Ok, At the moment the Maud is hardly used. The exception being the corvus maud that shows up occasionally and Mystic's TPG Maud.

I'd love to see the Maud updated to be classed as a heavy ship, similar to the Prom or Centaur rather than being a poor man's valkyrie. At this stage the Centaur is used in preference to the Maud most of the time.

I'll post my proposed specs for the corvus maud, as that's the one I'm most familiar with and you can derive the specs for the other models from that.

Benefits behind boosting the Mauds specs are the ability to have a cargo hauler, with some fighting capability that isn't crippled when you put some cargo in it.

Armour = 11000
Speed = 70 (just for something different)
Thrust = 480N
Cargo 28cu
Turbo = 220
Turbo Drain = 60
Weight = 12000
Turn Torque = 10.5 (as it's shorter than a prom it should still turn a bit better)

This should make it a nice match for the Prom and Valk. It won't be quite a strong a fighter as either of those but at the same time it can carry 28+cu of cargo without being heavily penalised.

While I agree, the Maud should be revamped a little, I dont know if I'd class the Maud more towards heavy combat ship.
The Maud was designed as a cargo mover, so perhaps reclassing it as an "Advanced Freighter" might be more appropriate.
I agree that the Maud should be more agile than ships of it's similar or same class and size.

My recommendation would be to refit the Maud with more cargo space, making it outclass the Centaur by 10-14cu, and making it more maneuverable.
As for it's weapons systems, the Maud should reflect it's status as a freighter, it is not a warship. Setting the number of ports to 2 Large, or 2 Small & 1 Large would give the ship decent defensive and offensive firepower, but not let it be used as a "poor mans Valk"

Armour = 11000
Speed = 60
Thrust = 480N
Turbo = 180
Turbo Drain = 65
Weight = 12500
Turn Torque = 10.5

The decreased speed and turbo-speed reflect it's status as a cargo hauler, not a combat ship. This allows the ship to be out-classed in heavy fighting, but still respectable as a vessel of the fleet.

The specs I gave were for the corvus Maud Pyroman, You might want to specify that that it's a different model you're talking about.

Killing its turbo drain would be a hard hit to its use as a trading vessel. If you gave it a large port with that thrust and weight, it'd just be a "poor mans Prom", and there's only so much you can do to a small ship before it becomes unrealistic. Although maybe that's the right idea after all. With its high thrust and decent cargo hold, the Prometheus isn't a bad ship for moderate trading in dangerous areas, or piracy. Mebbeh blow the Maud's size up to around 17m, and make its armour, thrust, weight, spin torque all about half again as much.

Martin made me come and agree with him

/arm hurts.

I guess what I'm getting at is, I can't think of any reason why I would chose a Maud over a Centaur. The only possible exception would be if I got stuck at a Corvus station, in which case I'd probably chose a Hog Mk2.

I really want the Maud to be considered on the same plane as the Valks and Proms but at this stage it's a pretty pointless ship.

Well, it's faster than the 'Taur, and has a better turbo max. It's got speed, and enough firepower to bring down a 'moth, and then cargo space to haul the goods away with. That it's very slow when laden with cargo is unimportant to a pirate, as it only needs to be fast to catch up with its prey, not to be an efficient trader. Truly it's the perfect Corvus national ship. (Wait...)

more armor! more armor!

My suggestion shouldn't change it's current capability as a good corvus ship. Other than the slight improvement when full of cargo the corvus maud should remain almost the same. It should, however, make the rest of the Mauds a bit more useful and adaptable.

Seriously, has anyone seen anyone flying a Valent Maud in the last 6 months? How about a stock UIT maud or the Axia Maud. I can't remember seeing them flown in years. Even the TPG maud has a client base measured in single digits.

Lets buff the Maud and make it the ship that centaur pilots wish they could fly.

Of course the thing about that is it would make 'Taus obsolete. I still fly an IBG even after I got access to the Valk. Actually, I was sorely disappointed by the Valk. Go figure.

Edit: True, it's a solid suggestion. The only other complaint I have left is how you fit all that stuff into a 12m ship. I don't really see why it needs to be small anyways except for fighting, and it's not really a fighting ship.

Not necessarily. The taurs have a lot more firepower.

Yeah, Centaurs have two L ports and a S port; with the exception of the Tunguska mineral mining variant, the Marauder has three S ports. Since L port weapons generally have superior firepower to their smaller cousins, this translates to greater firepower capabilities in favor of the Centaur.

Centaurs and Marauders, for the most part, have about the same amount of cargo, barring a few choice variants. The problem is that the Marauder handles like a lemon when fully loaded. This is less of an issue for the Centaur because its bigger and, therefore, has more powerful engines. The Marauder, however, simply can not accelerate or maneuver; this makes it a poor choice for cargo runs compared to the alternative, especially considering its thinner armor.

Now, if the Marauder was to be buffed in the attribute of thrust, then it would be better suited to its role as a cargo hauler, but would still have certain disadvantages compared to the Centaur, and would still be a "poor man's" Valkyrie, because it's not nearly as fast. And, of course, its lack of an L port, barring the non-combat Tunguska refit, would prevent it from being a poor man's Prometheus.

Thoughts?

Mauds would fill an unoccupied niche if they infiboosted @ 220 m/s and had higher than normal turbo thrust (like the tung maud has now.)

There are a lot of Tung Mauds out there. Sure it's not a pirate ship but does EVERY ship in this game have to be one?

I think it would still rock if Marauder ships were able to fit a turret in the place of the crates they tow behind them, obliterating all cargo space (except for the obligatory 2 cu, just like any light fighter vessel), and giving them a player-controlled set of single or perhaps even dual S ports.

I have no idea how and if this would work out, but I think it would be interesting to see, and give the Maud the ability to fill another niche.

Flares on the back of your ship would be exceedingly nasty to trailing pirates. I love it.

The corvus maud is too good to change. It is one of the few ships that comes close to matching a valk.

The Tung Maud is popular with it's intended audience.

The biggest thing holding the maud back, is it's very high trade level and standing requirements, compared to competitive ships (taur mkII).

Lower the trade level requirements, so you can get one before you can get a moth, and you will see more of them. Especially if it fits a niche for traders that have high trade levels, but not enough heavy weapons levels for a taur.

I think I saw a tunguska maud once.

Roda, the changes I'm suggesting wouldn't change it's fighting capability (not much anyway). It may improve its handling as a triflare rig a little bit.

The main benefit would be the ability to haul cargo and the option to have genuinely interesting variants.

Martin said I had to come agree with him and in part I do, everyone knows I fly the TPG almost exclusively, and yes I would love to see the maud improved upon, but dont change the look....just tweak some of the stats, like handling and speed. The weight is decent, the armor is a lil on the light side but you cant do much to one without affecting the other on those two.

As a fighter I have no problems with the maud, every ship has its good points and its bad. I have taken on most every ship in the game and it has won some and lost some, of course I have been called crazy for as long as I have been flying the setup I do... :P

I ran CtC with it, and getting away from a bunch of itani chasing me all the way from bractus to serco space is quite a test for any ship...hehe.

The main reason I choose it over the taur is simple, the taur is bulky and heavy, the maud dances much more lightly. So Im all for tweaking some bits, but lets not turn it into a mini moth or anything, it has more uses than that, a lot more.

The theory is to beef it all up so that unloaded it flies about the same as before, but when loaded with cargo it flies better.

Also, by beefing it up there's the option to improve the other mauds that no one ever uses. I'd really love to see 8 mauds of various sorts and 1 centa in grey space, rather than 8 centaurs to 1 maud.