the MISC Starfarer has just been revealed

[Reavern]

See the hilariously massive blind spot from 3 to 9 o'clock low?  Believe you, me, you'll have plenty of pirate attacks to deal with.

 

If an enemy is attacking from that blindspot, you can always roll the ship over. Then the enemy is in reach of the Starfarer's dorsal turret! However, multiple attackers will be difficult to manage. That's why a Starfarer should always be escorted in nullsec space.

 

An interesting note I read about the Starfarer is that it could be extremely hazardous to attack the fuel tanker when it's filled with fuel, because it can explode, and probably take the attacker with it. Therefore, if a Starfarer calls an attacker's bluff to surrender its cargo or be attacked, the attacker might want to leave it alone so they don't get burnt.

[The Disco Kid]

See the hilariously massive blind spot from 3 to 9 o'clock low?  Believe you, me, you'll have plenty of pirate attacks to deal with.  

 

That said, I'm still going to get one.  

 

Oh I see it.  I wouldn't take a fully-loaded Starfarer out without an escort, hopefully with that much cargo space a successful run would provide more than enough credits for security plus a nice profit margin.

[xinque]

I can't imagine a Starfarer rolling fast enough to outmaneuver anything that'd make a difference. Smaller ships would just reposition with you, and larger ships probably won't even be dented by your weapons.

[Narghilos]

i plan to set my Gas Station some where in the safer part of the galaxy and just let the $ roll in while I drink my tea

 

PICARD STYLE

[Adam]

I just had an idea, have some one in the fleet swap out the cannisters for containers and load in all our repair drones. Portable repair station for the whole fleet during fleet operations what do you think?

[Reavern]

I can't imagine a Starfarer rolling fast enough to outmaneuver anything that'd make a difference. Smaller ships would just reposition with you, and larger ships probably won't even be dented by your weapons.

 

A Starfarer doesn't need to execute barrel rolls as fast as a starfighter for this to work. It's basic physics that a small wheel rotates more frequently than a large wheel on the same axle. Since the Starfarer is rotating on its longitudinal axis, it should be able to roll faster -- regardless of how big and sluggish the Starfarer is -- faster than an attacking ship hundreds of metres away can re-position itself.

 

A starfighter hanging in the Starfarer's dorsal-rear blindspot could reposition itself fairly quickly, but it would have pull up and take its forward-firing weapons off the Starfarer for at least a few seconds. A few-seconds reprieve would be better than the Starfarer doing nothing and allowing itself to get shot.

 

The Starfarer's dorsal turret looks pretty big -- bigger than a Constellation's M5A turrets, so probably more powerful. They'd do a lot more than dent a large ship.

 

CIG has to carefully balance the ships and weapons properly, so not giving the Starfarer a fighting chance doesn't make sense. I believe people are under-estimating the Starfarer's defensive capabilities.

[Narghilos]

I think that they wouldn't make a "space Fort Knox" without any defenses. That kind of ship must be able to make a stand to protect the cargo it holds... Just my 2 cents 

[Torzoi]

Hook a fighter on there and that could cause trouble.

[Ken Oath]

Mercury, on 30 Jun 2013 - 02:11 AM, said:

I lack the required info to purchase this. I know the included pods are for fuel, but I need to know if they can carry non-liquid cargo or if I have to upgrade, and I know it can be changed for something else but not what it'll cost.

 

xinque replied... The latter, you can upgrade to more conventional cargo canisters over the liquid ones, but dunno the cost.  Chris Roberts answered this somewhere in the livestream recording.

 

 

Does anybody have a link to this? I'm keen to verify it before buying one.

[Stormfury]

I absolutely love the look and feel of this ship, even if it's belly and rear are totally vulnerable.  Guess that's why we fly in fleets!

[Thayr]

You know, let's just think. Now these guys, sure, they can be space trucks, or resupply ships. Or fireships. Imagine sending 4 of those into a stations hanger and blowing them up. Big boom. Or sending them into a Bengal Carrier's hanger. Hey, that could be a way of disableing!

