Buckaroo

I have to agree with others comments on Spectrum about the ship. The 400i doesn't seem like a "contender" to either the Aquila or Corsair due to its lack of weapons and cargo space, and rather it's a hybrid between a Cutlass and 600iE. Not a bad design, don't get me wrong, but it's not what CIG thinks it is. I think that's usually a given these days as CIG's marketing team doesn't seem to communicate with their actual developers, promising the world and giving a continent worth only. I've been wanting a semi-smaller ship that able to do a few things at once. I was in love with the Mercury Starrunner--till it became a bulgy ship with (I think) unneeded underneath passage-ways. I was hoping the 400i would have about twice the current cargo capacity and it would have been right where I'd want it to be. But alas, the search continues.

I've been going back and forth whether the Liberator would be better for my needs than the Polaris. I mostly just want a ship with a hangar and lots of room that I can keep all my stuff with me. While the Polaris has the enclosed hangar and garage and tons of amenities, it also needs a rather large crew to operate. The Liberator has hangars (out in the open) with a garage AND cargo space with room for all my stuff while not requiring a large crew, but not as many amenities. Long run, I'm still leaning towards my Polaris...

If I can make it I will. I happened to already have plans for a good part of that day, but curious if anyone knows when the actual events start? When's the big speech by Chris I wonder?

For now, I think starting off in the latest landing area on Orison (assuming your computer can handle all the effects that are going on there) or the space station above might be best. It's in the middle of the Stanton system so your travel time to other locations around the system will hopefully be minimal. Long term, this is one of the reasons I pledged for a Polaris so I could have a roaming home that I could hold all my stuff and a smaller ship or few with me.

I created a thread in Spectrum regarding my own interpretation of the deck layouts for the Polaris at the following link. I won't copy-n-paste what I posted there, but you can take a look and read it yourself. Enjoy! https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/community/SC/forum/65300/thread/inside-the-polaris

I'm not an alien-ship design lover either. I'll stick to the normal ships that I'm used to. That said, the concept is really cool, and I'm glad that they (CIG) is expanding the norms in the 'Verse! Now if they could take some of those cool affects and features and apply them to all the other ships, that would greeeeeaaaat...

The Polaris lost its limited status recently during the Invictus sale. This has been the only capital or sub-cap sized ship that has held any interest for me (that may change with the rumored Anvil capital ship), mostly for the hangar that I can use to house another ship. I'm not interested in the Polaris for the combat (although I can use it for that too) but more for a "home-away-from-home" ship to get me around, explore a little, and possibly do some search and rescue. I also wondered about using the Polaris as a (very expensive) military transport ship--kind of like the 890Jump but military focused instead of VIP's. I looked over everything in my hangar at the time and noted that if I used credits to buy a Carrack-to-Perseus CCU (I already had a cheap C2-to-Carrack CCU), I only needed to spend $25 more (new cash) to buy a Perseus-to-Polaris CCU (war-bond). And on top of that I'd still have a F7C-M with an upgrade to either the Ares or Scorpius or other liked-priced ship that I could fit in the Polaris' hangar Anyways, it was a no-brainer for me and I spent the $25. I now have a path to owning this magnificent ship, and I am once again waiting for ships to be added to the 'Verse before applying multiple CCU's. Till then, I'll putz around in the Hercules C2 and F7C-M. Anyways, just wanted to share...

I completely agree, Zeabz. The cargo aspect is awesome, and design of the Hercules is great. But it's just so EMPTY on the upper deck. I had created some alternative versions just for fun that included better uses of the hallways made into rooms with a central walkway (think like the Carrack). My ideas included like a better lounge, better crew accommodations, simple seats for personal transport, or just rooms for more cargo. My last thought was maybe a larger elevator to bring ranger-or-similar sized vehicles for storage up-top too. You know, ideas to make a transport ship be able to do more transport-like duties. I ended up deleting the thread because all I got back on Spectrum was literally hate for even having ideas.

I was expecting bigger components for a heavy fighter (think Ares or Vanguards). Cool concept, not sure it's worth getting rid of my SuperHornet yet. For the same price, I can get an Ares Inferno which I like a lot too.

Depending on the price, might just have found the replacement for my SuperHornet that I've been holding onto since they first released the F7C-M... Really liking the look.

I was pretty un-impressed when the MSR modeled was released. It just got way too huge for what I wanted, even if it was still fast. The inside layout to me was also weird, and with a few other decisions made I have yet to apply my MSR CCU (and may not at all). Now with the Hercules, I'm once again wondering who the hell is making all these stupid decisions with the idiotic excuse that there needs to be difference because of "balance". Why can't the C2 have the third cockpit seat? Why shouldn't the C2 have the bunk beds? Why can't the M2 have the same CSU? Why can't the M2 have a kitchette? Because the C2 and M2 must have "balance" and there's gotta be a reason for $120 difference. This could have been a simple and EASY difference between the two. Start with the C2 design, but include the third cockpit seat and third bed. (I'd also say the top-side layout could have been a LOT better designed to allow more facilities/etc.) Next for the M2, leave the top-side the same, but in the bottom carve out a specific area for troop seats and armory along the sides that doesn't allow cargo to be positioned as wide as in the C2. It would still allow both tanks to fit in, but not the same amount of cargo as the C2--You'd also get to keep the kitchenette in the M2. But no, someone has decided to make it hard and make (in my opinion) idiotic design decisions. It's because of this I've lost a lot of interest in CIG and their ships.

Found someone streaming a first look of the Hercules C2 on Youtube...

What viperalpha said, plus note that right now CIG is much more geared towards making a SIM than a game--which unfortunately has brought with it a lot of delays in actually producing a full featured game. Your experience now may be--and will likely be a LOT different from what it will be in 2-5 years. That's not to say you can't have fun now, but I'm in the boat that I'm unsure what direction CIG is actually going to take in a lot of areas of the game and for now am taking a break till they can really get the core of the game built out and solid.