What shiptypes would you like to see?

[Prophet]

The transcendence universe is somewhat lower tech than is necessary to make a mobile suit believable, at least at the CW tech levels. There's no reason why another race hasn't developed that line of technolgy in preference to big bulky ships. A mobile suit would need a reactor with a higher output than a similar mass ship, but it would have to be smaller because of the dimensions. They would definitely be used in industry but combat mecha don't really fit the game.

A mobile suit would also be more mobile than a ship by a great deal as well as having the option of engaging in melee combat, something a ship cannot do, ever.

I wouldn't say that there can't be mobile suits in Transcendence, but they don't fit the current theme. If a new faction were introduced with some backstory to explain the tech difference it would be no problem.

[Arisaya]

well, at that size, you end up with the space mecha issues

[Atarlost]

The transcendence universe is somewhat lower tech than is necessary to make a mobile suit believable, at least at the CW tech levels. There's no reason why another race hasn't developed that line of technolgy in preference to big bulky ships. A mobile suit would need a reactor with a higher output than a similar mass ship, but it would have to be smaller because of the dimensions. They would definitely be used in industry but combat mecha don't really fit the game.

A mobile suit would also be more mobile than a ship by a great deal as well as having the option of engaging in melee combat, something a ship cannot do, ever.

I wouldn't say that there can't be mobile suits in Transcendence, but they don't fit the current theme. If a new faction were introduced with some backstory to explain the tech difference it would be no problem.

At this point it would have to be a post-heretic alien. Nobody in human space has the technology to make such compact reactors. Including the Iocrym who build so large their autons are the size of human frigates.

[SparcMan]

There's no reason that escape pods would only be big enough for 1 or 2 people. Especially on a large space station. Think more like a lifeboat on a cruise ship - they hold probably a dozen or so people.

On the whole mecha thing, There's the idea of transforming mecha-spacegunships like in Macross or something, but without ever going to the surface of any planets, there would never be any reason for such a ship to transform out in deep space would there?

[stealthx]

...
On the whole mecha thing, There's the idea of transforming mecha-spacegunships like in Macross or something, but without ever going to the surface of any planets, there would never be any reason for such a ship to transform out in deep space would there?

Eh, sorry, I really sux at marketing.

How about cruise-ships. Big, bloated, and full of tourists. Other types of vessels that have no value, but instead just add to atmosphere.....

We can find some uses for cruise-ships.
Space is big, mysterious and beautiful, so surely space tourism is a lucrative business, at least at the St.K and prior systems.
These can act as a slowly moving stations that buy luxury goods, fuel and food from the player. Maybe some missions as well such as delivery and escorting missions, or even
missions similar to the ones given by the agricultural facilities in which the player receives 5k.
It should probably have docks service, and maybe we can have a bigger and more complex version of Prophet's casino as well (with a possibility for losing in the long term).

The another ship types I would like to see ingame:
Stealth pirates. There is stealth technology but strangely it's not used by anyone other than the playership. If I am a pirate boss, I would definitely invest in stealth armors for my fleet. But this would of course depend on the economic viability of adopting it. Perhaps make weaker versions of the stealth armor for the Charons and stronger ones
for the Sungs? These armors should probably be branded illegal. Don't know how it would change the balancing though.

One shiptype I would like to see with a much lesser frequency: Salvager nomads, haha.

As a side note, should we have a few friendly stations that are under construction ingame? They will be keen to buy station construction materials, fuel and food from the player at a reasonable rate, just as one of the CSCs is eager to buy or receive medical supplies. Perhaps can add in some missions here as well.

[CFG]

If I think of the (hopefully sooner than later ) upcoming ability to change ships, I would love to see the list of available ships develop into something like:

categories

• - civilian transports (small amount of mats/few people)
  - freighters
  - specialized industrial (construction/mining/waste disposal (love that idea / ... ships
  - simple shuttles that carry 1-4 (or so) persons and escape capsules
  - armed ... /militia/military/corporate security and some "elite" "commonwealth guard", or something like that, type of ships

All of these categories should offer differently sized ships - from tiny, small, std., large, huge and - lacking of better terms to describe that - super (as in super freighter) size classes. So people get plenty of ships to choose from

What I personally would love to see is some flashy midgame freighter with decent cargo space, like Tazzman's Firefly.

[Arisaya]

We already have that last category filled actually, with brit's & manticores.

We have a few specialised mining ships, and the orion was going to be a tanker.

[CFG]

I completely missed medical and scientific (exploration/research) vessels.

For the other roles: Im probably lacking imagination , but what people basically need in space age is a method of getting yourself and maybe a small parcel from Eridiani to St. Katherines (see Elite series ), move large amounts of goods around and punch holes into enemy ships and stations.

Apart from that vehicles for supplying, constructing and dismantling stations and some specialized variants of these for gathering resources (ore, gas from gas giants, solar plasma, etc.) and processing them would come to my mind.
Specialized freighters (the Orion for liquids) are also a good example. A freighter for hazardous materials maybe? That would fit the "waste disposal idea".

Military vehicles however could be more specialized. Roles I could think of would be scouting/exploration, escort/fighter defense, fire support/missile defense, carriers and long range attack/missile ships.
Which are also already present in game.

Rethinking this again, Im missing some vehicles on the lower end:
You see the same ships in Eridiani (a rather poor system) and in St. Katherines (rather wealthy).
Some "flying piece of space junk" would fit into Eridiani maybe

[Arisaya]

In vanilla, st.k's actually has a good mixing of slums along with the wealtheir stations.

We also do have one exploratory/scientific vessel; the corporate explorer.

[Song]

Why don't we put in some truly crappy ships?

We have container habitats and slums....let's have some scrap ships. An old drive bolted onto an impromptu hull, with jury-rigged life-support ETC.


And they have an event on their ShipClass that means sometimes they just....die......for no apparent reason (life support failure, drive cascade, explosive decompression etc)

[Arisaya]

Why don't we put in some truly crappy ships?

That would be my old crateship. Except made to look more like Transcendence crates.

[Song]

Why don't we put in some truly crappy ships?

That would be my old crateship. Except made to look more like Transcendence crates.

Yes and no....there's scrappier possibilities than that.

[alterecco]

And they have an event on their ShipClass that means sometimes they just....die......for no apparent reason (life support failure, drive cascade, explosive decompression etc)

I like that :)

Possibly they could broadcast a SOS before going down, so if the player had time he could save them (micro missions?)

[CFG]

Another thing - though it doesnt actually fit here - is stations.

What I also would love to see is SiaFu's SFSpaceStations. They can be far better distinguished from each other than the std. station images.
And for the Eridiani <-> St. Katherines comparison: St. Katherines could use some more "noble" looking kinds of small habitats, not these container habits. I think that would fit the system better.

Back to ships:

What I assume from gameplay is that only major factions (should) have shipyards. If I remember correctly the only stations named like that are:

• - black market shipyard,
  - ringers shipyard
  - the Ares shipyard
  - and the commonwealth drydocks - if they count as shipyards too (in terms of ships being built there)

So should every faction have a shipyard where the player could potentially buy ships that faction uses (if the player has an appropriate relation to that faction)...?

For the commonwealth I think a whole system that manufactures (also military vessels) would fit. Maybe including a commonwealth military training ground (as third option to get into military ranks - by being trained through missions).

[Arisaya]

Ship buying is not going to be implemeted in part 1 vanilla.