Should ship Manufacturer lines be more focused and consistant?

[samz812]

So ive been a fan of the imperial ships myself ever since i started playing and i pretty much immediately started work on grinding the ranks to hop into the clipper ever since i started playing the game.
During this time while working for cash in my humble little cobra (which i loved) the courier was announced as coming out and i instantly fell in love with it and told myself i MUST have one of those in my hanger. and luckly i had managed to attain the rank needed a little while before it came out and was lucky enough to be operating out of a station that happened to sell one on releases at the time.

now i instantly fell in love with this ship it was very small light and maneuverable and had really good firepower for such a small vessel and i found out after getting into it that the shields on the thing after being upgraded were INSANE for a ship not much bigger than a sidewinder. the only drawback to this ship was its very very fragile hull but with its inherent mobility and very strong shields it felt like a very good compromise considering its existing strengths.

Fast forward a few months and i FINALLY get the capital for my clipper. so i know after cruising the forums a while that it is not exactly the choice combat ship but i expected the general design philosophy to be kinda the same as the smaller ship in the line, light with good firepower and strong shields with very weak hull strength. strangely enough i found the ship to not be as good as one would think on the maneuverability side and surprisingly very weak on the shields especially for a ship of its size. now i'm not saying it is useless by any means its still usable in combat though a better trader to be sure but i kind of feel like it came from a different line of ships rather from the same folks who would have designed the courier and from what i hear the cutter which has very good speed has the absolute worst mobility of the high end ships and pretty much everyone has relegated it to insanely expensive trader.

so am i the only person here who thinks that ship manufacturers should maybe have a more focused and consistent with there designs not to mean they would be just larger or smaller versions of themselves but have you expect there ships to have similer characteristics at the very least from one ship to another?

 

[Bacalao]

They do have similar characteristics, the iships (gutamaya) are fast and white. The fed ships (core dynamics)are utilitarian and armor focused, the lakon ships are generally trade ships (either smuggling, bulk or rares). There are "oddballs" (corvette has high shields and relatively less armor for a CD ship, the courier is very maneuverable while the ieagle, clipper and cutter focus more on straight line speed) but you know, bmw amd mercedes make semi trucks.

I think it would be boring if they all followed a manufacturing template and enjoy that each ship has a distinct personality while maintaining much of the flavor of the line.

 

[askavir]

Honestly, no.

A manufacturer may make ships for different roles. Different roles have different needs. Different needs make different pros and cons in each ship.

We already have a lot of ships which are near clones of each other, imagine on top of that them having the same characteristics...

 

[Jaggedmallard]

I think they're in a good place, they all have a similar Aesthetic and "feel" even if they do have different characteristics, a manufacturer isn't going to only want one type of ship with incrementing quality and price as if something happens to the market for that line they're a bit stuffed. You can get a good general idea of what a ship will be like from the manufacturer and description at the moment right now.

iShips generally prioritise a shiny white luxury aesthetic and mobility, the clipper may not be as manoeuvrable as the Courier but its very fast and it holds to the style that if you buy a Gutamaya ship you're getting a highly mobile sleek gaudy ship that will be good for carrying cargo and staying alive with good shields.

 

[avow555]

Manufacturers should have a variety of ships in my opinion, in fact I think we need many more ships ingame.

 

[ShadowWolf Kell]

I agree with many of the above posters.

What I do think is that orbit lines should be more focused and consistant.

 

[Iskariot]

so am i the only person here who thinks that ship manufacturers should maybe have a more focused and consistent with there designs not to mean they would be just larger or smaller versions of themselves but have you expect there ships to have similer characteristics at the very least from one ship to another?

No I would not expect all ships to have similar characteristics (whatever that means).
Why would a manufacturer limit itself in such a weird way?
Different ships are different ships.
The similarity is in the Imperial style design, but a Courier is a very different beast compared to a Clipper.

Of course the Clipper is much less maneuverable than the much smaller Courier.
The Clipper is a much larger ship than it seems. It is designed for speed and not for maneuverability.
It is also certainly not designed to be a space superiority combat vessel.
It is an excellent fast trader that can adequately defend itself against pirates and I suppose it will be a superb transport ship for Imperial dignitaries once passenger transport is in the game.

I feel that the Empire currently does not field real heavy hitter combat ships at all. Imperial designs are very inferior in that regard.
The Courier is a nice light fighter, but against a Vulture or an FDL it is helpless.
I very much hope to see Imperial ships in the future that do mean business... combat wise, ships that can truly compete with combat ships like the Vulture, the FDL and the Corvette.
I believe the Empire would want such ships. The Imperial navy would certainly commission the design of such ships. I'm sure of it. The Imperials are a proud people.
Perhaps FD will find the time someday. But of course the Alliance is a bit behind schedule too .

 

[samz812]

No I would not expect all ships to have similar characteristics (whatever that means).
Why would a manufacturer limit itself in such a weird way?
Different ships are different ships.
The similarity is in the Imperial style design, but a Courier is a very different beast compared to a Clipper.

