This is what I was hinting at. The ship itself should not be in a fight other than the largest battles and then only as a Cap destroyer as its role is wasted on small fighters.I have seen a lot of silliness posted about the Polaris, and especially the nonsense over at YouTube attached to some of the vids there. So just in case some here have not understood, let me offer a few simple observations.
--Just as Grimbli is implying, the real benefit of the hangar bay is NOT in carrying ships, but in supporting them. You can fly a Sabre or SH off into no man's land only if you have a way to refuel it there, and most fighters do not have refueling probes like the Reliant, so you should not presume you can refuel them off a StarG. To operate a short range fighter you need to be able to land it, refuel it, repair damage, replace its missiles, and you need somewhere to sleep. You cannot operate short range craft out in the unknown reaches without a support ship and the Polaris is designed to support short range fighters. Not carry them! It can only carry 1, but it could support dozens.
--Military historians argue back and forth whether Corvettes are the least armored "ships of the line", meaning ships intended for large fleet engagements; or of they do not qualify as ships of the line at all. Most historians agree that whenever ships that qualify as Corvettes get involved in fleet engagements, they get themselves destroyed, because that is not what they are intended for. A conflict between a small handful of ships is not a fleet engagement. Fleet engagements are conflicts between two or more martial forces. Pirate forces are not considered martial in this sense.
--No ship is safe by itself, but Corvettes are typically deployed in smuggling, anti-smuggling, piracy, anti-piracy, search and rescue, mining and other solo activities. Their speed keeps them safe from larger ships so long as they are not fool enough to engage them. They can also make decent "FarTrader's" if they have a good cargo hold, or escort for a FarTrader (like the Banu Merchantman), or explorer, like the Carrack. If you have a small merchant fleet intended to go into the wilds, this is the ship to send to protect it, since it will allow you to fly short range fighters. If you intend to put together small merchant fleets, you should seek to add this and a squadron of real dog-fighters like the SH and Sabre to your fleet.
--Big military ships are expensive to run, but it is more expensive to lose all your stuff to pirates and raiders like Vanduul. If you fly in space with pirates and raiders you have to have support ships like this. The only alternative is to deploy long range fighters with your merchant fleet, and Vanguard cost even more than Polaris. They may cost less fuel to run, but they require more PC's and cash for the same bang. Three Vanguard are not equal to this Corvette, which makes the Corvette a cost effective alternative for the wary traveler.
People don't seem to get it. This is a great ship at a great price. Just the tactical display is worth the price, IMHO.
But an escort mission which contains a Polaris at the expense of a few smaller ships will do significantly better.
The crew requirement is a bit expensive, however, turrets can be slaved to a single station or even automated. Then you have maybe 6-7 total after that. That's 3 SHs. I feel the ship is worth that many.
The hangar will obviously need crew, but if you teach each fighter pilot to jump out and repair/refuel themselves then you save more crew, especially if it's a multicrew fighter.
If you go from 10 to 7 SHs, then that's a bargain as those 7 could easily take 10 other SHs with Polaris support.
I'm with you on this one. I think the Endeavor is even a type of Cap ship.Is the Carrack not a capital exploration ship?