With the recent change to tridents, where docked ships reduce the available cargo space, the current volume or Cargo Unit (cu) size of ships needs to be re-evaluated. I can't think of any good reason for a Ragnarok to have the same volume as a Behemoth, or a Warthog to have such a drastically different volume compared to a Centurion.

I'd like to recommend that a single cu be identified as a volumetric unit of specific size to start. Then each ship type should have it's volume calculated and it's cu redefined.

Behemoths should be at least the size of their cargo holds, plus the ships structure. In most cases it makes sense to have a uniform volume across all variants since various structural features were changed to accommodate the differences. For instance, XCs sacrifice armor and weapon/turret ports for more cargo space.

You can't go by the volume of the in-game models because they are not to scale.

I'd propose the following changes to ship volumes. Mass is included for reference only.


I'd also suggest reducing the volume of the Aeolus Light Moth to 250 cu, as I believe that one actually uses a scaled down model compared to the other moth variants.

EDIT: if you can't see the image above, the direct link is at:
http://mister-jmp.comze.com/vo/img/ShipVolume.png
Alternate Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/107461596@N07/10635219223/

I wonder how difficult it would be to resize the ships while maintaining the same dimensional ratios so that they were to scale. Though that would likely require a lot of re-tweaking of ship stats. It would be nice if all new models going forward were based on a specifically sized volumetric unit.

EDIT:
I disagree with your logic on a lot of these volumes.

Just because a ship is heavier does not mean that it should take up more space. In many cases this is caused by increased armor or other structural necessities. Warthogs are about the same size as a Vulture or Centurion.

I honestly think the cargo capacity of the Trident needs to be adjusted as well as these being revisited. The NPC ones barely hold over 300cu, and this change makes it so you can't even dock on them most of the time.

EDIT: Complaint regarding used cargo space redirected towards balancing the cu values of various ships.

300cu for a Marauder? They're really as big as a Moth?

I agree with Draugath and Arf.

Mass was not much of a factor in the numbers I arrived at. Perhaps it would have been better to not include mass info in my table at all.

The warthog has a large port and absolutely should take up more volume than any of the light fighters (think persistent mines and all that). Having a tradeoff of being able to carry 2 hogs for 3 light fighters seems reasonable to me.

I would suggest considering ship length in the cu size calculation. It represents the total volume of the ship better than the mass. Moths are huge "empty spaces" surrounded by ship hull. Small fighters are tiny concentrated volumes with armour. and most ships have 1x length 0.5 width 0.5 height dimension ratios. Definitely fighters/bombers tend to be more flat, but the area they take up when sitting in the dock is rather the same.

Ok, I know it may not be to everyone's taste.. but just for right now, I've implemented Meridian's suggestion. It was conservative and easy enough to do. And nicely laid out, thanks for that :).

I wanted to try and do something quickly, and it was there. So, let's see how those numbers work.

Although the table is not as fancy as the above. I suggest that the tweaked volumes of ships to be determined on the basis of the surface they can take compared to a behemoth. Let's suppose 2 moths regardless of variant fits into a TTM. Based on the length data found on vo-wiki.com, and estimated width data, it is possible to calculate the ship's footprint. If the total footprint of 2 moths is divided by the footprint of smaller ships we get the number of ships which can be placed into the dock area of a TTM. If this number is rounded down to the nearest integer, and the total cargo volume of a TTM is divided by the rounded integer we got to the volume of one specific ship which is occupied by it from floor to ceiling, so no goods can be placed above it "floating".

EDIT: cleaned table, because tabs didn't render well.

ship Proposed CU
EC 18
Centurion 22
Vulture 120
Valkyrie 100
Raptor 200
Warthog 22
Hornet 75
Revenant 30
Wraith 54
Atlas 37
Centaur 200
Marauder 54
Ragnarok 150
Promethe 85
Behemoth 300

Some may think this is imbalanced, but it comes merely from the geometry of the ships. I hope we can further tweak the volumes towards better realism.

Crazy ass numbers meridian. Try these:

EC 50
Centurion 75
Vulture 80
Valkyrie 100
Raptor 100
Warthog 95
Hornet 110
Revenant 110
Wraith 95
Atlas 95
Centaur 175
Marauder 175
Ragnarok 175
Prometheus 175
Behemoth 300

ship Proposed CU
EC 18
Marauder 54

I thought it kind of went without saying that no ship's "external size" in CU was going to be smaller than its internal storage capacity in CU of the most-storage-capable ship in that class. We aren't making TARDIS ships here.

The EC-104 has a cargo capacity of 26cu. Obviously I'm not going to make it, or any other identically-sized variant, only take up 18cu. Similarly, the Tunguska Marauder has 60cu of storage, it isn't going to magically "take up" 54.

It'll likely be a pretty rare ship that only manages to be 50% larger than its own cargo capacity.. the Behemoth XC being that kind of rare exception of a ship that's really tuned to nothing more than hauling as much as possible. Most other ships will not likely be that efficient, when they have ports and other things to contend with.

It's also notable that storing a vessel it's not just about its length or volume, we aren't all flying cubes. Shape and other things are factors. Take a look at an aircraft carrier hanger deck.. they do the best they can, but there's still a lot of space.

So, keeping that all in mind, I welcome continued feedback.

Incarnate, it might be worth looking in to increasing the size of the cargo hold on the NPC Tridents as well as changing their behavior of loading cargo. It's pretty much impossible to dock on a convoy Trident now since they only hold ~300cu and are always full.

can someone post what the sizes currently are?

And +100000 to ARF's suggestion... snagging NPC cappy reps is a wonderful part of the game that we shouldn't lose.

Is that a Doctor Who reference I see?

meridian -- pic doesn't work, nor does link (page doesn't load or give error).

Try the alternate link

Meridians numbers are good with the exception of the Raptor and Valkryie. Both models are bigger than warthogs they should be 150cu.

Fitting 6 Valkyries in a trident is as absurd as fitting 4 behemoths.

I also suggest dropping the Marauder down to 150cu. It's only 12m long and masses only 4-5 ton. Taurs are much bigger...

150cu is still more than double the cu of a TungMaud cargo hold, and despite its ports, the lack of thrust/armour define it as a hauler IMO.

Faille.

I actually agree with TRS. 6 valks on a trip is a bit crazy. 150cu makes more sense. While 250cu on proms also makes sense.

Incarnate: Carrying ships as cargo.. was this a bug or by design?