I know we have been promised inter-planetary travel, space-ships, privately-owned planets etc; but I see these as things that will involve the richer players more. If a nice castle is "x" PED and a hangar for
CND and CP travel is "y", then the "ZZZ" of a long-range spacecraft would be huuuuuuge, I'm supposing. Big bucks pay for big toys, np to me.... but I want to be Han Solo, so......
Calypso Aerial Guard:
Small, individualised hunter-killer craft (1-2 man) which operate between 100-2000 metres altitude. This means they could be introduced without disrupting the game on the ground;
fly them too low and they auto-land.
Some could be flown while holding and using an equipped weapon, some will have weapons of their own, some will have weapons only a passenger/gunner can use while you fly, some will be flight only, some will be veritable gunships, or any combination of these.
Parts/Whole craft are looted in hunting, crafting and mining. Oil and other resources fuel them, while parts can be taken to the repair terminal.
The whole ship would be made of 6-7 parts and be worth around 1200 PED TT;
unlimited please.
New Mobs: Although Aetherex and Hiryuu and wayward TskTsks will be in the altitude range available, new mobs that exist only to flying hunters could be employed.
I suggest big, small,
flocks, and the occasional robot ship breaking atmo...
Different "CAG-class" ships could have different Armor and Weapons, range and speed etc; you might loot a tank or a hot-rod, and not know until you have all the parts.
As well as the aerial hunting, these ships could obviously be used for rapid cross-planet transport.
Space Force Calypso:
Whatever
MA's eventual plans on the nature of inter-planetary travel, here's my take on it.
"SFC-class" ships would be bigger (1-8 people), more expensive (10-15k PED TT) and require more parts (say 18-20) to be made into a whole ship. They would only be found by looting tougher mobs or robots.
They would require you to get a
Pilot's Licence. This you would do by flying a certain number of set missions or tasks in a smaller CAG craft before taking a flying test in
an SFC training ship (this would be similar to a beacon mission but successful entrants get their license at the end).
Once you have your license and your SFC-class ship (and suitable hangar) you can set about flying to the new planets. Once there you can deploy CAG ships kept on board for planet recon etc.
The SFC ships would leave the planets as the
CND and CP "shuttles" do now... except when in space you'd have the option of hyper-space/managed landing or manually-controlled flight.
This would also keep the trade between Calypso and CP/
CND untouched; the CAG and SFC ships could not be used for that trip, so the ships already in-game become official "shuttle buses" purely for that purpose.
Those with the cash or good fortune could equip the sturdier SFC ships for space combat; against robots, pirates, even (in PvP space areas) each other... passengers could man turret guns and rocket aimers as the pilot steers and the gunner fires the main weapon etc... what do you think?
I want to launch the
GloryHound on her maiden voyage
Hurrikane