4Game

So, with the Thargoid war about to reach a new climax, and humanity being left with our pants down. I think it's about high time we see some new things.

I think we all know flyable capital ships is a pipedream, and currently our biggest ships are more like very large fighters. Lore-wise we're supposed to have frigates and destroyers in between cap ships and our current ships. Currently capital ships are useless for AX.

So why not introduce Huge ships to go along with our Huge hardpoints? They could be actual warships rather than glorified heavy fighters.

The Feds could get a Frigate that is all about firepower and hull. The Imps could get a ship that is all about shields and straight line speed. The Allies could get the fabled Panther Clipper that is a mix of a warship and truly bull trader.

How would they be balanced? Outfitted? What would their playstyle be?

Well, they should be slow but strong turret boats. They could have a lot of hardpoints but extremely bad handling, so if you want an all-fixed monster of an alpha strike you can still do so. Or you can be a turret boat that cleans house.

The solution to stations is not easy though. Either 1. Redesign stations to have a larger mailslot and resue the space inside. 2. Add external docking somehow. Or 3. Use the current orbital drydocks cap ships use.

This would also open the door for NPC crew to actually use those spaces that have sat unused for years now. You could launch 2 fighters at once and have an NPC buff your turrets..

Frankly, I just want to see something new in this game that is actually usable and flyable. Capital ships is asking too much, but I don't think something bigger is, especially seeing as we haven't seen anything new in more than a couple years.