I've always argued pretty strongly that pirates needed their own ship, and that like nation-specific combat vessels it should be singularly good at what it did and require difficult choices to obtain. We're halfway there with the current incarnation of the Hound. All that's left now is to leave the masses stuck with the capable Hog Mk2 while walling off the Hound for dedicated pirates. After that's done, additional tweaks/buffs might be possible, much as the Valk and Prom are constantly being argued over and occasionally balanced.

UIT, who represent the traders at the opposite end of the spectrum, are suffering from the opposite problem: there's some factional exclusivity attached to their ships, but they're not especially good at what they do. The Hog TD is a decent combat ship, but these are traders...they should have a top of the line trade ship.

Instead, they have the Maud. Which flat out sucks at the trade role, even if it makes a better hauler/mauler than some Taurs (not all, see Tung Taur). The logical candidate is the XC...but that's a TPG ship available to all, much like the Hound is currently a Corvus ship available to all. Not good.

We can't simply wall off the XC for purchase by high level UIT, however, for one big reason and one small reason. Big reason: you cannot do the main endgame content of building a Trident without an XC. Small reason: the XC is well-balanced for being a high risk/high reward end-game trade ship for normal players, but it's too weak for being a faction/class specific high end ship.

So, the UIT need a new ship and it should be a slightly tweaked version of the XC...here's my suggestion for it.

XCX Moth (standard XC stats)

Armor: 12500 (10000)
Cargo: 200 (200)
Weapons: 1T, 1L (---)
Mass: 32500kg (30000kg)
Thrust: 550N (500N)
Turbo Thrust: 950N (900N)
Max Speed: 60m/s (65m/s).....I'm still trying to figure out why any moth has 65 m/s standard speed
Turbo Speed: 165m/s (160m/s)
Turbo Energy 50/s (50/s)
Spin Torque: 19.0Nm (19.0Nm)

Faction requirements UIT +950, level requirements same as XC, cost 250,000

ll that's left now is to leave the masses stuck with the capable Hog Mk2

This is blatantly misleading. The Warthog MkII has underpowered engines and has terrible acceleration even with light weapons loadouts. The TPG Atlas Type X even with its higher mass and lower top speed is better at intercepting.

But back on topic:

-1 The XC's horrible engine, lack of weapons, and pathetic armor are all part and parcel of the tradeoff for 200cu. This tradeoff is worth it or people's profit-goggles would not shield them from seeing how awful of a ship it really is.

Again, your post is blatantly misleading. The comparison stats you provided are incorrect.

Thrust: 550N (500N) <-- The XC has 350N
Turbo Thrust: 950N (900N) <-- The XC has 600N
Spin Torque: 19.0Nm (19.0Nm) <-- The XC has 14Nm

Then again, I can see why you'd try this: It worked before.

...While it will enhance the ship's ability to chase down a target, it won't alter its lousy combat thrust, spin torque, or armor, so any balance issue is eliminated.

The Corvus Greyhound had, and still has excellent combat thrust, outclassing all Warthogs except the WTD, even with it's lower strafe speed.

Sorry Lecter but there will never be an exclusive pirate ship in VO. Anything that gets created will be used by whoever you intended to hurt with it. ... Just the messenger....

The XC does need some serious buffing to its thrust specs - Noone thinks its a fun ship to fly but it gets the job done.
Any weapons slots have to go. The XC is meant to be defenseless and some here do remember when the moth was a pirate favorite. What your proposing is a monster in disguise.

Sneaky but -1

-1

"...but it's too weak for being a faction/class specific high end ship. "

According to what? The XC's strength is in its cargo size.

I see no point in making a new moth unless there is an increase in cargo size. All the other stats are inconsequential when it comes down to it -- since any moth is an completely ineffective weapons platform (offensively or defensively), and will always be slow and lumbering when laden with cargo. If someone is chasing a moth, the only reason it gets away is because it had a big enough head start. The turrets and weapons ports are mild and mostly ineffective countermeasures in player to player encounters -- and this is mostly due to the fact that we have no good defensive weaponry in this game for traders.

Also, I think if the devs agreed with Lecters sentiment they would have introduced such a ship instead of the UDV.

Stats are off because the Wiki's off. Feel free to suggest corrected stats.

+1. I like it. Only bump up the cargo to 220cu.

Actually, the wiki is correct. You probably just looked at the wrong row by mistake and got the Heavy Miner's numbers instead of the XC's numbers.

Seems likely - I think I was looking at the lower two rows.

None of this matters too much to me since my last 2yr block of VO expires 4/26/14 and I won't bother renewing with D3-RoS and ESO going live more or less simultaneously. Maybe in a year or two VO will have improved enough to finally have a Goddamn pirate faction.

Naw probably not

I'm undecided on this one. More thrust would be nice, but if we're adding storage capacity, it needs to be 250 cu minimum. 220 does nothing of value for the pilot, where 250 cube allows the pilot to carry 2 fcp or 5 fcp at a time.

I'm just not sure we really need another moth varient when we already have so many in the game now.