The Anvil Liberator

[Talonsbane]

This is just a hypothetical theory, but given the size & shape of the Eclipse, might it be possible to fit 2 of them per pad if you angle them to have them effectively back to back with their noses facing opposite corners? Think fitting a pair of right triangles within a square. If this is correct, then you might be capable of using a Liberator to transport up to 6 Eclipse ships closer to a destination before they deploy for their strike mission. If there ever comes a way to store the torpedoes, then you could pair a Vulcan with a Liberator loaded with these Eclipses have it's under bay used as a cargo hold for the torps to have the Vulcan's drones rearm the Eclipses to run more missions. If I'm not mistaken, that would make the scenario what I've heard of being a force multiplier?

 

[Richard Bong]

This is just a hypothetical theory, but given the size & shape of the Eclipse, might it be possible to fit 2 of them per pad if you angle them to have them effectively back to back with their noses facing opposite corners? Think fitting a pair of right triangles within a square. If this is correct, then you might be capable of using a Liberator to transport up to 6 Eclipse ships closer to a destination before they deploy for their strike mission. If there ever comes a way to store the torpedoes, then you could pair a Vulcan with a Liberator loaded with these Eclipses have it's under bay used as a cargo hold for the torps to have the Vulcan's drones rearm the Eclipses to run more missions. If I'm not mistaken, that would make the scenario what I've heard of being a force multiplier?

An Eclipse is a size 2 ship. It should fit on any size XS pad in landing configuration.

I seriously doubt you could fit more than 4 total on a Liberator.

 

[Richard Bong]

Ya, I am not sure you are looking at the same image as I am but I am not sure the count of ships would come close to fitting. They had three hornets on the three small landing pads and they talked about the possibility of maybe crashing one ship into the garage but its intention was to fit small ground vehicles.

Given a Hornet is 22.5 m by 21.5 m and a vulcan is 28.5 by 16.5 you might be able to fit them on the pad but 8 ships given the walls I don't see how one would accomplish it.

It isn't small ground vehicles. They show a Tonk and a Ballista in one image and mentioned the forward, external, pad can also carry a vehicle.

The sales page says 5 landing pads. They announced the top 2 are size XS and the front external pad is size XXS.

 

[Sky Captain]

I imagined a day where a Liberator picks up her fighter complement, then jumps to a distant quadrant to deliver her little fleet into glorious battle.

Meanwhile, at their destination, TEST is in laying in wait to clear those unprotected ships off the top decks of the equally hapless Liberator before they even launch.

Will picking off ships on a Liberator's open deck become a mini-game all of its own? And does the Liberator provide enough air cover for her role?

 

[Blind Owl]

I imagined a day where a Liberator picks up her fighter complement, then jumps to a distant quadrant to deliver her little fleet into glorious battle.

Meanwhile, at their destination, TEST is in laying in wait to clear those unprotected ships off the top decks of the equally hapless Liberator before they even launch.

Will picking off ships on a Liberator's open deck become a mini-game all of its own? And does the Liberator provide enough air cover for her role?

Lol, yeah, you'd want to be prepared if you were jumping into somewhere that's potential hot. I'd have all the pilots in their ships, powered up, before the jump or end of quantum.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

This ship along with anything that has a large enough flat surface or a large enough cargo bay seems to be counted as some sorta secret military superweapon, being a pocket carrier or dropship. (u can cram a full servers worth of armed players into a simple Freelancer, for the moment at least)

This is not how these ships were intended to be used. Cig has already mentioned before that they aim to end this behaviour by somehow limiting capacity both for ppl on board and stuff on board. I wonder how much of a useless hunk of wedge this ship will become for you, when that finally happens.

Tldr is that I wouldn't invest into this as a pocket carrier, only as a civilian spaceship hauler, and instead keep any ship that was originally made for the role you all seem to have dreamt up for this ship.

