Carrack as an assualt craft

[Zookajoe]

I was thinking about this earlier today: how would the Carrack fair as an assault craft?
It can carry up to three snub fighters for air cover, drop down and unload two Rovers as APC's with a 4+ assualt team each, and still provide added cover fire with its turrets. An added bonus is it can serve as a spawn point in close proximity to the conflict. I can see this alongside a Valk as being a truly impressive attack force.

Thoughts?

 

[Talonsbane]

Can the Carrack be used as an assault craft? Yes, but at the same time & in the same sense that a Cat can be used as a carrier for up to 15 Nox bikes with riders to attack any ships that pose a threat to the convoy that Cat is a part of which would make the job of the official escort fighters that much easier. I call this tactic the Hornets Nest for obvious reasons.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I think you could certainly do it! but I also think you'd do it better with any of the three Hercules, and you get tanks.

 

[Crymsan]

Clearly it is a ship that could do it. The stealth ship has stealth and the valk has better ground attack weopons. Those two ships have life support that can support carrying extra troops and the carrack should be able to but guess you have to hotbunk.

 

[Thalstan]

Assault ship? Not really. It can certainly do it in a pinch, but so can a lot of other ships. The biggest issue is the ramp takes too darn long to decend and you have very little in the way of covering fire once the ramp does go down. The bottom turret is blocked, the sides don't have that great an arc on the front, and the top can't depress far enough to be effective at close range.

The M2 will be far more effective as an assault ship, and the Valkyrie is good as well. The Carrack also needs to be brought in a bit slower so it can settle. The Valkyrie is much easier to set down quickly.

Saying the Carrack can be used as an Assault ship is like saying a Connie can be used as an assault ship. Connie carries a snub, can carry a rover, can do a hot landing and drop the rover while covering most angles with it's turrets, and then take off again quickly to pepper the enemy with 4xS4 weapons and missiles.

 

[LoicFarris]

Carrack as an assault craft? Well, in today's Star Citizen sure, but in tomorrow's Star Citizen not really. The Hercules will be far more of a sensible choice for schlepping smaller ships and defending it self, minus the massive blind spot on the top. Then later comes the Polaris, at some point, that will possibly out do both the Carrack and Hercules in many ways... unless you want to carry land vehicles. The comparisons go on and on, but I would say that for now yes the Carrack can be an assault craft of sorts.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

And of course the ultimate assault craft is the Idris, or perhaps the Marauder.

Size does matter.

If however a mission calls for speed and agility you should prefer the Hoplite, and if it calls for stealth, the Prowler. So there really is never a single best answer.

 

[Devil Dog Hog]

My ideal ground raiding party consists of the following:
(1) Cutlass Red
(1) Valkyrie w/ two tumbril cyclone tr and full rack of troops with turrets and door gunners.
(1) Caterpillar with full set of Drake dragonflys
(2) snub fighters in Cat. (Merlins)

Have all the ground team set the ICUs as spawn points prior to op. QT to 25k out of target. Launch snub fighters for aircover. TERF run the Cat and Valk towards target. At 1k out launch ground vehicles and troops at a hover (no landing gear). Have dragon fly pilots pick up ground troops as passengers while tumbrils provide cover. Begin assualt of target with valk and snubs doing air cover. Win and drink beer, not necessarily in that order.

 

[Bambooza]

My ideal ground raiding party consists of the following:
(1) Cutlass Red
(1) Valkyrie w/ two tumbril cyclone tr and full rack of troops with turrets and door gunners.
(1) Caterpillar with full set of Drake dragonflys
(2) snub fighters in Cat. (Merlins)

Have all the ground team set the ICUs as spawn points prior to op. QT to 25k out of target. Launch snub fighters for aircover. TERF run the Cat and Valk towards target. At 1k out launch ground vehicles and troops at a hover (no landing gear). Have dragon fly pilots pick up ground troops as passengers while tumbrils provide cover. Begin assualt of target with valk and snubs doing air cover. Win and drink beer, not necessarily in that order.

