Panther Clipper
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I wish it was I'm game, would be very handy loading and off loading carrier stores quicker. T9 is ok but if phanther had 1000 or 1100t of space it would certainly help. Its take 25 trips at moment to fill then another 25 to empty.
It would massively reduce the number of trips.
Plus it would look cool filling a pad completely
It would massively reduce the number of trips.
Plus it would look cool filling a pad completely
I agree that a new ship is needed. But the current modelled Panther clipper was confirmed as not deliverable through the interview of Arf by Flint a couple of months ago.
Filling in the reality here. I would love a panther clipper. I've seen the proto model demonstrated by hackers as in the game files. I would love that to be a reality as a trucker wanting to truck more. But I'm concerned (and I suspect FDev is) that that would imbalanced the BGS if more goods were able to be trucked per player investment of time in game. This is probably the biggest impediment to getting a bigger space truck.
Yes it would be reduced to 18 trips each way assuming 1100 on the Panther and 790 on the T9.
I can't find the old video. But it was an interview Captain Flint did with Arthur for Flint's Twitch anniversary. I think it was 2 years. Flint asked him about new ships. Arf responded to say that despite players having datamined prototypes from the game files [we've seen people hack the panther clipper and mamba lite to be visible in game], that these prototypes are not always things that are continuing to be worked on, may not have worked for various reasons and that we shouldn't get our hopes up.
I'm paraphrasing from memory a lot. But that was the jist of it.
Of course, Arf could just be trying to manage expectations down so that the surprise is better for players when it does appear?
I'm paraphrasing from memory a lot. But that was the jist of it.
Of course, Arf could just be trying to manage expectations down so that the surprise is better for players when it does appear?
Okay thanks. That seems a bit closer to the kind of response I would expect. I'll take a look at the 3.5hr long, 725 views vid you linked to later.
That a model from early in an asset's development is 'not deliverable' in it's current form shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone but that doesn't mean the idea of the ship is off the table.
The Panther LX has been teased ever since the kickstarter days, very unlike the Mamba light, which no one knew anything about until the model leaked. It featured in newsletters, David Braben talked about it. That it still isn't in the game is a shame.
Had a look at the CaptainFlint stream & the relevant part appears to start at 55m or so for a few minutes. No reason why is given, some potential reasons are mooted by Arthur and a short answer to a question about whether any more player controllable vehicles are on the way is 'no because the Devs are working on something else' (paraphrasing) is not that encouraging unless we know what that something else is.
I don't think anything in that stream changes the desire to have new vehicles added to the game.
I'd find a large pad ship capable of carrying ~2,000t of cargo relatively safely useful if only to fill & empty a Carrier more effectively than the 792t (shieldless with autodock) Cutter I currently use. There will always be a desire for more & better but there is a point at which a tool is good enough and imo a Cutter (or T-9) isn't good enough for what I want to be able to do with them but ~2000t capacity would be.
Some rough numbers on a Panther Clipper if you just scaled the Type-9 to Beluga proportions and made some rough adjustments for Core Modules :
Scaling by volume gives 1,062,178 / 449,403 = 2.364 increase in Tonnage to 1,853 (ish)
Downgrade the "Beluga's" Life Support (8 to 5) and Sensors (5 to 4), but increase FSD (7 to 8) with a net gain of 112 tons.
No ship in the game has more than 12 optional module slots, so I'm assuming that's a hard limit. I think you'd need to add a class 9 cargo rack so that you could drop some of the 8's and add another 7 and two sixes for a little more variety with the Optionals.
| Length | Width | Height | approximate volume | Tonnage | |
| Landing Pad Mail Slot | 213m N/A | 128m 222m | N/A 52m | ||
| Type-10 | 135.1m | 118.m | 39.3m | ||
| Type-9 | 117.4m | 115.3m | 33.2m | 449,403 | 784 |
| Beluga | 209.1m | 131.6m | 38.6m | 1,062,178 | |
| Hypothetical Panther Clipper Edit for Hypothetical maximum Spec. | 209.1m 210m | 131.6m 132m | 38.6m 40m | 1,062,178 1,108,800 | 1,853 1,968 |
Scaling by volume gives 1,062,178 / 449,403 = 2.364 increase in Tonnage to 1,853 (ish)
Downgrade the "Beluga's" Life Support (8 to 5) and Sensors (5 to 4), but increase FSD (7 to 8) with a net gain of 112 tons.
| Hard Points | UTIL | PP | TH | FD | LS | PD | SS | FT | Optional |
| MMMMSS | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 8|8|8|8|8|8|8|7|5|4|2|1 9|9|8|8|7|7|6|6|5|4|2|1 (with class 9 Cargo Racks) |
No ship in the game has more than 12 optional module slots, so I'm assuming that's a hard limit. I think you'd need to add a class 9 cargo rack so that you could drop some of the 8's and add another 7 and two sixes for a little more variety with the Optionals.
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OK, let's go with some Frontier: Elite II numbers
Ship - Cargo Capacity
Panther - 2000t
Boa - 1500t
Puma - 1000t
Anaconda - 800t
Imperial Trader - 700t
Python - 500t
Imperial Courier - 350t
I wish that a Python would do 500t in ED and laugh at the Imperial Courier obviously converted to a fighter but kept the 'Courier' name maybe for data delivery missions. Now we look at the two largest cargo ships in ED when maxed out for cargo.
