Today, a Discovery player heard about Pirate ID Bustards and thought that Bustards, being Light Carriers by description, are not available to Freelancers and Pirates. I then told this player that the Bustard is considered a Liner, like the Corvo is considered a Gunboat, and then wanted to quote the rule clarification for those two ship classes to them. Upon checking the server rules, those are no longer stated as Liner and Gunboat. I then checked the ingame infocard and didn't find any hint about that either. I know that when you go to Corfu Station in Theta, where you can buy both ships, they are classed as these respective ships in the ship purchase screen, though.

Can we please have the clarification about the Bustard being a Liner, ID-wise, back in the Server Rules?

---

What isn't clear?

"Transports: Trader ships with cargo holds larger than 650 units, including Liners and Frigates"

The above is what the classification says, and pretty much what you need to quote to any player. Pirate ID allows ships of up to 4300 size (iirc) so the Bustard wouldn't be a problem.

The problem is that when the Bustard is only shown as Liner in the purchase screen, people who never checked the ship vendor of Corfu wouldn't know that it is a Liner in first place, given that any other infocard says it is a Carrier.

---

(04-12-2023, 01:10 AM)Darius Wrote: What isn't clear?

"Transports: Trader ships with cargo holds larger than 650 units, including Liners and Frigates"

The above is what the classification says, and pretty much what you need to quote to any player. Pirate ID allows ships of up to 4300 size (iirc) so the Bustard wouldn't be a problem.

The confusion is that it is listed as a Light Carrier, meaning technically that would disqualify Freelancers and Pirates from using them. I've made this same mistake even going as far as requesting government exceptions because of the presumed ship type. It is a subject of confusion but one that I'm not willing to clarify since I never fly them. The confusion is valid, however.

---

That is not a problem at all, as evidenced by other similar cases, with the most famous being the Liberty Dreadnought. The terms carrier and liner are also interchangeable, as a carrier does not have to mean warship specifically. In fact, if the emphasis on terminology is put in such a way, then any vessel is a carrier by definition.

The naming of the class does not in the end need to reflect what the ship truly is (except in specific cases such as cruisers and battleships) as that is reflected by the server rules satisfactorily enough to remove any confusion. Simply quoting that the Bustard is a transport ship rules-wise is absolutely fine to deal with any problems that arise.

---

I thought Corvos were classified as Gunboats? They were the last time I saw a post about it.

It would be nice to clarify what these things are, considering how heavily armored and armed they are. And what they can do with docking mods/surveys, etc.

(04-12-2023, 01:24 AM)Kauket Wrote: I thought Corvos were classified as Gunboats?

the Corvo is a class 12 freighter in the game files, same as gunboats. but it uses a cruiser core and a cruiser shield.

I think the classification of ships could be simplified, such as merging gunboats and gunships into gunboats, destroyers and cruisers into cruisers. for the different hybrid ships, put a big warning into the infocard like faction-specific ships. "This ship is considered a liner for RP purposes" would suffice.

---

Only a clarification can settle this argument. Still, I think the Bustard is a carrier, as it can atleast mount capital ship turrets.

(04-12-2023, 01:48 AM)Fab Wrote:

(04-12-2023, 01:24 AM)Kauket Wrote: I thought Corvos were classified as Gunboats?

the Corvo is a class 12 freighter in the game files, same as gunboats. but it uses a cruiser core and a cruiser shield.

I think the classification of ships could be simplified, such as merging gunboats and gunships into gunboats, destroyers and cruisers into cruisers. for the different hybrid ships, put a big warning into the infocard like faction-specific ships. "This ship is considered a liner for RP purposes" would suffice.

Yeah but I was referring to the last green statements in clarification threads.

It'd be a good idea to put something on the server rules page for special cases.

---