Genesis Starliner

[insomnia_shipping]

According to the stats, player owned genesises will be rare. 

CIG expected low sales for the Genesis concept, and that's what they got.  The reason is that it's the only ship in the game that features rote, repetitive gameplay.  It services a segment of the playerbase who doesn't mind a work-like grind in game, for the right kind of payoff.  And for that, it will be a cash cow.  

So, I think they hit a home run.  They came up with a great way to balance a ship that generates wealth, and they paid attention to a niche segment of players at the same time.  That's a job well done, and promotes the kind of diverse play that can make a MMO a real success.

Personally, my Genesis will be adapted as a three interceptor carrier and space bar, if my hunch is right that we need to keep our NPCs fresh to get the best performance out of them.  I'll start off flying passengers, and end up parking my Genesis somewhere in deep space so crew from other ships can EVA and come aboard to take a load off.

[Minted]

According to the stats, player owned genesises will be rare. 

We've got variants to come aswell. The others may grab more attention. I'm certainly keen to see what the Hunter Killer comes out like.

[Leeford]

I think most people interpreted Genesis game play as a "boring series of required mini games" that would be too micro managed to be any fun and certainly not one worth solo game play.  I have a 2 part different take on the Genesis.

 

Part One - The Genesis as a passenger ship.

While it is a given that a career driven player crew focused on "being the best" star-liner operators will be required for maximizing the Genesis's potential, I think a solo player with an NPC crew will be able to operate the Genesis with decent profitability. It is not likely to be a game play where everything is constantly breaking and you passengers in a "Snakes on a Plane" panic.  There will probably be one or two random "events" that happen during a voyage, depending on duration, that will need to be dealt with but the whole serving drinks and fetching pillows will probably be handled by NPC's without significant error. It may well turn out the game play is no where near as "hands on" as mining an asteroid and be more like easy money babysitting.  So I think the majority of backers who were sacred off by the game play description may well have future regret once the PU is realized. Of course, all ships are available in the PU and this really isnt one high on the LTI desired list.

 

Part Two - The Genesis as a Variant

Even if you are not interested in passenger cargo, I felt the fact that they announced 3 variant which would NOT have LTI per the new rules warranted picking up a hull for a future upgrade. All three variants have military/combat roles where LTI becomes far more desirable than having it on a passenger ship.  With the recent Retaliator "drop ship" module game play description, I feel the drop ship version of the Genesis will be really cool to operate. While LTI is not a big deal, the fact that there will be VERY FEW LTI Genesis variants makes me feel like a special snowflake.

[DrakeSteele]

Can't begin to tell ya how much I love the Genesis Starliner and its potential, but one can guess given that I'm a Director of Intergalactic Airlines And thank you for pointing out the LTI variants qualm, which just makes me all the happier that I have an account badge to purchase LTI Starliners, unlimited quantity, but only once lol, so gotta use it wisely some day with a giant bulk order for IGAIR

[Zeabz]

I think I missed another post... What "badge" are you guys referring to anyway? 

Edited September 29, 2015 by zeabz

[DrakeSteele]

I can imagine a Connie variant as well. This would give starting players to establish reputations with a faster, safer ship while building up to a larger starliner of some kind.

Wow, a transport Connie sounds fun to me. It would be great to use it for something other than dry goods  

If you're interested in passenger transport via Constellations, Intergalactic Airlines is always hiring for our Passenger Transit Division, specifically under our Department of Flight Service or Luxury Cruising, depending upon focus being first class passenger charters for travel or whether the customer(s) are partaking in one of our many Luxury Cruising Vacation Packages. I am currently providing Constellation Phoenix Upgrades, LTI 890 Jumps, and deposits on LTI Genesis Starliners, for whatever flagship transport our pilots may wish to captain under IGAIR direction.

-Director Drake Steele, IGAIR Chief Knowledge Officer, Converse the Verse Co-Host, and typical uber-wealthy James Bond... villain.

