This article is written for people actually playing Elite:Dangerous - if you are not playing you can probably stop reading here, as it will mean nothing to you.
The first beta for fleetcarriers in Elite:Dangerous comes to an end. Time to update my thoughts on them.
At this point we can buy a fleetcarrier which comes with a commodities market pre-installed and add modules to outfit this beast of a ship with, enabling it to do other things - like offering repair facilities etc. And the carrier loses much of its value darn fast - it is expensive to buy and you only get a fraction of the money back when selling it.
I don't think we already are at the end of the line currently.
I believe shortly before the start of this beta FDev said: "we want the purchase of a fleet carrier to be a meaningful decision" (no exact quote, it's from the top of my head). This sentence left me thinking a lot.
I will now enter the field of wild speculation and nothing I will predict is by any means provable... I am just thinking here. So don't expect any of that to be correct - I will try to point to the reasons for my thinking - but I may be utterly wrong with anything or everything I come up with in this article. So, I'll pop open a bottle of beer and just think into the keyboard from here on.
Take a look at this video CMDR Rheeney has created, if you haven't done so already. It shows different looking carriers in the docks within the Beta:
Rheeney says in the title we may see "Livery Options" for carriers here. While this is entirely possible I think - and somewhat hope - this is only part of the truth. Another part that made me think a lot was how quickly FDev was in stating Universal Cartographics will be available in the future as if it wasn't something difficult to do, almost as if it were planned anyway. And with that news something clicked and my speculations started:
In the current beta the Drake Class Carrier can be purchased - that is a very specific name for the only type of carrier there is. I think what we see in above video are entirely different carrier classes, not only livery options for the Drake Class Carrier. Painting and thruster colors could be livery, but there may be more to the actual shape of the carrier.
Also remember the old Idea of different carrier roles? Maybe that idea is still current.
Imagine the additional modules we can buy now could be purchased for all carriers, but one module is standard - and can not be exchanged except by selling your carrier and buying an entirely different one. You can only have one of those "core modules" on your carrier at any time, depending on the carrier class. With the depreciation this would really be a commitment, wouldn't it?
I guess the Drake Class Carrier is actually the "Trader Role" of carriers. That's why it comes with a market place installed as default.
The one with the ball-shaped bow may be the science-carrier - the exploration role. It could come with cartographics installed instead of the commodities market. That's why they were so fast in saying it will come... it was planned anyway, just not in the carrier class released in the first beta.
The pink one: I think by others already sometimes referred to as the "Hammerhead" could be the mining role - probably offering something completely new like additional refineries or contruction sites that allow to actually build further stuff from what they have mined. Whatever this will be.
Search and Rescue carriers? Bounty Hunter carriers? Smuggler carriers? These all were roles annouced back last year - I currently have no idea what their special module might be, but it could be possible to think of something I would believe.
Maybe we do not even get all carrier types on the release in June, but just the first few models - and additional carrier classes may be added whenever they are ready for market. I think this would be an exciting development perspective for the game - and maybe a reason not to jump at the first carrier that becomes available to players.
I guess in a few months we will know if these are just dumb ideas of a slightly drunk gamer or there is something to it.
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