Also, for the sake of transparency here's the specifics of the upcoming change:
Barge is being removed and the ship entry is being recycled for a Civilian "mothership" (so to say). The new ship will have the following specs:
"Bustard" Civilian Light Carrier
"Designed and manufactured to serve in dark corners of space where the closest friendly base is but a memory; the Bustard is a mobile retreat point intended for snubcraft operating away from friendly installations. The Bustard was designed with the intention of avoiding the sheer cost and quantity of resources manufacturing and maintaining a military carrier requires, and so, sacrificing combat capabilities of a warship, its design leans toward availability and ease of maintenance, and so becomes a practical choice of carrier for smaller groups lacking the means of maintaining an actual warship."
Class: Liner
Cargo: 1,800
Hull: 700,000
No thruster
5x Docking Bays
8x Light Cruiser Turrets
Capable of using all grades of Jumpdrives
* Size and agility comparable to Renzu Liner
* Initial 4.85 Geb model has been recycled for this ship, but it's merely a placeholder and will be replaced with a proper model when ready.
Furthermore, as previously mentioned in the balance subforum, Corvo is also receiving a rework to go with this new Barge change:
"Corvo" Civilian Deep Space Explorer
"With each passing generation the wilds seem to become slightly tamer, the dark spaces between stars lose their song and fall mute beneath the thrum of passing commerce and freeports that hung undisturbed for years crawled with passengers roaming between suddenly near ports of call. With discovered resources that fueled their way of life suddenly contested between parties that could not be challenged and individuals who sought the solitude away from the drum of daily life finding themselves hosts to throngs moves were made to redouble the effort of expanding.
The Corvo was crafted to meet the needs of a relatively economic deep space faring vessel, designed to voyage under conventional drives to remote stars to see what might be seen. With an emphasis on interior comfort and reliability, these vessels are designed to sustain themselves for decades. Originally built by Zoners for Zoners, due to the rapidly increasing demand for this vessel by outsider parties, the blueprints for this ship finally found its way to open-market and has since been utilized by many enthusiasts of deep space exploration and research, in every corner of the colonies.
Class: Gunboat
Cargo: 1,200
Hull: 200,000
No cruise disruptor
5x Gunboat turrets
Cruiser shield mount
Capable of using all grades of Survey Modules
* Model, size and agility unchanged
Both ships will be placed under "Sirius Civilian" cell on tech chart and so will be openly accessible on any Sirian ID, including the generic ones, with sellpoints on Freeport 6 in Tau-29 and Corfu Base in Omicron Theta (don't worry Zoners, the existing sellpoints on those bases have been moved to a nearby base so all your sellpoints are intact).
