Crusader A1, C1, E1 Spirit Series

[GRIZZ]

The big concept ship announced yesterday at Citizencon was the Crusader Spirit Series.  Intended to be a competitor to the Drake Cutlass lineup.

The lineup consists of the following 3 ships.

A1 = "Assault" 10 Size 5 bombs. $155 Warbond

C1 = "Cargo" 48SCU of cargo and a ramp that will likely fit whatever vehicle a cutlass black can fit. $100 Warbond

E1 = "Executive" 6 VIP seats with a glass roof for passenger transport and touring.  $135 Warbond

 

[Morgen Black]

I picked up all three low dollar CCUs just in case it turns out I can play the Warbond CCU game during IAE.  I like the look, but not sure based on the few pictures that CIG posted.

MB

[Danakar Endeel]

Picked up a $10 "Cutlass-to-C1" CCU, a $5 "Sabre-to-A1" CCU; and I might pick up a cheap CCU to the R1 just to have it as I still don't like the concept of being a "fetch me my drink slave" peon that has to serve NPCs with some 'mixmaster'.

Kinda odd for the A1 and R1 to have a defensive turret while the C1 does not. Instead the C1 has a tractor-beam but that one sits all the way in the back and is nowhere near the turret. So it's a little odd calling it a competitor when both competitors (Cutlass Black and Freelancer) have a defense turret and more/larger weapons overall... As I recall the Cutlass Black was also going to get a tractor-beam in addition to the turret. As such it's a bit odd why the Spirit suddenly has to lose its turret in favor of a tractor-beam that's in a completely different area of the ship.

Another thing that has me worried is the very low shielding on these ships. Only 1 S2 shield is just way too low imo. It should be at least 2xS2 just like the Freelancer. I've also seen several complaints regarding the low shielding on the Cutlass series and the Spirit already has less firepower as well. Crusader also seems to be pretty light on durability so unless this thing is crazy and agile fast it may turn out to be a deathtrap.

Speaking of deathtraps, I'm also worried about there being no escape pods onboard. CIG completely forgot this basic safety feature on the Mercury and left it with an empty tunnel behind the cockpit; yet the Hercules with an identical tunnel behind the cockpit has escape pods. So I'd be very interested to see if this one actually has a means for the crew to escape; either via escape pods or ejection seats. This brings up another issue though that's prevalent on all these 'VIP' transports. Except for the 890Jump none of them seem to care about their passengers' safety. Both the Phoenix and the 600i Touring have zero escape pods for their guests; and I fear that the same will hold true for the E1 variant where it only has cabins but no additional escape pods when things go south.

Here's hoping the Q&A will actually answer questions this time instead of just leaving us with more questions (as often is the case).  

Now I made an earlier comment regarding the minimal effort paint options on the Greycat STV, but at least for the Spirit it seems that CIG has finally made some actually unique (concierge) skins; each with their own special decals and the likes. Each of them apparently is also able to be used on any of the variants. I personally like that grey-black version with gold accents and special pattern on the wings a lot. It also seems to be the only one with a different color glass.  

I really hope CIG will continue offering us those types of actual paintjobs because every time they push out those minimal effort color-swaps it takes color options away from that basic paint-tool that we are supposed to get access to. Ever since they originally announced it in 2016 the only recent word we've gotten was from John Crewe stating that "the player UI wasn't ready yet" and they "had to figure out how to handle things with all the basic 'paint' that had been sold previously". 😒

[VoA]

I had a hard time with this decision.   I really wanted to pick up the pack containing all 3 ships - really like all of them.   Decided against the C1 since I have a Hull B.... and Decided against the E1 since I have a Phoenix.   I do have a Hercules A2 bomber.... but it is in a different class (being huge) vs the A1 so I decided to get an upgrade from my Mantis to a A1 - figuring I would enjoy and use the A1 more than the Mantis.

[VoA]

Looking forward to the bomber!  Nice to have both the A2 and this...

 

[VoA]

Good vid for the C1

[Danakar Endeel]

Not really interested in that Syulen myself tbh. For a startership that thing just feels way too big and feels more like an appartment than a ship. Really wondering why they needed to create such a long transit area from the seat to the cockpit instead of simply rotating the seat and then just moving it up a few feet. Not it feels as if you're moving up 15 feet; as if it's a carnival ride. Also not really a fan of that interior stone texture. Really makes it look like you're living in a cave. 

It's also kinda unfortunate that for all that size it still feels very cramped yet only carries a mere 6 SCU of cargo (which sits straight in the thruster exhaust) and apparently can only equip 6 individual 1SCU boxes; even though the magnetic clamps are positioned in a way that should have allowed for them to lock down the bigger 2SCU crates. I believe some people even tried attaching those larger boxes but they simply wouldn't lock down. I really hope CIG fixes this so that people can also choose to fly with 3 2SCU crates (so that you can store longer objects) instead of 6 1SCU crates. I also fear that people will have a lot of trouble getting in and out of hangar bays; especially the horizontal ones. The Syulen doesn't appear to have proper landing lights either (although this is a problem with most ships atm) and as such it may be pretty tricky to land this ship.

As for the rest I just think that the devs went way overboard with all those sliding panels and floaty bits. Now I'm fine with them adding some panels sliding away but to me they really went too far and the buttons controlling the panels are also all over the place. Heck, even the toilet paper consists of multiple floaty bits while the cockpit entry also has lots of pointless little greeblies floating around with no real purpose. Just makes no sense imo and has me wondering if all those loose items are just going to fall to the floor should this ship lose power when hit by an EMP.

But yeah, I've never really been a fan of these 'alien' ships and fear that the devs just have no idea how to make a proper alien ship. So instead they go for "form over function" where nothing makes sense. Then I also dislike that CIG Marketing then slaps on a ridiculous 'alien tax' where an alien light fighter (replica) costs the same as a heavy fighter. Like they can't tell me that the Blade (which is just a replica) isw more valuable as a Vanguard or Mercury.

Anyways, for those of you that did get a Syulen I sincerely hope that you will enjoy it very much. It's just not for me and I will just keep my Avenger Titan.