Base of Operations for People

[Spec]

So, since i have been flying a lot in 3.3 and now 3.4 i seem to be going all over the system. Sometimes i find it that my ships are at different ports and i dont want to file a claim and then pay to have it "brought" back to the port iam currently in. My question is this, when playing the game when it goes "live" are we going to have a home port we are going to play out of? (carriers? what size can we store in them?) Are we gonna get lazy and leave ships everywhere and just recall them? Would we purposely leave certain ships at certain stations just because of what ships they are? IE hammerhead with the main fleet and guild base?

What are our plans as a whole for this?

 

My plan i think would be keep my solo ship and a few others based out of one location and base the bigger ships with the guild? But i honestly hate having my ships everywhere even now with what little ports we can fly outta lolool or if the bigger carriers allow for port storage just home base outta the carrier?

[Drum]

No one size fits all answer to that question. It will be an easier study for those with mini-fleets, since this will allow for off channel activities when not directly involved with an ongoing fleet action.. For those limited to one or two ships, decisions will have to be made.

With the latest build it is easy to see that the Prospector is a local only ship. Since it cannot get across Stanton without several cooling off periods, it is reasonable to think one would leave it at a station near the belt or moon you are mining on. Any mineral transport may also require a cargo ship in that area to get the goodies somewhere that has a better price than the immediate area being mined to death.

Even if the Prospector gear is buffed up and allows for more distance, the mind set is already established that this ship will stay near the loot.

The same would be true for fighters/bombers/assault vehicles. Near the action, where ever that ends up being.

Cargo ships will be putting on miles and won't necessarily be stored in one spot long, other than small profitable local runs with an Aurora or Kore type vessel for those days you lack time but still want to advance the efforts a little, I imagine if you get too far off the beaten track you will be dry running the large cargo types back to the main highways (assuming that is where the large money is of course)

As far as Fleet Actions, again, whatever is being used for that will likely be stored near the action or on any station or moon or area we call home. There are deeper discussions of Fleet Activities in the Fleet section of the forum.

Taxes//fees to keep ships in remote areas may change this entire scenario.
There is too much we do not know yet to be making any concrete plans at this time. - DRUM out

[Brightmist]

Did you overclock your coolers before jumping around on a Prospector? That generally solves the overheating issues. I don't expect heat to be a big issue but fuel and quantum speed really. Small quantum drives are just too slow compared to medium sized ones and they run out of fuel pretty fast.

Short range fighters(everything but a Vanguard basically) also has hydrogen fuel issues on top of QD speed because they don't have fuel scoops which makes them pretty much unusable even for daily play unless you're operating locally. And even if you're operating locally, refueling is a drag. They just aren't money makers and they're likely have to be operated from a base or a carrier. This mainly goes for people who plan to pledge for fighters. It's just that you can buy a Hornet pretty fast in the game if you own a Freelancer MAX pretty much.

Similiar thing goes for all small ships with small quantum drives. Even they have hydrogen fuel scoops, they don't have the quantum speed to move about in the system so they're likely not gonna be the biggest money makers. Even smth like Prospector that is designed around making money will just be inferior to any mining ship with a medium sized quantum drive.

Short range fighters will likely be useful for populating carriers like Idris, Kraken, Polaris etc. and in Arena Commander but other than that, I don't expect them to see much play in the verse. These fighters also lack in component health(possibly armor in the future) and shields currently so they're not really that effective in atmo either compared to smth like Vanguard because they can't really leverage their agility in atmo but that might change with the new flight model. Their in-game UEC prices are also dirt cheap so I don't really find these as good pledges anymore even for someone like me that enjoys combat immensely, especially considering fighter tax on these. Avenger Titan's good tho, that thing has hardpoints to rumble and can move small amounts of cargo and help you make deliveries fast. Reworked 300 series might also end up being good, more so especially if they have fuel scoop.

We're also now starting to see interdiction mechanics come into play on PU these days with heat and power changes and increase in quantum calibration/spool times. It's that if you're in a small ship that's taking fire and therefore have shields regenerating, your quantum drive can't even engage so small fighters are likely to have that role where they intercept someone trying to escape and put guns on it so they can't just engage their quantum drive and run away. I haven't tested this with medium sized ships but I'd expect there to be a similiar mechanic for those too. I expect this mechanic to stay in the game in the future since CIG likes players killing/interacting with other players. I also think this is a really good way to make these small fighters be useful in catching up and locking down targets by putting gunfire on their shields. I urge everyone to not expect to just disengage and jump away into quantum in the future leveraging their quantum drive size since that'll make fast, short-range fighters pretty much obsolete in the verse.