locked slots today)