I think everyone has noticed that the moth is the only ship with one variant... thus...

Combat Moth
Armor 45000
Cargo 45
Weapons 3 Large Ports
Mass 27500
Thrust 550 N
Max Speed 70 m/s
Spin Torque 22.0 Nm
Turbo Energy 55/s

EDIT: yeah, I just inserted some numbers into here... upped it's performance just a bitsy... Just for the general idea

Anyone got any other variant ideas?

*expects to have idea shot down by at least 3 people*

-Zoras

i dont have my own variant but like the idea and yeah after like 2 days this will have at least 200 people screaming and yelling over this . this may lead to neuclear warfare

Wow. Room for three tubes of swarms, or two swarms and an agt. Or other fun variants. And with twice the armor of the SCP!

/me takes an adv rail and blows a hole through icbm1978's post. There, that should be enough to space it.

You want a moth variant? Nerf the armor, turbo thrust, and top speed, and up the cargo by around 200cu. Also, give it a damn s-port already :D

never give the moth an s=port. You'll have to find a different mining ship. muawahhah.

Not long after the Behemoth was introduced I posted a similar suggestion (although I didn't suggest a combat variant): http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/9451

I'm with sarahanne, the Behemoth is already by far the best mining ship, thanks to having twice the cargo capacity of anything else. The lack of an S port for a scanner is a minor drawback, and if it DID have an S port, then nothing else would ever be used for mining.

Yeah... a Moth should never have an S-port.

And no... No super samo carrier for you.

I whole heartedly disagree with you all that the moth should NEVER have a small port. I think that Tunguska should contract out a varient from TPG that comes with perhaps 100cu capacity and 1 small port in addition to what it currently has. Drop the armor too if that makes this more appealing. Clearly the trade varient would be better for trading but there needs to be a purely mining oriented moth. Make it only available to those with mining license 8+ and at have +960 with Tunguska.

But then Tunguska wouldn't sell anymore centaurs to traders, their original niche market.

The new behemoth would just infringe on an existing market that they own.

not so, since it has a high license and faction requirement, and the centaur agresso is a much better combat centaur then a miner, though it fills that roll well too. And NO ONE uses the mining Maud so another mining ship is a good idea, and one that actually looks like it should be mining. Centaur Agresso only holds 50, the Moth would hold 100, it's a natural progression of size.

And if that's not good enough, how bout we give Orion a new ship to sell.
On Orion…
"They now construct a number of popular spacecraft and weapon designs, as well as larger scale freighter and transport projects for several nations and factions." from DevWiki
To me this varient would be a freighter, a mining freighter.

NO, another mining ship to replace the MMaud is NOT a good idea. It is a MUCH better idea to improve the MMaud so that it IS used. The MMaud is supposed to be the ultimate mining ship; clearly, it is not. But the solution to that is not to go "oh well, let's just make a different ship the ultimate mining ship". The solution is to change the MMaud so that it is the ultimate mining ship, like it's supposed to be.

How should the MMaud be changed? I'd say, add an additional equipment port type, specifically for mining beams, and give the MMaud three of those ports.

Beolach, which to you honestly looks like it should be mining, the moth or the maud. IMO the moth looks much more like a mining ship then the maud. The maud doesn't even look like a transport ship, the only feature that makes it so are the TINY boxes that it carries behind it.

IMO, if you were to strictly change the MMaud then, give it 2 mining beans and one scanner, not the other way around. High end mining ships should be able to mine more faster, and a single beam does not do that.

Additionally, why is it so bad to have a mining varient of the Moth, we already have a varient of the warthog, centaur and maud, and every other type of ship has at least 3 different varrients, like assault, transport, armored, etc. So what's the big deal. Do you not like miniers or something?

Honestly, I'd much perfer it if the devs would just create a ship the size of a trident that was specifically designed for mining, and came with 4-6 mining ports, plus a scanner, but that's soooo far into the future that it does not matter.

Beolach; Or perhaps we should acknowledge that the Marauder isn't the best choice for a mining variant (the warthog either, imho).

What is essential for a strict mining vessel?

*Weapon ports
*Large cargo hold

Assuming the mining vessel has escorts to defend, it would trade armor and maneuverability for these. Such a ship would excel at mining, but not much else. The ragnarok already has 5 weapon ports... in my mind it's the ideal candidate for a mining variant.

Tunguska Mineral Ragnarok
Armor: 12k
Cargo hold: 50
Mass: 15000 Kg
Thrust: 300 kN
Torque: 7.5 Nm
Weapon Ports: 3L, 1S (trading in 2s ports for 1l port like the min maud)
Max Speed: 65 m/s
Max Turbo Speed: 170 m/s
Turbo Energy: 50/s

In combat this ship would be a sitting duck, in trading it would be beat by the 'Taur and the Moth, but with 3 mining beams, a scanner, and a decent sized hold it would be the king of mining.

I like variety. Ever since the Behemoth has been introduced, there has been no variety in ships for mining and trading. I do ALL of my mining in a Behemoth, and I do ALL of my trading in a Behemoth. Nothing else is anywhere near as good at either. There's a wide variety of combat ships, with different strengths and weaknesses, but for trading and mining, EVERYTHING is vastly inferior to the Behemoth. After the recent tweakage to the Behemoth, that has changed somewhat, in that there are now some ships that can be better for dangerous trade situations, as they are not as vulnerable, but I still see the Behemoth as vastly superior to all other ships for mining and trading. That means there's no variety, which makes it a lot less interesting for me.

[edit]
I'd like to see a nice variety of mining and trade ships. I'd like the Mineral Marauder to have three mining beams (or two and a scanner, note that I said it should have three mining ports, and I would like both mining beams and scanners to fit into the mining ports), because then the MMaud would have the best extraction rate, and the Behemoth would have the best cargo. This would encourage grouping: one or two MMauds to extract the ore, and a Behemoth to carry it. As it is now, when we group for mining, everyone uses a Behemoth, because nothing has a better extraction rate, and nothing has anywhere near as good cargo space. So there's no reason for anyone to use anything else. If the group is looking for a new spot to mine, then ONE person needs a scanner, but everyone else will be in Behemoths. I'd like to see that change.
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I agree that the Behemoth needs to be nerfed further... the first step was just a small tweak to a vastly overpowered (in terms of trade... gaining faction...) ship.

It's great that the Moth can carry 120 cu.. the game needs its bulk freighters... but that ability should come with tradeoffs: like being a big fat target if left unescorted.

The Moth needs to be an extremely high risk for when you're going it alone.

The Centaur has an extraction rate that's just as good... but the cargo capacity of the Moth is what makes it a better choice.

The Moth needs some nerfage, and maybe some more variants.

And yes... the Tung Maud needs a major Improvement.

if the moth needs to be nerfed it's armor needs to be reduced.

however as for avriants:

a maud that has a cargo capacity of 45, a top turbo speed of 200m/s and it's weapon ports are replaced with a single beam cannon.

a moth that has twice it's current cargo capacity, but a top speed of 160 m/s and no weapon ports.

and why not a moth that is a higher lisence requirnment that has 125 cu of cargo space, and slighly reduced thrust.

The ship icbm describes in the original post I'd use for TRADING. Let the extra port go unused and have a better-handling Moth? Hell yeah!

As for that "ship with large cargo capacity that should be a sitting duck so any noob with a gun can kill if unprotected", I think (and hope) that's the Trident. Leave the Moth alone.

^^ I thought the wraith was missing a Variant too.

I really like the idea of the mining Ragnarok mentioned earlier. Hell I'd almost take up mining if I could use one of those.

And the Wraith has the Axia miniprom variant.