My Take on Fleet Carriers
27 Oct 2023Oak7603
In a nutshell, I think they're great. Here's why.Firstly, the whole process of jumping is great. The countdown, the tannoy announcements, the sounds and sights as the ship gets ready to travel and then the jump itself. It's pretty special.
Secondly, as an Explorer, having access to Vista Genomics and Universal Cartographics, no more than a jump or two away is also just great. No more worrying about bringing all that data into the bubble. It's quicker access to money and accolades. Making billions will be easy.
Thirdly, having access to other ships. Need a miner to collect your carrier fuel? No worries, it's onboard. Need a different explorer because you can't land on the mountains with your bigger ship. No worries, the DBX can be stored on board. Want to ditch the explorer and grab a fast ship to fly around a planet, through the canyons, over the mountains? No worries, the souped up Imperial Eagle can be stored on board ready to fly at 900m/s over these alien landscapes.
What about the upkeep cost you may wonder. When exploring, it's nothing. A first foot fall planet with just one average price exobio scan will cover my week's cost easy. Scan one of the Stratum's at 19M on a first foot fall planet and that's just short of 100M for that one scan back at Vista Genomics. Thats several week's up keep for me. Upkeep cost? What upkeep cost.
Now I'm the kind of pilot who doesn't mind switching things up or slowing things down so I opted to not take a carrier full of tritium, choosing to take a mining ship and doing it on the fly. Ask around any of the bars back in the bubble and all you'll hear is how it's not worth mining it, it takes too long, it's better to buy it yadda yadda. For me though, I built a simple laser mining python, and in about an hour or so of belt mining, I'd got 155t of fresh tritium, enough for 1000ly of jumps. For me, that's easy and when you see pilots selling tritium for 300% over the marker price at nearly 150k/t, it's a whole lot cheaper too.
So all in all, a few days in to owning one and I'm as happy as an explorer out in the black.
o7 Cmdrs.