Hull A-E --> A Hull for every job : The MISC Hull Series

[VoA]

13 minutes ago, somethingneat said:

The Hull E discussion here by @Reavern was incredibly persuasive and made me really want to keep my Hull E. Unfortunately, I'm hoping to focus a little more on combat so it's just too much cargo ship for me. I'm hoping to cross-chassis downgrade (if it ever becomes possible) to something more manageable for hauling on the side.

Would the Hull C be a good choice for solo (or with an NPC) hauling if I already have a Freelancer MIS? I'm also considering a Starfarer (or Gemini) and a Banu Merchantman. What combination of two of the above ships would be a good mix of flying solo/multi-crew and gameplay? Are there other MISC ships I should consider?

Thanks in advance for any advice and sorry if I should be asking this elsewhere!

Depends on where you are flying.... for instance if you are near Banu or even Vanduul Space then a Banu MM would be more valuable than a Hull C.... but in other routes the Hull C would be more valuable.   A Starfarer itself has a decent cargo hold and serves a military purpose....... so you might just want to consider that (especially if you are not interested in hauling that much).  A Hull E actually has some military purpose (as does a Hull D).... they will have Defensive Modules, Snub Fighter Modules, etc... and act as a non-persistent warehouse for various goods including ammunition, missiles, refined fuel, etc.... so don't just think of it as a hauler.... thus I am keeping my Hull E.

[JohnWhiskey]

well, with a hull C and up you can carry alot of cargo but only from space to space points, stay in safe space or get an escort

maybe you want a hull B as it can still go to planets with full cargo, and you wont need any NPC's for it either, stay in safe space or get an escort

a freelancer MIS is a good choice if your going to be running some risky cargo or going through a dangerous part of space

IMO a BMM is more like an upscaled freelancer or constellation to a hull C size, you can go to the more dangerous areas with it but you need some NPC's for crew slots and an escort

the starfarer can carry cargo, you can also sell fuel if you want on your trips or just be a really long distence cargo transport but you need some NPC's for crew slots, also it seems to be slow

 

IMO (for MISC ships) if your not sure about hauling cargo, at the most get the hull B or freelancer MAX, if you want a basic ship with some combat and cargo abilty (and take along a friend) look at the reliant tana, upscaled version is the freelancer MIS

for me having a hull E at the start i could just take a contracted cargo mission for a few runs or go with the other guys in imperium with hull E's and do some trade missions to get a bunch of credits to spend on other ships in game and try them out to see which ones i like to play with, you dont have to play with your hull E all the time but it may save you alot of time in earning credits in game if there is something you want as not all ships will be avaiable to purchase before the game go's live

plus it may be quite amaizing to be part of an imperium convoy of over 20 hull E's, and probaly not so boring as you will have other people to talk to about,,, stuff,,, on hull's and cargo

[Reavern]

22 hours ago, somethingneat said:

Would the Hull C be a good choice for solo (or with an NPC) hauling if I already have a Freelancer MIS? I'm also considering a Starfarer (or Gemini) and a Banu Merchantman. What combination of two of the above ships would be a good mix of flying solo/multi-crew and gameplay? Are there other MISC ships I should consider?

Thanks in advance for any advice and sorry if I should be asking this elsewhere!

The Hull C is a good choice for strictly hauling cargo. It holds more than 50x as much cargo as a Freelancer, and more cargo than a Starfarer. The Hull C can probably be solo-ed, or crewed with NPCs. Although all Hull ships have poor defensive capabilities, so you'll either need to stay in Hi-Sec space, hire escort ships, or fly with an Imperium merchant convoy.

The Hull C, Starfarer, and Banu Merchantman all fall into the "High Capacity" tier of cargo haulers, so you probably don't need more than one of the three. When the Hull ships were originally released, I bought the Hull C, because the stretch goal identified the C as having a Discreet variant model for smuggling. CIG clarified that the Discreet wasn't a variant model, and that any Hull ship could be modded for smuggling by using sensor-shielded cargo pods. CIG also updated the cargo capacities for all the ships, and revealed that the Banu Merchantman actually carried more cargo than the Hull C. Since I already owned a BMM and I preferred it to the Hull C, I decided to melt my Hull C and upgrade to a Hull D, for even greater cargo capacity. That's why I don't think it makes sense to own both a Hull C and BMM.

If you're interested in harvesting and selling fuel, the Starfarer is a great choice, and it can be converted to carry bulk cargo too. However, the Starfarer can't be solo-ed if used to harvest and sell fuel. The Ship Specs state the the Starfarer has a Max Crew of 7 persons. Presumably 3 of those people are gunners to operate the Starfarer's 3 manned turrets; plus the pilot. As for the other 3 crew positions: CIG has revealed the crew stations for ships like the Orion mining ship and Genesis Starliner, and I think that harvesting fuel from gas giants will be more complex and challenging than opening the Starfarer's gas intake and scooping up hydrogen; same for refining the raw hydrogen into fuel; and operating the boom arm to connect to other ships to refuel them. Those roles will need to performed by crew members. So you should accept that a Starfarer will require NPCs or other players to crew for you.

