MULE! Looks like a handy vehicle for those bunkers

Brictoria

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Mule Q&A:


View attachment 22932
I like the unofficial confirmation that the Caterpillar will soon have the side doors able to be lowered to the ground (From memory they only fold down to floor level of cargo bays) so ground vehicles can be loaded onto Caterpillar - I'd seen the picture previously, but it didn't register until now.
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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Mule Q&A:


View attachment 22932
Many thanks, if anyone else found it as hard to read the red on black as I did, click-drag-copy and paste without font to a word document or whatever your chosen destination is.

No critique on the design, it looks pretty I just couldn't read it 😅
 

LurchLord

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Also, as a PSA, do not sleep on the pack they are offering with both the Mule and a Black, both with LTI. Just in case you are like me and your Cutty is blue and full of no room for things.
For people paying with the €uromoneys, a Black clocks in at 108,29€ with 120 month insurance. The Mule comes in at 43,32€. (19% VAT included)
151.61€ for both.
The combo pack will set you back 129.95€. (19% VAT included)
Cutty black and mule combo platter
 
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Brictoria

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I've been trying to work out which ship is being loaded in this image for a while:


My best guess (closest existing ship I could think of) is that it is a cutlass, but the ramp is wrong - At present the cutlass has a "flat" ramp, whereas this image has a ramp with "sides".

If it is a reworked cutlass, these sides to the ramp could make loading a ROC into it much harder, given it barely fits between the hydraulics at the moment: A loss of width on the entrance could mean that it even loses the ability to transport a ROC in the future - The wheels are the widest part of both the Mule and the ROC, and the ROC is 0.8m wider than the Mule (3.0m wide Mule versus 3.8m wide ROC), with the Mule appearing to barely fit this ramp in the picture.
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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I've been trying to work out which ship is being loaded in this image for a while:


My best guess (closest existing ship I could think of) is that it is a cutlass, but the ramp is wrong - At present the cutlass has a "flat" ramp, whereas this image has a ramp with "sides".

If it is a reworked cutlass, these sides to the ramp could make loading a ROC into it much harder, given it barely fits between the hydraulics at the moment: A loss of width on the entrance could mean that it even loses the ability to transport a ROC in the future - The wheels are the widest part of both the Mule and the ROC, and the ROC is 0.8m wider than the Mule (3.0m wide Mule versus 3.8m wide ROC), with the Mule appearing to barely fit this ramp in the picture.
Looking close you can see the cutlass engine or one in a similar position in the shadow above the Mule i think?
 

Brictoria

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Looking close you can see the cutlass engine in the shadow above the Mule i think?
That, the grey "band" above where the ramp closes, grey accents\panels behind the figure on the left, and some of the internal features were what made me think it was a cutlass, but the ramp is wrong, and if this altered ramp is part of a planned change to the ship, it looks like transporting a ROC in a cutlass may soon not be possible.
 
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Brictoria

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Alas I'm not a cutty owmer, i'm more a Connie T kinda guy. I'll try to rent one in game later and take a lookie :-)
I have a cutlass that I use as my current ROC mover, but I'm planning to replace this with a valkyrie soonish - It seems a better ship than my other option (Freelancer MAX) with quicker access to the ROC if you manage the jump correctly (jump at the right time and you miss the ladder\ladder climb when heading to the ROC - you can't "miss" a door on the Freelancer, and I don't recall that they can be "locked" open) - which was why I was confused. The picture looks like a Cutlass, but the ramp is different, so I was wondering if it is a planned\future design for the Cutlass which will prevent ROC loading, or some other ship I hadn't come across.

Here's an image of the Cutlass ramp (from a Cutlass Red) for comparrison:
 

Brictoria

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I just see a standard cutty ramp, shading looks weird a bit on the grey broken edges that face a bit more vertical than the ramp, that's all.
Maybe it's just my eyes - It looks to me like the "line" the mule is driving along with its wheel on the right is a corner where the ramp has a side forming, rather than remaining flat from that point.
 

Lorddarthvik

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Maybe it's just my eyes - It looks to me like the "line" the mule is driving along with its wheel on the right is a corner where the ramp has a side forming, rather than remaining flat from that point.
If you look at the picture you posted as reference, it does the same thing you described forming a bit of a side, just the light hitting it makes it look steeper in the mule pic. Don't worry, we will get to keep our ROC ferry Cutlass, unless Cig wants a really brutal shitstorm on their hands 😆
(knocks on wood, crosses fingers, and whatnot)
 

Brictoria

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If you look at the picture you posted as reference, it does the same thing you described forming a bit of a side, just the light hitting it makes it look steeper in the mule pic. Don't worry, we will get to keep our ROC ferry Cutlass, unless Cig wants a really brutal shitstorm on their hands 😆
(knocks on wood, crosses fingers, and whatnot)
Surely CIG would never do anything to upset their customers...

