Panther clipper? What stats?

[Dagwit]

Here's my current thinking on the Panther Clipper:

Suppose, when Fleet Carriers are finally introduced, they share the ability of capital ships to be able to jump into a system at locations other than the primary sun.

That would be great for squadron members, but it would leave players who have no interest in squadron membership left out of an important new mechanic in the a game.

So for them, if they could scrape together the credits to buy it, there would be a mini-megaship with the same jump capabilities as the fleet carriers, too big to dock at stations but capable of carrying a shuttle that could transfer cargo, and perhaps also one of the player's regular ships.

And this mini-megaship would be the Panther Clipper.

 

[MK Regular]

Back on topic here.

I did some more numbers. I took the difference of the difference between the 7A, 6A, and 5A at max range bonus and used them to make a hypothetical 8A engine. If the panther clipper is designed to have a max of 2500 tons with ideal cargo(no including if you use a booster) as far as optional slots goes you could design it to be an explorer ship at around 1100t hull and a min weight of around 1372t total with a level 8A FSD for max exploration build. This would give it a range of about 67ly and make it the same as the asp explorer and krait phantom. This would use a 6d engine.
....

Could you please stop trying to make the Panther Clipper an exploration ship? As krylite said in the lore the Panther Clipper is too $&^@% heavy to be able to get a good jump range, even if you mounted the largest available FSD on it. If you really want an end-game exploration ship (that isn't a conda), there are other ships in FE2 and FFE (or even ArcElite) with reputations that are nowhere near as set in stone as the Panther Clipper and could very well be reinvented (a la Krait II) into a new end-game exploration ship.

As for the size 8 FSD math you did, I'd much rather see what kind of exploration ship FDev can make with a size 7 FSD before deciding to add a size 8 FSD that can only be used on one ship.

Also rumored to be so large, it won't fit through the mail slot any station. Opps!

Guess you can only land it at Outposts and Planet Side.

Obsidian Ant has a video out with some additional details.

Spoiler

Source: https://youtu.be/kvA2OYR8ZTc

Check the date on the video. I wouldn't take it too seriously if I were you.

 

[Gryphorim]

Physical size: As long and as tall as a Beluga, as wide as a T10, and using as much of that volume as possible, with very little negative space. That'd still fit in the mailslot, but only just.
Internals: A lot of class 8, for core internals, this would be necessary just to power and move it, for optionals, looking at max cargo of 2000+.
Weaps and Utils: 8 utilities, and at least one huge hardpoint. Older renditions mention fitting a huge PA in it, but it'd probably struggle to actually hit anything with it.

 

[Noobilite]

I had played FE2 up to acquriing the panther clipper and big plasma accelerator. Unfortunately I don't recall the exact details anymore, and I lost my old "endgame" savegames for FE2 & FFE where I also got the Turner Argent and the thargoid scout ship.

From what I vaguely remember, the biggest weapons (GW laser? plasma accelerator) on the panther clipper could only fire a short while maybe a few seconds. And then the aiming with the mouse was very slow, maybe worse than the T9 moving in supercruise. So unless an enemy ship was approaching on a more straight on arc, it was practically impossible to maintain a bead on smaller ships, much less the small fighter types. What happend most of the time was that ships would keep on getting smashed on the clipper usually instantly wrecking the smaller ships. So one could just smash through waves of 3, 5 ships in a combat battle, perhaps even rack up 20 kills in a minute when "caught up" in between stardreamer resumption. I remember there was a "turret" laser on the rear, which couldn't be aimed at all from the front. You had to switch to the rear view to try to tag ships that went there. Maybe it was easier I vaguely recall as a turret where the front lasers of all the ships in front view were probably only "fixed" and there was only one firing weapon on the front besides the missiles which were limited like ED's torpedoes. Shield boosters were also infinite and automatic in function where it was more of a rebounding "progress bar" where it was more about defeating the rate of recovering boosters and shield restoration by the enemy ships. With enough boosters, the clipper was practically shield invincible. In the end I preferred sticking with the Turner Argent and using the 20MW beam laser as it was the "endgame" best overall big manueverable ship and needing no extra crew members as part of a lore story tech development. But the clipper certainly could rack kills faster with all the ramming.

