Ship launched shuttle craft

[StuBaDub]

This seems like a great idea. Extending it beyond a shuttle to other roles such as cargo hauling, an SRV planetary landing cradle and the like even better.

I just want to put this out there. Wouldn't it be almost simpler to make a player available ship equipped with a small sized landing pad?

 

[Dan Dare]

This seems like a great idea. Extending it beyond a shuttle to other roles such as cargo hauling, an SRV planetary landing cradle and the like even better.

I just want to put this out there. Wouldn't it be almost simpler to make a player available ship equipped with a small sized landing pad?

Lots of potential for additional roles. How about launching a submersible once we can enter atmosphere? But that requires a lot of additional development, as would a new ship design capable of acting as a carrier with its own landing pad. The idea of the basic shuttle is it requires very little development, but adds a bit of extra gameplay by making big ships like the Annie fully multi role capable.

 

[TerranJupiter]

I like the idea of shuttles maybe automated drone shuttles that you can deploy from your ship they would make a number of trips if they can not carrie all the cargo at once

 

[Highwayman]

Probably limpets could do the job just fine. Stations would need cargo hatch (rotating ones at the back) and limpets would be running to and fro. The larger the controller the faster the job.

This might be the easiest method, and will probably work well. Just have another option in the functions panel to set the collector limpets to ‘collect’ or ‘deliver’. Then target the station, launch a couple of ‘cargo limpets’ and add another option to cargo jettisoning such as ‘deliver’ and jettison away. The limpets then pick up the cargo and deliver/sell it to the station.

 

[Alexandr]

Such a shuttles for a big ships will bring a serious imbalance in this game.

It's better to make outposts/stations upgradable with dockyards as one of upgrades levels.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-and-stations-upgrading?p=6059632#post6059632

 

[space voyager]

This might be the easiest method, and will probably work well. Just have another option in the functions panel to set the collector limpets to ‘collect’ or ‘deliver’. Then target the station, launch a couple of ‘cargo limpets’ and add another option to cargo jettisoning such as ‘deliver’ and jettison away. The limpets then pick up the cargo and deliver/sell it to the station.

The limpets would do the job and even encourage you to do things by the usual docking, as limpets would demand a controller and cargo space. At least if they stay the way they are now...

 

[Dan Dare]

Such a shuttles for a big ships will bring a serious imbalance in this game.

It's better to make outposts/stations upgradable with dockyards as one of upgrades levels.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-and-stations-upgrading?p=6059632#post6059632

That is also a great idea Alexandr, so why not include both ship launched shuttle and upgraded outposts? I love having variety in the places we can visit and interact with, it's all part of being a space ship commander

 

[Dan Dare]

The limpets would do the job and even encourage you to do things by the usual docking, as limpets would demand a controller and cargo space. At least if they stay the way they are now...

The problem here as I see it is you don't get to "fly" your limpets, a shuttle gives you the opportunity to get up close to same of the amazing in game assets. I play in VR these days and would take a job driving one of those trucks going round inside some of the bigger stations if I could get one, just so I could watch all the ships come and go

 

[bicarbon8]

The problem here as I see it is you don't get to "fly" your limpets, a shuttle gives you the opportunity to get up close to same of the amazing in game assets. I play in VR these days and would take a job driving one of those trucks going round inside some of the bigger stations if I could get one, just so I could watch all the ships come and go

same problem exists with collector limpets today though, and yet we still have them in game. I say add both; ship launched shuttle and cargo transfer limpets. Then, the players that want to fly the cargo over can do so, and those that want to sit back and watch 3-5 limpets do the work for them could also do that while they sip their tea

 

[RidingTheFlow]

I wish they'd allow me to carry Sidewinder in my 'Conda (as it actually should be able to). If they are worried about combat balance thats fine - just make it not usable for combat launch (e.g. no rebuilds, leave main ship behind a'la SRV, etc.).
I often use smaller ship for shuttle jobs - and fair enough, transfer service works, but it would help if I can actually carry my smaller ship with me and save on transfer time each time I want to use it, or be able to use it in deep space.

 

[Skatez69]

+1 for this idea. I love the suggestion

 

[Cuddlestuff]

Used and operated like a ship launched fighter, it enables commanders in large ships to deliver goods, data and passengers to outposts and other places that don't have a large landing pad.
[smile]

Great idea make it slow, and challenging to use and hold a decent amount for its size and take features away like boost and things and I’m not opposed to it. Maybe even make it able to carry ammo back?