The BMM will require a crew, for the same reasons. And the Ship States state that the BMM has a Max Crew of 8!

So the Starfarer and BMM are definitely multi-crew ships. Whereas it might be possible to solo a Hull C. 

21 hours ago, PixelChaos said:

IMO (for MISC ships) if your not sure about hauling cargo, at the most get the hull B or freelancer MAX, if you want a basic ship with some combat and cargo abilty (and take along a friend) look at the reliant tana, upscaled version is the freelancer MIS

for me having a hull E at the start i could just take a contracted cargo mission for a few runs or go with the other guys in imperium with hull E's and do some trade missions to get a bunch of credits to spend on other ships in game and try them out to see which ones i like to play with, you dont have to play with your hull E all the time but it may save you alot of time in earning credits in game if there is something you want as not all ships will be avaiable to purchase before the game go's live

plus it may be quite amaizing to be part of an imperium convoy of over 20 hull E's, and probaly not so boring as you will have other people to talk to about,,, stuff,,, on hull's and cargo

Using a Hull E to haul cargo for a NPC merchant company might not be as profitable as you expect, because you're basically a salaried employee of said company, no different than the captain or crew working for a RL shipping company like Maersk. (Merchant captains make about $80,000 a year. That isn't bad, but far from being a millionaire.) After paying fuel costs, port fees, and maintenance for a Hull E, being a contracted merchant might only earn roughly the same as an independent merchant who owns and operates a Taurus. Obviously, I'm just speculating here -- we don't know how much either type of trader will earn in the game.

Regardless, we know for a fact that being an independent merchant has far greater potential to earn a lot of UECs, because being independent means that you keep all the profits for yourself.

That's why I've proposed the idea of Imperium members pooling their money together to buy cargo to fill a Hull E (realistically, partially fill a Hull E), working together to protect the Hull E en route to its destination, and when the cargo is safely delinery, everyone receives a proportional share of the profits based on their investment. I think that's much smarter and more fair than a freighter owner and captain having to buy all the cargo themself, hire players to escort the freighter, and then the freighter owner pays them a certain amount and keeps the lion's share of the profit. I think that system is flawed, because the escort players are either going to be paid too much or too little, and they might bug out when the freighter comes under attack by a numerically superior Pirate force. The only way to ensure that escorts do their job and are fairly compensated is for them profit equally from a successful trade run.

Also, I think it will be completely insane for Imperium to operate a convoy comprised of over 20 Hull E's, fully laden with cargo. It would be an irresistible target for Pirates and an utter feeding frenzy. With the instance cap, it would be impossible to adequately protect 20 Hull E's.

[JohnWhiskey]

imo it's safer to be in a big convoy of big ships then to just have a few ships, which for anyone is much easier to get the nessesary force (call up a few buddies and boom!) to subdue a small convoy than a large one, but! i'm sure someone somewhere will try to take down the big convoys

besides, anyone with a hull C and up will want to take the less dangerous route, and being in a big group will deture the more sane pirates unless they have the force to profit from it (or they just want to have fun blowing ships up) also most of the dangerous pirates for convoys will not be in hi-sec space which is where most of the large cargo ship will be in

 

and you seem to be thinking the each hull E will be filled with gold or something, that's not what most of the big cargo ships will be carrying, it will be high bulk/low cost items like water or compresed oxygen, rocks, construction equipment and ect. and most pirates will not have the cargo room to make a profit on something so mundain, so you wont need 30-50 ships to protect one hull E, unless you really do have a full cargo of gold, then they might just go through your high number of escorts to capture the ship and fly off with it, or just blow the ship up, pick up what they can and leave you the mess to clean up

[ZomoZ]

My hull E will be reserved for only carrying gold

 

Gold is heavy

On a more serious note, it is still a year or two away from knowing numbers on crew that are actually needed

I am more of the mind, that crew will be totally optional, with say a 10% benefit over npcs (and likely the preferred route since paying people is going to be more expensive than paying npc crew)

My opinion, just as valid as urs at this point

[Caldon I]

Thank you all for this advice!

On 12/19/2015 at 2:31 PM, VoA said:

A Hull E actually has some military purpose (as does a Hull D).... they will have Defensive Modules, Snub Fighter Modules, etc... and act as a non-persistent warehouse for various goods including ammunition, missiles, refined fuel, etc.... so don't just think of it as a hauler.... thus I am keeping my Hull E.