As for specs of what an ED panther clipper should be like if I would guess from a in-spirit translation from FE2 to ED. I'd think it would be a bigger T9/T10 type with probably worse maneuverability but much better shielding, hull factor, and the biggest cargo far more than the cutter. Maybe it could carry a single "class 5" fixed weapon, with some class 3's or 2's on the side and back, but the convergence of those hardpoints would be pretty bad, and only useful as turrets. Interesting specs mentioned above, but just my opinion , by lore, it shouldn't be anywhere near a decent explorer with a jump range maybe only as good as the corvette or worse, granted that things could drastically change for any ship name carried over from FE2 to ED.

As far as exploration it's jump range is nice and low if you simply keep it at 7A FSD. So, it's not to bad in that regard potentially. And if you give it a nice big fat new 256 core fuel center it can do long ranged mining and transport without a massive jump range or overpowered exploration build. Then it's unique aspect is long ranged hauling with good
capacity.

https://s.orbis.zone/2pao <-Explorer. This is an explorer around the range of Asp Explorer and Krait Phantom. Good but not OP.
https://s.orbis.zone/2pas <-Transport. Note the 671 range at 32ly jumps. This makes it a long hauler without being op.

This is with:
Class 8: PP, Thrusters, Fuel Tank, PD?<-probably tier 8 pd for max shields!
Class 7: FSD, PD?
Class 5: Life Support, Sensors

I would give it these optionals or there about: 1300cargo/800t hull: 8x3, 7x2 ,6x3 ,5x2 ,4x1, 2x1 = 1300 max cargo (12 slots like the corvette)

Should make a good miner based on the weapons layout. Maybe if the weapons are optimized specifically for mining equipment. The only other options I could see would be to make it 8x4 to add more tier 5 items. And I would not give it reserved slots. It will need them all for other things. I would make it pricey though. As it can haul a lot it should cost around 280-322 million base.

It should definitely be huge. And maybe have a built in auto docking computer(just make sure you can toggle it off in the ships settings). It should be the max parameters of a large docking pad. as long as the beluga and as wide as possible.

I was thinking it would be cool to give it tier XL class weapons that are basically tier 4 turreted or gimbaled plasma/rail weapons. As it's in a new xl slot it would be the only weapon with it. It would basically be capital ship weapons or shrunken down ones. It could have 1 or 2 XL slots to cover front and back and then give it a bunch of small or medium slots. That or make it so it's ideal for mining whatever that would be. Although some huge slots and the ability to choose fixed would be funny.

With a class 8 fuel tank in core internals this could make a hell of a plasma slug based ship. You just need to deal with the reality of engine power. What type of maneuverability would it have with tier 8 engines?

https://s.orbis.zone/2pa- It's already nice and not maneuverable! I could probably get up to 4200 tons or more with that extra 8 slot with a second shield bank. Plus with some good weapons you might get a few huge hardpoints and some mediums or something. Maybe 2 huge 2 large and 4 medium. Not sure what is ideal. maybe as many mediums as you could use for a max mining setup for a class 8 maxed PD. Then give the rest in Huge/Large or whatever gives it the ideal mining weapon setup.

Weapons:

1. 6 medium slot for 5xtier2mininglasers or 6xmininglances. Small instead?
2. 1-2 Huge?
3. large in place of 1 and 2?
What is the ideal mining setup with the news mining equipment. I haven't used any of them yet. I would say give this weapon slots based on having an absolute full mining setup as the best miner in the game! Give it 8 or even 9 weapon slots.

Would it be wrong to give it more than 8-9 weapon slots?

Maybe:
2xsmall
5x medium
2x huge

Or:
1xsmall
6xmedium
1xlarge
1xhuge
the 1x small is for the ablative gun that doesn't use ammo. Unless I'm misunderstanding it. Then use 5x lasers if you want lasers or 6x mining lances and anything else. Or use the 6x for all deep core mining.

For weapons, you could do 6xpackhound missiles and some weapons. Maybe one of those specialty mining launchers that messes up their power. Then put on a huge PA and something else.

I'm assuming the shields would be bad because of the size. But you could go regen heavily. It woud be nice if they added regen in combat back into the game for that. Especially if they can find a way to balance with the current system or similar.

What would be ideal optional slots?