[Switch]

We've got variants to come aswell. The others may grab more attention. I'm certainly keen to see what the Hunter Killer comes out like.

Good info from you guys, I didn't know it'd be rare for player owned ones either, appreciate the read!

[VoA]

 

[VoA]

An older image but still cool

[VoA]

Some interesting fan art... by agathorn

[VoA]

 

[VoA]

At 12:11m Ben talks about different variants of the Starliners (a Leer Jet size one and a Giant one = different sizes)

[VoA]

RTV - Just Now

11:33

- [Starliner update?] No movement on variants for it. It's scheduled out, it's on the production plan, but no-one's working on it now. They'll work on variants after they get the first ship done.

[AstroJak]

I want my troop transport variant Genesis... And i want it now!!! Please ?

AstroJak

[Rickover]

CIG needs to flesh out some of the mechanics of the STARLINER. Landing such a beast in helicopter fashion, you'll need to be able to see the ground beneath you. How to do that with this cockpit? Heck, the cockpit windows look like they're only 8" - 10" inches high.  RIDICULOUS.  SO PLEASE: no narrow winobago Freelancer-esque cockpit windows!  These poorly conceived narrow windows look terrible AND have absolutely ZERO functionality.  GIVE US BIG COCKPIT WINDOWS, space shuttle style.  And put the pilots seats close enough to these huge windows that you can see both up & down without restriction. Passenger comfort will be paramount. Larger round passenger windows would be nice.  Want to land a beast like this gently - you need that downward view, UNLESS you are flying forward onto a pad or runway, then you don't need to see straight down. Conservation of momentum though... even if you're moving just slightly forward, something will need to give... that's where wheels work better than skids.  Airliner flight Sim geeks (your likely customer base for this expensive niche) want the option to their Starliner BOTH ways, like a helicopter AND traditionally.   But you can't do this with skids.  Think massive 777 main gear bogies, maybe with 14 or even 18 hulking wheels.  THEN the Starliner could be rolled into a protective hanger or maintenance bay immediately upon landing, perhaps by an NPC spaceport tractor-operator.  Will there be passenger terminals & people bridges?  Or, will passengers board this tall ship by walking across the tarmac to a ramp. (ala Moses loading his Ark).  While this might be fine for the Merchantman, paying passengers don't want to walk across the tarmac in the cold, hot or rain.  A terminal with a gate might work, but terminals work best when you can taxi up.   Others have said this already: put the VTOL fans INSIDE the wings, flush, NOT sticking up out.   Smooth surfaces are key to quietness and smoothness when flying thru atmosphere.  The Starliner's exterior edges & surfaces could take a few design ques from the 85X and Origin 600's polished smoothness.  CIG still needs to work on the front of the ship -- which presently looks blocky, clunky & very uninspired. Ugly actually.  Terrible window design - better off going to space shuttle style windows than these narrow "shutters" we have now.  PLEASE WORK ON THIS - WE WANT A VIEW!   CIG released an image of several paint schemes and logos on the wings.  Nice idea.  People might create their own carrier logo.  Give us logo lights to light them up at night, with red & green blinking lights on the wingtips, and now you have something neat & inspired.  Finally, if CIG were to offer a military AC-130 style variant of this people-mover, capable of landing on rough terrain & such, then that version might offer the skids instead of wheeled bogies.  But here's one starting point for commercial liner:   http://

[Weyoun]

mirrors, cameras, and holograms. I drove large equipment for the military, everything has mirrors. If not that, Instrument Assisted Landings, like airplanes use to line up to runways at night. failing that, have a spotter get out and look. or.. you could cheat.. and use 3rd party camera 'remote visual sensor drone' (ugh). anyways, the first 3 items aren't in the game yet because they haven't finished updating StarEngine to support that kind of stuff. crisis never did need to have real working mirrors since it was mostly fantasy / post apocalyptic type settings, but it's been promised for SC now finally, even if before they where unsure about the need.

[Rickover]

And the front view:

https://imgur.com/fYEcX7n

[VoA]