I'm currently undecided on which ship to use for ROC transport [1]:
Nomad is cheap, but reversing onto tray and time between cockpit of ship and controls of ROC (3 doors plus ladder) is too long.
Cutlass Black is not quite as cheap, but time between controls of ship and ROC is low (only 1 door) - narrow ramp can be annoying/a problem.
Freelancer MAX is more expensive, has a wider ramp, but requires moving through 3 doors (plus the occasional turret side-trip).
Valkyrie is more expensive again, has a wider ramp and a quick trip between controls of ship and ROC (only 1 door) with a ladder that can be bypassed on the way to ROC, but slows things down if forced to use.

I have all except the Valkyrie in my permanent fleet, and have tried the ROC in all except the Freelancer MAX. So far I find the Valkyrie to be the best for a ROC, but it's hard to justify the $ price for a ROC mover, meaning it'll be an "earn in game", with me suffering the ramp on the Cutlass for some time (unless the freelancer internal doors can be locked open) following each wipe - ROC was always an "earn in game"... Then again, a liberator may also be a possibility - load with ROC, Prospector, Expanse, and you have a mobile solo mining outpost to grab whatever you find on the scanner.

I'll be giving a cutlass red a shot some time in the future, as I believe it may be possible to squeeze a ROC in the back, and there will be medical beds to save on food\drink requirements if I can't be bothered looting somewhere for them when selling gems.

[1] I'm avoiding cargo lifts due to the delay they cause, either running to them, then activating, or "open external doors" from control, then leaving ship another way to get to the ROC. Similarly, MSR and C2/M2/A2 aren't really worth considering due to the time between controls of ship and ROC... I'd love some sealed framework with a ramp, engines, etc. that you could drive a ROC into and it plugs in allowing you to fly it from the ROC driver's seat, or an airborne ROC (with or without Quantum drive), but I can't see either of these being produced.
 
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Lorddarthvik

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Surely CIG would never do anything to upset their customers...

I'm currently undecided on which ship to use for ROC transport [1]:
Nomad is cheap, but reversing onto tray and time between cockpit of ship and controls of ROC (3 doors plus ladder) is too long.
Cutlass Black is not quite as cheap, but time between controls of ship and ROC is low (only 1 door) - narrow ramp can be annoying/a problem.
Freelancer MAX is more expensive, has a wider ramp, but requires moving through 3 doors (plus the occasional turret side-trip).
Valkyrie is more expensive again, has a wider ramp and a quick trip between controls of ship and ROC (only 1 door) with a ladder that can be bypassed on the way to ROC, but slows things down if forced to use.

I have all except the Valkyrie in my permanent fleet, and have tried the ROC in all except the Freelancer MAX. So far I find the Valkyrie to be the best for a ROC, but it's hard to justify the $ price for a ROC mover, meaning it'll be an "earn in game", with me suffering the ramp on the Cutlass for some time (unless the freelancer internal doors can be locked open) following each wipe - ROC was always an "earn in game"... Then again, a liberator may also be a possibility - load with ROC, Prospector, Expanse, and you have a mobile solo mining outpost to grab whatever you find on the scanner.

I'll be giving a cutlass red a shot some time in the future, as I believe it may be possible to squeeze a ROC in the back, and there will be medical beds to save on food\drink requirements if I can't be bothered looting somewhere for them when selling gems.

[1] I'm avoiding cargo lifts due to the delay they cause, either running to them, then activating, or "open external doors" from control, then leaving ship another way to get to the ROC. Similarly, MSR and C2/M2/A2 aren't really worth considering due to the time between controls of ship and ROC... I'd love some sealed framework with a ramp, engines, etc. that you could drive a ROC into and it plugs in allowing you to fly it from the ROC driver's seat, or an airborne ROC (with or without Quantum drive), but I can't see either of these being produced.
Ah yes, the problems of optimising. I don't own any of these mentioned apart from the ROC I bought in game (yet, I'm tempted to melt my Hull A for something ) but if I had to choose I'd probably go for the Cutty still. Its a short run to the cabin and it's a capable fighter. Not sure of the turning rate of the MAX, if its the same as a normal lancer I might opt for that just for the big ass guns, so I can switch to some shooty shooty bang bang when I feel like it. Yeah the doors can be annoyingly slow but it's still better than the non-accessible nomad with its ladder.

On the other hand, have you considered time spent just climbing out of atmo? Is it even an issue on the moons or it's just not a factor cos of the low gravity?