Original:

8 - x3
7 - x2
6 - x3
5 - x2
4 - x1
2 - x1

Alternatively:

8 - x3
7 - x2
6 - x2
5 - x4
4 - x1
2 - x1 <- remove if 13 optional slots is too many.

or:

8 - x3
7 - x3
5 - x4
4 - x1
2 - x1

or:

8 - x4
7 - x1
6 - x1
5 - x3
4 - x1
2 - x1


or: <- This one might be good?

8 - x4 <- Cargo, Shields, Shield Boosts, Fuel Scoop, etc.
7 - x1 <- Fighter or Iimpet
5 - x5 <- Lots of usable slots
4 - x1 <- Refinery or FSD Interdictor
2 - x1 <- Docking Computer, Discovery Scanner, etc.

This last one might be practical. 1332 so you have 1300 cargo without going over 12 optional slots.

Potential Full Panther Clipper Stats: (This gives it around 66-68ly for exploration and 32-33ly at 2500 tons for low weight transport.)

https://s.orbis.zone/2pao <-Explorer. This is an explorer around the range of Asp Explorer and Krait Phantom. Good but not OP. (Mind you this will have a rebuy of around 30-40 million minimum. In comparison my max 80ly+ range Anaconda can be as low as 11-13 million depending on how many A class AFMU's I stick on it. If you drop AFMU's and Fuel scoop to B classes it's around 20 mill rebuy.)
hthttps://s.orbis.zone/2pas <-Transport. Note the 670ish range at 32-33ly jumps. This makes it a long hauler without being op.

Cost: 351.44 mcr approx.; up to 633.53 mcr.
Base Hull: 800t
Armor: 540 (Base: 300)
Max Cargo: 1332t (double of 666)
Boost Capacity: 27mw
Crew: Max possible value. 2 or 3 Maybe it will finally get the ability to launch 2 NPC fighters!

Core Internals:

7-8 - Power Plant
7 - Thrusters
7 - Frame Shift Drive
5 - Life Support
8 - Power Distributor
5 - Sensors
8 - Fuel Tank

Optional Internals:

8 - x4 <- Cargo, Shields, Shield Boosts, Fuel Scoop, etc.
7 - x1 <- Fighter, Iimpets, etc.
6 - x2 <- Planetary vehicle bay.
5 - x3 <- Guardian FSD Boost, Limpets, Defensive boosts, etc. (two restricted slots)
4 - x1 <- Refinery, FSD Interdictor, etc.
2 - x1 <- Docking Computer, Discovery Scanner, etc.

Hardpoints:

1 - Huge
1 - Large
6 - Medium
1 - Small

Or:
2 - Huge
6 - Medium
Or:
1 - Huge
8 - Medium

Utility:
8x
9x if you want to give it something unique for better shield potential.

I think the interesting part would be it's heat capacity and how many railguns it could support! Despite it being slow it could probably be made to shoot a lot of guns. Imagine 6x high capacity rail guns fireing 2x shots. Possibly with superpenetrator or plasma slug. Or worse imperial hammers. Assuming you can get over the heat. You could put them in 2 groups of 3 and fire between ammo reloads if needed.

You could hypothetically drop it's engines to max of class 7 to curb it's combat abilities. It couldn't hold quite as much equipment then and it would loose agility.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

How is that as far as bad turn rate and maneuverability compared to the older ones? It's pitch is only 17 degrees a second and only 28 degrees a second with boost! 8D

 

[Noobilite]

accidental post. How do I delete this? I swore I saw a way to do that somewhere. Must have been a different forum.

 

[krylite]

I think the interesting part would be it's heat capacity and how many railguns it could support! Despite it being slow it could probably be made to shoot a lot of guns. Imagine 6x high capacity rail guns fireing 2x shots. Possibly with superpenetrator or plasma slug. Or worse imperial hammers. Assuming you can get over the heat. You could put them in 2 groups of 3 and fire between ammo reloads if needed.