I'm looking forward to what the non-cargo modules will be! It'd be neat if it was similar to the Endeavor's modules, but I remember that the devs have said it won't be able to turn into a pocket-carrier. Based on that, I can't see it being able to do that much more than haul cargo. A persistent warehouse sounds like an interesting use for a Hull E also, maybe for something like a forward operating base.

On 12/19/2015 at 3:03 PM, PixelChaos said:

you dont have to play with your hull E all the time but it may save you alot of time in earning credits in game if there is something you want as not all ships will be avaiable to purchase before the game go's live

plus it may be quite amaizing to be part of an imperium convoy of over 20 hull E's, and probaly not so boring as you will have other people to talk to about,,, stuff,,, on hull's and cargo

This is actually what I'm hoping for with the Hull E, to earn a bunch of credits when I'm not focused on combat. While 20 is probably unrealistic, even a convoy of 3 Hull E's with escorts would be a pretty awesome sight and would probably be a fun (and tense) trip, hoping not to be hit by pirates with so much cargo at stake. If the 3 Hull-E convoy does get hit by a large pirate force, I can imagine the pirates choosing one Hull E to focus on, leaving the convoy with the tough choice of either leaving the one Hull E behind or risking the other two Hull E's to try and save it. With Reavern's proposal of the escorts "buying in" to fill up the Hull E's, I just don't know how this situation would be resolved with the escorts' conflicting interests depending on which ship they bought into.

10 hours ago, Reavern said:

That's why I've proposed the idea of Imperium members pooling their money together to buy cargo to fill a Hull E (realistically, partially fill a Hull E), working together to protect the Hull E en route to its destination, and when the cargo is safely delinery, everyone receives a proportional share of the profits based on their investment.

This compelling proposal is what really made me want to keep the Hull E when I first read through this thread. It just seems like a great way to fill up the Hull E's massive cargo capacity while also providing the incentive for everyone to protect the convoy together. I also didn't think about how being a "salaried employee" of a shipping company would pretty much negate the benefits of having the gigantic Hull E, so I can't see a better way than Reavern's proposal to get the most out of the ship.

9 hours ago, PixelChaos said:

and you seem to be thinking the each hull E will be filled with gold or something, that's not what most of the big cargo ships will be carrying, it will be high bulk/low cost items like water or compresed oxygen, rocks, construction equipment and ect. and most pirates will not have the cargo room to make a profit on something so mundain

Pirates would probably try to board the ship anyway and take it over. All of those mundane items in the huge volume that the Hull E can carry would practically be pure profit to a pirate, and a ridiculous amount of profit too, even if it's just dirt! Plus the Hull E is an expensive ship in its own right. I'd be very sad to see pirates make off with my gajillion tons of rocks...

4 hours ago, ZomoZ said:

My hull E will be reserved for only carrying gold

Mine too That actually reminds me of those Spanish galleons that would ferry treasure around. Our Hull E's could be those galleons, filled with gold and other treasure!

I can't downgrade my Hull E at the moment anyway, so I'm keeping it for now. 5 crew doesn't seem like too much more than the Hull C's crew of 3 and might still be able to fly solo with NPCs. I'm still thinking I'll CCU my MIS to a Starfarer Gemini or BMM though. As much as I'd like to have both (the Starfarer in the Holiday Livestream looked amazing, and the BMM looks so nice) Reavern's right in that there's not much point in having both  Thanks again for the help!

[JohnWhiskey]

being disabled is probably the highest risk from pirates when in something like a hull E, as these ship will as a general rule stay in hi-sec space (with escort) so captureing them to sell off the ship or to transfer the cargo into a smuggling container (or even just transfering a significante % of the cargo containers) will consume alot time (depending on the size and amount of cargo being taken) and i dont believe that there will not be an option to track stolen cargo boxes, though jamming may reduce the range alot (for myself i'm going to install the most powerfull comms system i can so i can call for help so it never get's to the above point, and being disabled is not going to be fast considering the size of the power plant needed to move the ship so the shields can be strong)

for anyone running one of these large cargo ships will (well should imo) be running with a minimum of 2 escorts at all times, and more if the cargo is that much more valuable, with @Reavern idea of other people buying cargo space i can see one person running several hull E's (depending on how many NPC pilots/crew you can have) and just running their own small convoy (i want to try this eventually) and with several people doing this you can easily get over 20 hull E sized ships

as for gold you probably could fill a hull E with some effort but not the true rare materials like Osmium and w/e other future materials they may make up for gameplay

[ZomoZ]

New tactic, fill hull E with gold

Have 9 empty decoy hull E's

[JohnWhiskey]

expensive decoys, as i think they would need the cargo boxes that can give off false readings of having gold inside, and if your going that far with credits, you might as well equip your own ship with them and make the readings like unprocessed ore or water or w/e (or perhaps a sensitive high-explosive material? )would be believeable and spend the rest on more escorts

it did make me laugh though

[Caldon I]

I've been thinking about it a lot and I'm now leaning towards keeping the Freelancer MIS (52 SCU) and melting some stuff to get the Star G (2,488 SCU) and the BMM (5,018 SCU). When possible, I'll also downgrade my Hull E (98,304) to a Hull D (20,736 SCU) to save some money overall. I know these SCU numbers are essentially placeholders, but I think they're still helpful when comparing ships/roles.

