Drake Kraken + Privateer

[LowZone]

Just now, Reavern said:

Got mine.

was it in batches or not?

[Morgenroete]

No CCU

[bladeofdeath3]

1 minute ago, LowZone said:

was it in batches or not?

Doesn't seem like it.  There's no quantity listed on the purchase link.  I think everyone in wave 1-6 has a hull and Wave 7 will be limited.  Who truly knows...

[Karazantor]

Just now, bladeofdeath3 said:

Doesn't seem like it.  There's no quantity listed on the purchase link.  I think everyone in wave 1-6 has a hull and Wave 7 will be limited.  Who truly knows...

Pretty much this. It will be interesting to watch the funding meter climb.

[Reavern]

No batches. It appears that everyone in Waves 1-6 has one Kraken hull reserved for them. If the approved backers don't buy their reserved Kraken, those ships will be available for Wave 7 backers to buy.

[LowZone]

No batches means even more time to make an informed decision. GG CIG GJ.

[AstroJak]

i got mine...i noticed that there was no limit shown, usually it would say 50 or 250 and count down. this only said available which leads me to believe everyone in wave 1 will get one for sure

[GRIZZ]

Q&A is up https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/16813-Q-A-Drake-Kraken

 

Spoiler

Do the Kraken’s shields cover other ships parked on the deck?

 

 

 

 

The Kraken’s shields cover the hull of the ship and do not cover the ships or people that may be on the exposed landing pads. Ships contained inside the Hangars are covered by the shields. With the improvements to shield tech coming with Single Distance Field in the future, the projected bubble people currently see will be removed with a more hull wrapping projection of shield energy.

 

 

What are the Kraken’s refuel, restock, and repair abilities for docked ships?

 

The Kraken is, in many ways, a mobile base. This means it is able to refuel, restock and repair ships that have landed on it but these resources must be taken from the Kraken’s stores.

 

 

 

Can you quantum travel while ships are parked on the deck? What about with people on the deck?

 

Yes, you’ll be able to Quantum with ships parked on the deck. Quantum drives in our universe create a little bubble around the ship to move it and protects outward to cover those in very close proximity to the hull. Like other ships in our game, being outside your ship when in Quantum travel is an extremely dangerous scenario, so it’s not recommended due to the slightest misstep resulting in death or abandonment in deep space.

 

 

What are your plans for landing on the Kraken while it is in motion?

 

Like the Idris or other ships where you can land whilst they are in motion, we’ll provide automated landing solutions for those who do not wish to attempt a manual landing. This will provide a safe and secure landing at the expense of time, similar to our current automated landings at stations and rest stops.

 

 

Can you spawn ships from the Kraken?

 

When you spawn your Kraken, you will be able to spawn ships in/on it if you own them, but beyond that point no other ships can be spawned dynamically on-board. It is similar to how the Constellation will be able to have a ground vehicle within when spawned but is unable to spawn another ground vehicle in the hold, mid-flight. Players landing on the ship during game-play will have their ships permanently on the pad.

 

 

 

What happens to the landed/hangar-landed ships if the Kraken pilot logs off/is disconnected? And what will happen when the owners of the landed ships log off? Do their ships persist until the Kraken is despawned, or is the pad free for another one to land on?

 

 

The Kraken will follow the same rule-set as the persistent bed log off system we current have in game, if the owner of the Kraken logs off and there are no other players on-board, then it will be despawned. If there are still players on-board, then the Kraken and ships on-board will persist. If a player lands their ship on a Kraken, then proceeds to log off, their ship will persist with the Kraken until the point the Kraken is despawned or destroyed, at which point if the player then rejoins they will either have it respawn at the point the Kraken was or have to reclaim it in the event it was destroyed.

 

 

How does the Kraken’s armor compare to other ships in its size-class, like the Idris?

 

In true Drake fashion, the approach to construction prizes pragmatism and cost-effectiveness. Consequently, the Kraken is substantially less sturdy than the Idris and other dedicated military ships that are expected to face direct heavy or capital-scale firepower.

 

What is meant by “Towards the rear of the ship public accommodations can be found for visitors and associates?” Does the Kraken offer any special function or gameplay for public services like shops, bars, medical, or trading for those who are waiting for repair or just visiting?

 

There are onboard accommodation rooms to cover 1-2 players per landing pad. These are basic habs like you’d find at GrimHex and provide somewhere to rest, change, and sleep. There are no dedicated facilities like bars or trading areas on-board at this time.

