The problem with the Panther Clipper

The Cutter is only better in speedl and shield strength when compared to the other members of the big four.
Not only this. The cutter is able to carry the biggest amount of cargo also!
 
Given the fact that this ship (in previous versions of Elite) has always been able to pass through the mailslot and land on a standard pad, I don't see why it should lose that ability.

And given the amount of space wasted by the Beluga's fins and the Cutter's outriggers, a "chunkier" ship with similar dimensions could easily be 2 or 3 times the volume.

The problem is that it will suddenly make lesser trade ships obsolete. I suppose one solution would be to rank-lock it to your Trade rank, so you have to work your way up to Tycoon or Elite before you get to operate one of these.
I doubt something like this will make my trade cutter obsolete. We're talking about something that will be more unwieldy and more vulnerable than anything else which may require extra teamwork to execute properly. Nah I don't see the cutters going away.
 
The problem is that it will suddenly make lesser trade ships obsolete. I suppose one solution would be to rank-lock it to your Trade rank, so you have to work your way up to Tycoon or Elite before you get to operate one of these.

Not necessarily. The T7 is still relevant after you can have the T9, because it's much faster and can escape interdictions better. If the Panther gets the drift of the Cutter and the speed of the T9 or less, not everything will like that and stick to T9 andd Cutter.
 
I'm kind of thinking anything more than a 1000 ton capacity T6 would be so overpowered that it would blow apart any semblance of balance the game clings too. More than 1000 tons is getting a bit much. If it was slower and weaker than a T9 with less guns, it wouldn't be an easy choice. Obsoletizing ships is not a good design choice.
 
No, if only there were current missions hauling 6500+ tons of cargo for millions in rewards. Oh, wait...
I've been part of wing source and return missions where 1 guy has a cutter, another has a T9, someone else a conda and the noob brings his T7. All work together to share the load and get it done asap. With a panther in the mix (2000t) that dynamic might need to be adjusted to assigning a guy to escort the panther or maybe multi crew makes more sense in some situations. It would be cool if the panther made multicrew something strategically desirable.
 
Current Elite Dangerous ships
Type-9 Heavy 788t
Imperial Cutter 792T

Frontier Elite II ships
Panther Clipper 2100t
Boa 1200t
Puma Clipper 825t
Anaconda 650t
Imperial Trader 525t
Python 400t

Not player accessible (but can be flown)
Lynx Bulk Carrier 6,000t
Long Range Cruiser 15,000t

Obviously the numbers from the previous games don't match up to the current versions in ED. Also a Type-9 and Cutter takes up most of the station mailslot when passing through. Still a Panther Clipper at 2100t would have to be 2.6 times longer than an ED Type-9 or Cutter. OK we are through the mailslot but no way would it ever fit on a large landing pad.

So the Best ED could do is design the Panther Clipper in the 788-792t range and maybe a little more just per the tradition of the games to put it on the top with the largest cargo hold. 1000t would be great if possible.

But it was also about the art of the game with those four rotating engine nacelles that smoothly combined into two powerful thrusters in forward flight and pretty cool watching all four used for landing. So with cargo limitations a Panther Clipper is still possible in ED if it has the four rotating engine nacelles. Without them it is just another new ship. No big deal for past players who flew hundreds of hours in the Panther Clipper and loved it.


Don't forget those numbers included all internals including Core Internals we have now.

An E rated Python already uses 302 tonnes just for the core internals and still has space for up to 292 tonnes of cargo.

The e rate Anacondas core internals use 652 tons before considering Cargo.

You can't just look at the FE2 capcities as a frame of reference
 
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.

Well yeah, because at least I imaging the panther clipper as so big that it can't fit a slot and needs a secondary ship/cargo bot to unload and reload it, basically needing a specialised 'huge' landing platform, so it really only is practical to land on planets, and with space stations they would need an external connection of a kind it could connect to and it could use the docking features but not really be docked.

Will that happen? I really don't know at this point, but man it would be cool.
 
Well yeah, because at least I imaging the panther clipper as so big that it can't fit a slot

Seeing as how the quote you replied to was talking about the Panther LX that was shown to fit neatly on a large pad uh... Why?

For reference, if you flip a Thargoid interceptor on its side you can fit it in the Mailslot. Theres a lot of room in there. I mean Im all for capital ships but the concept for the Elite Dangerous version of the Panther doesnt seem like its going to be it.(It doesnt seem like its going to be a lot of things to be honest but bare with me for the sake of discussion XD)
 
Given the fact that this ship (in previous versions of Elite) has always been able to pass through the mailslot and land on a standard pad, I don't see why it should lose that ability.

And given the amount of space wasted by the Beluga's fins and the Cutter's outriggers, a "chunkier" ship with similar dimensions could easily be 2 or 3 times the volume.

The problem is that it will suddenly make lesser trade ships obsolete. I suppose one solution would be to rank-lock it to your Trade rank, so you have to work your way up to Tycoon or Elite before you get to operate one of these.

Make it half the speed of the Cutter.
 
The problem is that it will suddenly make lesser trade ships obsolete.

Don't think that's a problem... the top cargo ship always made the lower tier ones obsolete.

- Back in the days [tm], the Anaconda made all other trading ships, including the T-9, obsolete. Although it had slightly lower capacity, its higher jumprange more than made up for it.
- Then came the Cutter and made the Conda obsolete (as a trading ship).
- Now comes the Panther and makes the Cutter obsolete.

Not seeing a problem here.
 
I doubt it will make the Cutter obsolete. The Cutter will probably still jump better and certainly be vastly better armed. The T9 is another story.
 
OP, your Problem is the holy grail of others! Besides that, People in that Forum should find less Problems and more Solutions, in particular for Problems that do not exist at that Moment! ;)
 
Dont Cry For Me Panther Clipper..

Introducing a ship that obsoletes others is a problem that is fixed by making it dockable only at specialised stations. Effectively its a XL landing-pad only. Dockin arms sound cool, but there needs to be an alternative docking mechanism that means ships can enter an outfitting bay and otherwise not simply 'vanish' while at a starport.
The benefits of making it XL pads only, is it can then be made massively OP for cargo without destroying game balance. Massively overpowered in cargo space (2000t +) but proportionally restricted in docking access means instead of strangling specs within fine margins, it opens out a whole new class of ships that can still be flown in the traditional heavy-fighter style, and can still have some performance charactetistics. (Id love to see it max cruise around 200 but boost to 450 (engineered) and stay there for ages with worst drift in most axes than a cutter. It might also allow certain Solo players to see source/delivery Wing missions on their board without breaking into a song from Evita.
 
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