Of course the Clipper is much less maneuverable than the much smaller Courier.
The Clipper is a much larger ship than it seems. It is designed for speed and not for maneuverability.
It is also certainly not designed to be a space superiority combat vessel.
It is an excellent fast trader that can adequately defend itself against pirates and I suppose it will be a superb transport ship for Imperial dignitaries once passenger transport is in the game.

I feel that the Empire currently does not field real heavy hitter combat ships at all. Imperial designs are very inferior in that regard.
The Courier is a nice light fighter, but against a Vulture or an FDL it is helpless.
I very much hope to see Imperial ships in the future that do mean business... combat wise, ships that can truly compete with combat ships like the Vulture, the FDL and the Corvette.
I believe the Empire would want such ships. The Imperial navy would certainly commission the design of such ships. I'm sure of it. The Imperials are a proud people.
Perhaps FD will find the time someday. But of course the Alliance is a bit behind schedule too .

well yea i understand what your saying there yea when i say characteristics i mean as in say one manufacturer may be more well known for say there superior quality of engines maybe allowing for overall better maneuverability and speed in there ship designs but average Armour which is what i originally saw Gutayama as kinda being, and then another as having higher quality armour and so on, but yea i didnt mean to say that i expected the clipper to be AS maneuverable as a clipper but as in for the ships size it would be above the general expected average for that class of ship.

would defo like to see some much more combat focused imperial designs as they are by far my favorite looking designs and am looking towards getting any more designs that come out from them.

 

[askavir]

Although most manufacturers make ships which are quite different from each other, you can clearly see "the brand" on each of their ships.

Gutamaya ships can be identified as a Gutamaya ships from miles away.

They all come in white, they all have sleek, elegant styling, and they all privilege speed (even the Cutter is very fast for such a monster ship). They all have side-mounted thrusters. So even if the Imperial Eagle, Imperial Courier, Imperial Clipper and Imperial Cutter are all different ships with different sets of pros and cons, they all share similarity. They all have a very visible Gutamaya "touch" in them.

Same can be told about the Lakon ships. They all have excellent outside view, they are all function over form. They are all flying bricks. The space toyotas.

Zorgon Peterson ships all share the same basic shape. The FDL being more refined and luxurious, but the brand resemblence in their shapes is there between the FDL, Adder and Hauler. They all have pretty, cozy cockpits too.

Core Dynamics vessels all have an angular, mostly bulky, industrial feel to their design, a raw aggressive look.

As for Faulcon DeLacy, they're the space wedges. THey all share a flattness in their design. The Python is still a wedge although a more elongated one. The Anaconda is bulkier, but it shares much of the looks, feels like a larger, beer belly python.

SO even though every ship is different, ships from the same manufacturer share common traces, especially in styling (exterior and interior),

 

[Zeta Legion]

Giving every manufacturer a 'gimmick' just makes their ships indistinguishable from each other except by pure performance.

Did you play Borderlands 2? All giving overbearing manufacturer gimmicks to guns in that game did was make each variation of a given weapon type feel exactly the same as each other.

 

[Chris Simon]

If OP means something like "One manufacturer should make cubes, other balls and another cylinders, similar to one another just different sizes" then no.
In fact, I think some manufacturers could do with more imagination. Some ships are already too uniform.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I think they already are pretty much focused. Most ships you can look at and say "Yup, that's a <x> ship".

Some of the ships that don't seem to match their manufacturer have been explained away in lore by the manufacturer either doing something different or having obtained the blueprints/construction rights from another manufacturer.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

well yea i understand what your saying there yea when i say characteristics i mean as in say one manufacturer may be more well known for say there superior quality of engines maybe allowing for overall better maneuverability and speed in there ship designs but average Armour which is what i originally saw Gutayama as kinda being, and then another as having higher quality armour and so on, but yea i didnt mean to say that i expected the clipper to be AS maneuverable as a clipper but as in for the ships size it would be above the general expected average for that class of ship.

As others have said, what you're talking about already exists in-game. Your mistake was thinking that maneuverability was a Gutayama trait; it's not. Their traits are speed and style - traits that exist across their entire line. If you want maneuverability, you want Core Dynamics.

 

[Vasious]

I don't think I would like the idea of the Shipyard being shoe boxed completely.

The Shipyard do already have a wonderful mixed of distinct forms, cockpit styles, distinct sounds and distinct Radiator designs.

They are all clearly from one manufacturer or the other.

They don't need to all share a similar line of flight characteristic as, beside Saud Kruger, they don't all stick to making ships of one role anyway

 

[Bokugo]

I think they're themed enough already. Lakon is all boxy and has great cockpit visibility. Gutamaya is all about the sleek white look, nacelles, and a cleaner cockpit glass. DeLacy is very wedgie, and kind of associates the ships shape with the snakes head it's named after.

I wouldn't want every ship to feel the same or be just a straight upgrade.