Just remember the Cutlass Red will lose its ICU as a spawn point in the near future and it's still not known if the Carrack will. The only ones who have the known possibility of having the ICU spawn point are the Apollo if equipped with the tier 3 med bay and the Endeavor. While it is speculated the Carrack, 890j, Polaris, Idris, and Javelin will have a tier 1 med bay it's still not been confirmed.

The Carrack does have the possibility to help quickly set up a FOB with not only its large forward garage but also the ability to drop off three cargo pods that can be full of armor, weapons, and ammo which need to be taken into consideration with physicalized inventory in the near future. But when it comes to ground assaults on an aware and dug-in enemy the Carrack compared to other ships is a very large target that is relatively outgunned and light armor. But on a first strike craft, the prowler would be a better option. For moving buggies and troops to the front line the Valkarie would be a better option. While the M2 Hercules could move tonks and troops to the front line its large shape would but it at a huge risk and so I would recommend using them to move troops, tanks, and ballista to a FOB and letting them push forward on their own.

 

[Sirus7264]

There is only one proper response for this.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

We've yet to see the kinds of terrestrial arms that will be in game but expect they have to change and impress, or you could just fly an Idris across a battlefield, and nothing could touch it as it exterminates everything. Some astonishing ground to air defense has to exist or the spaceships will rule on the ground.

It is still important to note though, the utility of vehicle shields over personal arms, of S1 over V shields, etc.

 

[Bambooza]

We've yet to see the kinds of terrestrial arms that will be in game but expect they have to change and impress, or you could just fly an Idris across a battlefield, and nothing could touch it as it exterminates everything. Some astonishing ground to air defense has to exist or the spaceships will rule on the ground.

It is still important to note though, the utility of vehicle shields over personal arms, of S1 over V shields, etc.

The Idris will be a force to be reckoned with but at the same time, its bulk will make it a large slow target for fighter bombers like the Gladiator and Eclipse and Sean Tracy has already said the Ballista is amazingly deadly to ships. Even ships like the Hammerhead if left alone would be amazing floating turrets over the target area providing cover fire but it too suffers from being a large target that is slow-moving in the atmosphere. Moons with no atmosphere would be a slightly different story with their limited gravitational pull and no aeronautical advantage

 

[August]

We’ve been through this. Our assault ships are krakens covered in Tonks. Insert. Invert. Rain Tonks.

 

[atpbx]

Just remember the Cutlass Red will lose its ICU as a spawn point in the near future and it's still not known if the Carrack will. The only ones who have the known possibility of having the ICU spawn point are the Apollo if equipped with the tier 3 med bay and the Endeavor. While it is speculated the Carrack, 890j, Polaris, Idris, and Javelin will have a tier 3 med bay it's still not been confirmed.

The Carrack does have the possibility to help quickly set up a FOB with not only its large forward garage but also the ability to drop off three cargo pods that can be full of armor, weapons, and ammo which need to be taken into consideration with physicalized inventory in the near future. But when it comes to ground assaults on an aware and dug-in enemy the Carrack compared to other ships is a very large target that is relatively outgunned and light armor. But on a first strike craft, the prowler would be a better option. For moving buggies and troops to the front line the Valkarie would be a better option. While the M2 Hercules could move tonks and troops to the front line its large shape would but it at a huge risk and so I would recommend using them to move troops, tanks, and ballista to a FOB and letting them push forward on their own.

The Cutlass wont be losing its spawn point, it will instead only be able to respawn you if you die from *certain* injuries.

as per John Crewe.

 

[Bambooza]

The Cutlass wont be losing its spawn point, it will instead only be able to respawn you if you die from *certain* injuries.

as per John Crewe.

Would love to see your source.


All I know about is the following.

John Crewe is the vehicle pipeline director, while I imagine he does have the inside scope on some gameplay mechanics his primary focus is on creating the beautiful jpegs we like to fly around in and so any comments he makes on gameplay mechanics need to be treated as possible implementation and not necessarily how it's going to be fully implemented.