 

 

With the Kraken being capital ship size will it have escape pods now unlike other Drake ships?

 

Drake sees no need to provide expensive escape pods when the Kraken can hold plenty of ships to facilitate escape in the “unlikely” event of an emergency.

 

 

How many ships can the Kraken hold and still quantum drive with?

 

The current design for Quantum Travel requires all the doors to be shut before the Quantum Drive can be initiated, with no requirements beyond that, such as checking for maximum ship amounts. The Kraken can therefore quantum travel with a full complement of ships, although as mentioned earlier, being on deck is a risky proposition.

 

Can the Kraken equip military grade items or only civilian/industrial?

 

The Kraken can only equip Civilian and Industrial items and comes with Civilian Grade C items by default.

 

 

The Kraken brochure talks about configuring the rear hangars to fit our needs. Does this mean that the Kraken might have some modular capabilities to outfit those hangars to suit other functions like extended medical/S&R or salvage processing? 

 

Drake always look to maximize the use of their spaceships, and whilst these rear cargo holds are ostensibly for cargo, there is a significant amount of real estate that could be re-purposed in the future for alternative uses.

 

How will this ship defend against armed boarding parties or other guests who refuse to leave?

 

The internal layout of the ship provides quite a few choke-points from the landing pads, allowing a somewhat organized defense against boarding. There are no inbuilt mechanics within the ship to deal with guests who refuse to leave. That will be down to the owners persuasion techniques.

 

 

Can we transfer cargo between docked/landed ships? If not, can cargo be transferred between docked/landed ships and the Kraken? 

 

Every external landing pad has access to the internal tram route via a loading hatch located within the airlock antechamber. The internal tram is primarily designed to carry cargo between the pads and the main cargo hold of the ship to facilitate cargo moving between ships and the Kraken itself.

 

 

The Kraken shows some concept of it landed in a desert, as well as parked at Lorville . How can we expect it to fare in atmospheric flight. Does it have VTOL? 

 

As with all ships of this size, the atmospheric flight performance can be characterized as poor at best, but the Kraken does have multiple VTOL thrusters to allow it to take off and land in atmosphere. There are two located under the front “ears” that pivot to face 90 degrees down and more are built into the underside of the rear hull in a permanent down-facing layout.

 

[Arcanus]

QUICK REMINDER:

The Drake Kraken has been added to the Portal.  We would appreciate it if you would update your Portal Hangars to reflect your Kraken purchase (and any ships that you might have melted, if any, to buy it) as soon as possible.

Also, if you would also like to notify Fleet Ops (myself) so that I can add you to out internal list, or if you should have any questions about our Capital Ship utilization policies, I welcome any comments or questions that you might have.

[GRIZZ]

"With the improvements to shield tech coming with Single Distance Field in the future, the projected bubble people currently see will be removed with a more hull wrapping projection of shield energy."   

Damn!

[Karazantor]

10 minutes ago, GRIZZ said:

Q&A is up https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/engineering/16813-Q-A-Drake-Kraken

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Do the Kraken’s shields cover other ships parked on the deck?

 

 

 

 

The Kraken’s shields cover the hull of the ship and do not cover the ships or people that may be on the exposed landing pads. Ships contained inside the Hangars are covered by the shields. With the improvements to shield tech coming with Single Distance Field in the future, the projected bubble people currently see will be removed with a more hull wrapping projection of shield energy.

 

 

What are the Kraken’s refuel, restock, and repair abilities for docked ships?

 

The Kraken is, in many ways, a mobile base. This means it is able to refuel, restock and repair ships that have landed on it but these resources must be taken from the Kraken’s stores.

 

 

 

Can you quantum travel while ships are parked on the deck? What about with people on the deck?

 

Yes, you’ll be able to Quantum with ships parked on the deck. Quantum drives in our universe create a little bubble around the ship to move it and protects outward to cover those in very close proximity to the hull. Like other ships in our game, being outside your ship when in Quantum travel is an extremely dangerous scenario, so it’s not recommended due to the slightest misstep resulting in death or abandonment in deep space.

 

 

What are your plans for landing on the Kraken while it is in motion?

 

Like the Idris or other ships where you can land whilst they are in motion, we’ll provide automated landing solutions for those who do not wish to attempt a manual landing. This will provide a safe and secure landing at the expense of time, similar to our current automated landings at stations and rest stops.

 

 

Can you spawn ships from the Kraken?

