Please don’t render the old ships completely obsolete (long term)

Zer0cool

Z
Frist of all I’ll start by saying I am aware that the new ships have given the game a breath of fresh air, both in terms of design and more important getting about the galaxy with the fuel efficiency SCO drives. And as an added bonus they are drawing fresh cash to the game, and sales mean the game stays online and supported longer.

Now to my point, I am aware that not all the old ships are obsolete, mainly looking at the PVP community and large scale traders, nothing has yet replaced the Cutter for sheer haulage potential.

I mean the explorer class ships, which lets face it is a super large part of Elite, exploring is kind of its thing. Having been flying round in a Mandalay for the past 3 weeks I cannot see me ever going back to my beloved ASP Explorer, any of my Kraits (Explorer builds), Diamond Backs or even my Jumpaconda. And the reason is the fuel efficient SCO drives make getting about so much quicker and make the game more enjoyable. Not just the 100K+ SC trips, but even little things like boosting past a star, leaving orbit of a planet or powering through Gravity wells to get to stations. Sure you can put mk1 SCO FSD on the old ships, but the sway and fuel efficiency render than nothing more than a gimmick and will leave you stranded and out of fuel more than they are worth.

As I said to start with, I understand the new ships will be driving revenue, so FDEV are unlikely to release engineering that make the old ships on par and cut off that new cash, but in the longer term please don’t make it so I have 20+ ships that are pointless and never leave the dock again ever.
 

CMDR Daiyus

CMDR Daiyus
To quote myself from a previous thread:
CMDR Daiyus said:
If it were me, I'd add a new Core Internal slot called "Subframe". All old-school ships have a "Standard Subframe" preinstalled, the new ships get "SCO Optimised Subframe" preinstalled. The SCO optimised by default ships can't swap a standard subframe in, but the old-school ships can upgrade to an SCO optimised subframe, for a large credits price similar to the higher grade armours.
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That's how I'd like to see it implemented. It may be a while down the road as the SCO optimisation is currently a unique selling point for the new ARX ships, as you've pointed out, but one day, hopefully.
 

CMDR Daiyus

CMDR Daiyus
Tifu said:
On this note, the Asp Scout has been badly in need of an upgrade for far too long.
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My Asp Scout is my dedicated surface prospecting dropship, more because I like the flight profile than anything actually objectively better about it. It's the same reason I use the Diamondback Scout to manually collect materials in USS's. There's a few ships that could use a balance pass given the new state of the galaxy (looking at you Type-7), but to be honest, even without any further work I'd still fly them just for the joy of flying them, and to spite the naysayers.
 

Greasetrap42

Greasetrap42
Slow change may pull us apart
When the light gets into your heart, baby

Don't you, forget about me
Don't, don't, don't, don't
Don't you, forget about me

Best Buddy.png
 

Disemboweled Ego

D
In addition to that there should also be a way add SCO to old engineered drives by using another module/utility slot. The armor slot might make sense for that (would also fix lightweight armor engineering being useless if it had a nonzero base weight) - yeah it'd shift the "obsolete module" problem to another slot but the tradeoff with weight could be more interesting than just having an obsolete FSD now.
 

Dragsham

Dragsham
Another point is natural obsolescence. That technology (Moores law) improving over time renders this effect. But for this to really be reflected in elite, we'd need alot more new ships. Featuring this new tech. And more tech rendering the current crop obsolete over time yet again.
You can't make a model T Ford compete on a par with a modern Formula one car.
Although I bet it's been tried hehe.
Natural progression.
It's merciless and ongoing.
 
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Jinx Chrome

Jinx Chrome
I agree that the new ships deserve to have the cool new technology (and also drive FDev's sales a bit). But I also think and hope that Sirius is going to develop a competitive drive to the SCO. Maybe with some advantages and disadvantages so that it balances out for many ships.
 

Disemboweled Ego

D
Dragsham said:
Another point is natural obsolescence. That technology (Moores law) improving over time renders this effect. But for this to really be reflected in elite, we'd need alot more new ships. Featuring this new tech. And more tech rendering the current crop obsolete over time yet again.
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This would be fine except for the UI clutter and module storage limitations, no recycling of old engineered modules. it's even worse for experimental weapons - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...mental-weapons-category-in-outfitting.623754/
 

Vedmo

Vedmo
The ships I bypassed or quickly discarded for something bigger and better during my initial rush through the game when maximizing results to more rapidly achieve whatever goal have now turned into my endgame. I’ve gone to Sag A in a Viper MKIV, built almost every small ship to the point I could clear a high CZ or wing assassination mission with them, just generally tried to find a purpose for for each of them. It adds a fun challenge, as instead of using engineering to make something overpower content, you are using it to bring something from ineffective to (sometimes barely) sufficient, and I find that challenge rewarding. Not to say I’m against a revamp of some ships, rather I think they all can be fun to fly now that my only time concern in the game is enjoyment.
 
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Greasetrap42

Greasetrap42
SteveWW57 said:
Ody gave the small ships a new lease of life. We got to revisit the joy of the little ones.
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And fleet carriers.

I hardly ever use my 60+ Ly jump range ships in deep space anymore. I much prefer launching better equiped ships from my carrier. Speedy small ships are fantastic.
 

Inscydeus

Inscydeus
I don't know, I kind of see your point, but I'm not sure that hamstringing the new ships is any better. Maybe non native SCO performance could get a bit of a buff - improve the fuel efficiency a bit while leaving the other drawbacks alone. But as far as the Cutter goes, IMO it never should have been the defacto large trade ship to begin with (the Type 9 buff went some way towards addressing this, but not quite far enough), so I would welcome a certain as yet unreleased ship that beats it in terms of cargo capacity...
 

SteveWW57

SteveWW57
I am looking forward to the availability to buy the T8 for in game credits, and hope that it can become my medium hauler of choice. Currently running mission(s) totalling less than 200 tons in usually iClippers or Kraits IIs. I feel no driving need to add a sco, but that could change with practical experience.
 

HRDiagram

HRDiagram
Wow, a thread with lots of excellent points made!

In the end, as I see it, there will always be a handful of winners. Old or new it doesn't matter, the same 4-5 ships will top the charts, but then there will be those who don't look for efficiency, and they are the ones who will keep the other ships alive.

My form of enjoyment is not based on efficiency or optimisation (I am a massive fan of the Type-7, go figure) and I change exploration ship every time I go to a new expedition in the black.
I only own one Python mk I and one Krait mkII in total (over three accounts), I will never buy a FdL, or an Anaconda, and I welcome the introduction of new ships, be they awful or excellent.
I don't base my choice on performance, and I will keep the underdogs alive (if I like them).
 
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