 

[Richard Bong]

This ship along with anything that has a large enough flat surface or a large enough cargo bay seems to be counted as some sorta secret military superweapon, being a pocket carrier or dropship. (u can cram a full servers worth of armed players into a simple Freelancer, for the moment at least)

This is not how these ships were intended to be used. Cig has already mentioned before that they aim to end this behaviour by somehow limiting capacity both for ppl on board and stuff on board. I wonder how much of a useless hunk of wedge this ship will become for you, when that finally happens.

Tldr is that I wouldn't invest into this as a pocket carrier, only as a civilian spaceship hauler, and instead keep any ship that was originally made for the role you all seem to have dreamt up for this ship.

This ship is specifically advertised as launching carried fighters for defense.

Unlike the Carrack, the Caterpillar the 890J, or the Hercules, this ship is specifically listed as a "light carrier."

 

[Talonsbane]

Another thought I just had, this should could also help in the exploration field in that it could extend the range of a team of Terrapin scout ships by taking them to a remote point & then having them maneuver in different directions to cover far more area quickly, before returning, refueling & moving on to another new area.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

This ship is specifically advertised as launching carried fighters for defense.

Unlike the Carrack, the Caterpillar the 890J, or the Hercules, this ship is specifically listed as a "light carrier."

So the marketing dept. is selling it as a carrier while the citcon dev vid specifically said its intended design is for transporting...


But my comment isn't about its capability to launch carried ships or not, it's about the capacity. I see wild numbers here of 4 of this type and an extra 3 down below of that type will fit, imagine the carnage and power those bring!
Yeah, No. It's meant to carry TWO ships by design with Two ppl on board, and a snub/Argo sized small ship along with 2 vehicles, that's it.

Question is if that will be enforced somehow, as was mentioned by devs before that they intend to, or they let that go and you can fit as many as you can manage. Just something to consider.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

We don't really know how pads work yet, but CIG can obviously thwart any intentions to overfrill them by refusing to lock down more than one ship per pad. They obviously don't want ships carrying half dozen fighters. The question is why?

To date we still don't know how the Razor flies in space with its wings cut off. If it does fly, then one supposes as things are you could fit at least a score of them on this ship. That doesn't mean you could lock them down.

 

[Richard Bong]

So the marketing dept. is selling it as a carrier while the citcon dev vid specifically said its intended design is for transporting...


But my comment isn't about its capability to launch carried ships or not, it's about the capacity. I see wild numbers here of 4 of this type and an extra 3 down below of that type will fit, imagine the carnage and power those bring!
Yeah, No. It's meant to carry TWO ships by design with Two ppl on board, and a snub/Argo sized small ship along with 2 vehicles, that's it.

Question is if that will be enforced somehow, as was mentioned by devs before that they intend to, or they let that go and you can fit as many as you can manage. Just something to consider.

I would say no more than 5, since the sales page says 5 "landing pads." Will it actually be able to handle 5? Maybe, based on the following:.

• The animation of the rear ramp has two modes, one is clearly for loading ground vehicles, the other looks like it is designed to recover spaceships.
• There is an image with a Pices on the forward lower deck as well. They said the upper deck had 2 XS landing pads, that is any size 1 or 2 ship. The forward lower pad is supposed to be an XXS pad, but that wouldn't hold a Pices.
• If it can carry a Pices, it can carry an Arrow.
• The interior pads appear to be the same dimensions as the upper pads.

It is all speculation until it gets into the game but there is definitely some ambiguity.

Will I recommend spending money on the Liberator based on speculation that it carries more than 2 Size 2 craft , 1 size 1, 2 large ground vehicles 16 passengers and 400 SCU of Cargo? No.

 

[Richard Bong]

Another thought I just had, this should could also help in the exploration field in that it could extend the range of a team of Terrapin scout ships by taking them to a remote point & then having them maneuver in different directions to cover far more area quickly, before returning, refueling & moving on to another new area.

The Terrapin, and the 315P for that matter, is a carrier craft. Its quantum tank is way to small for anything other than in system transit. The same is true of the Herald.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

We don't really know how pasa work yet, but CIG can obviously thwart any intentions to overfrill them by refusing to lock down more than one ship per pad. They obviously don't want ships carrying half dozen fighters. The question is why?