 

When you spawn your Kraken, you will be able to spawn ships in/on it if you own them, but beyond that point no other ships can be spawned dynamically on-board. It is similar to how the Constellation will be able to have a ground vehicle within when spawned but is unable to spawn another ground vehicle in the hold, mid-flight. Players landing on the ship during game-play will have their ships permanently on the pad.

 

 

 

What happens to the landed/hangar-landed ships if the Kraken pilot logs off/is disconnected? And what will happen when the owners of the landed ships log off? Do their ships persist until the Kraken is despawned, or is the pad free for another one to land on?

 

 

The Kraken will follow the same rule-set as the persistent bed log off system we current have in game, if the owner of the Kraken logs off and there are no other players on-board, then it will be despawned. If there are still players on-board, then the Kraken and ships on-board will persist. If a player lands their ship on a Kraken, then proceeds to log off, their ship will persist with the Kraken until the point the Kraken is despawned or destroyed, at which point if the player then rejoins they will either have it respawn at the point the Kraken was or have to reclaim it in the event it was destroyed.

 

 

How does the Kraken’s armor compare to other ships in its size-class, like the Idris?

 

In true Drake fashion, the approach to construction prizes pragmatism and cost-effectiveness. Consequently, the Kraken is substantially less sturdy than the Idris and other dedicated military ships that are expected to face direct heavy or capital-scale firepower.

 

What is meant by “Towards the rear of the ship public accommodations can be found for visitors and associates?” Does the Kraken offer any special function or gameplay for public services like shops, bars, medical, or trading for those who are waiting for repair or just visiting?

 

There are onboard accommodation rooms to cover 1-2 players per landing pad. These are basic habs like you’d find at GrimHex and provide somewhere to rest, change, and sleep. There are no dedicated facilities like bars or trading areas on-board at this time.

 

 

With the Kraken being capital ship size will it have escape pods now unlike other Drake ships?

 

Drake sees no need to provide expensive escape pods when the Kraken can hold plenty of ships to facilitate escape in the “unlikely” event of an emergency.

 

 

How many ships can the Kraken hold and still quantum drive with?

 

The current design for Quantum Travel requires all the doors to be shut before the Quantum Drive can be initiated, with no requirements beyond that, such as checking for maximum ship amounts. The Kraken can therefore quantum travel with a full complement of ships, although as mentioned earlier, being on deck is a risky proposition.

 

Can the Kraken equip military grade items or only civilian/industrial?

 

The Kraken can only equip Civilian and Industrial items and comes with Civilian Grade C items by default.

 

 

The Kraken brochure talks about configuring the rear hangars to fit our needs. Does this mean that the Kraken might have some modular capabilities to outfit those hangars to suit other functions like extended medical/S&R or salvage processing? 

 

Drake always look to maximize the use of their spaceships, and whilst these rear cargo holds are ostensibly for cargo, there is a significant amount of real estate that could be re-purposed in the future for alternative uses.

 

How will this ship defend against armed boarding parties or other guests who refuse to leave?

 

The internal layout of the ship provides quite a few choke-points from the landing pads, allowing a somewhat organized defense against boarding. There are no inbuilt mechanics within the ship to deal with guests who refuse to leave. That will be down to the owners persuasion techniques.

 

 

Can we transfer cargo between docked/landed ships? If not, can cargo be transferred between docked/landed ships and the Kraken? 

 

Every external landing pad has access to the internal tram route via a loading hatch located within the airlock antechamber. The internal tram is primarily designed to carry cargo between the pads and the main cargo hold of the ship to facilitate cargo moving between ships and the Kraken itself.

 

 

The Kraken shows some concept of it landed in a desert, as well as parked at Lorville . How can we expect it to fare in atmospheric flight. Does it have VTOL? 

 

As with all ships of this size, the atmospheric flight performance can be characterized as poor at best, but the Kraken does have multiple VTOL thrusters to allow it to take off and land in atmosphere. There are two located under the front “ears” that pivot to face 90 degrees down and more are built into the underside of the rear hull in a permanent down-facing layout.

 

I'm actually pretty impressed with CIG on this one. A timely Q&A with really good questions and answers. The sales method is better than most previously too. Its never going to be perfect though.

[VoA]

Interesting Data - but I didn't get selected even though I posted my interest.... and I have a large account - so my case refutes this assertion below...  (overall though its probably best that I didn't get selected since it is a bad time for me to open up my wallet more - since we are building a new house that is almost finished).

