It seems that capships are pretty inaccessible to occasional players and maybe rightly so. There's no inbetween from a slow and defenceless moth to a goliath which is pretty much invincible to lone pirates.

It would be quite nice to have some modest manufacturing missions to perhaps create some kind of customisable hybrid maybe based on two moths bolted together (a chimera) with optional: shields, very heavy armour, additional cargo capacity, additional engines, cap swarms and/or docking bay. Allow the builder to choose where to put their efforts but have limits so you can't have everything. Customisable paint jobs and components in different places might make for some creativity in an otherwise uniform universe :)

Also make this accessible i.e. following a moderate set of missions and not requiring exotic leviathan drop components or to take over conquerable stations to build. Preferably not requiring thousands of hours of SSS farming.

Maybe something along the lines of buy 2 moths, pay for labour, and manufacture each of the options above with each component maybe taking 3-10x the effort of an IHDPC. So it's a reasonable effort but one that's achievable by a lone player.

I'm not sure of the parameters, but probably a lone pirate with energy weps wouldn't be able to take down the shields but stacking swarms would do it meaning that the pirate has to come tooled up for the job or two together could do it. So easier than a queen but too much for a single corvult or hound.

What do you think ?

This suggestion sounds similar to those calling for Gunships/Corvette class multi-crewed vessels. I'm on a phone right now, so I can't easily grab forum links but they are readily searchable. Ultimately, I think a large part of the player base wants to see something like this happen.

Also make this accessible i.e. following a moderate set of missions and not requiring exotic leviathan drop components or to take over conquerable stations to build. Preferably not requiring thousands of hours of SSS farming.

I feel the same way. There should definitely require some manufacturing, but scaled appropriately. Say something is half the size of the Goliath, It should require perhaps half the parts (or less?). Something along the lines of one engine, three RBH and one EBA with several smaller requirements afterward. That's still a significant expenditure in time, resources and hauling, but not impossible for a lone pilot. It could go by even faster with cooperation.

I don't think something along that size should have shields. The Goliath description states that it is the smallest vessel with a shield generator. Besides, with a cheap insurance mission, or even after completing a series of missions that would unlock the ship replacement wouldn't be much of a hassle anyway.

You are asking for a capship without a computer or reactor. AND you want heavy armor without SSS. That is going to be a tall order. There is going to be some kind of compromise game play wise.

Probably zero docks and zero shield. Probably not enough grid to power any capital turrets.

To have lots of armor, it's going to be heavy to make up for the lack ffsa and FCP. This is going to be a ship using ancient Serco manufacturing techniques.

The Goliath is the "accessible lightweight capship." Also, Moths are not defenseless. They have two L-ports and three turrets, and the only non-capship with more armor than a Behemoth is the Sky Prom. They can be pretty powerful ships when used correctly, but you have to stop thinking like a sitting duck and start thinking like a Mighty Duck.

I like this idea... Was thinking of something small and quick like a "blocade runner" (it's a thing, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_runner )

Maybe even still capped at 200 cargo, and not very nimble but fast in a straight line even without turbo. Make it take 2 power cells(?) One for the jump drive (blockade runners should always be able to jump) and one for a single turret and movement.

Don't require access to conq stations, as there are enough general ship parts that any unaligned capship station (like M7) should easily be able to cobble a sacrificial XC into one.

Would also give people a taste of manu without the politics of conq stations.

I like the idea of it being cobbled together out of other ships, maybe require some supplies, normal trade good items and weapons, say 25 XC loads in total, along with a couple ships to use as parts.

Some kind of gunship would be cool, designed from the beginning to be a single man craft. Perhaps about 4 times the size of a centaur? Maybe http://www.vo-wiki.com/wiki/File:HarrySeldon_Hermes2.jpg might work?

Armor 100,000
Turrets 2 (one top, one bottom)
Standard power cells
Weapons 2 forward firing Cap Gauss (25 energy/shot?). 2 large ports, 1 small port
Speed 50 m/s
Turbo 150 m/s
Turbo drain 45 m/s
Docking ports NONE
Mass 60,000
Thrust 750
Turbo thrust 2,000
Cargo hold 200

+1
Yayyy cappies! :D

I like it. +1

I would like to see the top end turbo speed be higher than 150 m/s more like 180 m/s but just take a good while at full turbo to get up there (I would really like 230. 180 is more reasonable)

I also like the idea of combining 2 ships, so say if you have them chop a taur and a moth and combine them together the end result would be a more "gunship" like ship with a a few ports and rear turret.

2 vanilla moths you get more cargo space than the gun ship but with a couple ports or smaller non capital turrets.

2 xcs you get a heavy ship that is more focused on cargo space, lots of armor, and top end speed

Manu but less than 100 xc loads and no exotic drops (maybe a queen defense matrix instead of data agg?)
They should require several decent licenses.
They should have no docking ports, and all should be able to dock at all stations
I like the sound of queen type shields but the thought of one of those gunships equipped with shields after my dent makes me reluctant

A little faster might be better, however the cargo hold should suffer from trying to cram such massive engines into a rather smallish space frame. The idea here is to create a "gunship", not another cargo hauler, which we already have.

A medium freighter should be a separate suggestion entirely. It's not a bad idea. It would give me something to try and shoot down with my shiny new gunship. Hell, I'd want one even if just for to recover liberated cargo with.

I'd really like to see some customisation so if you want speed put an extra engine on it, if you want cargo leave space, if you want defence an extra power cell to power the shield so less cargo and extra weight so slower, more gun turrets then no spare power for shields etc. Then each pilot can decide on what their priorities are e.g. superhauler like an XC++, a racing moth, a well armoured transporter or a big slow gunship i.e. megarag.

It would be really nice to run into these things and not be sure of their capabilities when you engage them.

+1

Definitely sounds like a good idea.

Please stop bumping old threads.

hmm this gives me an idea but it requires another thread which ill put together shortly

B ut surely
U sefull ideas about
M anufacturing should
P revail

+1