I currently have two Fleet Carriers, and I'm now quite happy with how they work (so this isn't one of those "I can't afford a Fleet Carrier" threads, or a "Carriers suck" thread). But I appreciate that there are still players who either can't afford a Fleet Carrier or don't require one, but would still like the ability to carry a few of their own ships around. And each of these proposals could be of some benefit to someone who already owns a Fleet Carrier too (neither is subject to the Fleet Carrier's "one Carrier per CMDR" limit). Carriers have been in ED for awhile now and seem to have "settled down", and these proposals would mostly involve recycling existing code, with not much new programming needed (mostly just modelling). And these don't add to the system-map clutter problem!
Pocket Carrier
A slablike Large-pad dockable ship with a Small pad on its topside, capable of carrying maybe 3 Small ships. Superpower-specific variants may also be possible, maybe sacrificing one Small hangar for more combat-capability / speed / jumprange. This flies like a "ship" rather than a "carrier": fuelled by hydrogen, jumping with an FSD, capable of supercruise and travel through normal space. It can also land on planets, and one of its uses is as a portable planetary base: if we get larger ground vehicles in Odyssey, this ship should be able to deploy them. It can still deploy ships from the topside pad while landed (if the carrier is sitting on a pad, launching a ship from it will trigger "Enter Hangar" for the carrier). It could also deploy SLF's, and perhaps the limit of one copilot-controlled SLF could be relaxed for this ship (the ship's own firepower would be limited). Base cost is about 300 million for an E-rated stock version.
As a ship, it isn't visible across modes, and is non-persistent when the owner is logged off. It cannot carry anyone else's ships. Ships are transferred between the Carrier and a station's shipyard using the ship transfer function, but this generally only works within the station, a Pocket Carrier can't usually transfer ships to itself over a distance. Once a ship has been transferred to a Pocket Carrier, that becomes the respawn point if the ship is destroyed (and if transferred from carrier to station, the station becomes the respawn point).
You can launch from the carrier in a carrier-based small ship and leave an NPC copilot in command of the carrier. A Pocket Carrier can be dismissed after leaving it in a carrier-based ship (just as you can dismiss a mothership from an SRV). It disappears when you leave the instance. You can recall the carrier anywhere in the system you dismissed it in. If you jump to another system, you can't recall the carrier until you return to that system. If you visit a station in a carrier-based ship, you are denied access to the station's shipyard and outfitting (you must visit a station in the carrier itself and offload the ship to modify/replace it). A Pocket Carrier doesn't have Outfitting (not enough room to store a supply of spare modules), but does have repair/refuel/armoury for the ships it carries (and a basic Shipyard for swapping ships).
If the Pocket Carrier is destroyed, any ships still onboard are also destroyed, and you're at the rebuy screen (even if your little ship was elsewhere at the time and wasn't destroyed) at the usual respawn point for the carrier (usually the last station docked at), with the carrier as your "current ship", and any non-destroyed ships onboard. You can choose not to rebuy specific ships to save money (as you can with ship modules now).
If a carrier-based ship is destroyed when not on the carrier, you're back on the carrier (which is now your current ship) and at the rebuy screen. As a Pocket Carrier doesn't have capacity for spare ships, the rebuy is followed by a ship-transfer of the replacement ship to the carrier's location from the carrier's last-docked shipyard (an exception to the general rule that you can't ship-transfer over distance). You can save money by deselecting the transfer option, but the replacement ship is then no longer carrier-based and is left in storage at the station shipyard. There is no "default Sidewinder" option, instead you can simply not rebuy the lost ship (leaving you flying the carrier with a ship missing).
A Pocket Carrier has no built-in cargo storage, but it does have internal module slots that could contain cargo racks. You can leave cargo on the carrier while flying a carrier-based ship (as you can with an SLF or SRV now, leaving cargo on the mothership), but you cannot switch to a non-carrier-based ship while leaving cargo on the carrier (unless the new ship can hold the cargo). Passengers stay on whatever ship picked them up, and you can't switch to a non-carrier-based ship leaving passengers behind. An Imperial version of the Pocket Carrier could take Luxury cabins in its own module slots (but any version could carry a Dolphin).
Light Carrier
Unlike the Pocket Carrier, this is a "carrier" rather than a "ship", and mostly works just like a Fleet Carrier, except where specified. It's smaller and cheaper (maybe 1.5 to 2 billion), with 2 Large pads, 3 Medium pads, and 4 Small pads: and each pad is associated with a hangar of that size, so it can only carry 9 ships in total (and only 2 of those can be Large, etc). It has 60% of a Fleet Carrier's jumprange (usually 300ly), 10% of a FC's cargo and fueltank size, and 20% of a FC's tritium consumption per lightyear jumped (and 20% of service/upkeep costs). So it has both advantages and disadvantages in deep space: it uses much less tritium, but has half the total range on stored fuel and takes more jumps.
It doesn't appear on the system map, isn't visible across modes (only visible to another player if both are in Open or a shared PG), and is usually not persistent, disappearing when the owner logs out. Other players can dock, and if another player is docked while the owner is logged out, it's persistent in his instance until he leaves it (i.e. it appears in the guest's instance every time he logs in while docked, until he actually undocks and flies away, then it's gone until the owner logs back in). There's no need for a limit on how many Light Carriers a player can own.
