Superfreighters

[Shadowed]

The backbone of modern society is powered by Supertankers. These massive ships can weigh over 400,000 tons and can carry ~ 3 million barrels of crude oil. Supertankers are the most efficient means of transporting crude oil by far; at around 0.02 cents per gallon.

The longest super tanker built so far (scrapped in 2009):



It got me thinking, why aren't there any massive cargo ships in the game? I could easily see a Capital Ship sized tanker delivering to nearby systems. The Type 9's measly 532T cargo capacity is dwarfed by these class ships. I'm imagining a massive trade ship with its own landing pads selling goods at a discounted price before traveling to a different area in space. In 1100 years from now, the Supertanker class could very well be as important as it is now. The closest thing we have in game is the wandering station. There should be a similar mechanism for traders to call in a supertanker for special missions. I really like the idea of a capital ship moving into a CZ to help out. If traders could do something similar by calling out a capital trade ship to assist in trading goals, then it would definitely make the game feel more interactive.

Also, the idea of a wing attacking a faction's supertanker for a few hundred tonnes of loot while risking death sounds really engaging.

 

[SlickReed]

Cool idea. Doesn't the Type 9 fit this description?

 

[lysan]

The backbone of modern society is powered by Supertankers. These massive ships can weigh over 400,000 tons and can carry ~ 3 million barrels of crude oil. Supertankers are the most efficient means of transporting crude oil by far; at around 0.02 cents per gallon.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Supertanker_AbQaiq.jpg

The longest super tanker built so far (scrapped in 2009):

View attachment 50071

It got me thinking, why aren't there any massive cargo ships in the game? I could easily see a Capital Ship sized tanker delivering to nearby systems. The Type 9's measly 532T cargo capacity is dwarfed by these class ships. I'm imagining a massive trade ship with its own landing pads selling goods at a discounted price before traveling to a different area in space. In 1100 years from now, the Supertanker class could very well be as important as it is now. The closest thing we have in game is the wandering station. There should be a similar mechanism for traders to call in a supertanker for special missions. I really like the idea of a capital ship moving into a CZ to help out. If traders could do something similar by calling out a capital trade ship to assist in trading goals, then it would definitely make the game feel more interactive.

Also, the idea of a wing attacking a faction's supertanker for a few hundred tonnes of loot while risking death sounds really engaging.

I agree, I would like FD to explain if we are going to see them, if not why not, and if can commander them as players.

 

[majogl]

Cool idea. Doesn't the Type 9 fit this description?

Actually no.. What i believe OP means would be 100-1000 times bigger than Type-9 and would have to dock externally (actually it might be bigger than the station.)

 

[tasev1]

Interesting idea, but very BAD for game mechanics. Just think what this will do to the profits players make (excessive) and the effect on markets! For a supertanker this size, you would also need either special docks, or transfer ships to move the material.

 

[Shadowed]

Type 9: ~1500 dead weight tonnage
Supertanker: ~250,000-440,000 dead weight tonnage.

The Type 9 is a mosquito

I guess I just feel like Traders should have their own rare 'Capital Ship' that occasionally stops by for a community goal or some sort of missions.
And I am struggling to imagine a galaxy with hundreds of billions of individuals and the largest cargo ship available is quite tiny in those respects.

 

[[HJ]-RedRaven]

On a personal level, I think these ships are just not 'visible to us'. They exist, but adding them won't do anything to gameplay so they're not worth adding. It'd be for flavour only. The stations we see in game would only be a fraction of what would be in space to support the economies and people numbers rendered in game. In ED, space seems very quiet. (Compare with 2001's I-War2 for instance, where freighters and passenger transports come and go by themselves, carrying logical goods and leaving with processed materials etc in a beleivable fashion.)

On a lore note,
The Elite universe is rendered tiny in effective scale (ED ships are effectively 'torch-ships' taking just seconds to a few minutes to travel between stars and stations), the size of the freighters seems appropriate. Small, agile ships can exploit rapid transit times and quick dock/undock procedures. Very large ships could not, and this would impact profitability.