Ship - Cargo Capacity
Imperial Cutter - 794t
Type 9 - 790t
Both of these ships are a pretty tight squeeze getting through the mailslot at an orbiting station. So a Panther Clipper with 2000t of cargo would be too huge to get through the mailslot or land on a large pad. It's an immersion thing. Still per tradition the Panther Clipper has always been the largest cargo carrying ship in versions of the Elite games. So maybe the Frontier Devs could adjust it to get 800-1200 cargo into ED and get through a mailslot. Of course when Frontier gives us a carrot they always later hit us with a stick! We'll see what that is...
For me I also miss the four rotating engine nacelles when aligned puts out a powerful thrust. I know Frontier did it in ED with a cargo hauler and alliance ships but it isn't the same. Then I watched too many episodes over and over again with Firefly! For all I know Josh Whedon who produced and directed Firefly got the idea flying a Panther Chipper in FE2!
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Here is an idea. Let those nice people at corolios.io add a Panther Clipper to the list. Yes, it doesn't exist and maybe list it in blue as experimental. With their VAST knowledege over many years seriously into every detail an Elite ship has could probably come up with a template for a Panther Clipper that works in the ED game...IF they don't ger emotional about it. It might work with thousands of ED players designing what to to with a Panther then have the Frontier Devs watch. We players are doing their work as usual since back in early alpha mode before before the game was ever released. So who do I call?
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There was in FE2 the Lynx Bulk Carrier (6000t) and the Long Range Cruiser (15,000t) but flown only by NPCs as eye candy. Well back then we could edit the code to fly them and also were pretty useless. I think that Frontier listened amd one of the many reasons that Frontier gave us fleet carriers with 25,000 'units' a player can use for cargo or whatever.
Regards
Ship - Cargo Capacity
Panther - 2000t
Boa - 1500t
Puma - 1000t
Anaconda - 800t
Imperial Trader - 700t
Python - 500t
Imperial Courier - 350t
I wish that a Python would do 500t in ED and laugh at the Imperial Courier obviously converted to a fighter but kept the 'Courier' name maybe for data delivery missions. Now we look at the two largest cargo ships in ED when maxed out for cargo.
Ship - Cargo Capacity
Imperial Cutter - 794t
Type 9 - 790t
Both of these ships are a pretty tight squeeze getting through the mailslot at an orbiting station. So a Panther Clipper with 2000t of cargo would be too huge to get through the mailslot or land on a large pad. It's an immersion thing. Still per tradition the Panther Clipper has always been the largest cargo carrying ship in versions of the Elite games. So maybe the Frontier Devs could adjust it to get 800-1200 cargo into ED and get through a mailslot. Of course when Frontier gives us a carrot they always later hit us with a stick! We'll see what that is...
For me I also miss the four rotating engine nacelles when aligned puts out a powerful thrust. I know Frontier did it in ED with a cargo hauler and alliance ships but it isn't the same. Then I watched too many episodes over and over again with Firefly! For all I know Josh Whedon who produced and directed Firefly got the idea flying a Panther Chipper in FE2!
__________________________
Here is an idea. Let those nice people at corolios.io add a Panther Clipper to the list. Yes, it doesn't exist and maybe list it in blue as experimental. With their VAST knowledege over many years seriously into every detail an Elite ship has could probably come up with a template for a Panther Clipper that works in the ED game...IF they don't ger emotional about it. It might work with thousands of ED players designing what to to with a Panther then have the Frontier Devs watch. We players are doing their work as usual since back in early alpha mode before before the game was ever released. So who do I call?
__________________________
There was in FE2 the Lynx Bulk Carrier (6000t) and the Long Range Cruiser (15,000t) but flown only by NPCs as eye candy. Well back then we could edit the code to fly them and also were pretty useless. I think that Frontier listened amd one of the many reasons that Frontier gave us fleet carriers with 25,000 'units' a player can use for cargo or whatever.
Regards
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See previous post. Just scaling a Type-9 to Beluga proportions gets you roughly 2,000 tons. It fits. Barely.
Not really unless Frontier comes up with class 9 and 10 cargo racks which no current ship can apply nor would the Devs do it always worrying about the Elite Dangerous balance. It is all virtual numbers guessing. I cannot get the Devs to replace one of the class 3 internal modules to a class 4 in an Asp Explorer giving thousands of players more options and enjoying the game. Go figure.
Regards
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I'd be happy with 1000t shielded.
i'd prefer if the panther couldn't fit. give us some new kind of gameplay around cap ship docking ports like the kind you see in X4 and automated cargo shuttles. Allow small ships (piloted by the player and owner of the panther) to dock in the panther and let you switch to piloting the panther. Hardpoints that dont all face forward. Perhaps panthers that act as support ships in the large CZ type battles gives you special objectives different from just shoot-em-up. They could have up to 2 active slf's, or the player could take control over a docked player ship (anything S size would fit). Also the panther uses tritium to jump and must be repaired via material synthesis.
we dont need yet another larger ship to just let the rich get obscenely richer with less and less effort.
we dont need yet another larger ship to just let the rich get obscenely richer with less and less effort.
Yes. Really. You get there with 7 Class 8's plus a 7, 5, 4, 2 and 1.