Small ships should have more uses past the early game. An unlockable enhanced performance FSD size 4 would be help with that.

Hexeract

H
I have played Elite for a bit over 400 hours total and I really love the game. However, one of the things that annoys me is how the large ships do almost everything better than the smaller ships. There are 14 small ships and only 9 large ships, yet I'm finding myself spending the vast majority of my playtime in large ships and the rest in medium ships. Small ships are novelties you use when you want to fool around for fun, but outside of niche exceptions (DBX for exploration and Vulture for combat) they don't have real uses past the early game.

Since that early game is only a very short blip for players who have played for a while it feels like a waste to have such a large portion of ships be relatively useless for 95% of a player's time playing the game.

At least medium ships do have one significant point of utility over large ships in the fact that large ships can't dock at outposts. Small ships however have no similar advantage over medium ships. There is nowhere a small ship can go that a medium ship can't go as well. As a sidenote, I would love to see some niche ultra-small outposts where only small ships can dock, but that is a different discussion.

What I think would do wonders for small ship utility is for them to get some sort of an Enhanced Performance FSD that would only be available in small sizes (e.g. size 3-4). This would leave the jump ranges of the DBX and bigger ships unchanged while allowing plenty of small ships a nice boost in jump range after you unlock that special FSD. Currently some of the further jumping small ships (excluding the DBX) using size 4 FSDs are the Cobra Mk III, Viper Mk IV, Diamondback Scout. All of those can be engineered to barely breach 50ly in jump range. If such an improved size 4 FSD would push them to the 70-80LY range then those ships could be awesome for exploration as well as for engineering runs in the Bubble.

As for the concern about this being OP in the early game for new players, well the easy solution is to make this module expensive either credits or materials wise or requiring some sort of unlock. This way the module would be an upgrade for more experienced players who would love for their small ships to have more uses rather than something that overbuffs some small ships in the early game for new players.
 
Last edited:

Deleted member 121570

D
I wouldn't mind an FSD buff on c3 and c4s, but I do think it's a mistake to feel that smalls have no use.
Not everyone's after doing things in the most efficient way. I refuse to fly large ships and rarely touch mediums, because I like flying smalls most of all.
They just fly better. Big ships fly badly in comparison.

Ultimately it's just a playstyle preference. If you're going all efficient, earn fast cash, compete with larges, etc. then yeah - you won't see much value.
If you value other stuff, well...you might :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:

ethelred

ethelred
Smuggling (high value low weight goods) and stealth (modules that reduce your heat signature/profile meaning not detected by scanners until very close) are both perfect mechanisms for CMDRs to achieve things in small ships over bigger ones.

But we're still waiting for this gameplay to be added.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
If jump speed (in kly/hr) and not jump range is your goal - get a Dolphin. Scoops and jumps in 45 seconds - no other ship to match that continously without overheating. Jump range between 54 ly (fully equipped) and 60 ly (stripped). And it's a small ship.
Otherwise, I never found a use for jump range beyond ~50 ly. Yes, there were a few systems that could only be reached by Jumpaconda (not necessarily returned from, though) - but that's been made obsolete with carriers.

As for the smuggling and stealth options - get some passenger cabins and take wanted crime lords on a holiday trip. The traffic controllers get really confused if you drop into silent running 6 km out from the slot. Another stealth ship use (at least that's what I use it for) are cargo acquisition missions. The kind that asks you to "liberate" politicians or poll boxes. I don't work with the criminal factions - usually.
 

Nadreck

N
This would unfortunately make the DBX obsolete immediately. The whole point of the DBX is that it's a Small ship with an oversized FSD shoehorned into it. That's why it has a longer jumprange than other Small ships.

Small ships are stealthier, and can also land in rougher terrain. In principle they can also be more easily carried by larger ships, but we don't yet have a Large ship that can carry a Small one.
 

Darth Ender

D
making small ships able to do what larger ships can do is not how you fix making smaller ships more useful beyond starting off or willfully deciding to use crappier ships.

You need to add mechanics to the game that only small ships are well suited to do.

Things such as subterfuge (sneaking among enemies etc in missions). Also it would help to add derelict stations and such with holes in them that can have battles take place around ...allowing smaller ships to use them strategically. Or other environmental hazards that favor smaller ships over larger ones due to cross section making things harder to dodge (plasma storms etc)

Also allowing small ships to dock (for rearm and repair and refuel) on cap ships when cap ships are part of a combat zone and you're on that cap ship's side.

Allow smaller ships to outmaneuver most missiles while larger ships can't. - instead of just outrunning them. (less about making smaller ships more agile but about making larger ships less and missiles less)

that kind of stuff. Not making them effectively larger ships in function.
 

here_it_comes

here_it_comes
Hexeract said:
Small ships are novelties you use when you want to fool around for fun, but outside of niche exceptions (DBX for exploration and Vulture for combat) they don't have real uses past the early game.
Click to expand...