In the article https://twinfinite.net/2020/01/star-citizen-interview-cutlass-red/ which is the most recent I know of that talks about the medical bed and specifically the future of the medical bed with in the Cutlass as an interview of John Crewe.

Additionally and on the respawn side, we’d like to take into account how a player met their demise. If a player had a terminal velocity collision, they might not be respawnable in the Cutlass, whereas a player who died from hypothermia might be available for respawning.

The shipyard medical gameplay https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/16671-The-Shipyard-Medical-Gameplay talks about only tier 1 being useable as a spawn point.

I am still looking for the dev comment about the Cutlass Red acting as a spawn point being temporary.

 

[CRISS9000]

Only if there are no other (or better) options available within a reasonable time frame. but that's from the perspective of a future, commercially released Star Citizen.

It does have a drone control station - I reckon combat drones are not out of the question.

As for dropping tonks from a Kraken... Do future tonks have the ability to survive such a long drop? and do future tonks have deceleration thrusters? a la Mass Effect 1/2 land vehicles.

 

[vahadar]

I was thinking about this earlier today: how would the Carrack fair as an assault craft?
It can carry up to three snub fighters for air cover, drop down and unload two Rovers as APC's with a 4+ assualt team each, and still provide added cover fire with its turrets. An added bonus is it can serve as a spawn point in close proximity to the conflict. I can see this alongside a Valk as being a truly impressive attack force.

Thoughts?

This is exactly my thought also !
By the way can you put 3 snubs in the ship bay? I though it was two from what i saw and tested (2 krugers in the ship bay, 2 more in the cargo bay). Can you put 3 snubs in the ship bay or where you thinking of dragonflies?

I was thinking about this earlier today: how would the Carrack fair as an assault craft?
It can carry up to three snub fighters for air cover, drop down and unload two Rovers as APC's with a 4+ assualt team each, and still provide added cover fire with its turrets. An added bonus is it can serve as a spawn point in close proximity to the conflict. I can see this alongside a Valk as being a truly impressive attack force.

Thoughts?

Very true also.
The only problem i see with this is, if you have to flee the field, the deployed snubs and nox/dragonflies whatever, are probably screwed. It takes time to put the nox/dragonflies in the cargo bay, and also the snubs in the ship bay. If you have to do this under fire i think you put the entire team, carrack included, at risk. So it is basically a "deploy and forget" style ship, you deploy the team, you hope they win the ground ;)

 

[Phil]

The problem I have with these scenarios is, well first off immersion, why people want to take a ship and role it wasn't designed for and try to fit it into that design is beyond me, if your primary function or one of main goals is to be a drop ship type player then buy the dropship and do it the way it was intended.

The second problem, yes these ships could technically do these jobs, not as well though, here is a problem with a Caterpillar trying to be a drop ship, if this ship gets caught in a bad area, caught trying to unload or in the process its defenseless, it shields and and armor don't compare to say a Hercules M2 and would most likely get burned up quick before it even had a chance to land or unload, where as other ships were designed for that purpose, to withstand the attack and firepower you would take under a drop which is why people don't use ships that were not designed for this purpose.

Don't get me wrong, I know these ships can do these roles in a certain scenario without any repercussions for sure, but under the normal circumstances, like a hot zone or well defended area they wont be able to perform it even remotely as well, this is why their called drop ships, they were designed to drop vehicles and people under fire.

 

[Talonsbane]

I think that I have a reasonably suitable answer to IF the Carrack can be used as an assault craft. IF we filled the ship crew to maximum & had cargo pods full of TESTies, then yes, the Carrack would be a premier assault craft when the objective is intersteller space pub crawling. It can travel long distances, land & release those inside upon the various space bars & distilleries in a sector if not an entire system on a single tank, potentially. The question them becomes, can any space pub or distillery survive the massive tsunami of thirst that would be unleashed by our arrival? Cheers!