[Reavern]

Even if the Bengar carrier left its main flight deck door open -- which is unlikely -- a Starfarer would never fit through the door. Also, it would probably bounce off the Bengal's shields. So using a Starfarer to blow up a Bengal from the inside isn't going to happen.

 

I possible tactic could be to detonate a fuel-filled Starfarer in the midst of enemy starfighters. CIG has stated that attacking a Starfarer filled with fuel could be a suicidal prospect because if weapons fire breaches the fuel tanks, the resulting explosion would probably take out the attacking ship too.

[Jsher10]

I knew that we'd be getting into suicide bombing talks sooner or later...

[Reavern]

I knew that we'd be getting into suicide bombing talks sooner or later...

 

I never said that.

 

CIG has mentioned that ships can be upgraded with a self-destruct system to thwart the ship from being captured by the enemy. A Starfarer pilot could set the ship to self-destruct on a time delay or remote trigger, fly it toward a group of enemy ships, eject in an escape pod, and BOOM.

[Red-Coal]

I never said that.

 

CIG has mentioned that ships can be upgraded with a self-destruct system to thwart the ship from being captured by the enemy. A Starfarer pilot could set the ship to self-destruct on a time delay or remote trigger, fly it toward a group of enemy ships, eject in an escape pod, and BOOM.

Good way to take out an Idris perhaps?

[Reavern]

Good way to take out an Idris perhaps?

 

I doubt it. Fuel is never as potent as military-grade explosives. Fuel is all flash and relatively little BANG.

 

An Idris can probably endure multiple anti-matter torpedo strikes before its shields are taken down, so I doubt a fuel explosion will be a serious threat. TBH I think a ship's fission, fusion, or anti-matter engine exploding would inflict more damage than 75 tons of fuel.

[Red-Coal]

I doubt it. Fuel is never as potent as military-grade explosives. Fuel is all flash and relatively little BANG.

 

An Idris can probably endure multiple anti-matter torpedo strikes before its shields are taken down, so I doubt a fuel explosion will be a serious threat. TBH I think a ship's fission, fusion, or anti-matter engine exploding would inflict more damage than 75 tons of fuel.

Is fuel as potent as military grade explosives? No. Keep in mind though that fuel-air bombs are extremely effective, so used correctly the Starfarer could be lethal to large ships. It also isn't just the fuel that you need to worry about, it's the 125 tons of metal surrounding that 75 tons of fuel that will be propelled outwards as very large and lethal shrapnel when the ship goes boom.

 

Granted, a torpedo has a much more directed blast and will be more useful in most cases. I can see two instances where a suicide Starfarer could do some massive damage to a Idris sized ship.

 

1. Assuming that a ships shields won't stop a ship, a starfarer could ram into an Idris, aiming for a weak spot like a hanger or bridge. Most likely the impact of a ship with the Starfarer's mass will pierce the armor to some degree. If it then detonated then it could cause some serious damage. Obviously this scenario leaves out tons of variables, such as the escorts and defenses of the Idris destroying the Starfarer from a distance, or the Idris maneuvering away from the oncoming Starfarer.

 

2. An explosion of a Starfarer in close proximity to an Idris could be used to weaken an Idris' shields significantly. This would allow other ships to cause more damage with their weapons.

 

Just a couple of examples, with my main point being that fuel and metal can do a ton of damage. Especially in the hands of a creative person or group.

[Armagnac]

I think multiple starfarers on suicide with LTI could really take down battleships

[Aethernaut]

I'm sorry but even a fully loaded Starfarer with 75t of Hydrogen is'nt going to blow up much, the only reason H is used as a fuel is because of fusion and a couple of pew pew lazer beams won't be enough to start a reaction. Explosions that you see, ie the Challenger Space Shuttle is becuase of Oxygen in the mix. One Anti-matter torpedo would do much more damage because all of the matter is converted into energy and you are not relying on a chemical reaction.

