Support Ship Theorycrafting

[Squirrel]

I'm looking for what people would consider the best 1-2 support ships for a (mostly) solo pilot in fleet operations. NPC crewmen are allowed but while players may be able to agent-smith eventually, that will only happen over time as losses start to occur. In this, I am making a couple of major assumptions:

1) NPCs will be moderately effective at "low cognitive positions" like turret gunning but worse at high cognitive skills like engineering. Moderate means they are better than nothing but are not good at predicting ship needs or pilot intentions.

2) A pilot, with practice and some acceptable limitations, will be able to handle 2-3 positions such as pilot, engineering and communications/scanning.

3) Sort of an add on -- Ship options are not limited by price or availability but only by what has been concepted so far.

4) Scenario -- This is in support of a fleet operation consisting of 6-12 players with each in their own ship of various types during a 30 minute engagement. Their ships will mostly be 1-2 person fighter type ships.

Here are some possibilities I see so far:
Combat Logistics: I look at this as the 3 R's: Repair, rearm, refuel. It has to be done in a period of time that allows the ship to leave battle with a need, fulfill that need and return to battle. Some ships able to do this would be a Starfarer, Crucible and maybe a Caterpillar and a Polaris. The Cat has already shown modules to allow scrapping and the like that could also be used to repair and rearm. The starfarer has lots of cargo room for consumables such as missiles and chaff/flares but may be better in between fights. The polaris is a stretch due to crew requirements. A weird one for this would be a Hope class Endeavor to act as a mobile spawn point though crew requirements may be an issue. Most of these have low defensive abilities except the turtle of a Star-G or a Polaris.

Overwatch: A ship to mostly watch the battlefield and report significant details such as enemy strengths or weaknesses. This would require a good sensor and/or stealth suite. The ones that come to mind immediately are a Terrapin or Hornet Tracker. A Sabre might be ok with visual scanning while flying in a masked way and taking out soft targets behind enemy lines. An exploration ship may also be useful here.  The Terrapin and Sabre have the best self defensive abilities I think.

E-War: This one is a strange in grab bag of sorts and the one we know the least about as far as game mechanics so far. You have the Herald that looks like it might be able to block transmissions from NPCs but probably limited in other ways. There is the Warlock able to disguise most of the battle as a normal Avenger and then rush in to temporarily incapacitate 1-2 ships. Then, there is the Sentinel that can cause disruptions with it's suite of anti electonics missiles and other weapons. The Avenger and probably the Sentinel would be the best self defensive I think.

Heavy hitters: These are ships called in to engage larger enemy ships. They don't have to destroy the enemy ship, just keep it too busy to be effective in combat. Mostly look at missile/Torp slingers for this. The Retaliator with an all NPC crew of gunners becomes relatively effective in this role. The Harbinger and Gladiator probably shine in this role. An oddball here would be a Constellation or Freelancer MIS. I don't think a Polaris would be very effective in this role with almost every position being held by an NPC.

What do people think would be the most useful 1-2 support ships for a generic fight and why? Just a little theory crafting. Also, did I overlook some obvious support ship?
 

[Sky Captain]

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What do people think would be the most useful 1-2 support ships for a generic fight and why? 

The Idris, provided that it can be crewed with NPCs to meet your 'solo' support criteria.  Most see the Idris requiring group play for effectiveness while on point in battle.  Let's concede that for this topic. But when crewed by NPCs only it may still make for a great behind-the-lines support ship.

+ Landing bay for other fighter pilots
+ Base of operations for fleet players to gather
+ Onboard repair potential for smaller ships
+ Onboard medical potential for injured pilots
+ Cargo drop off potential for pilots
+ Multi-turret gunship for defensive support 
+ Likely a strong sensor suite

If your aim is to discuss smaller ships, I think its harder to pick as each ship has its niche.  But for fleet support I'd go with either:

+ Starfarer for refueling support.
+ Crucible for repair support.
+ Endeavor or Cutlass Red for healing/resurrection support.

[Fleischwolf]

Limiting everything to 1-2 man vessels and "top tier".

Combat Logistics:

Starfarer Gemini: (2 Human + Rest AI Crew) - The Star G is THE military transport and basically feels like the ship equivalent of an LMTV. It even has a dual S5 top gun, which could be entertaining for a second human crewman. It was stated by GIG that the Starfarer would be fully capable with 2 humans and the rest AI crew, as it was originally a 2-man ship. It will be responsible for resupplying ships large and small with fuel and I imagine the internal cargo will transport anything from spare parts, ammunition, torpedoes, and missiles in order to keep a fleet resupplied. While it doesn't carry as much as a hull series, which has more in line with a modern semi, it has enough survivability and armament that a convoy of multiple Star G's can probably make it though rough space with an escort. 

