Feature Creep: The Mini Carrier

Welcome to Feature Creep where we dream up that next sweet gameplay loop to gum up the already backlogged Star Citizen development cycle.

You see, Star Citizen has a serious balancing issue on the horizon that could come back to haunt them worse than a Banshee on menopause. I know half of you will say in response. Mr. Grizzly, only one balance issue on the horizon? Hilarious, but as the other half of you will point out this is an Alpha. The point is to weed out all those game breaking imbalances now before their rot sets in. What I want to talk about though is a matter of logistics that could’ve been overlooked.

Minion Soldier made a video on this subject not too long ago that intrigued me. Here is a link to go watch it yourself, but the gist of matter came down to the lowering role of fighters in the ever expanding universe. The bigger the verse gets the more logistics complicates the balance of power between ship categories. 

Fighters are still, and always will be, the masters of combat. The rub comes in when they can’t get to said combat, or can’t follow their prey into the depths of the void. Most fighters only have a cockpit, limited quantum range, limited hydrogen fuel reserves, small to no cargo capacity, and generally no ability to solve any of the survival mechanics that will be implemented later in development. You know. It goes pew pew and pretty much nothing else, and that's still a good time.

I think the Minion Soldier video does a good job of pointing out why most Star Citizen players are switching to, or adding a multi role ship such as a Cutlass or a Freelancer to their fleet for their soloing or team play adventures. You can’t beat that versatility in a game that requires ever more logistics. And as in real life logistics will kill you.

Fighters win stand up fights, but because of the sheer size of the game they’re going to play more of a defensive roll in the universe baring a few exceptions such as the 300i or the Warden that have accommodations for long flights and multiple jumps without needing a rest stop. So I’m going to jump into some meta here that assumes the vast majority of solo and two to ten player groups will be in multi roll ships like a good old fashion Freelancer.

Under that assumption we can assume that most combat will be between starter ships, and these multi rolled ships. This means that if you can get a proper fighter into a fight you’ll have the advantage which means most of the time fighters will be used defensively. Hang on, let me explain to all you hotshot dogfighters out there.

Think about it. Being aggressive with a fighter means close proximity to your target when said malcontent might be multiple systems apart from your base of operations. In that scenario you would either need to set up shop within range, or pick one of the multi rolled longer ranged ships for the attack. Most solo players and small orgs aren’t going to have the resources to deploy fighters for anything outside of their home system.

Okay, I'm also assuming the Pioneer description as a heavy construction ship is accurate, and that like most of the other large ships, mining ships or salvage ships for example, lighter ships with the same role will hit the development cycle letting even poor boys like myself play around with said career paths. From that line of thought, it’s reasonable to assume that light construction ships, and maybe even FPS construction are on the horizon. If this happens than a fair amount of solo players, and small orgs will set up small “homestead” bases for their operations. Here we see the niche role fighters will play.

Imagine in the misty future that you and a few friends have plotted out a nice homestead with a modest gold mining claim on the edge of the frontier. Quite, violence free mining with occasional cargo runs to the closest economic center one jump away. Life is good until they came.

The madness started small. A quantum enforcement here with a scan of the cargo hold of your small colonist Freelancer Max by a few black ships who melted away without a fight, but before you know it you're losing cargo ships left and right. The usual NPC supply runs have run cold. You and your lads are fed up. So you all put your gold strike together, and buy a small fleet of fighters the next time the pirates show up you ambush them. It feels good. Then they turn tail in their long range ships, and are gone before you can say filthy Vanduul swine.

Life is better in the verse. Till the unthinkable happens. They start bringing fighters to their raids, and even start attacking the homestead itself. You don't want to think it, but you know it's true. These pirates have a Kracken. What do you do?

Here we hit the cusp our balancing issue. Large organizations will always have the advantage in numbers, but what happens when they also have the ability to throw their space superiority fighters at smaller orgs when even on the offensive? The Kraken changes the game allowing short range fighters to be on the offensive putting any small organization in a sticky situation if under pressure. Just like that the defensive fighter is at best equal with the raiders, and at worst outmatched with no way to strike offensively against the rival organization.

Now, obviously larger orgs should be able to use their massive numbers to run ships like the Kraken, but that doesn’t mean smaller orgs and solo players should be completely at their mercy. So here I think we have a pickle. How do you balance the logistics of the situation? Small orgs will never be able to afford a Kraken or even a Polaris to go after the enemy capital ship. 

I think the answer comes in a simple form that we mentioned earlier with the Pioneer. Just like smaller vessels are made in other roles in the verse such as the Vulture and the Reclaimer a similar ship needs to be created in the carrier class. Specifically, a mini carrier in the size range of a Caterpillar or even slightly larger than a Conni. Maybe even a variant of these ships designed for the role.

A mini carrier able to cart three to four fighters through the universe would allow small orgs to get some of their fighters on a moving target, or even take them on long range escort runs. In our nightmare scenario of the Kraken harasser a small organization could either purchase or rent the mini carrier then take along some of their multi role ships to even up the odds when they catch up to the enemy Org. A more enterprising crowd may even form an alliance with other small organizations in similar straits, and both rent mini carriers for the event. Not only would this keep larger orgs on their toes it makes better gameplay for everyone allowing smaller groups to get into carrier gameplay without needing to sink thousands of dollars or millions of UNC in game to do it. 

Think about it. You know carriers are sweet. The Krakenpillar is proof of how much the player base wants one. So really CIG, what are you waiting for. Give the people what they want!

For solo players it gives less of a boon though at least it’s within their grasp. I could see a solo player nabbing a mini carrier than stashing a fighter, a pioneer, and maybe a vulture on its pads allowing him to explore all the various gameplay loops he enjoys on a budget. Or even better give a variant of the ship the Privateer treatment, and let solo players and small orgs enjoy running a mobile shop or two with a couple of pads on top. Think less shopping mall like in the Merchantmen, and more mobile shop like you see at fairs or carnivals. How about even a player driven carnival in game or bazaar? Now that deserves its own Feature Creep post right there!

Think about it. You know carriers are sweet. The Krakenpillar is proof of how much the player base wants one. So really CIG, what are you waiting for. Give the people what they want!

Anyway thanks for reading. Make sure to let me know what you think in the comments or message me on Twitter @RPGrizzly1 or on Social Galactic @RPGrizzly and make sure to come back for the next episode of Feature Creep.

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