DRAMA

Small Dataset, showing Wave Selection might have been based on Account Value

Here is the Form where the data was gathered. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13jp8g5aIZah0ktZk7-nO5uFU1JUILNhd-3bvQIjv2PY/

[Brightmist]

Just landing for a quick repair/rearm/refuel and taking off fast seems quite good in combat.

Like landing and taking off in a Javelin, Idris or Polaris is a whole ordeal whereas it's gonna be way easier with a Kraken and it can support all the combat ships(and also industrial ships) pretty much including bigger ships like Talis and Vanguards.

Kraken can also land planet side so that's also nice.

[Chimaera]

Wave 2. Now deciding how I want to acquire it.

Or if I want one.

Not very pleased with the price compared to the Idris tbh.

[Chimaera]

As for the selection drama, CIG is going to take a lot of things into account when sending these out, with past ability to purchase probably one of them.

[Karazantor]

10 minutes ago, Chimaera said:

Not very pleased with the price compared to the Idris tbh.

True, but I'd expect the Idris to cost a LOT more now than it did. A big point of consideration for me is that I can actually buy back a $1250 Idris P.

 

The Kraken is massively more flexible though, IMO. The original reason I melted the Idris was its pathetic complement of fighter craft, limited weapons, massive crew and what I felt to be a rather ugly new design.

The Kraken fixes most of those, though beauty is in the eye of the beholder 🙂

[VoA]

14 minutes ago, Chimaera said:

Wave 2. Now deciding how I want to acquire it.

Or if I want one.

Not very pleased with the price compared to the Idris tbh.

I think CIG priced the Kraken Perfectly actually.  Remember that the Idris-P .... last year... was $1.5k and will likely see a price increase for this year's anniversary sale.

If I were to pick one up - I would melt many smaller ships to get the Kraken since it will be significantly more costly to acquire (like all huge and rare ships) in game.   It is well worth it to make it work if you can even if you can use the ship right away.   In my case I didn't even get the option though I would have done the same.

[Danakar Endeel]

22 minutes ago, Karazantor said:

True, but I'd expect the Idris to cost a LOT more now than it did. A big point of consideration for me is that I can actually buy back a $1250 Idris P.

 

The Kraken is massively more flexible though, IMO. The original reason I melted the Idris was its pathetic complement of fighter craft, limited weapons, massive crew and what I felt to be a rather ugly new design.

The Kraken fixes most of those, though beauty is in the eye of the beholder 🙂

Just be advised that, unlike the Idris and other military warships, the Kraken apparently can't equip Military grade components according to the Q&A. Only Civilian and Industrial components are allowed. So effectively it's a civilian grade 'warship'

[Reavern]

39 minutes ago, Chimaera said:

Wave 2. Now deciding how I want to acquire it.

Or if I want one.

Not very pleased with the price compared to the Idris tbh.

 

I agree that the value of the Kraken isn't comparable to the Idris, but bear in mind that the Idris-M started at $1000, the civilian Idris-P (without the spinal Rail Gun) started at $1250 and is up around $1500 now. The Kraken is $1400 Warbond, which is $400 more than the Idris-M. And back in 2013, we were all paying cash for pledges. To be fair though, in 2013, the Idris-M was a corvette and half the size of the frigate version, so it more than doubled in value. The is slightly larger than the Idris and the Warbond price is around the same price as the Idris-P is sold at in 2018. So the price isn't unreasonable, relatively speaking (considering we're talking about dropping over a grand on a digital space ship for a game that is probably several years from being released).

The reasons I chose to go ahead and buy the Kraken were:

1. I had enough store credit to buy it (after I melted my Hammerhead and several other ships I've cooled on since buying them).
2. The store credit Kraken does have LTI.
3. I really, really, REALLY want a carrier for my squadron.
4. I'm certain that Kraken will grow even larger by end of the ship development process so the Kraken's value will only increase.

I'd argue that #4 is the most compelling reason to buy the Kraken. I've stated this fact countless times already, but it warrants repeating: Every ship in Star Citizen sized Large or larger have increased in size between Concept and Flight Ready. The Kraken will continue this trend. Definitely. It's currently 270 metres. I predict that the Kraken will end up at over 350 metres in length by the time it's flyable. The concept art depicts voluminous interior spaces, including multiple Hangars, the Dragonfly bay, Engineering, and two large Cargo Holds. Those rooms and spaces appear much greater in size and scale compared to the Idris walkthrough we saw last year. And those are just the rooms featured in the concept art. There are countless utilitarian things the Kraken will need, such as crew quarters, mess hall, washrooms, various amenities, and probably a med bay and armoury. It doesn't appear CIG has accounted for those fundamentals, and even if they have, CIG always under-estimates their size requirements in the concept phase.