 

[sandkid]

For the purposes of interacting with outposts and small planetary posts, it's a good suggestion...but some things to consider:

Essentially, if you want to have a 'shuttle' you can at the expense of a size 5 or 6 internal slot - just like with fighter bay. For data delivery it works. For everything else, it doesn't:

1) Outposts and 'Small' Planetary Transport Missions usually involve from 3t to 20t or so...a shuttle with more than 4 tons of cargo is rather unrealistic, given previous comments on the size of an SRV and fighter.

2) " " Passenger Missions usually involve from 2 to 10 passengers. Again, most missions won't be handled by the shuttle in one go.

These aren't necessarily roadblocks to the idea - they just make it incompatible with existing structure. You aren't able to deliver 'some' of a mission in multiple loads. You can't turn in one structure regulator from a salvage mission, get the other, and turn it in for the completion...same as passengers and transport. This would need to be resolved such that missions behave like CGs.

Instead of an 'all or nothing' binary approach to mission completion, you'd need to rework missions to allow progress towards completion. Enable that and the shuttle idea works...but then you have a NEW problem:

"What's the point?"

Except for outposts and small planet bases very far from the central star, these missions inherently pay less - often A LOT LESS - than missions based on stations. So for your transport type missions, the shuttle is more a gimmick than a feature. If you're flying a large ship, why bother with missions from small-fry locations? The only potential answer is building influence and reputation, but that's about it.

For non-transport missions, like planetary scans, assassinations, data delivery, and kill quotas...the shuttle works great, and would allow a commander to still effectively use their chosen large ship to complete these missions without having to do the cockpit shuffle at a full-size station or base.

 

[Dan Dare]

Good points Sandkid, but then why not be able to complete larger missions in small increments? Maybe have a time limit between incremental deliveries of around 5 minutes?
What's the point?
Well for a start security at outposts is usually low so smuggling illicit cargo or criminal passengers?

 

[sandkid]

Good points Sandkid, but then why not be able to complete larger missions in small increments? Maybe have a time limit between incremental deliveries of around 5 minutes?
What's the point?
Well for a start security at outposts is usually low so smuggling illicit cargo or criminal passengers?

This could be done, yes. You could build missions that 'require' the shuttle as piloting a medium or small ship won't be able to keep up with a single large load. At this point you're now generating missions that are module specific - though both passenger and delivery missions are 'module specific', so take that with a grain of salt.

As for the smuggling comment, that's very true - but lower security at these locations is a prime reason for why the pay less. Why would Mr. Crime Lord pay you more to deliver him somewhere safer? That's not to say you can create a 'reason' for better pay missions: Mr. Crime Lord chose the outpost because delivering 60 Thugs to an Orbis station seemed a little too shady...but now you gotta figure how to get 60 Thugs to an Outpost. This can be done, but you're back to the original problem.

If you enable 'incremental' completion, but penalize making multiple jumps back and forth with a small/medium ship rather than a single trip with a large ship and locally shuttling, is it really gameplay? My point isn't that the shuttle is a bad idea - it's that making missions nonsensical is a bad idea. You don't need to 'require' the shuttle for such a mission type - the shuttle, as a module, is just a better way to complete these missions that a commander with a large ship has access to if they so choose. So when coming up with ideas for the shuttle, think of it in those terms: how does it do something 'better' or 'new'...without penalizing existing ships.

A shuttle is a great idea for:
- Extra Large Ships, a new class that cannot land at stations or on planets due to sheer size
- Missions that highlight size as a need that even a sidewinder is too big for, such as entry to a 'tiny' base or sneaking into a smuggler's facility
- Expediting the basic interactions at a station (as mentioned already in earlier posts) such as:
a. Topping off the Fuel Tank
b. Acquiring Ammunition
c. Delivering Data and Small Salvage
d. Picking up Missions that don't involve commodities (like kill missions or scan missions)
- Use as a 'permitted' vessel for permit systems due to its tiny stature and non-threatening load out, with summoning the big ship disabled in these systems
- Use as an emergency escape pod in event of ship destruction, preventing commander loss and the few commodities aboard the shuttle being lost

 

[AmzRigh]

Dig the concept of this idea, but as far as cargo, I think someone's limpet idea earlier would work a bit better -- flying back and forth a bunch would get tedious, much like hauling cargo in an SRV.

As an alternative, perhaps a sort of tether/arm for large ships, instead of a full-on dock? Allow for trading, refueling and restocking (but bottlenecked), deliver exploration data, take and turn in missions (but bottlenecked for the ones that involve cargo), no repairs, outfitting, or ship storage. The bottleneck could be pretty steep, too, like .5-1 ton per second — faster than flying a shuttle manually, but slow enough to make a player consider if it's still optimal. Maybe animate it as station limpets, or just handwave it as traveling through the restraint apparatus.