Most normal FC services are available, but not Shipyard or Outfitting. The carrier owner gets those for free with his own ships/modules, but visitors can only store one ship each. This counts towards the 9-ship limit, and the owner can see who is onboard, and eject unwanted guests to free-up hangars (this is new, but also requested by Fleet Carrier owners too, so could be added to those). If a ship launches from the carrier and is then destroyed, but cannot respawn on the carrier due to no free hangars, it will need to respawn elsewhere.
Pocket Carrier
A slablike Large-pad dockable ship with a Small pad on its topside, capable of carrying maybe 3 Small ships. Superpower-specific variants may also be possible, maybe sacrificing one Small hangar for more combat-capability / speed / jumprange. This flies like a "ship" rather than a "carrier": fuelled by hydrogen, jumping with an FSD, capable of supercruise and travel through normal space. It can also land on planets, and one of its uses is as a portable planetary base: if we get larger ground vehicles in Odyssey, this ship should be able to deploy them. It can still deploy ships from the topside pad while landed (if the carrier is sitting on a pad, launching a ship from it will trigger "Enter Hangar" for the carrier). It could also deploy SLF's, and perhaps the limit of one copilot-controlled SLF could be relaxed for this ship (the ship's own firepower would be limited). Base cost is about 300 million for an E-rated stock version.
As a ship, it isn't visible across modes, and is non-persistent when the owner is logged off. It cannot carry anyone else's ships. Ships are transferred between the Carrier and a station's shipyard using the ship transfer function, but this generally only works within the station, a Pocket Carrier can't usually transfer ships to itself over a distance. Once a ship has been transferred to a Pocket Carrier, that becomes the respawn point if the ship is destroyed (and if transferred from carrier to station, the station becomes the respawn point).
You can launch from the carrier in a carrier-based small ship and leave an NPC copilot in command of the carrier. A Pocket Carrier can be dismissed after leaving it in a carrier-based ship (just as you can dismiss a mothership from an SRV). It disappears when you leave the instance. You can recall the carrier anywhere in the system you dismissed it in. If you jump to another system, you can't recall the carrier until you return to that system. If you visit a station in a carrier-based ship, you are denied access to the station's shipyard and outfitting (you must visit a station in the carrier itself and offload the ship to modify/replace it). A Pocket Carrier doesn't have Outfitting (not enough room to store a supply of spare modules), but does have repair/refuel/armoury for the ships it carries (and a basic Shipyard for swapping ships).
If the Pocket Carrier is destroyed, any ships still onboard are also destroyed, and you're at the rebuy screen (even if your little ship was elsewhere at the time and wasn't destroyed) at the usual respawn point for the carrier (usually the last station docked at), with the carrier as your "current ship", and any non-destroyed ships onboard. You can choose not to rebuy specific ships to save money (as you can with ship modules now).
If a carrier-based ship is destroyed when not on the carrier, you're back on the carrier (which is now your current ship) and at the rebuy screen. As a Pocket Carrier doesn't have capacity for spare ships, the rebuy is followed by a ship-transfer of the replacement ship to the carrier's location from the carrier's last-docked shipyard (an exception to the general rule that you can't ship-transfer over distance). You can save money by deselecting the transfer option, but the replacement ship is then no longer carrier-based and is left in storage at the station shipyard. There is no "default Sidewinder" option, instead you can simply not rebuy the lost ship (leaving you flying the carrier with a ship missing).
A Pocket Carrier has no built-in cargo storage, but it does have internal module slots that could contain cargo racks. You can leave cargo on the carrier while flying a carrier-based ship (as you can with an SLF or SRV now, leaving cargo on the mothership), but you cannot switch to a non-carrier-based ship while leaving cargo on the carrier (unless the new ship can hold the cargo). Passengers stay on whatever ship picked them up, and you can't switch to a non-carrier-based ship leaving passengers behind. An Imperial version of the Pocket Carrier could take Luxury cabins in its own module slots (but any version could carry a Dolphin).
Light Carrier
Unlike the Pocket Carrier, this is a "carrier" rather than a "ship", and mostly works just like a Fleet Carrier, except where specified. It's smaller and cheaper (maybe 1.5 to 2 billion), with 2 Large pads, 3 Medium pads, and 4 Small pads: and each pad is associated with a hangar of that size, so it can only carry 9 ships in total (and only 2 of those can be Large, etc). It has 60% of a Fleet Carrier's jumprange (usually 300ly), 10% of a FC's cargo and fueltank size, and 20% of a FC's tritium consumption per lightyear jumped (and 20% of service/upkeep costs). So it has both advantages and disadvantages in deep space: it uses much less tritium, but has half the total range on stored fuel and takes more jumps.
It doesn't appear on the system map, isn't visible across modes (only visible to another player if both are in Open or a shared PG), and is usually not persistent, disappearing when the owner logs out. Other players can dock, and if another player is docked while the owner is logged out, it's persistent in his instance until he leaves it (i.e. it appears in the guest's instance every time he logs in while docked, until he actually undocks and flies away, then it's gone until the owner logs back in). There's no need for a limit on how many Light Carriers a player can own.
Most normal FC services are available, but not Shipyard or Outfitting. The carrier owner gets those for free with his own ships/modules, but visitors can only store one ship each. This counts towards the 9-ship limit, and the owner can see who is onboard, and eject unwanted guests to free-up hangars (this is new, but also requested by Fleet Carrier owners too, so could be added to those). If a ship launches from the carrier and is then destroyed, but cannot respawn on the carrier due to no free hangars, it will need to respawn elsewhere.