That's why I'm certain the Kraken will grow larger and why it makes sense to get one now, if you can.

[Blout]

19 minutes ago, Reavern said:

I agree that the value of the Kraken isn't comparable to the Idris, but bear in mind that the Idris-M started at $1000, the civilian Idris-P (without the spinal Rail Gun) started at $1250 and is up around $1500 now. The Kraken is $1400 Warbond, which is $400 more than the Idris-M. And back in 2013, we were all paying cash for pledges. To be fair though, in 2013, the Idris-M was a corvette and half the size of the frigate version, so it more than doubled in value. The is slightly larger than the Idris and the Warbond price is around the same price as the Idris-P is sold at in 2018. So the price isn't unreasonable, relatively speaking (considering we're talking about dropping over a grand on a digital space ship for a game that is probably several years from being released).

The reasons I chose to go ahead and buy the Kraken were:

1. I had enough store credit to buy it (after I melted my Hammerhead and several other ships I've cooled on since buying them).
2. The store credit Kraken does have LTI.
3. I really, really, REALLY want a carrier for my squadron.
4. I'm certain that Kraken will grow even larger by end of the ship development process so the Kraken's value will only increase.

I'd argue that #4 is the most compelling reason to buy the Kraken. I've stated this fact countless times already, but it warrants repeating: Every ship in Star Citizen sized Large or larger have increased in size between Concept and Flight Ready. The Kraken will continue this trend. Definitely. It's currently 270 metres. I predict that the Kraken will end up at over 350 metres in length by the time it's flyable. The concept art depicts voluminous interior spaces, including multiple Hangars, the Dragonfly bay, Engineering, and two large Cargo Holds. Those rooms and spaces appear much greater in size and scale compared to the Idris walkthrough we saw last year. And those are just the rooms featured in the concept art. There are countless utilitarian things the Kraken will need, such as crew quarters, mess hall, washrooms, various amenities, and probably a med bay and armoury. It doesn't appear CIG has accounted for those fundamentals, and even if they have, CIG always under-estimates their size requirements in the concept phase.

That's why I'm certain the Kraken will grow larger and why it makes sense to get one now, if you can.

I am fairly certain it will grow. I saw a render of it's current state and a black wont fit into the hanger while there is one in the hanger in a concept photo

[Danakar Endeel]

20 minutes ago, Blout said:

I am fairly certain it will grow. I saw a render of it's current state and a black wont fit into the hanger while there is one in the hanger in a concept photo

I don't recall seeing any image depicting a Cutlass inside the hangar. The only concept art of the internal hangar I've seen showed a Buccaneer as far as I am aware. So unless I missed a particular image; it may be that only smaller fighter-sized craft can be serviced in the two internal bays. 

[Blout]

I must have gotten two images mixed up. I think that's the one I was thinking of.

 

[Karazantor]

2 hours ago, Danakar Endeel said:

Just be advised that, unlike the Idris and other military warships, the Kraken apparently can't equip Military grade components according to the Q&A. Only Civilian and Industrial components are allowed. So effectively it's a civilian grade 'warship'

No doubt. For once CIG has been up front about it. Its still an extremely useful ship - look at it like the life saving escort carriers in the North Sea during WW2. Incredibly flimsy and ungainly, but utterly irreplaceable in what they did. If guarded and looked after well by a sufficiently sized group, this ship has amazing potential. 

 

I can't see it working too well for really small groups though. Its definitely something useful for Imperium sized Organisations.

[danredda]

I got mine in wave 2.

 

@Reavern Warbond version has LTI, ship, VFG Hangar. No special goodies from the looks of it.

 

@VoA Looking at that data, I'd say that survey is flawed. Over 450 Wave 1 apparently which seems unlikely that many in wave 1, considering how many people have not been posting they were wave 1. The incredible imbalances in that survey's results makes me think the data has been compromised.

[VoA]

1 hour ago, Reavern said:

 

1. I really, really, REALLY want a carrier for my squadron.

We picked up a confirmed 1 so far in Blood Moon (maybe more) and hopefully Dark Sun picks up one as well.   I think we'll need these as Vanduul Hunting Squadrons