Starlifter to Liberator?

[Carlos Spicyweiner]

I have both an M2 and a C2 Starlifter(don't ask me why). I'm toying with the idea of swapping the M2 for the new Liberator. Spicyweiner Inc. is divided into 3...divisions, for lack of a better term. They are mining and salvage, cargo transport, exploration. and maybe one more that I can't think of right now(I spend most of the few days I show up to work in my office practicing my putts and drinking single malt scotch). I have several military ships, including a Hammerhead, which rarely come out of the hangar(because I suck at space military stuff), but I will enthusiastically fling at the enemy in defense of TEST.

I want to use the Lib to transport my 2 prospectors, 2 ROCs and maybe a small fighter for over watch. I could haul that rig all over the PU until everything was full and then cash it all in at a refinery. Of course it would always be available for military operations. Just wondering how economic it would be.

 

[Montoya]

Let your feelings guide you.

 

[Talonsbane]

I have both an M2 and a C2 Starlifter(don't ask me why). I'm toying with the idea of swapping the M2 for the new Liberator. Spicyweiner Inc. is divided into 3...divisions, for lack of a better term. They are mining and salvage, cargo transport, exploration. and maybe one more that I can't think of right now(I spend most of the few days I show up to work in my office practicing my putts and drinking single malt scotch). I have several military ships, including a Hammerhead, which rarely come out of the hangar(because I suck at space military stuff), but I will enthusiastically fling at the enemy in defense of TEST.

I want to use the Lib to transport my 2 prospectors, 2 ROCs and maybe a small fighter for over watch. I could haul that rig all over the PU until everything was full and then cash it all in at a refinery. Of course it would always be available for military operations. Just wondering how economic it would be.

Hypothetically speaking, if you were to change 1 into a Liberator, instead of 2 prospectors, 2 ROC's & a small fighter, might I suggest that instead of 1 of the prospectors, you instead use 1 of the small refining ships that have been slowly in development concept wise? This way you can have the Prospector transfer the ore to the RAFT before returning to the field, the RAFT can be refining the ore to store in the Liberator's 400 SCU cargo area while the Prospector is back at work. Thus streamlining the process, especially if you come across some of that high value Quantanium ore that you have to offload to start refining before it goes boom.

 

[RedBaron1010]

Liberator hands down if you are transporting space ships. If you find a wrecked fighter in space you can bring it back with you. If you had a bunch of friends with SRVs you could start your own mobile towing service for capital or disable ships. It could serve as a mobile junk yard for a crucible/reclaimer fleet that needs extra storage for partially assembled ships.

 

[vahadar]

The Liberator will be the cheap Kraken for moving your stuff around. The needed crew is minimalist.
We do not know how we will be able to call ships in the final game, would it be possible to just move to another location and reclaim them? From my understanding it is not the plan. This means you will need to move your stuff around, and this ship would do the job better than any Hercules in my opinion. I have bid farewell to my C2 here, to replace it with a Liberator soon. The Hercules are probably ships that fit more to combat dropship situation (M2 especially).

Since you have both M2/C2, will you use both? Maybe keep one according to what you want to do (more cargo: C2, combat oriented: M2) and upgrade the other one to a Liberator if that is what you want?

 

[Bambooza]

Hypothetically speaking, if you were to change 1 into a Liberator, instead of 2 prospectors, 2 ROC's & a small fighter, might I suggest that instead of 1 of the prospectors, you instead use 1 of the small refining ships that have been slowly in development concept wise? This way you can have the Prospector transfer the ore to the RAFT before returning to the field, the RAFT can be refining the ore to store in the Liberator's 400 SCU cargo area while the Prospector is back at work. Thus streamlining the process, especially if you come across some of that high value Quantanium ore that you have to offload to start refining before it goes boom.

Not a bad idea, the only issue I have with it is how are you going to keep the ship you're not currently on from despawning? We know that ships attached to other ships will not despawn until the parent ship despawns. But what is not clear is how other ships will act when no player is aboard them? Will they continue to be physicalized as long as you are logged into the game which would allow this sort of mining operation mentioned by @Talosbane? But what happens if they despawn because you are not within x distance of them or a player has not been aboard in x amount of time? For me, the question is really do they plan on players being associated predominantly with one ship not wanting us to manage a fleet of ships by ourselves like this mining operation? The other question is how are you going to protect it all from pirates? We still see some remnants of their goal of having lots of activities around players from trade ships to police presents and pirate attacks all scripted based upon the local grid probability volumes created by Quantum.