You could hypothetically drop it's engines to max of class 7 to curb it's combat abilities. It couldn't hold quite as much equipment then and it would loose agility.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

How is that as far as bad turn rate and maneuverability compared to the older ones? It's pitch is only 17 degrees a second and only 28 degrees a second with boost! 8D

I'd guess the pitch and yaw numbers you listed are more in the spirit. I'd think it should still emphasize that the clipper is primarily cargo capable with the best defense of a freighter role making big waves in "system economies" in the spirit of the lore, and not really about being a warship yet tough and survivable as one. The lasers and modules also took up cargo space that could be otherwise used for other cargo, and only one of each type of weapon for each of the up to 4 mountings(for the bigger ships), so there' s that too. I'm not sure in general how it would translate from FE2 being a primarily single fixed weapon slot game from one pov at a time of all ships, where the clipper could mount the biggest available lasers, to the multiple weapon hardpoints of ED. Maybe like a single class 5 hardpoint, and the rest a bunch of class 1 points with bad convergence, with a rear turret class 2. 300 million+ pricetag sounds about right. Anyways, your numbers are interesting and I haven't done much number mixing for ED ships or hypothetical designs.


edit: I just found this yt video of someone testing out the panther clipper on Elite2:Frontier. Maybe this can help give a better idea of how it worked:
( I was off about aiming, it's good enough when the enemy ships are just circling way out)

Spoiler

[video]

]Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpvuWNb0K3M[/video]

another one: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y5fptWFWCg&feature=youtu.be&t=1802
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y5fptWFWCg&feature=youtu.be&t=1802

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

As for the size 8 FSD math you did, I'd much rather see what kind of exploration ship FDev can make with a size 7 FSD before deciding to add a size 8 FSD that can only be used on one ship.

Size 8 FSD is already in the game. EDDB even shows you where you could buy it, if there was a ship using it.

 

[Vardaugas]

A Panther Clipper can be quite humongous and still fit through the mail slot. Just barely. But that's what shields are for. Make way for larger vessels!

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

The Panther Clipper was the most powerful combat ship in the game. It could fit a Large Plasma Accelerator (read: instant-death beam laser) and enough shield generators to let it literally fly through a station unharmed.

This thing will be what the T10 always should have been.

Ideas like that are probably exactly why we can't fly it yet. No, it will not be the ED equivalent of the death star. The free allocation of internal space that allowed the thing to mount the biggest gun and tons of shields in the past games is just that, a thing of the past. The ED Panther is most probably going to be just the biggest freighter, with all the characteristics of one: Slow, heavy, only lightly to moderately armed. But the hype and projections of people of what they want it to be probably prevent it's release as what it is.

 

[Deareim]

Panther is already in your file folder. Just look for it.

 

[Noobilite]

Panther Clipper - Elite Wiki

wiki.alioth.net

The Panther Clipper is the ultimate ship to own, provided you use it to its advantages. You'll get much more fun flying smaller craft, but if your business is cargo profit or no-brainer combat to improve your Elite rating, keep working until you can afford the 2.7 million credits you need to buy one.

I like the no brainer combat idea.

 

[Vardaugas]

The no brainer combat worked in Frontier: Elite. You stuffed it with shield generators, parked it in front of a mail slot, shot the station and then let all spawning security Vipers smear over your impenetrable shields. Leave the compute running for a few hours and you're up to an easy Elite combat ranking.

 

[MK Regular]

The no brainer combat worked in Frontier: Elite. You stuffed it with shield generators, parked it in front of a mail slot, shot the station and then let all spawning security Vipers smear over your impenetrable shields. Leave the compute running for a few hours and you're up to an easy Elite combat ranking.

No-brainer combat still exists in ED, although it's a bit different.

I'll let Rinzler o7o7o7 explain:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IURhW-uB4ME

 

[Screemonster]

The no brainer combat worked in Frontier: Elite. You stuffed it with shield generators, parked it in front of a mail slot, shot the station and then let all spawning security Vipers smear over your impenetrable shields. Leave the compute running for a few hours and you're up to an easy Elite combat ranking.

there was also a bug where shooting asteroids with a mining laser would count towards elite rating, and asteroid bodies that appeared on the system map couldn't be destroyed, so you could literally make elite in a matter of minutes by scooting out to mars with a mining laser, park yourself next to deimos, set time acceleration to max and hold down the fire button.

 

[Vardaugas]

there was also a bug where shooting asteroids with a mining laser would count towards elite rating, and asteroid bodies that appeared on the system map couldn't be destroyed, so you could literally make elite in a matter of minutes by scooting out to mars with a mining laser, park yourself next to deimos, set time acceleration to max and hold down the fire button.

That's even better than the negative credit cost of precious metals in some empire system. Quickest way to make money, was some 10k+ per ton.