The MIS, Star G, BMM, and Hull D seem to cover a decent range of cargo capacity and gameplay. The MIS (and hopefully the Hull D in safe space) could be played solo with NPCs, while the Star G and BMM would be fun with more people. The MIS can also be used as a missile boat, the Star G for fueling, and the BMM for looking cool and its trading bazaar (whatever that is).

I'll probably change my mind a few dozen more times by the PU release, especially if more info on NPCs/cargo/ship stats come out, but this seems like a good mix for now! Or maybe the MIS and BMM are too redundant with the Hull D and Star G...

Oh, and Merry Christmas! Hope you haulers are having a happy holidays!

[VoA]

 

[VoA]

At 8:30m into vid. Ben talks about landing the Hull ships with cargo (or unloading the cargo first)

 

[faquarl25]

Does anyone know when the other hulls will become flyable? I know the C will be 3.1 and understand that the D & E are so huge we will have to wait but what about the A & B (also for CCU opportunities)?

[Danakar Endeel]

1 hour ago, faquarl25 said:

Does anyone know when the other hulls will become flyable? I know the C will be 3.1 and understand that the D & E are so huge we will have to wait but what about the A & B (also for CCU opportunities)?

From what I've read during the 'Grand Finale', CIG is going to focus on getting the Hull-A and Hull-C out first as they are considered the ‘flagships’ of the line. No clue when they plan for the B, D and E but I guess they'll try to squeeze them in at 4.0 (which only has the Orion and Crucible listed). But it shouldn't be too much work as the front section of the Hull-A shares a close resemblance with the Hull-B while the front section of the Hull-C shares a close resemblance to the Hull-D and Hull-E. So likely just some resizing of the exterior and the main work would be on getting the interiors matched up

[Donut]

[GRIZZ]

Hull C internals and animationas underway! https://gfycat.com/FeistyGreenBighornsheep

[Devil Khan]

Well, it isn't that far ahead, they just using a block out systen to get it  down to what while the ship do IE expand and contract. The newer  Hull C does look better the twist and the extended rear cover look a lot better. They will have to sync up to see if interior and exterior won't clash. It is only using block out levels to see what goes where. It's the first time that we have an expanded ship by CIG (publicly known). I'm thinking of upgrading one more of the Hull D's to an E since I have an Idris now.

To be honest, the size of the interior of the Hull E is huge, even with 8 people I wonder could you put in a basket ball court... just me thinking out loud.     

[AstroJak]

Typically once cig allows us to see something new, they are several steps ahead of that reveal. so id expect to see the hull c by july. Just my prediction...time will tell.

AstroJak

[Devil Khan]

yeah that is still 4 months off.

[Devil Khan]

A brief glimpse of Hull C, looks a lot bigger, roomyer, from inside. I am not complaining at all. They look pretty nice even at early stages. The "escape"
/ external access looks very nice, especially with the internal glass, making them seem bigger..

The rear engines are now fixed in position. At least from the Hull C anyway. It was kinda nice  imagining them move out when expanding, but oh well. 

[Devil Khan]

Seems to be coming along nicely, but no real update for interior. Just new animations (small, but still).

[VoA]

A good thread on RSI

Quote

Hull C Interior Size bigger?

After watching the recent sneak peaks of the hull c, i have to believe that the ship must have become bigger than the original concept . Am i wrong? Also the max crew changed from 3 to 4. As a proud hull c owner i personally like that, what do you guys think?

 

[Reavern]

I'm not surprised if the Hull C ends up being larger than the concept's size. I don't think there's been a multi-crew ship yet that hasn't grown in size during the Production phase, and the larger ships have increased the most in size.

[Painmiester]

As we get closer to the PU   the ships are shaping up to be bigger overall.in most cases will the larger size be cost prohibited, who knows...

So good luck with the decision  process you adopt. May you fare well.   

Muhaha ha    big ship rule.....

[Devil Khan]

The Hull C is going VERY fast on production, the cutlass and Starfarer took twice as long. She does look pretty nice is part of the promo. Still sad about the fixed engines, I kinda liked them extending out when they were carrying cargo.