Corvo, its role and the matter of its availability has been subject to countless discussions both on forums as well as within the dev team. Since the subject is up for discussion within the dev team again, we decided to also post a public discussion thread to gather more opinions on the matter.

People have been asking for a dedicated research vessel for some time now, and many have suggested Corvo for that role since its lore already somewhat fits that description. So, revisiting that idea, here's the proposed concept for the re-purposed Corvo:

As it's size is already comparable to (even though slightly larger than) heavy gunboats, the ship can turn into a hybrid of a gunboat and a cruiser - Cruiser shield and regens count, destroyer handling, heavy gunboat hull, a limited number of gunboat turrets along with a gunboat powerplant, as well as two special equipment mounts. This would give the ship a decent survival rate as well as defensive capabilities without making it an offense vessel, and allow it to be reclassified as a civilian gunboat (and so made available for use on any ID), while also keeping its role as a survey ship, and allowing it to be used as a "roleplay platform" for the researcher/explorer types out there.

No specific stats (or whether or not we'll actually be going for this change) is decided so far, and this is merely a concept. So with that in mind, share your opinions and suggestions.

Far as the ship's combat capabilities are concerned, any gunboat or cruiser would be a more solid combat ship than the proposed Corvo, and it would mainly serve as the "RP Platform" people have been long asking for, while still not being completely useless in combat situations.

So, this won't be the "civilian cruiser" or "corporate cap ship" at all.

P.S: Gents, keep useless FloodStyle™ one-liners out of this thread. If you don't have anything productive to share, don't.