Small Craft /Parasite Ship Bay

[CMDR IPL Victim]

I have a request/concept for a small craft or parasite ship bay option in outfitting. As with SRV, the parasite ship is purchased, not printed. I do not see them armed, or if so, no better than the current SRV. Three classes of parasite ships:

1. Lifter - 8 ton cargo capacity, no FSD. Suitable for cargo exchange between ships and/or orbital outposts. Multi-crew option. Fit one in a class 5 bay or two in class 6-7. Roughly as large as a fighter. Shaped like the Frontier Elite 2 lifter perhaps?
2. Scavver - 16 ton cargo capacity, no FSD. Three variants: one with a single SRV, the second with a collecter limpet controller, and the last trades cargo for passenger capacity. In addition to cargo exchange as noted above, can be launched from a ship to collect mining fragments and cargo, deploy a SRV when the mothership is near the surface, or disembark passengers to smaller stations, depending on the variant used. Multi-crew option. Fit one in a class 6 bay, or two in a class 7 bay. Slightly bigger than the lifter, but otherwise same design or perhaps like the old shuttle design.
3. Runabout - 16 ton capacity, SRV bay, basic system scanner, and a mini-FSD that allows in-system travel only. Can be deployed while mothership is in orbit for surface landings. A variant drops cargo capacity to 12 tons but adds detailed scanner for system exploration and prospecting. Fit one in a class 7 bay. very multi-crew friendly option allowing true multi-crew exploration. Basically a stripped down Sidewinder. Perhaps a third variant drops the SRV bay for a detailed scanner, class 1 mining laser and a class 1 prospector controller for mining only.

This should provide players more options for missions, opening up more places to large ships that are willing to sacrifice volume for the capability. It should also allow true multi-crew exploration, with the provision that the mothership has to dock before the data can be turned in or credit earned.

 

[Julio Montega]

I have a request/concept for a small craft or parasite ship bay option in outfitting. As with SRV, the parasite ship is purchased, not printed. I do not see them armed, or if so, no better than the current SRV. Three classes of parasite ships:

1. Lifter - 8 ton cargo capacity, no FSD. Suitable for cargo exchange between ships and/or orbital outposts. Multi-crew option. Fit one in a class 5 bay or two in class 6-7. Roughly as large as a fighter. Shaped like the Frontier Elite 2 lifter perhaps?
2. Scavver - 16 ton cargo capacity, no FSD. Three variants: one with a single SRV, the second with a collecter limpet controller, and the last trades cargo for passenger capacity. In addition to cargo exchange as noted above, can be launched from a ship to collect mining fragments and cargo, deploy a SRV when the mothership is near the surface, or disembark passengers to smaller stations, depending on the variant used. Multi-crew option. Fit one in a class 6 bay, or two in a class 7 bay. Slightly bigger than the lifter, but otherwise same design or perhaps like the old shuttle design.
3. Runabout - 16 ton capacity, SRV bay, basic system scanner, and a mini-FSD that allows in-system travel only. Can be deployed while mothership is in orbit for surface landings. A variant drops cargo capacity to 12 tons but adds detailed scanner for system exploration and prospecting. Fit one in a class 7 bay. very multi-crew friendly option allowing true multi-crew exploration. Basically a stripped down Sidewinder. Perhaps a third variant drops the SRV bay for a detailed scanner, class 1 mining laser and a class 1 prospector controller for mining only.

This should provide players more options for missions, opening up more places to large ships that are willing to sacrifice volume for the capability. It should also allow true multi-crew exploration, with the provision that the mothership has to dock before the data can be turned in or credit earned.

That is a nice suggestion,
however as i see it there has to be done
a lot of work regarding multi-crew,
especially to make the last one possible.

1. Removal of telepresence ranges
2. allowing for this kind of piloting only from station docked state (see 3)
3. translate multi-crew presence into real presence once the Runabout starts the frameshift
4. reverse real presence to multi-crew with allocated seat, once the runabout is in the mothership's instance.

 

[space voyager]

I'd love to see some Sulaco/dropship/tank combination but right now there is no gameplay to demand it. There are no places large ships can't go and a release of smaller ship would be demanded. We'd need VASTLY different planet surfaces or huge space installations. I sign.

 

[zegram33]

no 3 especially i'd love
having an FSD capable light fighter/explorer/miner/whatever would be amazing.
honestly, i'd be happy if they made it so it couldn't low-wake in MC...you'ld probably need to do the same thing the srv does and "dismiss" the mothership so it doesn't freak out/crash into anything/get shot down whilst you're mooching around in a little guy.
but yeh, having a dedicated SLF explorer and miner would be what it would take to get me into exploration fully. Having AFMU able to fix the little ship up as well maybe.

If they do actually do this, i'd honestly be ok with the "explorer" SLF basically being an srv with flight. deploy it from the hangar, it swoops about (very poor manouverability+speed compared to normal slf's, plasma repeater turret just like and slf. when you land on a surface the down consoles "deploy slf" would instead read "switch" and just let you retract the wings and then drive off.