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.
/75/star-citizen-mule-forklift.webp)
Looking close you can see the cutlass engine or one in a similar position in the shadow above the Mule i think?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.
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.
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.
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
Surely CIG would never do anything to upset their customers...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)
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.
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)...
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).
