SLF bay in SCO overcharge optimised ships

space voyager

space voyager
I was really hoping at least Corsair would be able to fit an SLF bay, but all the info says it can not. I know this is not a usual wish for an exploration ship but I do have the SLF bay with me on all explo trips, mostly for the fun of it. Once in a while one wants to NOT be extremely careful while flying and SLF does the trick without risking the loss of all exploration data.

SCO emerges as a must-have drive. Seriously, I use it all the time, even to just get around the star when not scooping or to get from the surface of a planet to a scanning distance to see the plant-life zones. Also, if you like doing missions in-bubble, it saves you hours and hours of staring at the void.

That said, no ship, optimised for SCO overcharge, can fit an SLF bay. Unless you want to get rid of SLFs in general, please make at least some of them able to fit the fighter bay. Right now I am travelling with a Krait mk.II and, while being a great ship all around, I have to watch that fuel gauge all the time, more than the distance to the destination... So I'd love to have an option of an SCO-optimised ship, able to sport a fighter.

Right now it kinda looks like SLF-s will become the thing of the past as more and more people will hop into an SCO optimised ship just for the convenience of it. I'd hate to see that happen as I find SLF-s to be a really cool feature.

BTW, FDev, THANK YOU FOR THE SCO DRIVE, it really is a game changer!
 
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mtfatboy3006

M
We need a large SCO-optimized ship. We needed it worse than we needed the Corsair or the Cobra Mk V. FDEV missed out on some ARX sales by not having one ready for the release of trailblazers. I'm glad there's a medium Gutamaya (sort of). But I would have been gladder to wait on that and have an upgrade in the larger class.
 

SlickPBW

S
I don’t see anything wrong with using an SCO FSD on the older ships. In fact I have upgraded roughly 40 ships to the pre-engineered SCO FSD’s, and pretty much use them on all ships that I use routinely. Some of them even have fighter bays installed, and they work fine too. I sure hope that we aren’t moving into an era where non-SCO-optimized ships are now considered unacceptable.
 

mtfatboy3006

M
SlickPBW said:
I don’t see anything wrong with using an SCO FSD on the older ships. In fact I have upgraded roughly 40 ships to the pre-engineered SCO FSD’s, and pretty much use them on all ships that I use routinely. Some of them even have fighter bays installed, and they work fine too. I sure hope that we aren’t moving into an era where non-SCO-optimized ships are now considered unacceptable.
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Nothing is wrong with it. But the new ships are more smooth to fly. Sometimes, it's fun to to pretend overheating matters and cowboy the bucking ship toward the destination while shooting heat sinks into the void like you're Han Solo making the Kessel Run. At other times, it is nice to just skip the drama.

Personally, the only old ships I got rid of are my Pythons, and I never liked those anyway. All my ships have SCO drives (the remaining task of swapping them all for V1s is the reason my colony system is near Oya).
 

SlickPBW

S
For 95% of SCO operations, it’s just a short squirt. Leaving a planet, going to something a several KLS away, etc. for these cases the instability of older ships, heat generated, etc., is not even an inconvenience. For longer (and rarer) SCO operations, it’s a minor inconvenience, but still preferable to non-SCO waiting. So I don’t see the problem. It’s a very niche case to desire a fighter on an explo ship, so like everything else in this game, it’s a trade off. Maybe eventually there will be a SCO optimized, fighter capable ship; but again, that’s a very niche case because fighters are 99% of the time used on combat ships, and combat locations are very rarely huge distances from the main star.
 

space voyager

space voyager
SlickPBW said:
I don’t see anything wrong with using an SCO FSD on the older ships. In fact I have upgraded roughly 40 ships to the pre-engineered SCO FSD’s, and pretty much use them on all ships that I use routinely. Some of them even have fighter bays installed, and they work fine too. I sure hope that we aren’t moving into an era where non-SCO-optimized ships are now considered unacceptable.
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Absolutely nothing wrong - and I upgraded my most used ships. But the fuel consumption and overheating are a problem when traveling 20+kLs from one star to another. You need to do it in relatively short bursts. Luckily my ship is built very cool (heat-wise ;) ) but fuel consumption is a big problem.
 

space voyager

space voyager
SlickPBW said:
For 95% of SCO operations, it’s just a short squirt. Leaving a planet, going to something a several KLS away, etc. for these cases the instability of older ships, heat generated, etc., is not even an inconvenience. For longer (and rarer) SCO operations, it’s a minor inconvenience, but still preferable to non-SCO waiting. So I don’t see the problem. It’s a very niche case to desire a fighter on an explo ship, so like everything else in this game, it’s a trade off. Maybe eventually there will be a SCO optimized, fighter capable ship; but again, that’s a very niche case because fighters are 99% of the time used on combat ships, and combat locations are very rarely huge distances from the main star.
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All true and I guess "real explorers" are laughing at me, as an SLF bay could be an extra LY of jump range. I'm sure not many consider this a hindrance.