[Red-Coal]

I'm sorry but even a fully loaded Starfarer with 75t of Hydrogen is'nt going to blow up much, the only reason H is used as a fuel is because of fusion and a couple of pew pew lazer beams won't be enough to start a reaction. Explosions that you see, ie the Challenger Space Shuttle is becuase of Oxygen in the mix. One Anti-matter torpedo would do much more damage because all of the matter is converted into energy and you are not relying on a chemical reaction.

If the physics of the game were true to life, which I don't expect them to be, to produce a proper explosion the tanks would be a mix of fuel and air(oxygen mix). Gasoline explodes more easily when the fumes are mixed with oxygen as well. It stands to reason that someone using a Starfarer in such a way would ensure to have the correct fuel to air ratio in the tanks. The mixture would depend on the fuel in the tanks. You could use hydrogen, but I expect that other types of fuel exist still, especially for ground vehicles and generators. This would help to produce a larger explosion.

 

Also, and this is me just making a point about the strength of fuel bombs outside of SC, keep in mind that fuel-air bombs are extremely powerful, with the class of bombs they are included in being pound-for-pound more energetic than conventional explosives (shamelessly sourced from Wikipedia. Anyone with more knowledge about explosives feel free to add-on or correct me.)

 

Back to SC. All I'm saying, is that under the right circumstances, a fuel laden Starfarer could be quite the weapon. Certainly more powerful than a single torpedo, though obviously less focused. Semantics maybe, but most of the damage from weapons come from the focused blast. This is how RPG's, bunker busters, torpedos and missiles do so much damage with relatively small payloads. However grenades and bombs still do some damage. Different uses for different weapons. Sometimes you need a bunker buster and sometimes you need a MOAB.

 

Anyways, aside from my original comment being half joking, I think that a laden starfarer is a powerful weapon if used correctly and shouldn't be written off. Keep in mind that shields won't stop a Starfarer from ramming into a cap ship, and once it breaches the armor in any way (which I assume that 150+tons of ship will do at high speed) the detonation will turn it into the mother of all missiles. 

 

I'm not trying to say that conventional weapons won't be more useful in most cases, because they will be. Just consider that the winner in war is often those that use unconventional tactics to their advantage.

 

P.S. I'm no expert on any of this, and am not pretending to be, feel free to counter with awesome sciency examples. Especially boom boom videos.

[Adam]

Your all forgetting the devs comments on anti matter as being a dont shoot me or we all die cargo option. Why not ram it with anti matter?

[Red-Coal]

Your all forgetting the devs comments on anti matter as being a dont shoot me or we all die cargo option. Why not ram it with anti matter?

I like the way this man thinks. 

 

Side note, I want to get two Starfarers in game and fill them full of anti-matter (since that appears to make big boom) and ram them into each other at full speed.

 

Should be good fun.

[Thayr]

YES!!! I'm made a discussion!!!

 

Now, I may be dreaming, but since you (hypothetically) can go an infinite rate of speed (I'm no pyhsisist, so please correct me) smashing two Starfarers filled with anti-matter could be the equilivent of an atom-smasher. This COULD create a black hole (the amount of energy released from both the impact and anti-matter). Sooooo................possible doomsday bomb. That's all those pesky terrorists need.......... I dunno, my whole idea is sorta......iffy, at best.

[Aethernaut]

Fuel-bombs use the surrounding air as explosive so that's not going to happen in space. Now, if you fill it with Anti-matter its a different discussion. But I would Imagine in a warzone the Captain of the Capital ship, if he is worth his salt the Starfarer wouldn't get close enough to be a problem. Even for an Idris-M, a couple of shots (or three) from the rail gun and the Starfarer is toast.

 

Sorry Thayer, but I think CR said somewhere there will be a speed limit on all ships, i'm not sure how they will implement it or explain it but i'm sure we won't see true to life physics in that sense. And good luck getting the Starfarer anywhere near lightspeed for your atom smashing,  Speed of light is 1,080,000,000 kph or 671,000,000 mph

[Thayr]

To get THAT speed I'd just need enough room in real life. Actually, now that I think about it, wouldn't there be a structural speed limit? A point where, from the sheer speed, your ship begins to break apart? Hmm..........pity there's a speed limit. 

 

PS: it's Thayr, not Thayer.