A megafreighter might excel at bulk transport, but not at carrying a variety of of consumer goods like the commoditites we're presented with in ED. A million tonnes of bauxite might seem a lot, but its not in todays standards, let alone 3300AD. ED ships are built for quick, rapid response to small-scale market needs. The bulk freighters are marginalised to

Also, according to ED lore, the amount of fuel consumed in a jump increases heavily as mass increases. With ED's FSD technology, it might not be feasible, or economic to use mega-freighters, when a fleet of smaller (Type-9, 7, 'conda etc) could do the job in smaller chunks, at low fuel per jump costs. There may be a practical limit to the size of a FSD system.


ED has a long way to go to simulate the logistics of a single star system, let alone the thousands of systems we see in game.
More cowbell, FD, more cowbell.

 

[Samosa]

I do wish making money would scale - that'd keep things moving. Once one buys an Anaconda, the money part of the game somewhat breaks - it makes no sense to continue trading much further, since one's instinct is to keep going; run multiple Anacondas in parallel, or be able to invest funds in a stock market, something, anything, to scale income beyond the ~1.2M/round trip cap.

It'd be fun to hire new players. Ha.

Oh yeah, topic, supertankers would be nice.

 

[IronGremlin]

Yeah, from what I recall, the intent is that things like this may some day make it into the game, but that players wouldn't be piloting them.

In my mind, that's a good thing. I don't really want to think about the disparity between a starting player and someone roaming the galaxy in one of those.

 

[goemon]

there was something like this in elite2, the panther. so much for lore - there is hope!

 

[Ginrikuzuma]

Actually no.. What i believe OP means would be 100-1000 times bigger than Type-9 and would have to dock externally (actually it might be bigger than the station.)

So... you mean this?

Spoiler

Kappa

Lakon's T-900 terminator series

It has to be done

 

[Privata]

I think in one of the early news letter num3 or something they said that there will be AI ones around the galaxy the same sort of scale as a faragut class

 

[veryinky]

Elite 2: Frontier had "Long Range Cruisers" which were massive transports which hung around large space stations supposedly transporting large quantities of bulk goods between planets. Then there's the Lynx Class Bulk carrier. Also much, much too big to fit in a docking bay of a space station though not on the scale of the Long Range Cruiser.

 

[Shadowed]

@veryinky - I wish I played Elite 2! This is exactly what I was hoping for. Just seeing those types of ships make the universe seem more realistic.

I feel like the Faragut class could be outfitted as an emergency cargo ship in times of war.

They could be in a Wing

And the size of the Faragut is plenty big for the requirements of a 'Superfrieghter'

Frontier could easily create a Faragut outfitted as a trade ship. I agree that lore really needs to be expanded and just having those ships exist in the first place is the right step. I am not necessarily looking to pilot a capital ship, but I would just be happy for the Elite universe to keep expanding in an interesting direction.

 

[faytar]

make them npc ships that hire players as defenders on long trips player ships docked on board and released when need to defend as a rare event mission would be interesting to say the least

 

[goemon]

your

They could be in a Wing

made me shudder! yes, please! you drop out of sc and then ...

to bring two threads of tonight together --- imagine: if you get a wealthy system to a boom state, and the outcome would be a chance such a farragut-trasport would hang around for some days ...

 

[Captain Hammer]

Interesting idea, but very BAD for game mechanics. Just think what this will do to the profits players make (excessive) and the effect on markets! For a supertanker this size, you would also need either special docks, or transfer ships to move the material.

i am fairly Certain he means npc supper tankers that travel around the galaxy.
i like the idea. Typ-9 transports are fine for station to station trading. but for planetary trading it is a must have. it would certainly add deapth into the game i think.

 

[Pennilenko]

I for one could give two craps about game economy or what other players are doing or earning. I just know that I want to pilot a super tanker class ship in the game.

 

[Vasious]

I have assumed that they exist, and are in the background keeping planets fed and watered and supplied as contract traders, vs players flying "small" Tramp Traders, Type 9s and the Panther Clipper included as such.


One day hopefully we will see them in the background at stations like the old Lynx Bulk Traders and LRC of FE2 and FFE, and I would imagine they use the Old Jump drives, as like the Farragut and Majestic, they are too big for Super cruise.

I would imagine if they appear in game they will be NPC only

 

[Dhan]

What would be the point? It would obviously cost a ridiculous amount of credits to obtain, much more than any other ship currently in game. You would be trading for "fun" since you'd have no need for credits if you could afford something like this.