Feature Creep: Fancy Hotwheels Ahead!

The Hype for Invictus Launch week in Star Citizen is real, but mixed into the news is just a small reveal I couldn’t ignore. Another land vehicle being developed by Origin. Let the speculation begin. Where will this new spinney wheeled fancy boy fit into the current lineup?

I have a soft spot for classic wheels and guns to play around with in the Star Citizen universe. So it’s tantalizing for me to have more toys to employ in this universe sized sandbox. These new lads, the Origin G12, are attempting to strike a middle ground between the big boy rovers such as the Ursa, and the Tumbler style buggies. I assume as time goes on that we will get more variations in each category as well as the really big boys that I’ll call the tank class, but for now let's stick to what we have confirmed.

We don’t know how accurate the stats are online, but they suggest that the G12 will be the widest of the space hotwheels available to us. Not as long or as tall, but wide. I don’t know if this will remain true. If it does that puts our new buggie in the hotseat to find uses for its sweet curved yet massive hips.

In my mind if you can’t transport your buggy around it's useless in the current game, and then later on would only be useful as a defensive tool or a taxi on your land claim. Sure, larger orgs will always have the big boy ships to cart most of anything around, but I’m more of a small town down to earth org kind of guy so I’m always wondering what the poorer two to ten group teams are going to get away with.

The use in land sharks in combat is going to be a numbers game except for the big boy toys like the Ballista and the Nova Tank. Have you ever played Age of Empires? I know that’s out of left field, but indulge me for half a second here. 

One of the most powerful units in the game is called a Paladin which is a cavalry unit. As you might expect there are a few counters that it trounces one on one. Even two on one in some cases. You might say it’s overpowered, but the beastie cavalry chad is so expensive that you can field several counter units per each horsie boy. To make it simple, they lose more pikemen, but lose less resources eventually wearing down the non-wary knight player. Hotwheels in Star Citizen work the same way.

Sure, most fighters could trounce any of the buggies by itself, but one light fighter can cost the same as ten land ships if not more. Considering a tumbler AA party wagon costs just under 30,000 credits, and packs an emp that turns even the baddest combat air monster into Icarus’ gimp cousin in atmo. Now that’s a threat even a combat ace wouldn’t want to face.

Now you might say that hotwheels are stuck on planets, which is true. I counter with most resources and money making opportunities are on planets as well. The only other money making opportunities right now are on space stations and asteroid fields. Who knows if we can ever be ridiculous and invade space stations with wheelie boys since the stations are large enough in sections for such shenanigans, but for now let's say that land ships will stay out of these theaters. If you're reading CIG, you know you want to let buggies drive on the outside and inside of space stations. It will be fun.

Anyway, back on topic. With many to most resources being found on planets that means more and more conflicts will be fought in atmo or around planets for that sweet sweet loot. Now, this is a speculation, but I’m also going off of the current mission types we see in game. Many delivery missions and cargo economic nodes, places you buy, are on planets and moons, and as we all know resources are going to drive the missions in the future. You do need to think of the supply chain and the space between planets and the like, but this doesn’t change the fact that this will drive up the hotwheels value.

Let’s imagine that you have a cute yet rich mining claim on a rocky planet out on the fringes of space that has a pest problem in the form of pirates that regularly swarm in to shoot up your soft skinned miner ships. This is a problem for your org of twelve members since all of you have concentrated on mining with one mole and several prospectors. Everyone, except for one enterprising fellow who does most of the cargo hauling with a Freelancer Max.

What to do? You can’t afford any of the local merc squadrons for help, and you can’t make your money safe enough to buy some fighters of your own. But what you do have money for are some buggies. A lot of buggies. Here we can get excited for the variety you can choose from, and the strategies therein.

The biggest weakness of the Cyclone AA is the lack of missiles. She has two shots and then she’s done. Size twos combined with an emp is no joke, but after those two shots you’re a sitting duck. In comes the G12a with her eight size two missiles. Using your buddy’s pretty Freelancer Max you sneak in several G12a’s and a few Cyclone AAs over time so that the next time you pull your MOLE you have a little surprise for the thinly armored Buccaneers and Cuttyies that have been harassing you. Combined with that Freelancer Max for some close air support they don’t what hits them.

Here we finally come back to my fervent hope about the G12 stats. If they make her too wide, like the stats say, she won’t fit into most medium ships. I’m confident that they’ve thought of this, and won’t make the fancy pants origin buggy shorter and not as long as the Ursa only to make the G12 so wide that it can’t fit in half the ships even the big boy Ursa can fit in. 

For example, the Ursa can just squeeze in the cargo doors of a Freelancer Max, but it’s too tall to drive under the turret mount. The G12’s description and shorter height seemed to be almost custom made for this ship, and others with similar tight height restrictions. That said, if the little fancy hot wheels Origin roller is wider than even the Ursa it’s going to have trouble stuffing into anything smaller than a Carrack. And as our example shows, if you can’t get your rolling sockem fly swatters to where the action is there will be no fancy space fly swatting.

So gents, here is hoping that either the G12 shrinks a bit or the stats are wrong to begin with. Otherwise all of us poor boys will be back down to just lugging Cyclones to our ambushes, or I mean totally legal endeavors against scoundrels. See you in verse chumps! And enjoy Invictus Week.

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