To date we still don't know how the razor flies in space with it's wings cut off. If it does fly, then one suposes as things are you could fit at least a score of them on this shiop. That doesn't mean you could lock them down.

To answer the question why, it's cos of money.
So they can sell you a slightly larger variant from another manufacturer next year that carries one more ship. Also those who buy into these need to feel satisfied that they got something superior compared to those who bought something cheaper, so they will be returning customers the next time that more expensive variant is sold.
And also, the sense of progression in game has to be there.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I can imagine flying one of these in support of a Polaris in Vanduul space, with a pair of Sabres and a Mantis on top, and the insides filled with booty salvaged from Vanduul ships. It's a good escort for any Idris, since then it has the benefit of the Idris cap radar and defensive weapons. It would pair well with a fleet of Nautilus, if you want fighter coverage at great distance, one of these with three minelayers wouldn't go astray, especially if the interior can carry mines instead of vehicles and cargo. Park one attached to a Crucible and you have a lot to store ships waiting to be fixed. It looks like there is room for 4-5 Vultures on here, which may make it a viable alternative to the Reclaimer, and if smaller ships salvage has any benefits over larger, even an addition to a Reclaimer. You could put all Vulcans on here and support a deep strike group of Vanguard. Someone already mentioned it as a mining platform and a bounty hunter platform. I'm seeing lots of uses that are all much more affordable money and manpower wise than sending an Idris.

 

[Talonsbane]

The Terrapin, and the 315P for that matter, is a carrier craft. Its quantum tank is way to small for anything other than in system transit. The same is true of the Herald.

Correct, which is why with the Liberator having the ability to refuel the ships it transports, that it could extend the range of those ships.

 

[Richard Bong]

Correct, which is why with the Liberator having the ability to refuel the ships it transports, that it could extend the range of those ships.

AFAIK, the only ship that carries subcraft, where CIG hasn't said yes, it can repair, rearm and refuel the subcraft is the Connie, which doesn't have a Q&A and they haven't said either way.

I expect the Liberator to be able to.

 

[Richard Bong]

With this 3.15 PTU patch they added local inventory. The ships are at your home port. The gear I want for my ships is scattered all over the place. The gear can not be moved to your ship storage. To install ship components and weapons you have to fly to where you can purchase the component, store the ship there and then you can install the component.

You have to do that for each component, for each ship, individually..

Granted I only own two ships that fit on a carrier, intentionally, but having the Liberator sooner, instead of later, would let me adjust 3 ships at once. It would also make moving my base of operations easier.

Give us the Liberator.

I do doubt I would be able to name it Blake's 7 though. :)

 

[Richard Bong]

Correct, which is why with the Liberator having the ability to refuel the ships it transports, that it could extend the range of those ships.

Refueling, from the Liberator tanks should be a given but the least needed of the three R's. These ships can traverse a star system. Deploy them from empty space a few million km from their target area.

Repair and rearm are the more important capabilities.

 

[Bambooza]

With this 3.15 PTU patch they added local inventory. The ships are at your home port. The gear I want for my ships is scattered all over the place. The gear can not be moved to your ship storage. To install ship components and weapons you have to fly to where you can purchase the component, store the ship there and then you can install the component.

You have to do that for each component, for each ship, individually..

Granted I only own two ships that fit on a carrier, intentionally, but having the Liberator sooner, instead of later, would let me adjust 3 ships at once. It would also make moving my base of operations easier.

Give us the Liberator.

I do doubt I would be able to name it Blake's 7 though. :)

hopefully, they add in shuttle services and physicalized ship components soon that way you can go out in a fast cargo ship purchase the ship components you want and then fly them back to your home base.

 

[Richard Bong]

hopefully, they add in shuttle services and physicalized ship components soon that way you can go out in a fast cargo ship purchase the ship components you want and then fly them back to your home base.

That is the primary reason I have an MSR. :)