 

[Screemonster]

There was also the one where if you bought a ton of rubbish and clicked in the space directly below its jettison button on the cargo manifest, it jettisonned a ton of something and "freed" cargo space for this nonexistant jettisonned material. Fun if you wanted to mount a large plasma accelerator on an eagle. Pull trigger to instantly go blind.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

Looks like I missed a lot of fun back then. The only thing I did was letting the unremovable class 5 hyperdrive on my Imperial Clipper break down and then installed a size 6.

 

[Screemonster]

Other fun bugs included picking a star juuuuuuust over 655.35ly away (well, between that and your current jump range + 655.35) and being able to jump to it thanks to an integer overflow, and a contact binary that crashed the game if you attempted to jump into the system.

 

[Noobilite]

That should be the goal then. It should have a max jump range of 655.35(maybe 655.36) at 2500t or it's max jump range. Technically it's lowest/closest engine weight to 2500t is 2539t, (that I can find) so that could weight it down a bit more. Althought I don't want to put it above 800t base hull so it can use 5d engines in exploration mode. Most explorations builds always have a clever way to get one engine slot below to a partial engine usage. That would be 5 for this sized ship and this ships case. anything above 800t make sit impossible to do as far as I can tell.

What did it used to have as a max jumprange? Did it have the same fuel considerations for multiple jumps or could it just keep jumping for free? I never played the older games sadly so I'm not familiar with it.

https://s.orbis.zone/2pzf I don't that it's possible to get 655.36 max range with 7A engines. This is the best with the most efficient engine setup for transport. Although I might be missing something.. You might need to make an 8A version with a much higher hull weight and a cargo tonnage nearer 2100 tons. Although that would be pretty much unreasonable. Maybe I missed an engine combo or something.

Here is the lowest tonnage to get exactly 655.35 range: https://s.orbis.zone/2pzl (Exact weight: 2590.77t)
Here is the lowest tonnage to get exactly 655.36 range: https://s.orbis.zone/2pzw (Exact weight: 2590.72t)

The difference is 0.05t. And a weight of just under 2591t.

And here it is. Dirty Grade 1 with drive Distributor: https://s.orbis.zone/2pzq 2593t. So, this design already works if you want that design! 8)

And I was wrong. Clean grade 3 with drive distributor is 2513 max tonnage. So, it is closer to 2500.

Yea, I think it would be fun to try to take all these bugs and try to incorporate them into the design! 8p

How would you calculate the shield amount based on the hull design. Does anyone have any insight into this? I think they would need to try to readd regen in combat to get this to work like the old games from what I've heard. Sadly, we don't have that feature now.

Since the old game had it's large plasma accelerator as a large beam laser maybe the weapons slots should be focused on supporting some Huge beam lasers and not actual plasma accelarators in the modern game. I have one option of weapon hardpoints at 2 huge and 6 medium. This means you could try to 2xhuge beam and 6 pack hounds! 8) That or have a huge and medium beam laser and packhounds and that one slot as a rear mine launcher. Not sure how to reproduce the rear weapon besides with a min launcher. I haven't figure out what an 8A PD can safely support.

Has anyone noticed my design so far is basically a bigger fatter corvette with better fuel, lighter LS, optional slots, but slightly worse hardpoints but more of them like the anaconda. It's like if you stuck all the big ships together you would get this. And if you gave it an 8 class thrusters it could fly at the agility of a cutter! >< I guess it will need to keep the 7 thrusters for balance. Or was it agile like the cutter in the old games. Not sure how you would compare them.

BTW, here is a better exploration build with full stuff in it. I set it to 27mw for a boost like the other big ships. This simplifies balance a bit.
32t fuel:
https://s.orbis.zone/2q11
https://s.orbis.zone/2q13 <- Tier 5 shields.

I think the question is how agile is it in supercruise. Is it better than the anaconda or worse? What determines this in game besides raw balance?

