Ship Special Abilities - noncombat stuff

[Teh Smoo]

It occurs to me that certain ships suffer from issues, which occur to keep other ships balanced. As a VERY non-combat kind of thing, I think a few ships could use some love.

Possible special abilities for ship classes:

Type-X ships/Keelback: Discount to jump range decrease while loaded with cargo. They're cargo ships, they should be able to do that job, right? If you increase the base range, they outstrip exploration ships, though. So, have them jump better with cargo. This keeps them from being super exploration ships, and buffs their intended function, and doesn't mess with combat balance.

DBS/DBX: Fuel scoop bonus. Pretty much the same deal, they have fairly limited internals, so boosting scoop rate would keep in line with intended function, without messing with other systems, or increasing internals size and affecting balance.

AspS/AspX: Scanning bonus, perhaps a bit of speed and range to discovery/DSS, nothing huge, they're in a good place as it is. Or at least he AspX is, IMO.

Dolphin/Orca/Beluga: Something interesting, like fuel limpets, or collection? Passenger ships as medics? Can someone come up with a good notion for them?

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There's room for other stuff as well, like Imperial-line ships could get bonuses for weapons that increase shield regen in wingmates? Federal warships could get bonuses to repair limpets? That kind of stuff is WAY more sticky, though.

 

[blitzfreigabe]

For the Cargo Class Vessels, something like when equipped with cargo racks, the closer to capacity that each rack is filled means the weight penalty is reduced?

I would say rather than DB/Asp delineation, make it a S/X delineation. S class vessels have better scanning range/angle/speed and X class ships gain a 1 size slot bonus to any equipped fuel scoop (IE: equipped 3A has the effect of a 4A)

Perhaps the passenger class vessels gain better fuel efficiency.

Multirole vessels (Cobra, Python, Anaconda) are neutral.

I would say that in regards to the Fed/Imp ships, instead of a bonus in flight put a bonus to minor faction reputation gains/losses while flying these vessels. This would make it seem like you are more officially affiliated with the faction rather than being a mercenary. Likewise, due to flying an imperial vessel - fed minor factions are slower to trust you. It wouldn't need to be much maybe +/- 10%

These would be the only non-combat effects that I could think of.

 

[StiTch]

Let's avoid magical fluff benefits if we can.

I don't see what's wrong with the same route they took for military ships. Traders get trader only slots for additional cargo only, for example, which makes sense to me. Hauling vehicles even today are not designed as performance vehicles - they're built to carry as much as they can reliably be burdened with.

But in general...keep it simple. Take a class of ship and give them a "class benefit" that lets them outperform multirole ships in their own field.

 

[Teh Smoo]

Let's avoid magical fluff benefits if we can.

I don't see what's wrong with the same route they took for military ships. Traders get trader only slots for additional cargo only, for example, which makes sense to me. Hauling vehicles even today are not designed as performance vehicles - they're built to carry as much as they can reliably be burdened with.

But in general...keep it simple. Take a class of ship and give them a "class benefit" that lets them outperform multirole ships in their own field.

Why should a ship designed for a specific purpose, not outperform multirole ships? The problem with comparing them, though, is that they all come in at different price points. The Type9 is worse, but also cheaper. But it still has crap for jump range. A transport ship should have capacity, which it has, but it lacks in speed and jump range.

Which is why I suggested the discount, instead of a straight up buff. An unladen Type9 jumping as well as a fully loaded Type9 would be fairly minimal, and Anaconda/Cutter would still probably jump better.