Proposal to change the Orca and Federal Dropship

[Arrichion]

As Elite stands today, the Orca and Dropship are both constrained by future mechanics that are not in the game: passenger transport and planetary landings, respectively. I think both of these ships should be rebalanced and renamed to reflect roles that exist.

The Federal Dropship should be changed to the Federal Gunship and given much stronger base shields and slightly better handling. As it stands now, Empire players have access to two highly capable reputation restricted ships while Feds can only obtain the Dropship, which was made for a role that is not even on the horizon for development.

The Orca should be reconfigured to be the Orca Explorer, with jump ranges to rival an Anaconda. Since passenger missions have barely even been mentioned, rechristening the Orca as a luxury exploration ship would give it a reason to exist, aside from its current role as something to purchase to show how disposable your income is.

 

[Cryptex]

It is unconfirmed but it looks as though the FDS has either undergone a rebalance or is still in the proccess of such. At the very least, recently the stats for it have changed on the shipyard purchase screen.

 

[CMDR Starschulz]

But then we would have to either change them back to their previous state or create new ships entirely. It would suck, after flying something called a Federal gunship for months and having it suddenly ripped out from under you and changed back into the multipurpose ship it is now. I get what you are coming from, but we are going to have what seems like 25 ships and 5 extra, to be added in later. In the future passenger missions will be a thing, and the federal dropship will [ probably ] have a purpose in that and be combined with hauling players in first person mode around to combat zones.

 

[shadragon]

Or we can be patient, let the devs get on with their jobs and wait for those intended roles to appear.

 

[Colonel North]

The Orca is lovely ship to fly. If it had a decent FSD it would make a jolly pleasant vessel for exploring in style!

As it is even when (if) passenger travel is added the FSD rules out high price cruises to Nebula's. I think there is a trick missed here in giving an added angle of play to explorers.

If it helps balance the Orca's cargo capacity could be reduced, although the high price already restricts its usage.

 

[knowles2]

or instead of mucking about with these changes the Frontier team could be working on build out all the features needed for passenger missions instead.


Federal Drop ship should have some of the weakest weapons in the game but by far the strongest armour and shields in the game through, FDS should be able to fly through heavily defended prison stations grab the escapees that are paying you an handsome amount of credits to be their getaway driver and drive out through the same defences all without scratching the paint work.

 

[Arrichion]

But then we would have to either change them back to their previous state or create new ships entirely. It would suck, after flying something called a Federal gunship for months and having it suddenly ripped out from under you and changed back into the multipurpose ship it is now. I get what you are coming from, but we are going to have what seems like 25 ships and 5 extra, to be added in later. In the future passenger missions will be a thing, and the federal dropship will [ probably ] have a purpose in that and be combined with hauling players in first person mode around to combat zones.

It would be relatively simple to configure the internals and just make variants when the passenger and planetary landing roles are implemented. Most of the things needing a tweak on the Dropship are essentally arbitrary numbers, namely the shield strength value and hull mass.

Or we can be patient, let the devs get on with their jobs and wait for those intended roles to appear.

Or we could read the title of the thread and see that "Proposal", not demand, is the very first word in it.

 

[Frop]

The Orca should be reconfigured to be the Orca Explorer, with jump ranges to rival an Anaconda. Since passenger missions have barely even been mentioned, rechristening the Orca as a luxury exploration ship would give it a reason to exist, aside from its current role as something to purchase to show how disposable your income is.

Although I wouldn't mind exploring in one, we got plenty of ships for that underdeveloped branch of the game already. What about the Orca Mining Galleon (OMG)?

 

[Frenotx]

For the dropship, I'd be perfectly happy if they just enabled the two small hardpoints on the nose.

 

[Stanchion Ra]

Or they could finally give the Alliance a ship of their own...

 

[Makya]

The Orca is lovely ship to fly. If it had a decent FSD it would make a jolly pleasant vessel for exploring in style!

Agreed. All it would take for the Orca to be a real option for exploring is a size larger FSD (it's a really heavy ship) and unlocking it's restricted component slots for a decent scoop. Its cockpit view is truly panoramic.

 

[Wolfman]

Aren't the Beluga and Dolphin also coming 'soon' as passenger transport?