There were some speculation and leaks we might get an Argo-cargo that has a mining head attached, so a non-Qt small mining ship that fits into some of the larger ships. You could squeeze like 4 of those into an 890j making it a luxury mining barge yacht lol
 

Brictoria

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Ah yes, the problems of optimising. I don't own any of these mentioned apart from the ROC I bought in game (yet, I'm tempted to melt my Hull A for something ) but if I had to choose I'd probably go for the Cutty still. Its a short run to the cabin and it's a capable fighter. Not sure of the turning rate of the MAX, if its the same as a normal lancer I might opt for that just for the big ass guns, so I can switch to some shooty shooty bang bang when I feel like it. Yeah the doors can be annoyingly slow but it's still better than the non-accessible nomad with its ladder.

On the other hand, have you considered time spent just climbing out of atmo? Is it even an issue on the moons or it's just not a factor cos of the low gravity?
I haven't tried combat yet (poor reflexes - among other reasons - means PvP is out of the question for me, and I've been reluctant to even give PvE a shot), so can't give any insight into their combat perfomance (flight or guns). The ones I have tried seem OK leaving atmo, but I've only really mined on moons with ROC, so it isn't much of an issue - The run between controls of ROC and ship are my main concern (with ease of loading\unloading the ROC onto the ship coming a close second), as that is the least enjoyable\most monotonous portion of the "gameplay" with a ROC.

There were some speculation and leaks we might get an Argo-cargo that has a mining head attached, so a non-Qt small mining ship that fits into some of the larger ships. You could squeeze like 4 of those into an 890j making it a luxury mining barge yacht lol
I'm only really looking at ships that can be run solo\don't lose too much by running solo: I currently have 2 (soon to be 3) spare NPC tokens, so will be able to "crew" larger ships once the game is released but I'd prefer to avoid that if possible, although if NPC's can be trusted to run a ROC\Argo-cargo ROC equivalent, it may be worth revising those plans (maybe even look into a MOLE to complement\replace my Propsector - The inability to pilot and mine at the same controls puts me off the MOLE at the moment)...

As a side note (you mentioned you were tempted to melt yours), I'm currently considering unmelting my Hull A - You can take a quick ship to an outpost and "claim" the Hull there on the blue pads, then load and fly the Hull to sell cargo, "claiming" the faster ship for any return trip (with the added bonus of no repair\rearm\refuel costs eating into your profit)... I'm hoping, once the cargo refactor comes in, that you can simply fly the hull over the cargo, then roll\rotate it above the cargo to have it load onto the ship with no manual intervention required.
 
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Lorddarthvik

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I haven't tried combat yet (poor reflexes - among other reasons - means PvP is out of the question for me, and I've been reluctant to even give PvE a shot), so can't give any insight into their combat perfomance (flight or guns). The ones I have tried seem OK leaving atmo, but I've only really mined on moons with ROC, so it isn't much of an issue - The run between controls of ROC and ship are my main concern (with ease of loading\unloading the ROC onto the ship coming a close second), as that is the least enjoyable\most monotonous portion of the "gameplay" with a ROC.



I'm only really looking at ships that can be run solo\don't lose too much by running solo: I currently have 2 (soon to be 3) spare NPC tokens, so will be able to "crew" larger ships once the game is released but I'd prefer to avoid that if possible, although if NPC's can be trusted to run a ROC\Argo-cargo ROC equivalent, it may be worth revising those plans (maybe even look into a MOLE to complement\replace my Propsector - The inability to pilot and mine at the same controls puts me off the MOLE at the moment)...

As a side note (you mentioned you were tempted to melt yours), I'm currently considering unmelting my Hull A - You can take a quick ship to an outpost and "claim" the Hull there on the blue pads, then load and fly the Hull to sell cargo, "claiming" the faster ship for any return trip (with the added bonus of no repair\rearm\refuel costs eating into your profit)... I'm hoping, once the cargo refactor comes in, that you can simply fly the hull over the cargo, then roll\rotate it above the cargo to have it load onto the ship with no manual intervention required.
I forgot about the cargo refactor lol. Good point, I'll wait with the melt. My only concerne with the Hull is that in current gameplay it's cargo hold is tiny for the time it takes to fly it out of atmo. It's just too slow to be competitive without the need to factor in running costs and it's huge fuel tank. It's just not worth the time to even try trading with it. Hopping into my Pisces (bought in-game) and going for a basic bunker mission (where 3 out of 5 times the Ai cleans up before I get down the elevator) earns me as much in 10 minutes as I make in an hour+ trading leagally with the Hull A. I'd really like to do trading, and use the Mule I bought for something as well ( maybe help in loading), but without the cargo refactor it feels like a huge waste of time for a lot of risk (considering disconnects/bugs).
 
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