[RELEASE] Upd:ZZBBS - New ships and updates 27-06-2014

[Lestradae]

Just one question, are these two (?) shipsets (I found the first download post a tad confusing) compatible with other shipsets, or are these exclusively replacement shipsets?

I saw in the folders that they have the original shipkeys, no idea how this plays with like_shipped stuff of other ship packs then ...

Thanks in advance.

[dertien]

Yes, they will completely replace the stock shipset (at least the ones in the pack ). So if you have special ships installed, like the salamander or the vector for example they will not be overwritten, and will show ingame.

They are both the same, but one is with screenshots so you can see what's in the pack without firing up the game and the other one is without.

Hope this helps

[Diogenese Senna]

Any chance of making these Additional rather than Replacement?

[dertien]

Yes they will be at some point, but I want to finish the pack before concentrating on that. Then again, there is nothing holding you back if you want it earlier and modify the shipdata and shipyard property list yourself, if you do not wish to wait.

[dertien]

Haven't been online for a while, but that doesn't mean the shipyard is not producing ships;

New ships for the pack are:

- Moray Starboat
- Krait
- Transporter
- Viper Pursuit
- Viper Interceptor

Screenshots as usual see first post.

[Redspear]

That's an impressive body of work dertien

Liking the retexture option

[dertien]

Thank you Redspear; the circle is almost complete

The next few player pilotable ships and items will be in no particular order

- Worm
- Constrictor
- Puma Clipper
- Panther Clipper
- Griffin
- Cobra Mk 2

A non playable, at least not directly:

- Escape Capsule

and two maybes:

- Ophidian
- Wolf

after that

Thargoids, containers, asteroids...

And finally the stations.

Coming soon.

[dertien]

A little teaser WIP of the BBS Coriolis, that will not take (too) long to get released I am sure.

[Sendraks]

Quick question.

The Imp Explorer has a speed of 0.5LM and only 50Tonnes of cargo space. In FFE the Explorer was a big, slow, fairly unstoppable, trade vessel. I'm just curious as to why it has been reimagined as a super fast light hauler.

It's a lovely model though.

[dertien]

Quick question.

The Imp Explorer has a speed of 0.5LM and only 50Tonnes of cargo space. In FFE the Explorer was a big, slow, fairly unstoppable, trade vessel. I'm just curious as to why it has been reimagined as a super fast light hauler.

It's a lovely model though.

Thank you

Hm, well that is a good question that deserves a good answer. First, you must look into the fact that with all the extra ships, it gets quite hard to give them all a specific unique role, especially when it comes to the ships that cost lots of credits.

There are a number of reasons why I chose to give it 50 Tons instead of 500 or more. The first reason that came to mind is that the explorer is all BUT a trading vessel, and I did not wish to categorize it as such, that is the role of the Imperial Trader. It is an exploration vessel, and it is thus a capital sin (IMHO) to use it as a trader. You will also see that I did not create any NPC trader version of the Explorer either. I especially gave it enough cargo space to be comfortable, but not enough to make it a trader's favorite.

Also FFE had a few more options than Oolite, to name them; bigger and different guns, the ability to refuel in flight (yes I know possible by oxp now, I think Thargoid made an pylon mounted fuel tank), different drives all coupled to cargo space which is needed for gameplay reasons in FFE, and all things that we do not need to be bothered with in Oolite.

So my question would be, who needs the extra cargo space ? I did not want to make it an Ueber-ship


The speed is a debatable issue. I chose 500 to keep it in the military ship spec ratings: Let me sum up the ships I deem to be of military nature in the BBS shippack together with their speed:

- Constrictor: 600
- Asp Mk II: 400
- Imperial Courier: 450
- Imperial Explorer: 500

The reason it has such a high speed is a gameplay implication. Who would want a slow explorer ship, that cannot run away if it runs into a hostile uncharted system. On a second note would you spend a whole lot of cash on a sitting duck ? I wanted it speedier than the courier, which I consider to be the smaller brother of the Explorer, and which is cheaper. Again, you could inverse both and make the courier the faster one, which I still might do in and update, to be honest (which I always am) I haven't done much of gameplay yet to see how the jigsaw puzzle fits; but I certainly would not want to give it the speed of an Annie.

Hope this answers your questions.



What good is an Explorer vessel that cannot run

[dertien]

New WIP screenshots of the Constrictor:



Hope you like the beast

[Sendraks]

That's lovely!

[Diogenese Senna]

Diogenese Senna waits with foot tapping impatience for these most excellent vessels to arrive as additionals rather than replacements (because he doesn't know how to do it himself)

[dertien]

Constrictor added to the pack; screenshots as usual first post.

Happy hunting !

[dertien]

WIP of the Panther Clipper, that I gave a little facelift.

coming very soon to a shipyard near you, but now it's bedtime.