This is going to be a wall of text. Sorry not sorry.
So, for reference the Cutlass was my first ever ship I got. Kickstarter baby, Digital Pirate Pack.
There is a ton of salt around this ship, and dare I say for good reasons.
Initially the Cutlass was pitched and with tons of lore pieces and direct developer quotes as being very nimble. "The Cutlass is a 2 person fighter with unparalleled manueverability, not so much focused on cargo" per Chris Roberts himself. It's important to note that at this point the Cutlass about about ~33% smaller than its current size. It was squarely in between the Hornet (pure combat) and Freelancer (freighter with ample self-defense). It was a fighter yes, but had the awkward cargo hold making it a bigger target than comparable fighter, but still plenty mean enough to disable and board cargo vessels to raid their holds.
They also released a
commercial for the Cutlass, which many took to be further evidence to support it being a relatively underarmored ship, but with a solid weapons loadout and phenomenal handling to make up for it. Twin thrusters, some big side thrusters that could also gimbal
So when it was finally released in Arena Commander 1.0 and was.....frankly fucking terrible. The model was bad, the flight model was
horrendous. CIG had no idea how to handle thrusters that could rotate so the Cutlass was super slidey and had tons of oversteer as the thrusters just whipped around like a pair of ballerinas. The Cutlass was also severely underpowered- literally. Compared to the main engines on other ships, the Cutlass engines weighed approximately
4x as much as comparable engines the Hornet had, for less than
half the thrust output.
The then current) 2014 Red and Blue hangar models were hilariously sloppy and roughshod. It turns out CIG outsourced the modeling for the Red and Blue specifically
Needless to say people were
not happy.
So Ben Lesnick, who at the time was the "Ship Czar" of CIG, came by the forums and promised a "priority rework" by Foundry 42 was implemented in very late 2014.
16 months pass with no official word beyond "it'll be done when it's done".
Then almost a year and a half later, we get the first image of concept art of the new Cutlass. CIG admitted that this was recently completed concept art, which means the "priority rework" had sat on the backburner for over a year with no updated information being passed along.
Lo and behold the new Cutlass
looks absolutely phenomenal, however that was the deathblow for anyone who was still hoping for a nimble Cutlass as the NuCutlass was now basically the same dimensions as the Freelancer. It got another gun to compensate and was generally regarded as pretty solid as a light gunship/assault platform. Relying less on actual dogfighting and more on pointing in the direction of your enemies and holding down the trigger until things stop moving.
(CIG later designed the Buccaneer as an "apology" for the miscommunication to replace the Cutlass as the "Pirate Fighter with Cargo" but then decided to scrap the cargo because they wanted to make it a pure fighter competitor to the Hornet, but that is another tale).
Then came the split between shield sizes and shield quantities. See the Cutlass 1.0 originally had a Size 4 Shield (equal in size to the time as the Hornet). The Blue bumped that up to a Size 5 shield, equal in size to the Freelancer. Connie had a Size 6 for reference. Remember this is when the
Cutlass was about a third smaller than it was previously. The Cutlass Blue however, boasted a Size 5 shield generator, the largest reason for its 50% price jump compared to the Black. Many thought it would be a very obvious thing that the Blue would get a second shield generator to match the Freelancer (and Mole....and Mercury....and Apollo....) since it was a direct equivalent upgrade, and fit the Blue's role as a "double tough Cutlass" for policing and bounty hunting to a T.
So when the Blue came out last week, a lot of people were surprised. Many Cutlass owners feel already that if
every other medium ship in the game, including dedicated non-combat vessels like the Mole, gets 2x Medium generators then all the Cutlasses, as combat vessel hybrids should. However it was partially consoled by the fact that the Blue would assuredly have it, right?
Right?
It also doesn't help that the new Ship Director John Crewe is on the record (at some livestream) saying Drake is his least favorite manufacturer, which doesn't help to wash off any of the salt at all.
