The problem with the Panther Clipper

[Iskariot]

I loved the Panther Clipper in Frontier Elite 2, but... ED is a different game.

Unless The Panther Clipper is introduced with new game mechanics (like a new docking system, on board shuttle, npc crew system) I am not very interested in it.
The Panther Clipper used to be a true hulk of a ship. It should be so in ED too.
If in ED it is just another big ship then it would not do its legacy justice.

 

[Quantis Trap]

We've had a model image of the Panther Clipper floating about for far longer than, say, the Krait model was shown before it was introduced.

So why haven't we seen the ship itself before now? (If indeed we do see it now.)

Here's what I think the problem is:

If the ship doesn't have vastly more cargo capacity than the T9 or Cutter, players will be bitterly disappointed.

But if it does have, say, twice the capacity of those ships, then the amount of money you can make from simple loop trading will also double, perhaps approaching Cr30-36m/hr.

The devs aren't notoriously fond of deliberately introducing new sources of easy money into the game.

It may be for this reason, rather than any problem with the technical design of the ship, that the Panther Clipper hasn't appeared yet and never may.

I doubt this will be a problem because 40-50 million cr seems to be the threshold where Frontier draws the line and nerfs.

In addition to that Frontier could add in complications such as not being able to land in the station to make the Panther Clipper much less convenient.

 

[Dagwit]

Income has consistently increased by an insane factor the last few years (shooting an elite conda went from +-12,500cr to up to half a million, an increase of 4000%!), and when they introduced passengers they showered us with insane piles of money. This narrative that FD is hesitant to introduce new and easy ways to earn money is factually just absolute .

Note my use of the word ''deliberately". I suspect that what goes on is something like this: the team of devs responsible for introducing passenger missions need their work to be a success, so they set the rewards sky-high. So then other teams say they have to increase their rates so the return on their activities - say, bounty hunting - doesn't seem totally ridiculous by comparison. Inflation has set in - to the horror, no doubt, of the senior devs who would like to quash it, but who have to tread warily for fear of alienating players who have got used to easy money, and managers who rather like the real money coming from the sale of paintjobs for all those ships the players are now able to buy.

Despite such concerns, we are now seeing the beginnings of a clampdown: the end of board-flipping has been announced, and Down to Earth Astronomy has reported in a recent video that repeated runs to Sirius Atmospherics without board-flipping produce decreasing returns.

Also, I've done a few early experiments on gathering passengers for Smeaton Orbital without board-flipping and the results so far have been poor.

Nevertheless, we may see mining become very profitable in 3.3, because the devs behind it will want to make sure their changes are a roaring success.

But the Panther Clipper? Nobody on the dev team will be pushing hard for that to be a huge success, so concerns about its earning potential would be to the fore.

On the other hand, with ice planets and Squadron Carriers delayed, the devs must be rummaging around for stuff to add to 3.3 by way of compensation - and they won't have the time or resources to make anything new. If the Panther Clipper is ready and just sitting on a shelf....

I don't really believe we'll see it. And I didn't believe the leak. But you never know.

Incidentally, you're not allowed to swear on these forums.

EDIT: or spell if you're using a tablet's swipey keyboard.

 

[Strangepork]

We've had a model image of the Panther Clipper floating about for far longer than, say, the Krait model was shown before it was introduced.

So why haven't we seen the ship itself before now? (If indeed we do see it now.)

Here's what I think the problem is:

If the ship doesn't have vastly more cargo capacity than the T9 or Cutter, players will be bitterly disappointed.

But if it does have, say, twice the capacity of those ships, then the amount of money you can make from simple loop trading will also double, perhaps approaching Cr30-36m/hr.

The devs aren't notoriously fond of deliberately introducing new sources of easy money into the game.

It may be for this reason, rather than any problem with the technical design of the ship, that the Panther Clipper hasn't appeared yet and never may.

3 Class 8, might be the best to hope for... snore.

 

[EISENHORN01]

My guess is:

Can only land at large planetary bases but due to a design fault the engines do not generate enough thrust to take off from anything but a zero G planet.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

with commodities now being tracked across instances supplies dry up pretty quickly, especially on commodities with high profit. I don't know that you could turn enough profit with a panther clipper to be worth it. You'd pretty much be grinding low value commodities that are in high supply and replenish quickly.

Unless they give it a size 12 FSD (which would be ridiculously expensive) so you could do some high value trading to remote locations (like outposts in remote nebulas) effectively I don't see how a panther clipper makes sense in this game.

 

[Askorti]

with commodities now being tracked across instances supplies dry up pretty quickly, especially on commodities with high profit. I don't know that you could turn enough profit with a panther clipper to be worth it. You'd pretty much be grinding low value commodities that are in high supply and replenish quickly.