I am kinda worried that FDev might consider SLF-s a problem in general though - the inactivity of Guardian hybrid fighter persists IIRC, if you fly a fighter your pilot may simply boost away from the fight, we were unable to use fighters in the war against Thargoids as they created a lot of connectivity problems for wings etc. etc. Maybe SLFs will just be sidelined by the new ships...
 

Daniel Cloudsifter

Daniel Cloudsifter
Bigmaec said:
So we need the Panther Clipper to have a SLF hangar. Duly noted (y)
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No, no... it will be the Panther Clipper MK 2. It must be new to be SCO optimized. ;)

Also, careful what you wish for. Since the Python MK 2 is more of a FDL/Mamba Mk2 and the Corsair is more like a true Python MK2, the Panther Clipper Mk2 might end up being a large battleship like the T-10, but with most of the spaces reserved for military use.

Jokes aside, while I've never asked for it, I do wish they would make the Panther Clipper (or PC mk 2) for all of you asking for it. I'd also like them to make an Orca Mk2 since we've covered everything so far but a passenger ship! And if we could get an Orca equivalent on a medium pad (like the Corsair and Type-8 squeezed in), that would be a bonus. Leave the large pads to those horrid Belugas.
 

Neilski

Neilski
space voyager said:
All true and I guess "real explorers" are laughing at me, as an SLF bay could be an extra LY of jump range.
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I'm sure that there are plenty of definitions of explorers but for my money a "real explorer" wouldn't fly a paper minmaxed ship, nor would they worry too much about losing a wee bit of jump range to an SLF bay... So that's not a reason to consider yourself not a real explorer ;)
 

Danieros

D
Sadly none of the SCO ships offered so far can fit a SLF bay.

My bet is to finally see large SCO ships next. It will be very interesting to see what a new generation of large ships will offer, especially after the Corsair.

Maybe we get to see a size 8 FSD ship taking the jump range crown. Or a specialized ship to replace the multi-role Cutter as the ultimate hauler. Expecting most, if not all of them, to fit SLFs.
 

Elyssaen

E
Having switched from a Krait Mk 2 to a Corsair this week, I don't think the Corsair should have an SLF bay. I'd like it – the same way I'd like it to handle like a Vulture, boost like a Courier and run as cool as a Dolphin. But it's just not reasonable for it to do so much.

You're right though, SCO optimised ships are really good to fly and it runs the risk of squeezing out the 'phase 1' ships, reducing our options.

Two answers:

1. The next three ships should go Large, Small, Large. I think it's time for the Panther-Clipper, then an extremely exobiology-focused Moray Starboat (please) and finally a new Large warship – say an Alliance Centurion. New ships though, not just upgrades.
2. At some point they need to start doing refreshes. Most pressing are the medium Federal *-ships. They should just release spec bump refreshes and rename the old version with the year it was made. So my "Federal Gunship" becomes a "Federal Gunship (3301)" (which stop being sold), and the new one is much improved, SCO optimised and there's your fighter bay medium ship. They don't need a visual change for refreshes, but it's an opportunity for a new ship kit.
 
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Tifu

Tifu
space voyager said:
All true and I guess "real explorers" are laughing at me, as an SLF bay could be an extra LY of jump range. I'm sure not many consider this a hindrance.
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Neilski said:
I'm sure that there are plenty of definitions of explorers but for my money a "real explorer" wouldn't fly a paper minmaxed ship, nor would they worry too much about losing a wee bit of jump range to an SLF bay... So that's not a reason to consider yourself not a real explorer ;)
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The Trailblazer colonization push has extended the Bubbles edges as far as 500-600 LY from the old borders. With it has come NPCs. Anyone still flying a paper minmaxed ship deserves being blown up into confetti.
 

space voyager

space voyager
DemiserofD said:
I've always wanted a small-ish ship with long jump range and an SLF bay, so you could get around rapidly and do multicrew combat stuff.

I tried making a Keelback into that, but the jump range just isn't there.
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I don't know what jump range is long enough for you, but my not-paper-thin explorer Krait mk.II has a range of 65 LYs. With an SLF and an SRV. Though weaponry is kinda... non-existant.
 

sinkarma

S
Mayhapse if no Large SCO ship with fighter bay.
Maybe a medium ship with fighter bay.
Some kind of alliance "long rand patrol ship"
And is a keelback with 4 wiggly engines on its sides instead of 2, with fighter bay and 4 medium hardpoints. A size 5FSD with sco, so it has a really good jump range, as a "need to get a fighter to defend our colonies from greedy feds and imps"
(Idk I don't keep up with the elite universe politics. But a long range rapid response carrier vessel is a must when the univers keeps expanding, so a sco boosted ship with fighter bay is a solution of getting 2 ships to a disaster nice and fast instead of just 1.)
 

Alaska Sædelære

Alaska Sædelære
I've been out exploring in a Keelback precisely for that reason, to have an SLF. I use it mainly to search for harder-to-find species because it's so much faster to get around in it. If you scan them with the fighter's composition scanner, the locations are noted in the journal and you can pick them up from there for taking the samples. Requires some programming, no third-party tool currently does this automatically.
 
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