I figured out the shield balance also The key is the weight limit of 7A engines. At max a cutter can get a 320t pris and 1 160-256t shield cell. It obviously has bigger engines. But a panther clipper would only have 7A and a limit of max 3564t for combat with drive distrubutor for max weight. But it can focus around a lighter 80t regen shield because with an 8A pd it can get 6.8-6.9-7.2 shield regen focus and support a low draw Biweave with 14.4 broken regen without braking a sweat.(Enhanced low power(5) with low draw) It is what it should be. It could also have 4xClass8 optional slots allowing for 3 cell banks of max value. If regen was in the game max regen with shield cell boost. Without max regen or hp combo for max ehp. But it would be the first ship to fully support proper use of 8c bi-weaves as it's the only one with both an 8 slot optional and 8PD potentially. This means if it also has massive heat capacity it can focus on shield pd for combat and have almost any range of level 8 shields fully support capacitor wise. So, it would work out very much like you would imagine in the older games. Potentially outside weapons limits. Even with weapon focus it could heavily focus on regen.

On a cutter, which will have much better shields you can get around 3k shields with max regen. This is with 3 shield cell bank. Obviously both recharging cells in the field or regen in combat would be nice again for this. It may turn out that your shield max is about what you would get from a full shield cell bank charge.

Also with max 7 engine it would have many more weight restriction than a cutter for combat. Hence giving it the feel of a restricted but powerful non combat ship. And with lower agility. Although it could be kept optimally near the optimal weight for 7A engines(2100t). But it is absurdly slow without engine pips at max engine with engineering. Yaw: 51.4sec; Pitch: 24sec; Roll: 10sec.

And the safe balanced design: (This is 650t to fit 4D shields) Although it has even more absurd levels of cargo. (Can ideally fit 4d engine Enhanced low power 5 /low draw. Note: maximum hull mass does not actually decrease in game. So this shields would work in actual use at 713 max hull mass.)

New and Improved Panther Clipper LX:

https://s.orbis.zone/2qem <- Exploration. Lots of extra room.
https://s.orbis.zone/2qek <- Cargo

Panther Clipper 6A FSD, 7A Thrusters, 650 hull mass:

Cost: 420mcr
Hull: 650t
Max cargo: 1472(1474 as of april 23rd!)
Armor: 540 (Base: 300)
Minimum Boost Capacity: 27mw
Crew: Whatever max is. (maybe this ship could be the first two fly 2 npc fighters at once.)

Core internals:
7-8 - Power Plant
7 - Thrusters
6 - Frame Shift Drive
5 - Life Support
8 - Power Distributor
5 - Sensors
7-8 - Fuel Tank (I think 8 might be better, thinking about it. It gives options.)

Optional Internals:

8 - 4
7 - 2
6 - 2
5 - 2 (1 restricted)
4 - 2 (A 4D Tier 5 Enhanced Low Power, Low Draw is perfect for a 4D Tier 5 Engine Enhanced, Stripped Down PD)
1 - 1(As of april 23rd!! 8D)

Hardpoints: (Not sure yet)

Huge - 1x
Large - 1x
Medium - 5x
Small - 2x

Or:*

Huge - 2x
Medium - 5x
Small - 2x

*only problem is for full mining it needs potentially 6 lances and 3 other modules if going for everything. That is 9 hardpoints. Although I'm assuming only one of each isn't enough for good deep space mining. I was trying to give it mining for long ranges 5000 ly mining trips and then a large return haul of about 1024.

Basically, 700 hull mass and below allows 4d shields and 6A engines with more reasonable exploration jump ranges around 50-56ly(With GFSDBooster). This also gives a max jump range cargo jump ranges up around 25ly with GFSDBooster(around 15ly without) giving it more cargo and slower jump ranges so it can maximize cargo. Stopping at around 1440-1472 max cargo and less fuel help it fit 7E engines so it can use the entire fitting for cheaper builds. Allow an 8 fuel tank(if it's even in the game) if you want to allow full fuel and target 2500 total weight without reducing cargo potential. That or increase the cargo more by going up to 5 class 8 slots. I was thinking 4 was a bit much but if the price is right. Why not.

Either way it's got a lot of room for extra stuff even with good cargo. 700t hull mass is also a good number if the goal is to keep it's exploration abilities down and make it have very low jump ranges. You can also keep the fuel tanks at 128t max and have it more easily fit smaller engines. If you drop it down to 500t hull mass you can get the exploration back up to near 70ly in exploration mode and only about 25-26 during cargo hauls. This gives it the best of both worlds without making it world breaking. It also opens up the 6A engine in cargo hauling if it's useful.