Unless they give it a size 12 FSD (which would be ridiculously expensive) so you could do some high value trading to remote locations (like outposts in remote nebulas) effectively I don't see how a panther clipper makes sense in this game.

> Go to a high tech station
> Buy up all their medicine
> Go to an outbreak system
> sell medicine
> ????
> profit.

 

[Red Anders]

Where are these threads coming from? Was something announced that got people Hope's up? All of a sudden the forum is alive with panther clipper nonsense.

Same place they always come from.

Clue: You're sitting on it.

 

[JeffRyan]

It was confirmed as fake by Stuart And Alec. So yeah...As far as I have understood Panther is not coming yet. And I really when it comes, it is first ship requiring external docking. That would be interesting challenge to gameplay.

Good, whilst some of the stuff was nice, the panther just being a T9+ would have been a disappointment.

 

[RamirezKurita]

Probably gonna get repurposed as a megaship/squadron carrier once those roll around.

That is to say, it'll be more of a resource sink than a resource generator.

It seems a bit pointless to make the Panther a megaship, when FFE actually had one of its two megaships be a design based off the Panther Clipper - the Lynx Bulk Carrier.

I'd be happy enough to see the Panther as a ship class above the current large ships (alongside the Boa, which would be an enlarged Anaconda). There's still a fair amount of headroom in terms of size for ships larger than the current crop, you just have to look at the size of the Beluga and how much smaller the other large ships are.

I'd also prefer to see the Panther Clipper added as part of a new manufacturer, as there were a fair few cat-themed ships in FFE and some of them we made according to Gupta Heavy Industries in their descriptions. The Lynx Bulk Carrier, the Panther Clipper, the Puma Clipper, the Tiger Trader and the Lion Transport to name some of them off the top of my head, all of them being freighters. This would be particularly fitting in terms of market forces, as Lakon are moving progressively away from their freighter heritage and into military construction to appease a certain notorious terrorist organisation and so the market is ripe for a freighter centric manufacturer to take their place.

 

[Hell Razor5543]

The problem with MY Panther Clipper is that, when it curls up and goes to sleep on my bed, there is no room for ME!

 

[Kamiyoda]

All this tall about the old Panthar clipper and Im just sitting here thinking of the Panther LX mock up they did years ago and how much I would rather have that.

 

[babelfisch]

If this thing has a landing pad, can land on planets and store cargo/modules... isn't that a mobile player base with 500ly jump range? Dear lord talk about high expectations

It doesn't land on planets. Planets land on the Panther Clipper.

 

[Imo]

The problem may be that the Cutter is so overpowered that another even bigger trade ship like the Panther Clipper, let's say carrying 1000 tons, will not be worth all the drawbacks. Compared to the Cutter the Panther Clipper will be slower, less agile, more expensive, have less firepower and so on. So when introducing the Panther Clipper Frontier must first address the Cutters overwhelming abilities.

 

[Hell Razor5543]

The Panther Clipper is so massive it would mass lock Jaques Station!

 

[Patrick_68000]

The problem with the Panther Clipper is that if everyone has a Panther Clipper, there will be no more space to move in the the galaxy

 

[Deleted member 110222]

Just buy a Cobra.

 

[Cosmo Bozo]

It's not in game yet because of all this "too big for the mailslot" nonsense.

You go into the shipyard and buy one and you can't get it out...

 

[Kamiyoda]

It's not in game yet because of all this "too big for the mailslot" nonsense.

You go into the shipyard and buy one and you can't get it out...

Isnt this the one they were talking about adding to the game all thise yeare ago?

Seemed like they were going to pull a Krait MKII on us if anything

 

[GoldenSilver484]

The problem may be that the Cutter is so overpowered that another even bigger trade ship like the Panther Clipper, let's say carrying 1000 tons, will not be worth all the drawbacks. Compared to the Cutter the Panther Clipper will be slower, less agile, more expensive, have less firepower and so on. So when introducing the Panther Clipper Frontier must first address the Cutters overwhelming abilities.

The Cutter is only better in speedl and shield strength when compared to the other members of the big four. It has less firepower than the others, turns slower, drifts all over the place, costs 3-400 million more than the next cheapest when fully outfit and is tied with the T-10 for highest MLF at 26.

I doubt the Panther would have less firepower if it has a C8 distributor and could have stronger shields and hull.
It would also suprise me if the Panther didn't have a MLF of at least 27, one higher than both the T-10 and Cutter.

I'm guessing the Panther will be~250-300 million stock with C8 core internals, have comparable hardpoints to the Anaconda or T-10, have at least 1000 cargo when shielded and take up nearly the entirety of a large pad.