I feel like the removal of the shuttle is an interesting choice. From a community aspect, it encourages learning the game mechanics and provides a gateway to learn the map tools and contribute to the stations. But from a gameplay perspective it becomes annoying to build a shuttle every round or con an engineer into doing it for you. I feel that allowing the QM to purchase a shuttle makes still have a barrier to entry, while being more friendly to newer players on servers like WizDen Grasshopper.
2 Likes
From General to Feature Requests
I think I’d rather like to see a station shuttle crew role. A single shuttle that is run by service and under the HoP. They do ATS shuttle runs with cargo, drop off and pick up Salv, take SEC out on patrols, and otherwise ferry crew to various points.
I would love to roleplay as part of a shuttle crew.
2 Likes
I think if the pilot is going to be working with cargo and salvs primarily, they should be under the quartermaster rather than the HoP. Otherwise, cargo should still have their shuttle alongside the service shuttle, so that way it doesn’t become “cargo steals the service shuttle roundstart and throws the pilot out as a glorified tider”
Honestly I think it’s more like there needs to be a partial shell of a shuttle, with flatpacks for major components available for purchase as so far it doesn’t seem in most sci rounds they get that far (And I started playing sci just to see what it looked like myself out of curiosity). As it stands, the shuttle isn’t just late game content, it’s not content at all. If your typical round runs somewhere between 60 to 90 minutes and rarely to 120, you might have 15 minutes where the shuttle is built if the opportunity ever arose. This requires pretty high determination and coordination to do, too. Even if it were just expensive, I think the ability for a motivated cargo department to find the funds to purchase flatpacks would at least soften the blow while rebalancing is considered.
That said, I think the reworks were a necessary evil but I also fully understand why salvagers are upset by the change and are frustrated. As it stands, it’s effectively just not content in the game anymore that used to be. Adding content is great, but removing content is obviously always going to make people unhappy.
Honestly, with meteors constantly destroying shuttles, a few QM purchasable shuttles isn’t the worst way to handle it. I would like to suggest a cheap tiny shuttle as well, designed to carry a passenger and a single crate, for when cargo is out of shuttles and doesn’t have supplies to get it fixed