This may be even better: (This is basically the absolute minimum hull weight and max cargo! it is double a cutter!)

https://s.orbis.zone/2r1- Explorer 62ly jump range
https://s.orbis.zone/2r2o 1600 cargo
https://s.orbis.zone/2r2n 1584 /w 4d shield
https://s.orbis.zone/2r2l 1552 /w 4d shield and gfsd

Same stats as before except:

Hull Mass: 600t
Cargo Max: 1600(1602)

Core Internals:

8 - Fuel tank (no exceptions at this point)

Optional Internals:

8 - 5x
7 - 1x
6 - 2x
5 - 2x (1 restricted)
4 - 2x
1 - 1x (as of April 23rd)

Hardpoints: (The Beluga has 5xmediums so I'll assume 5 is max.)
Huge - 1
Large - 1
Medium - 5
Small - 2

Or:
Huge - 2
Medium - 5
Small - 2


Making sure it has 4 - 2x means it can have minimum shields and a max refinery if desired. Plus 1 level 5 for the GFSD minimum. 1 tier 7 is for a max hanger or a really big limpet for mining and the rest is for whatever you want.

Edit:

Actually thinking about it more:

Hull Mass: 600 or 800t
Max cargo: 1504(1506)
Integrity: 540(300 base)?
Booster Capacity: ?
Cost: 420mcr

Core internals:

7-8 PP
7 Thrusters
6 FSD
5 LS
8 PD
5 Sensors
7-8 Fuel tank.

optional internals:
600t1504-1506max)
8 - 4
7 - 2
6 - 2
5 - 2 (0 reserves/military)
4 - 2
1 - 1 (April update)

800t: (1520-1522max)
8 - 4
7 - 2
6 - 2
5 - 3 (0 reserves/military)
4 - 1
1 - 1 (April update)

Hardpoint:
2 - Huge
5 - Medium
2 - Small

Not sure how to balance it properly. Lots of options.

 

[Noobilite]

Elite Dangerous 2.3 Ship Blueprints

For those not on any social media, I thought I'd post the link here too. The complete set is available on my blog here: http://www.elite-dangerous-blog.co.uk/post/Elite-Dangerous-Ship-Blueprints-23-Update 31 ships, 3 fighters, 2 capitial ships, 1 SRV & 1 station, in a choice of 1080p or 4K...

forums.frontier.co.uk

This pic gives a good set of dimensions for the panther clipper. It wold perfectly fit the inside of the mail box.

It's body would be 50.8m tall at the main body. It would taper into the 40.8 tall along the edge. Where that curve it would have the seperation for the gimbaled engines on the side. The point where the taper ends is 175 meters from my estimate and not the 156m in the picture because that goes to the start of the taper and not the end. The gimbaled engines would be 22.7m.40.8m(Width/Height) on each side and the body would be exactly 64.8mx50.8m max(Width/Height). Add on 2x22.7x40.8 engines on the sides for 45.4m+64.8m=110.2m width. Craft the body to fit the mailbox perfectly. the ship would basically require advanced assist to dock and undock unless you are really good.

The tapers are is about 4.55m going from 50.8 to 40.8 meters height across that 4.55m width on each side. That is 4.55x50.8=231.14m^2 - 4.55x10m=45.5^2 = 185.65m^2 x2 = 371.3 in the tapered side. the tapered edge is approx. 10.98646895m in length hypotenuse. For. 4.55x10x10.98646895m triangles.

This means the main body has an inner section of 55.7x50.8=2829.56m^(without the tapered part). That means 2829.56+371.3= 3200.86m^2 max for rear area cross section. Simply add the length to get a general estimate of the volume. If we give it 250m length that is 250x3200.86= 800,215m^3 approx. max cargo volume. (What is the max length of the large pad again?) Add 22.7x40.8x2=1852.32+3200.86=5052.18m^2 max rear cross section area. I assume that the engines don't span the entire length of the ship so those dimensions would have to be figured out separately to get total ship volume. This is much larger than the cutter because it's solid ship outer perimeters. Although less hull mass because of it's empty middle potentially.

I would imagine it's shields would be horrible though as far as MJ. But possibly very good for regen and res setups. It could definitely make heavy use of scb's if desired. It could maximize their potential even with the largest of Prismatic shields installed.

And to solve the problem with a size 8 fuel tank. They could make it the first ship with two fuel tank. Each up to a max of tier 7. That would give some nice fuel setups without using optional hardpoints. So, 2xTier 7 fuel tanks!