Oolite Bulletins

This has been an idea I've been toying with for a while. Inspired by more cargos, there seems to be a demand for a ship that is fast, and has a large cargo space. My idea is to have a ship that is fast (between 350-400 LS), has a large hold of between 100-200 TC, a thick hull to resist pirate weapons, a couple of missile slots, but that's all it has. This ship would have almost no maneuverability, maybe even just an aft laser, to strike while fleeing. It's designed to get 100TC of special cargo across the galaxy before anyone else does. I've been gone for a while so I'm not sure if something like this exists. I would think it would be priced about 250,000-300,000 credits? I would like a ship to be created that is fast, but a pure freighter at heart.

Does something like this exist? I'd make it myself, but I'm not good with art or coding.

What are your thoughts about this? Too game breaking or overpowered?

NINJA EDIT: I just realized the title doesn't go together with the description well. It can at least resist pirate lasers.... for a little while. What I'm trying to say is that it is not a multipurpose ship.

The closest (of the core shipset) to youir description is the Boa! It fits the bill nicely except in top speed which at 0.24LM is a bit slower than you suggest. Other than that it sounds perfect
You could always 'adapt' the boa to your tastes - apply the same principle that I used with the 'Clippers' and remove some cargo space and use it for an extra engine for a higher top speed - say down to 100TC but up the speed to 0.3LM, and price it at around 500 000 Cr.
That would still be fairly balanced in game terms, and could be done with a couple of simple changes to the shipdata and shipyard.plists so you don't need to be a coding genius to do this.

If you wanted to make a dedicated carrier, you could consider making something which depended purely on escorts for defence, where the escort fighters are directed by the player - some judicious borrowing from the [wiki]Resistance Commander[/wiki] OXP might make for an interestingly different sort of game.

Thanks for the replies, Disembodied and Smivs! I have taken into account of what you said, and going over it more I think I have a larger idea of the ship I was describing.

Smivs - I like what you said about editing a currently existing ship. I loved your oxp back in the day by the way. I was even thinking about something in line with an anaconda size and maneuverability, but with a much lower carrying complicity. However, it seems your clipped Boa 2 is what I'm looking for here. Fast and with a good carrying size.

Disembodied - I've always had a lot of respect for you back in the day, and I love your idea about a carrier that relies on escorts for defense. ...I'm going to write that idea down for my future adventures..... However this idea was just for a ship that can get 125 TC across the galaxy as fast as possible, and it can't have escorts slowing down its route from the witchpoint buoy to the sun! I need these 100 TC of Laveian tree grubs to Malama NOW!

However, I'm still going to post some notes on this ship I wrote down brainstorming, in case I do get the idea to make one later...
Size (Physical) - anaconda. (Big engine)
Maneuverability - anaconda
Carrying compactly- 100-150
Laser ports - none
Missle slots - 8-10
speed- 400LS or above

Thanks for the feedback and don't panic!

FSOneblin wrote:

However, I'm still going to post some notes on this ship I wrote down brainstorming, in case I do get the idea to make one later...
Size (Physical) - anaconda. (Big engine)
Maneuverability - anaconda
Carrying compactly- 100-150
Laser ports - none
Missle slots - 8-10
speed- 400LS or above

Nice!

This sounds a bit like the concept I've been idly speculating about for an "Anaconda SP"-class bulk transport (SP = "Special Performance"), which is basically an Anaconda that trades off cargo space for speed along the lines you've described. My inspiration for this was the Boeing 747SP which was a shortened version of the standard 747 that traded capacity for speed and longer range, and was used by airlines such as QANTAS (for long-haul non-stop trans-Pacific routes) and South African Airways (as during the apartheid years SAA was blocked from stopping in Africa on flights to Europe). The main difference is that I only doubled the top speed of the Anaconda to near Python-like speeds (0.280LM) while chopping the cargo capacity from 750TC to around 400TC. My thinking was that the Anaconda-SP would still retain the existing laser ports, missile tubes, energy banks and atrocious manoeuvrability.

The prospect of an Anaconda variant doing 0.400LM through the space-lanes reminds me of the mention made of the Lazlar Lyricon coach-built limo ship in Douglas Adam's "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe":

"I was passed by one of these mothers once, out by the Axel Nebula," said Ford, "I was going flat out and this thing just strolled past me, star drive hardly ticking over. Just incredible."

Zaphod whistled appreciatively.

"Ten seconds later", said Ford, "it smashed straight into the third moon of Jaglan Beta."

"Yeah, right?"

"Amazing looking ship though. Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow."

(Going the other way, I also found myself speculating about a "Super-Anaconda" which went the other way and expanded the Annie's already humongous cargo bay to something like 975TC - but at the cost of dropping the speed down under 0.100LM. On reflection though, it would probably be more feasible to stick engines onto a ConStore than to build a big transport barely faster than a Generation Ship... )