Potential Lore for the Module and Ship Bulk Transport Freighters

[WR3ND]

Contracted for and perhaps custom built and controlled by the Pilots Federation to transport Pilots Federation member's ships and their components in an extremely secure way to insure reliable relocation of crucial and custom Engineered modules, these behemoths of ships not only serve a critical role in fleet management but also act as a reminder of the underlying power, prestige, and effective service of the Pilots Federation.

Compared to general commodities, even rare commodities, the insured secure transport of these extremely valuable ships and ship components is substantially more costly, but Pilots Federation members receive relatively affordable rates as transport service is partially paid for and guaranteed by membership. This is one way the Pilots Federation is able to wield its influence and protect its members' galactic special interests and maintain a high standard of superiority over local rouge militias and off the grid black markets.

Your thoughts?

Also, feel free to submit your own thoughts as well, of course, though do try and avoid game mechanic specific features as best you can. This thread is meant to be about potential background lore and how it ties into the game, not a discussion about how the game should be designed.

So, run wild with your fan theory craft! (Subject to change by Frontier and/or uncommon sense.) [heart]

 

[DragoonKnight]

You dont need crazy lore for this. These are simply commercial bulk freighter ships.

 

[Vasious]

Didn't Sandro mention Bulk Carriers, that may or may not actually get an appearance one day outside the stations.

The Back bone of the fix contract trades and feed the economies of all systems, by moving all the Goods the Tramp Trader Cmdrs don't bother with.
The Ships the move all the food cartridges to feed all the non agricultural worlds, or carry the Bauxite and Rutile from Mining colonies to Refineries.

Already assumed to be in the background as part of the economy and possibly already delivering ships from where they are produced to the smaller, low pop, low tech systems without the industrial base to fabricate their own.

Like the Lynx and LRC we used to see outside stations in FE2 and FFE

Easily big enough to fit any playable ship as cargo

I do hope one day we will see them or the ED version of them jumping in and out like the Capital Ships, and being loaded and unloaded at stations

 

[WR3ND]

Didn't Sandro mention Bulk Carriers, that may or may not actually get an appearance one day outside the stations.

...

Yes, that's what in part prompted this thread as well as the discussions about this when 3D printing of ships and modules was the lore of the hour.

It does make sense that these kind of ships perform the bulk of the freight background work and ship and module transfer between stations, but I was kind of trying to explain the apparent exclusivity of transporting custom modules and ships that wouldn't be available at various stations outside of requested transport from Pilots Federation Commanders.

 

[Vasious]

Yes, that's what in part prompted this thread as well as the discussions about this when 3D printing of ships and modules was the lore of the hour.

It does make sense that these kind of ships perform the bulk of the freight background work and ship and module transfer between stations, but I was kind of trying to explain the apparent exclusivity of transporting custom modules and ships that wouldn't be available at various stations outside of requested transport from Pilots Federation Commanders.

I don't think it needs to be anything special or complex a reason.

Credits would do

Same way I would get a left hand drive car over here.
They don't sell them here, so you buy one from the county of origin, get the export permit, the import permit, pay the taxes, and then pay a shipping company to move it over by ship.

Regular dealers wont import ships they is no market for, and one sale is not worth their time to get one in for you, or there could even be dealer tier exclusive ships,
As for custom modules, they are likely "unwarranted" modifications not approved by the original manufacturers so the outfitters wont risk their sales licence importing them for general same.

But that doesn't stop you, simply paying to have your Fer De Lance, with level 5 dirty drives, shipped to the frontier mining colony you're at.

Just hope they don't ask to confirm it meets emissions standards

 

[WR3ND]

Yeah, fair enough then, and makes sense, though there is perhaps another issue as to why we wouldn't be able to transfer modules ourselves, other than them being installed on our ships. External game reasons are probably due to high value trading between players, something Frontier has tried to avoid. That's probably more of a tangent issue though, I guess. And maybe it can be explained away that our ships just aren't secure enough in and of themselves to warrant such functionality in general. I don't know...