Transports

[RParade]

no decent gunboat pilot will lose to a luxury liner, you just need to know how to fight larger ships.

Against a big target like a liner or cruiser, dont fly like you usually do (which would be flying like a bomber/fighter) - just sit at a distance, say 1k range or slightly more, and strafe to avoid enemy fire. The liner is too big and too slow to avoid your fire, but you can out-strafe and out-range his fairly easily.

Pirating in cruisers is a big no-no.

I've got to agree, really.

I've seen some crazy things, like a Container Transport beating a Gunboat, but really.. That's very, very rare, and in my personal experiences, well.. I've killed Container Transports with an LH Gunship before (and he fought back really hard), but still I killed him without having to use any botts or batteries, since half the time he wasn't hitting anything except my engine trails. I probably could've beaten him with a VHF if I had enough room (IE: far away from a docking place), and as far as I know a Container Transport is about as strong as Transports get..

The idea here is to expand Transports into something other than a mindless trader's ship. Pirates don't use transports because it means going and getting cash the "right" way - trading and working for it. In an actual setting, you'd see Lane Hackers, Rogues, and Xenos flying modified Transports to attack convoys to raid their goods. In an actual setting "demanding" credits wouldn't be the norm, but instead destroying you and floating off with your goods would be.

It wouldn't be terribly unbalancing, I don't think. I'm not saying Liners should have torpedoes and stuff, I'm saying that other ships who often go into hostile sectors probably should. With piracy having been rampant for many generations in Sirius, you'd think the Traders would finally develop fangs of their own.


.. And you never know, if a Transport/Freighter were able to bomb things like a Bomber to some extent (and there's no reason why they wouldn't be able too), maybe those transports might get bold and attack your Cruisers openly. I'm not saying Transports should be given anti-capital abilities, but they definitely should get something.