I guess this was all to say I would be very careful about planing any sort of multiship action as the game develops instead I would predominantly focus on using one ship at a time within the perceived role of said ship. Especially since ships are being changed as new game features come online (think cutlass red temporarily acting as a spawning location). So while it might be entirely possible to be a one-person mining operation with multiple ships I would be far more conservative and say what role(s) would you like to do and does flying this ship fulfill one of those roles. Would you like to ferry ships from one location to another as a means to secure UEC or would another job be more appealing? While the Liberator can easily help you move your fleet around it's also entirely possible to hire someone else to do it so that you can focus on doing something else you enjoy more.

So ask yourself do you want to move cargo around from a small settlement to a shipping hub, do you want to be a long haul trucker moving cargo from shipping hub to shipping hub over many systems or would you rather move small ships from location to location?

 

[Talonsbane]

Not a bad idea, the only issue I have with it is how are you going to keep the ship you're not currently on from despawning? We know that ships attached to other ships will not despawn until the parent ship despawns. But what is not clear is how other ships will act when no player is aboard them? Will they continue to be physicalized as long as you are logged into the game which would allow this sort of mining operation mentioned by @Talosbane? But what happens if they despawn because you are not within x distance of them or a player has not been aboard in x amount of time? For me, the question is really do they plan on players being associated predominantly with one ship not wanting us to manage a fleet of ships by ourselves like this mining operation? The other question is how are you going to protect it all from pirates? We still see some remnants of their goal of having lots of activities around players from trade ships to police presents and pirate attacks all scripted based upon the local grid probability volumes created by Quantum.

Actually, my thought process pertaining to your question about despawning is that while transporting a ship in this manner, the crew of the ship being transported would be resting in the Liberator's area for that. So I'm guessing that as long as 1 player is aboard the Liberator or within its effective grid that none of the ships would despawn. Thus if you have 1 player in the RAFT refining the ore, another in the Liberator periodically running scans to look for more ore sites as well as any potential incoming threats & 1 player standing by to launch the small fighter to defend the mobile hub, then none of them should despawn. Granted, this would then require 4 individual players to operate, but that should cover most required bases to be functional.

I guess this was all to say I would be very careful about planing any sort of multiship action as the game develops instead I would predominantly focus on using one ship at a time within the perceived role of said ship. Especially since ships are being changed as new game features come online (think cutlass red temporarily acting as a spawning location). So while it might be entirely possible to be a one-person mining operation with multiple ships I would be far more conservative and say what role(s) would you like to do and does flying this ship fulfill one of those roles. Would you like to ferry ships from one location to another as a means to secure UEC or would another job be more appealing? While the Liberator can easily help you move your fleet around it's also entirely possible to hire someone else to do it so that you can focus on doing something else you enjoy more.

So ask yourself do you want to move cargo around from a small settlement to a shipping hub, do you want to be a long haul trucker moving cargo from shipping hub to shipping hub over many systems or would you rather move small ships from location to location?

I get your point & it's well made. I was more speculating on how you could combine the operations of a small number of ships to be able to work together efficiently over a longer range with a small yet reasonable amount of crew to hopefully maximize profits. Also, while the game is being developed, most things are subject to change to some degree, so while speculation is fine, I wouldn't gamble everything on anything in particular other than things will change over time.

 

[Devil Dog Hog]

Let your feelings guide you.

They guide me to the fridge and the beer that is chilling inside it. I feel like I need to drink it and all its little friends . . . and I feel like I shouldn't share.

 

[Carlos Spicyweiner]

Let your feelings guide you.

I bow to your will, Glorious Leader. But the last time I let my feelings guide me, I ended up married to my Aurora by a Banu priest. It's not too bad...and she made me give up tequila.

 

[Talonsbane]

I bow to your will, Glorious Leader. But the last time I let my feelings guide me, I ended up married to my Aurora by a Banu priest. It's not too bad...and she made me give up tequila.

Are you sure that wasn't a Banu made synthetic version of tequila? As evidence with the new line of Banu made novelty shirts, while their replications can be close, they tend to miss the mark to a degree. Thus their tequila might make you marry an Aurora instead of the human version making undies drop. To a Banu, they might be pretty much the same.

 

[Sky Captain]

I chose to upgrade a C2 to a liberator, while keeping an M2.

The logic being that I had other larger cargo carriers more important that the C2, but the M2 filled a more special slot of 'hot' landings for cargo/vehicles.

Of course the question now is whether the Liberator doubles down on the M2. So its one of those ... I dunno ... sort of trades.

I also have an A2, so maybe I keep that and upgrade the M2 to ... 'what's next' ...

 

[Talonsbane]

Congrats on making your decision either way.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I don’t think you can make such ling term plans right now. If the Carrack ever gets a mining module all bets about Prospectors on Libs seem off to me.