Small ships should get some unique abilities

Raymond Saint

Raymond Saint
As you may know:

There are three types of landing pads: small, medium, and large.

Space stations (Orbis, Coriolis, Ocellus) have small, medium, and large landing pads.

Outposts have small and medium landing pads.

Planetary Surface Starports have small, medium, and large landing pads.
Click to expand...

So you can do every task out there with a Python. But what about small ships?
IMO they should be useful too. For example to land on some special structures like Interstellar Carriers (as a parasite fighters) or very small outposts (endless possibilities here too).
And maybe to add some small pirate bases where only SMALL-sized ships can land.
 

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
My typical response to this is to have giant space (or surface) structures that you can fly about in, but you'll only comfortably fit a small ship inside.

Then you can basically do the same as a surface assault in the SRV, but in a ship, inside a network of tunnels and rooms.

Basically Descent, but in ED. Lol
 

Madrax573

Madrax573
TBH I originally though that asteroid bases would be small ship only....

I also think there should be some small ship only stations/bases.

Or possibly cave diving on planets!!
 

Riverside

Riverside
I'm in favour of small pad only bases (and other gameplay) but...

FDev have painted themselves into a corner with the Cobra MkIV. In an environment where being able to land on a small pad conveys significant advantage, the Cobra MkIV becomes a meta ship (like the Python for medium pads), but it's not available to all.

Other than that hitch, I'm all for it. I have access to the Cobra MkIV btw, I use one as a small mining ship.
 

Iskariot

Iskariot
Raymond Saint said:
As you may know:

So you can do every task out there with a Python. But what about small ships?
IMO they should be useful too. For example to land on some special structures like Interstellar Carriers (as a parasite fighters) or very small outposts (endless possibilities here too).
And maybe to add some small pirate bases where only SMALL-sized ships can land.
Click to expand...

Pirates are in it for the cargo. A small ship alone does not make for a very good practical pirate.
It would not make much sense to have a pirate base where medium ships with a good cargo hold cannot dock.

I would not mind having some unique tasks for small ships, but it is difficult to come up with good ones.

In general I think from a practical standpoint it would not be smart to have many small-ship-only space stations. Supplying such stations would be very cumbersome.
Perhaps there could be small espionage stations out there that want to stay hidden and have only a small team of 4 people on board and they use only small stealthy ships.

Perhaps FD could add some actual espionage gameplay scenarios that demand the use of small, low signature ships.
We might fit hardpoints with a long range camera and other cool espionage tools in stead of weapons.
I loved the espionage missions in the XWing/TIE fighter games in which we had to photograph certain capital ships.

FD could add all kinds of missions for which the mission giver demands the use of certain ship types. The mission giver might even temporarily give you the ship he wants you to use. I think this would add great diversity to gameplay because many cmdrs never get around to flying certain ships and it would be very refreshing for them to get in a ship they have never used. For example I never piloted an Imperial Courier and it would be very cool if I suddenly had to fly and experience one for a mission I took.

Commander Crust said:
Their unique ability is to not cost 40 million for insurance rebuy
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LOL yes and don't forget about their special ability of being small.
 
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Konnivar

Konnivar
Well, one possible use would be for resupplying smaller sized surface bases, have the landing pad that already exists at most of them act like an actual landing pad (and allow you to fly in the No Fly Zone). No outfitting/rearm/repair/shipyard but maybe a mission board and a contacts tab. Some medium ships (like the T6) Might be able to fit on the pad but the python is just a bit too long to fit I think.

Small ships are already more difficult to hit with weapons and tend to have lower heat signatures; I find them to be more enjoyable to fly than larger ships. I do think it would be cool if there were more small ship specific things to do.
 

Lucius-Darcia

Lucius-Darcia
Konnivar said:
Well, one possible use would be for resupplying smaller sized surface bases, have the landing pad that already exists at most of them act like an actual landing pad (and allow you to fly in the No Fly Zone). No outfitting/rearm/repair/shipyard but maybe a mission board and a contacts tab. Some medium ships (like the T6) Might be able to fit on the pad but the python is just a bit too long to fit I think.

Small ships are already more difficult to hit with weapons and tend to have lower heat signatures; I find them to be more enjoyable to fly than larger ships. I do think it would be cool if there were more small ship specific things to do.
Click to expand...

I just wish that low heat and being small would mean something to our aimbot-AI. I was in Cobra MK.IV with shields down and SR activated, facing the NPC in his Asp Scout at 2.4 km and he hits me with 2x small fixed beams right in the face, front at my canopy [wacko]

So being small and hard to hit in combination with low heat signature is only in PvP an argument, not in PvE!
 

Gunnet

G
I'd like to see very small bases and outposts which could only accept small ships. It only makes sense that some owners would only expect small ships to dock and decide to save money on medium pads.

At the same time I like the fact that ED lets you mostly use any ship for any purpose. So I wouldn't want there to be an excessive amount of content hard locked behind flying a small (or medium or large) pad ship.
 
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