The Speciality Ships need some love

[dxm55]

And there was me thinking my T6E was a great expoloration ship, just a bit short on jump range for those extreme edges. They are what you make them, don't like them? Don't fly them.

Exactly. I don't.

But C'mon..... don't get your pants in a bunch just because I dissed a virtual ship. It's nothing personal.

 

[dxm55]

I LOVE the idea of a commercial compartment. These are some great ideas

Also, may I add that unlike a Military Compartment, a commercial compartment could perhaps also carry standard modules.
So other than those special racks, players can also use them for standard purposes.

I mean those ships are already slow, clumsy and fugly to begin with. They need every little bit of help they can get.

 

[Simon Templar]

Makes sense.
Them T-series pigs are the absolute worst pieces of trash in the game today.

Can't fight, can't run, can't tank, and the cargo haul difference vs defence rating against a general purpose ship like the Conda or Python means I would prefer to make 2 hauls in an Anaconda than 1 in a T9.

We already have Internal Compartments and Military Compartments.

Maybe what specialized passenger and cargo ships need is something called (for eg.) a Commercial Compartment.
Replace some of the existing compartments in the T6, T7, T9, Dolphin, Orca, and Beluga with these.
Not sure if the Keelback or T10 should get them since they're semi-combat ships.

To hold special modules like.

- Hi Capacity Cargo Racks.
Cargo racks that weigh 25% more, but carry twice more cargo.
Imagine a Class 8 Hi-Cap Rack that carries 512t instead of 256t.

- Shielded Cargo Racks
Carries the same amount of cargo as a standard rack, weighs 25% more, but has a 75% change (RNG) of resisting manifest scans by CMDRs and NPCs to show empty.

- Corrosion resistant Racks
What it implies. Resistant against Thargie stuff. Weighs 25% more.
So you don't need a engineer or tech trader to make one for you. It comes standard for Cargo ships.



As for passenger cabins.
Maybe reshuffle it such that Business and First Class cabins can only be used by Commercial Compartments?


Just some thoughts.

I love all of that (although can't agree with the opener - I love my T7 trader, and my little red T6, 'Orpheus', is my favourite explorer - great view, 38ly range (and not yet finished with the engineering), lots of slots, small enough to land anywhere, and I love the way it looks, but sorry that's beside the point), great post & love your ideas.

o7

 

[RamirezKurita]

Curious: What do you plan on giving up for these buffs?

If something is underpowered, then it needs buffs without an equivalent loss. An underpowered ship that receives a trade in stats would still end up being underpowered - you haven't actually improved it but readjusted its mediocrity.

In this case, the Beluga is just generally poor all around. Within its price range the only thing it does well is Luxury PAX, it is beaten out in every other activity by pretty much every other ship in its price range. Even if it were to receive a 30% increase in internal capacity with no associated drawback it still wouldn't overshadow its peers but would instead become competitive against them.

 

[Sylow]

I do feel that they fixed the Beluga when they removed the silly passenger slot restrictions. I also feel that the Type-9 is in a good place. Personally, I don't feel that the large ship situation is where the problem lies today. The Corvette, Cutter, Anaconda, Beluga, Type-9 are all excellent ships that have a purpose in the game. The Type-10 is probably the one that needs some love to make it more viable. There was a huge thread about that recently which had some good ideas.

I fully agree on this part. The only two large pad ships which really are a but underwhelming for that size are the T10 and the Imperial Clipper. The first one needs some help, the second basically is acceptable when you consider the price and rather view it as a medium ship which can't dock at outposts.

Of course i'd prefer if any ship was viable, with no "cheap stepping stone" on the way. But i guess that's a different topic.

Where the game is really broken ship-wise is medium class. The Python and the Krait Mk II tower over every other medium ship in the game and make almost any other choice pointless except maybe for RP reasons. I can't even think of these ships fondly anymore because I think they are just way too overpowered in almost every role. Even the Anaconda is in many ways less versatile than these ships because, much to my everlasting sadness, the whole game revolves around making these two ships the focal point.

Interesting point of view, considering that many PvP players still consider the FDL the best choice and the Mamba also seem to see plenty of use. The Federal Assault ship seems to have fallen a bit behind by now, but as long as FD considers price a balancing point and cheaper ships are supposed to fare worse (with no chance to redeem themselves), this is just what has to be expected. In contrast the Federal Gunship still seems to have people liking it, mostly in a PvE environment. It may be niché, but that's exactly how it was designed, but it seems to do the job there. Looking outside of combat, plenty of explorers seem to still use the Asp Exlorer or the Krait Phantom.

So all in all: yes, there are a few medium ships which fall behind the rest. Usually they also come at a lower price tag, which seems to be a good reason for FD to keep them as mere stepping stones, instead of offering an option to bring them on par to other alternatives.

What's really falling behind, and even so far that people seem to already have forgotten about them, are small ships.

They don't have the internals to be of interest for most activities. For exploration there are alternatives with more internals, more jump range and still good maneuverability in the medium segment. For anything related with cargo, any medium or large beats them by far. In combat their small size and higher agility could be an advantage. But considering how far you can stack up defenses and that higher ranking NPCs even do that by now, they are not capable combat crafts any more. It rather feels like scratching an enemy to death. While there are medium ships which, thanks to engineering, also by now are rather agile, much more surviveable and bring much more firepower.

So the small ships are actually the lost and forgotten kind of ships, which really could use some help.

 

[Sterling MH]

The T7 could become a miner with some buff to manoevering and two medium hardpoints.
Give the passenger ships free unchangeable luxury passenger cabins at the highest size (either two or one for half a max size slot).
Give the Hauler a class 3 business cabin so it can be used for a taxi and for noobs an intro to passenger missions
Give the FDS a class 5 economy class cabin so it can be explained away as a medevac. That explains why the FGS has more internals, bigger core and the same size hull.
Give passenger ships a 20% bonus for passenger missions: you sell them tat and drinks/food from the built in bar.

 

[AdmiralXanos]

The Type-9 and Beluga are both fine, but the Type-7 is still eclipsed by the Python. I still think they need to fix that, or at least release any dedicated cargo hauler in the medium class that sacrifices combat ability for better cargo hauling on a medium pad.

THIS ^^^

Currently the Python and Krait MK2 are the medium pad kings, yes the mamba and FDL are good combat ships but not so much to make up for their limited jump range and almost zero internal flexibility. To be clear I DO NOT WANT the existing medium ships tweaked, just another medium ship that can out carry a python by sacrificing weapon hardpoints.