Overwatch:

Anvil Terrapin: 1-2 man military reconnaissance ship. It was supposedly purpose built for the role as a picket ship for a fleet.

E-War:

Vanguard Sentinel: 1-2 man dedicated E-war ship that can sustain itself in combat and has range. Can supposedly also "actively scan" for enemies and also "spoof" signatures in order to misdirect the enemy using specialized missiles. 

Heavy hitters:

Vanguard Harbinger: 1-2 man dedicated Fighter / Bomber, it is meant to take on medium to large ships with its weapons and torpedoes. Probably the bomber of choice when the enemy knows your coming.

Gladiator: 1-2 man CV based bomber. Also a strong choice when the enemy knows your coming, but is also not far away.

Eclipse: Single seat stealth torpedo bomber that can strike a large ship. This thing i probably the pinnacle of a support ship, as it just drops its load and leaves, and is generally defenseless besides for stealth and speed. This ship is probably best used to create an opening for other bombers to have an effect against larger ships. 

Aegis Redeemer: (Stretch 3-5 crew + 6 human marines) - The redeemer gunship may end up being a great anti-fighter escort ship that can support operations in space and on the ground. I think it will make a great picket ship, and supposedly long-range. It has a slightly larger crew requirement, however some of the roles may be the "low-cognitive"roles you described and may work will with NPC's. It also may one day carry a ground vehicle. It is likely going to massively change during its scheduled re-design in 2018.

 

28 minutes ago, Sky Captain said:

The Idris, provided that it can be crewed with NPCs to meet your 'solo' support criteria.  Most see the Idris requiring group play for effectiveness while on point in battle.  But when crewed by NPCs only it may still make for a great behind-the-lines support ship.

I don't think the Idris is going to be effective with only 1-2 human players. Also, I believe Squirrel wanted ships that were generally viable for a wide array of missions ("generic fight"). 

The Idris is likely going to cost large amounts of UEC just to operate. While it would would be a great support ship for a larger group, I think Squirrel wanted to limit the fleet to 6-12 people. An Idris seems outside the scope and scale of a group of this size. 12 people may not even be enough to sufficiently crew and Idris AND the 3-4 fighters / bombers  it can carry. 

 

EDIT: Formatting and grammar

[Amy Babe]

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Combat Logistics: I look at this as the 3 R's: Repair, rearm, refuel. It has to be done in a period of time that allows the ship to leave battle with a need, fulfill that need and return to battle. Some ships able to do this would be a Starfarer, Crucible and maybe a Caterpillar and a Polaris. The Cat has already shown modules to allow scrapping and the like that could also be used to repair and rearm. The starfarer has lots of cargo room for consumables such as missiles and chaff/flares but may be better in between fights. The polaris is a stretch due to crew requirements. A weird one for this would be a Hope class Endeavor to act as a mobile spawn point though crew requirements may be an issue. Most of these have low defensive abilities except the turtle of a Star-G or a Polaris.

funny, i am actually a combat logistics pilot in the nova core unit.

 

my ships are:

* polaris

* starfarer G

* crucible

* endeavor hope + collider for upgrades.

[Scotterius]

The Idris. The Idris. The Idris. Star Citizen is a hard game. It takes hundred of hours to learn to fly a Fighter. And when you can...it is really fun.  Fun is what the game is about and Cap ships...are pretty much about supporting vehicles that support Fighters. The Idris supports 3.

Remember please that Chris Roberts has made many games.  The wing commander series. The privateer series. Then Freelancer and Star Lancer (Star Lancer came after Freespace 2*). In all the games the Fighter was king. In the first wing commander mission you could kill a destroyer in a light fighter. The first one. And this never ever changed, in all his games. Guess what...the first Star Citizen game, "Squadron 42" is a fighter based game. If you want a support ship, support fighters. Love fighters.  Long live the Fighters!

All hail Chris. May his dream never falter. 

 

 

*This is an important point. In Freespace 2 Cap ships fought back. In Star Lancer, Fighters still made chumps of them. Chris chose to balance in favor of fighters knowing the popular contrary example.