Here I am stacking Elite Assassination missions and clearing HazRes in small ships . . . had no idea I didn't have a use for them!

ethelred said:
stealth
Click to expand...

Lol. I love my DBS, but let's not pretend ED has stealth.
 

Azmuth Divarchchron

Azmuth Divarchchron
here_it_comes said:
Here I am stacking Elite Assassination missions and clearing HazRes in small ships . . . had no idea I didn't have a use for them!



Lol. I love my DBS, but let's not pretend ED has stealth.
Click to expand...
elite dangerous killed any stealth mechanics in pvp with the onset of the NV that doesnt follow actual NV physics and ignores your sensor range

Making a stealth ship and using it in PvE however is still pretty effective. NPCs lose you regularly

I remember when thermal vent beams would make you invisible on sensors even to the ship you were attacking.
I was fine when they nerfed them to light you up when you fired because you could still be within 500m on a stealth built ship and not show up at all.

But then NV came and you are lit up like a ******* xmas tree regardless if the sensors can pick you out or not.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
I think small ships could come into their own if flying in realspace became a thing instead of SC. 'course that would require content that favored that.
 

varonica

varonica
Darth Ender said:
You need to add mechanics to the game that only small ships are well suited to do.
Click to expand...

You know the moment they add mechanics that only small ships can do there will immediately be an outporing of demands to change it so that large ships can do the same thing, that's why we keep getting requests that outposts, where only small and medium ships can land, and where ideal mechanics for small ships only could be located, should be able to extend a landing arm so large ships can use them as well.

Personally I agree with you entirely, there should be areas and tasks where small ships can succeed where large and medium ships would fail 100%, but I can't see it being introduced without much salt.
 

CMDR Tsubdai

C
I’ve a feeling that odyssey will have more uses for small ships, I’m unsure why you would need a jump range above 40ly in any of the small ships, I think the average for any of my ships is 25ly I only have one ship which has 60ly, I feel like we already move at an incredible pace in this game..

also they have already given us engineering and a guardian fsd booster..
 

Several Puffins

S
I would love to see more small ship roles, but I really don't think you're right about the fix. You're just taking the one role away that the DBX/ASPX really have.

To me, the issues for small ships are part of the general design decision to have everything be a WW2 fighter. Some turn slower, but all combat (apart from in possibly the cutter and the T10) is dogfighting. What they SHOULD be is much faster, but then the upgrade to something like an FdL will just feel like a downgrade due to losses in handling.

What could save it as is would be some reason for small space, close-quarters flying. Why are you using the iEagle? Because even a vulture won't fit into these caverns where I am smuggling cargo, or inside this Dyson sphere to do further exploration, or chasing this bounty through this installation.
 

Captain Willard

Captain Willard
Small ships need no buffs. More content for them would be great.
My three large ships collect dust. My three small and one medium combat ships get the attention.
I've lost 90 plus ships. Driving an fdl or a vette that never loses is , boring? lame?
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
No thanks. Maybe people why fly large ships should stick to suggestions for the things they use? ;)

I think the best buff for small ships would be ... more ammo for S/M weapons. I tend to end up with all energy weapons on small ships because otherwise I just run out of ammo after 2-3 encounters. Or I guess I could 'git gud' I suppose :ROFLMAO:
 

Several Puffins

S
Factabulous said:
No thanks. Maybe people why fly large ships should stick to suggestions for the things they use? ;)

I think the best buff for small ships would be ... more ammo for S/M weapons. I tend to end up with all energy weapons on small ships because otherwise I just run out of ammo after 2-3 encounters. Or I guess I could 'git gud' I suppose :ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
I would be pretty happy to see a 15-20% boost to small ship speed across the board, though. Still won't beat a large ship for combat prowess, but can really leave anything else eating dust.

Well, maybe only 5% for the vulture, it should feel like a black shark helicopter imo.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
Several Puffins said:
I would be pretty happy to see a 15-20% boost to small ship speed across the board
Click to expand...
Breaking the 1000 m/s barrier in a Viper? Why? I'd be for improved maneuverability, top speed is already ample. But then again, upgrading acceleration may prove very well inconvenient to fatal for the pilot.
 

Several Puffins

S
Ashnak said:
Breaking the 1000 m/s barrier in a Viper? Why? I'd be for improved maneuverability, top speed is already ample. But then again, upgrading acceleration may prove very well inconvenient to fatal for the pilot.
Click to expand...
That's sort of the idea- I think straight up improvements to turn rate would be OP given the importance of turning to fights, but higher speed? a good pilot can use a high man. Blue zone in a fast ship, but a bad pilot will wreck themselves. It improves small ships for late game/higher skill use.

EDIT- Also, those kind of tops speeds aren't available to a strong combat build. A combat FdL can happily do 550. I wouldn't mind seeing a viper with real teeth able to reach 750/800m/s. It would still be by far the inferior combat ship.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom