A couple things that should be known, because there is quite a lot of.... not really misinformation, but a lot of evidence that more research and some foresight are necessary for a video like this. -Cargo right now is not what cargo will be. Cargo will have weight, and not all cargo will attach to any grid (such as Commodities, vehicles, salvaged items, and free floating gear, which are all "cargo" bu CIG's definitions.) -Tractor beams now are not what they will be. Eventually hand held beams will have limits, you can see in the patch notes that all tractor beams have been artificially increased in strength as the finer tuning takes place as systems come online. Eventually your hand held tractor beams, (the Mutlitool and new FPS beam) will be completely unable to lift certain types and weight of cargo. Thus your idea of loading a C2 with only "20 boxes" as you said will functionally be impossible as the C2, a Transport ship for transport of vehicles (not commodities) does not have a built in tractor beam to lift those larger boxes. Thus you would be relegated to lifting the largest size box you can with whatever hand held beam you have, which would be limited in weight. i.e. a pilot using a C2 as a commodity trader could very well be limited to trading light weight commodities like processed foods and medical supplies. -The Caterpillar is missing more than 70% of its features as a ship. Over half of the missing or incomplete features involve cargo. E.g. the Command Pod, which can detach from the ship has a tractor beam on the nose. Said beam could be used to load from side to side while the larger beam on the wing may be necessary to load the elevator pads (doors, or shelves as you called them). -The Caterpillar being unable to hold 32 SCU boxes is a known bug, and will be fixed when the ship receives a gold standard pass. (already confirmed by CIG) I believe many new players and even new content creators forget that ships have very particular purpose, and each ship of each size in similar categories have very different purposes in the long run terms of gameplay. Examples being within size 5 there are only two purely designated cargo ships, the Caterpillar and C2. They have very different purposes as a Freight and Transport ship respectively. In fact, if you look at other ship "types" you can get a better idea of the intended purpose of these ships. The Liberator is also a Transport ship. Could you full every pad on that ship with cargo and move it? Absolutely. Is that its intention? No. alas, I digress. TLDR; The Caterpillar is incomplete and its built in tractor beams and purpose built function as a Freight ship will (in the future) allow this ship to be much more efficient for loading and unloading of freight. The C2 is a transport vessel, build for moving mining crews and racing teams (as defined by CIG) and will not be able to load its interior with larger commodities once proper weight and tractor beam tech have been implemented without secondary equipment. Edit: Its Modularity, not Modulation. Love your content man! With some research and more robust understanding of developmental features as they progress, I can see this channel getting a lot more traffic.
Thank you for your insightful comment it means a lot that people can give me more info on the game and cargo subject and the ships, I see what you are saying especially with the c2 being a vehicle runner, that will be better I think I defo am still learning a lot on this subject and the game and appreciate your insight.
I do want to add to this a bit, as I discovered the other day when taking cargo from a C2 to my caterpillar on a salvage run, a 32 SCU crate does currently snap to the grid of the Caterpillar, you just have to put it in sections 1-4 and have to place it width ways in the module and can only fit I believe 3 maybe 3 per module due to the cat walk and ladder.
yeah good luck with "its going to change".. i have been waiting 10 years for my BMM hahaha, we are talking about current affairs tho.. gold pass on a cat or carrack ( years ) lol.. as for them doing stuff with tractor beams = years.. the focus is on the ships we have right now that people paid for.. ^_^ i get totally what you are saying... but this is CIG we are talking about.. it took us 12 years to get a fkn starmap :P
@@shippingerror No offence, but adults are talking right now. The childish "I want what I want and I want it now" is not necessary, and frankly isn't even cute. It is funny that you say "I have been waiting 10 years for my BMM" and in the same statement talk about the wait for actual functional necessary features like the starmap. The BMM was the most egregious waste of Backer time and money out of all endeavors by CIG. It brought nothing new to the game, it didn't add to the currently necessary assets to help promote gold passes or new features across the game. Nor does the ship add any unique improvement to gameplay. It was effectively the largest waste of development time and money in the history of Star Citizen. Ships will get gold passes when their features are complete. Features will be complete as they are completed. Everything needs to be done in an orderly fashion that makes sense and promotes similar feature development. People who don't actually follow the project and simply comment on Star Citizen related content often make comments about how long THEIR ship is taking and how much time THEY have spent waiting. Frankly, everyone is waiting, and many people have investment in the same ships as you. So your desires and debasement of the company are lost on those with vested interest in the success of the company. Plus the Carrack and Caterpillar cannot get their gold passes until the rest of the ship features are implemented, or we run into the same issues we have with the Constellations and Cutlass which have had 2 gold passes and many minor passes, and require yet ANOTHER pass. Waste. Of. Time. just like your comment.
I’m a trucker in RL and honestly you’ll rarely see a trailer fully loaded volume wise. Freight usually is limited by weight. Perhaps CIG will put weight on the cargo eventually. That would keep one from having to max out the volume on big ships like Cats and C2’s. In the future perhaps you’ll rarely fly full.
This is an intended feature. You can already see the weight of some items which was recently added. Weight/Mass will be vastly more important for certain vehicles and whehter they will be delivering items in atmosphere or solely from station to station or even Moons. A caveat to your above statement is that a C2 is also a Transport ship meant to transport vehicles and their supplies. Not a dedicated freight ship like the Caterpillar meant to haul goods and commodities. It is almost always forgotten that within each ship type (combat, cargo, racing, mining, salvage, and etc.) there are variable ships, such as the interceptor, light fighter, and bomber variations of small combat ships. Cargo ships are similar in the fact that some are intended for commodity trading, others are intended for transport of vehicles and other items. You can see this by looking up the lore on the C2, and how this ship is known for its ability to move mining crews and racing teams. In fact, no where in its definition does it say the ship is used for commodity trading or freight. Alas, people use ships for non intended purposes as long as it is allowed. We will see how CIG eventually adjusts cargo grids or even if they will eventually adjust these grids to the point that only certain types of cargo are permitted on certain grids.
So 1) the ramps on the cargo bays are supposed to go to the ground so you can load the ramps with the tractor beam. 2.) the cab is supposed to detach with the tractor beam on it to be able to load/unload with the cab flying around the bays.... they just need to finish/fix the damn caterpillar!
It definitely feels like they didn't know the direction when they designed certain ships. The C1 Spirit has a tractor canon build in and does have a ramp. (As it is rather new they probably knew the direction at the point of designing that) but the Caterpillar doesn't have either of it for their loading bays.
So.... since cargo started working this has become our go to. The multiple bays are not hard to load at all and help keep the cargo organized when you're doing multiple contracts with separate delivery locations
I'd think the location of the doors and cargo elevators is favorable for the caterpillar. No going around corners necessary, you pretty much have a straight shot once you're properly organised. With the other ships you pretty much have to either land them at a weird angle or move your cargo twice, once between the cargo elevator and the ramp, and once from the ramp to the grid..
The original idea was: 1) the tractor was for Caro retrieval in space, the suggestion being it was intended for pirates for cleaning up after a holdup. 2) the bays, like the (later) carrack, are intended to drop down, so will be roll-on-roll-off, eventually. 3) the main Hull and cockpit are separate sections, the idea being that it can be used as an escape capsule... but it was originally confirmed when some OBs, myself included, speculated about having three hulls to just one command section, with one being (un)loaded at each end of a run, while the third is mid-route. Not sure if this still stands, though.
I think another thing they can do is add infrastructure to the hangers and cargo depots to have smartly placed tractor beems. Where you can change your point of reference as needed.
They mentioned in ISC that there will be a new mission people can take to go load ships. So as a ship owner can hire help to load and unload. And people who are trying to kill time at stations can make money.
Oh boy. Giving randos access to your cargo bay and depending on them to load your ship and not just cause chaos because they can. I'm sure that will not ever go completely sideways.
@@NoobsGamingSC I'm hoping it'll be like hitting a medic (Xauec amount for the job). Maybe you'll pay 1,000 auec per SCU loaded. Or something. The richer you get the more you can hire at once. Eventually AI characters will also take that mission (Soon™).
@@fnunez if they build in penalties for damaging property or doing a bad job that could mitigate it. Devs were talking on ISC about how they want to curb bad players like that with in game/lore costs and penalties.
The Starboard side tractor beam should be setup on a rail system that traverses the length of the ship. Then when modules and command module detachment comes to pass, it will be a wonderful ship. Oh and I wish they'd fix the VTOL engines.
A lot of the current art from CIG actually shows them on a rail system. If you clip inside the tractor beam mounts you can see a circle where they should connect and nothing is there. An example would be the Zeus CL art. (media.robertsspaceindustries.com/ypbhy8y8jsgea/store_slideshow_large.jpg) So, hopefully we begin to see further iterations of this. Tractor beams were still noted as in progress, and many ships with tractor beams in their profile, still do not have them (namely the RAFT and Reliant Kore/Sen) Fingers crossed we see this rail system to make the Caterpillar and Cutlass Black more useful.
How are you supposed to unload the reclaimer im not moving 10mil in 16scu containers down that glitched out elavator i dont trust any elavator in star citizen
They need an Auto Sort feature for Cargo... They need to make it where we just drag the boxes to the bay we want, and the ship automatically loads and sorts the boxes to best location. We can manually over ride them... but it needs to be automatic... this way you can use the Caterpillar's tractor beams...This way a C2 without a tractor beam will have PRO / CON vs the Caterpillar with Tractor beam.
Small note: The tractor beam on the Caterpillar wing is being completely hampered by the placement the designers chose. Angle of attack was not, it seems, considered. The beam head should be located out toward the end of the wing where the sensor boom is. This would have given the beam the angle necessary to effectively access most of the cargo bays. I, unfortunately lack confidence that the Devs will make that change. But as a Caterpillar Pilot, I hope that there is some accommodation made in the upcoming patch that will help keep the Cat in the game, and not just die off like what happened to the Raft.
If they where smart they could just put in a drone with a tractor beam and you pilot it from that terminal. Or have current tractor beam on a hydraulic arm.
Also, there are the new cargo elevators at the Mining and research outposts, and there is the new Distribution Centres...and depending on the number and type of containers you are gonna know the pattern of loading that works best for the Caterpillar. And it will be UNIQUE to the Caterpillar to maximise load.
Such a shame. One of my favorite ships. Cargo running may be off the table for now, but I like the idea of it being a multi-crew ship. Hopefully, one day, they'll have a scissor lift style cart that can lift a pallet of cargo up to the bays. It'd be nice if they made a specific sized box for the Cat bays. All kinds of ways to make it profitable. "Soon TM".
Would be really nice if you could just load a cart and when the you drive upto the caterpillar it just rolls of straight into the cargo bay. We already do this irl with trailers with conveyers
Atm, the most solo-viable ships for 3.23 will likely be the RAFT, HULL-A, and Nomad. Also, I dont think the Freelancer series will be enjoyed as much with its current lack of tractor beam.
True. CIG is making cargo running more and more annoying every patch. My favorite part was that they labelled the last patch "so great for cargo" when in actuality it only enabled piracy and looting.
The issue is that many legacy ship have odd-size cargo grids while the only odd-size containers are 1x1 and 1x2. Thus many full legacy ships will contain many small containers. The simple solution would be to provide some odd-size containers like 1x3, 2x3, ... But even now, they could diminish the number of containers by using the 2x2 and using vertical ones. In this case 2x4 containers would be very compact for the rear for instance.
If you think the Cat has it bad- just ask any Reclaimer owner how they feel about offloading their cargo by hand. However, in multiple places, CIG have stated that some locations and ships will still be able to load/unload cargo the old fashioned Magical way- because they wont be ready for this update.
The idea with the caterpillar is that the command module is its own little snub ship that can detatch from the rest so once that works you could move it into position so the tractor beam operators have direct access to each cargo module from the side. The doors are also supposed to double as lifts, but iirc modularity was the blocker for that which they were able to figure out with the hull C spindle but haven't done the pass on the caterpillar for yet. The fact that it can't take 32 SCU containers despite it's cargo capacity seems very odd so I would expect (or atleast hope) that this will also be adjusted with the next pass on the caterpillar especially considering that this ship was conceptualised and developed during a time when physicalised cargo wasn't even planned, hence the awkward tractor placement since these were originally supposed to work like in many games where it vacuums up cargo that then just plopps into your cargohold. Maybe they could also even add bigger cargo modules designed for the larger 16 and 32 scu containers when modularity is in to fix that issue. As a lot of people have already mentioned, there will be an auto-loading feature with the cargo update in 3.23.x that costs a fee and takes some time, but that will only be available at space stations with hangars, not at planetside outposts where you are limited to manual (un)loading and also to smaller sized boxes since not every outpost will take every sized boxes.
It needs a rework, what dose it need? the cargo Holds are internal to counter this and allow the Cargo to be easily extracted would be to introduce a cargo hold lift that drops the hold down to the ground similar as the Taurus but each Hold of the Cat will lower for easy access to crago and to load small vehicles if wanting to. they can take parts from the Corsair lift to make it scale the hold, and the Cat is in desprate need of thouse promised Moudule sections this will keep the Cat useful
Sad but true; I love the concept of the Cat, but it just gets in it's own way in every role. Watching you just try to get to the bays on foot when loaded, says everything. And I think it will get worse when mass comes into play, since this ship has no VTOL; It's possible that you'd be limited to low mass cargo.
Important to note.; The Caterpillar is not only unfinished, it requires a complete redesign as the components sections did not exist when it was first introduced. The ship as it is currently does not contain space for components such as power plant and shield generators and a front dragonfly hangar bay that is inaccessible when the modules are filled with cargo.
I’m curious if you’ll be able to swap the modules on your ship with some already loaded modules at large transport hubs. Would make use of modules and not break any existing cargo rules whilst also solving caterpillar loading and unloading concerns…. Also agree with other comments on weather handheld tractor beams will have limits and if ships will have weight limits. Love the ship & love the video
I was talking to my Org mates about this issue after they showed us loading our own ships. Its a shame but I can see my Caterpillar being replaced when we have to start messing around with tractors, the Carrack is another ship thats going to suffer badly.
Perhaps it’s up to you, the buyer, to select how many of each sized SCU to purchase for one order of x y and z commodities. I would like that, as each hauler may have different preferences or methods for loading any particular ship.
100% Just need those grids re-worked and the flight model to not be as if it was fully loaded all the time to save time flying a bit faster when not fully loaded.
I'm always weary of this as I have travelled with them not on grid and they get lost in jumping also it would depend on the cargo freight elevator and what it gives you when you buy it
I think only after you've introduced physical cargo can you really test how well ships can be loaded and unloaded, and then you can rework it. Or create hangar vehicles that help with this. The only thing that is a bit difficult for the player is the time between the initial introduction and the improvement of the ships/tools later.
I, for one, am glad that non-cargo ships will have a harder time profiting from cargo runs and multi-crew cargo ships will have a harder time running solo. These balances can't come soon enough.
I am With You on that, I do love multicrew play, I think once the c2 becomes dedicated vehicle cargo runner it will ease things, I don't want the cat to be killed of by the ease of use the C2 has currently to run cargo and the cat is fiddly
Cat is already hamstrung with its overweight flight model, a C2 can easily save you 10-15 mins a run just from that alone. Cat is one of my favorite ships in the game wish they would fix the flgith model at some point then make all the lift elevators works to help easy the loading burden as well as update the gride for larger cargo snapping.
IF you like the ship ypu will unload it manually without complaining.. Cat with the way it flies in atmo - is a ship that is recomended for space C2 ifor me is not cargo transport, but a land vehicle transport. As to cargo elevator knowing ship configuration .. it already egsists .. you buy cargo at a termian and it fills the ship with spacific cargo containers in a specific place .. it is a matter of knowing your ship cargo grid and where to place a specific cargo box
I did think it should know because it already does it. that will depend on do we select a ship to fill when buying or just buy the stock in the amount we want to be delivered. a lot of unknowns, but I am looking forward to it all
It may take a little longer to load the Caterpillar than other ships... but you have the advantage of being able to load as you like and you don't have to worry about the order of what has to be unloaded first and what has to be unloaded last, which otherwise has to be taken into account with different delivery points.
You are missing the point of the pilot module is supposed to detach, which means it will be able to be a flying tractor beam which will be much more efficiant at loading/unloading. Also, the main draw of the cat is its modularity.
I super noob, but it was my understanding from recent Develover shows that ship prices will be adjusted. So Caterpillar will not be as "optimal" than C2, but to counter that C2 and other ship prices will increase a lot to offset its advantages. Also, From other YTbers covering SC, it seems agreed that C2 is basicaly Too good as it is right now, its the best at cargo, its a good fighter, and it can do most jobs better than many other specialized ships. Devs even talked about Org owned ships, as in ships so expensive multiple players would need to add funds toguether to buy one.
Something was said early on in the video about the Cat maybe needing to be a multicrew ship. I thought that was exactly the point. Connies, Cats, Hercs, MSRs and many others are not intended to be flown by a solo pilot.
Automatic loading for a fee and any larger cargo ships need a crew. Like it was designed. C2 will suffer even more as it doesnt have a ship mount tractor to get the boxes staged and ready to chuck in
All I'm seeing here is that my C1 and the Connie Taurus will have bright futures with their easy to load bays and excellently placed tractor beams. The Hull B I think has a bright future too depending how hand held tractor beams end up being finalized. Can't wait to see it in game.
problem is that I think I could min-max the method of loading and unloading the Cat to make it pretty quick, but what value is it. Its not like you gain anything by loading the cat quickly when at best you maybe get close to a novices time at loading the C2. What reward or value is there in it other than, you took a tough to load ship and you sorta kept up.
really, while the tractor beams do work, they remain a bit fiddly, and not super easy to use or be accurate with. moving anything other than full size 32SCU container will be an absolute slog, and stacking them on anything that doesn't have a WIDE open cargo bay will suck. My hope is, that in addition to the ability to physically load/unload cargo, they will also include at the least a stand-in system for simulating paying NPCs to do it. As a solo freighter myself, this is really what I have always figured on doing, when hauling anything in high volume. without it, hauling larger volumes of anything will be so time consuming as to be entirely impractical. The only cargos that will make any sense at all at that point will be the drugs and super high profit high risk low volume stuff. Obviously that's absurd, and I hope there is something in place to address it.
ay, my code. Thank you random generator, and Noob Gamer for doing the code featuring. On the cargo, I hope that you can at least select the box sizes to receive for loading, like how you can choose the container size on the reclaimer RCM processor.\ They have said there will be "auto loading" but will cost aUEC to do so, and only at certain places. Just can't recall what ones.
All good, Thank you for the support. Yes It will be needed or it will make cargo bays in the carack obsolete, there is no way to manually load them without spending a week to do it
I really hope they have automatic loading with a timer included in 3.23.0 ... If not, cargo will be dead for me entirely except for the one single cargo run per week for my refined goods. I don't mind waiting for a timer ...
Agreed. Even if there is a cost associated, as long as it's reasonable - IRL you don't see ship captains unloading cargo, that's why ports have workers.
Yeah, Caterpillar's fun ship has a fleet w/ two vultures and handles smaller cargo boxes. The vultures can continue salvaging or prospectors. Sadly, there will be better ships once you get into large boxes. Hell, with the Ironclad coming to the lineup, the Caterpillar will shine again once the modules come. I like the Caterpillar, and it was one of my first ships pledged years ago, but I would be forcing myself to use it over my M2 atm.
With the raft, I have found salvage versions of the ship will mixed commodity physicalised boxes where each of the containers are located so I think CIG have worked that issue out but I unfortunately can’t speak for the player version.
I have been playing SC over 4 years, I haven't got any desire to own a Cat, I not a single time I get one in game! they should have consolidate 2 hangers into 1 big and wide hanger and instead doors, they put Ramps. and lower the hight of it's landing gears.
I will only be using the Caterpillar with auto-load timers. No way I want to spend my time doing Tetris. I did this in EVA trying to get RMC/CM from a Reclaimer and load the Caterpillar. While fun the first time, there is no way I want to be doing this. C2 with large boxes all the way. Even with that you have a row on top I believe that needs to be the smaller boxes. There is no ramp in the C2 to get the elevation needs to properly see what you are doing. Will most likely have holes in the top row. Manual cargo loading is going to be trade off between maxed out capacity, and how much of this stuff can I fit quickly, fly and sell.
Also it seems that everyone is forgetting about the Cockpit beeing removeable, so you can just decouple the Cockpit and load the caterpillar while flying in the little Thingy. ( yea that will come later, but still)
Yes that will be great, I cant wait for that, and not just loading but would be great if we could just pick up a fully loaded set of bays by detaching an empty one and attaching a full one
Honestly, I think the new patch (and beyond) will make solo cargo hauling non-feasible for anything other than starter cargo ships. (Avenger Titan and alike)
As someone who does test cargo stuff, i can honestly say the moving of box's so far for me.. quickest best way?.. ( not cargo trading btw ) I have tested using the rec ( oh god thats annoying ) i only use the small box's due the the size of the door on the rec / elevator.. ( takes ages ) vulture > Freelancer max == quick easy 80 per mission take about 5mins each mission depending on how you wish to fill up .. ( best so far ) vulture > M2 .. pretty much the same .. easy to load farrr better to land than the rec.. not as easy to park next to as the freelancer but you can still stand inside the M2 and auto box it ( very fast imo ) so with new loading unloading.. apart from the salvage.. I really cant see me doing it unless they drastically change the prices of things im unloading / loading.. I agree with the cat being dead unless they give us a timer .. same with the carrack.. ( would be my go to for cargo because of the bed ) but useless + needs timer. hopefully we will get timers for these ships?? who knows. anyways for me.. loading unloading is pretty fun to be fair if you are chilling with a beer :P but i would like to think my time is being spent well loading unloading cargo. As I said salvage for me seems worth the time due to the 80k you get free as the mission reward.. maybe cargo missions will pay us just for accepting the mission?? we shall see. o7 STAR-FP62-PBC9 o7
You can just fit 4x16scu by module should be relatively efficient, especially if you climb on let’s say, a mule or a rendom box. Maybe even more efficient than the c2 because of all the door being opened.
The Caterpillar was meant to be the king of cargo once more for these changes. Sadly I concur, just as the Carrack is also now going to be useless next patch for cargo.
But Noobs, the C2 MIGHT have more capacity, MIGHT have ease of loading because of the front and rear ramps. BUT it lacks the character of the Caterpillar, AND requires a full crew to get the best out of it. A Caterpillar can get by on just two peeps running it
Economy rebalance should help with this. If it takes an hour to unload after at least an hour of travel and loading, then make it worth our time. Costs of items in game vs your profit per hour doing ANY of the several game loops, needs a full rebalance
I can see the cat still working really, really good as the hub of a small group doing ERTs and vulture/Reclaimer runs. Loading it in space is a breese but yeah normal cargo is going to be a bust. The modules is the only way to save this thing for a solo player and thats a big maybe on that. I think the hand loading thing is silly. IRL they load your truck with machines because of this very reason. Loads would take days. Im sure this problem will become front and center very quickl but I fear it will take a better part of a year...
I think this should finally make obvious the obvious - DRAKE ships are overpriced. They are MEANT to be cheap, great cost benefit ships that require more manual labor and group play, and as such should have more, I.E., cargo per aUEC or USD (in the pledge store).
I used to load up my cat solo with 1scu boxes of rmc from my little vulture, it was fun for the most part and a nice break between salvaging. I wouldn't mind loading solo but the profits whether solo or part of a crew just wouldn't work, imagine having to pay maybe 2 other players after doing a run in the cat? Even the profits from the hull C would only just pay 3 people, and between all the docking / undocking between selling then buying, and then loading and unloading all of that.... I feel like they're gonna be overhauling the whole economy for 3.23 because it just isn't feasible to have more than one player expecting a cut of next to nothing. So far the most profit I turned from the hull C was just over 250k, and this took an age, due to docking issues.
That's what I currently do is load the cat with the boxes from my vulture on my caterpillar, lol plus what ever cargo is aboard the salvage ship. and honestly it is pretty nice and actually oddly satisfying loading the caterpillar from the vulture
I suspect there will be a few people who love it, but for profit over time there will be many who hate it, I will enjoy the pay when I want to play for the fun of unloading a ship, it will depend on what mood I'm in and time I have
@@CPLShadow3690 it is really satisfying... Especially knowing that all the cargo is from another game mechanic and will be 100% profit. But cargo running I wouldn't want to do this everytime especially when the profit margin is so small
The only thing I keep trying to wrap my head around is why people keep wanting to use multicrew ships by themselves. There are so many other components that will reduce the ability to run larger ships solo as it is, between the new power distribution systems for ships, engineering, maintenance and repairs. You won't be able to run large ships solo, and that's exactly how CIG wants it. You shouldn't be able to anyway, it's like running a cargo ship across the Atlantic by yourself. You wouldn't do it.
Totally agree about what you said when the modules come in... will turn it more into a swiss army knife so everyone will still want one again at that point.
@@NoobsGamingSC Cheers man i'm good.. Most defo won't be a one trick pony with the utility.. and tbh you're still gonna use the thing you bloody love it.
I understand that cause I love the Cat. as well. But it wasn't meant to be a solo ship, just like the C2. The 3.23 patch and master modes will teach us to stop playing alone without an escort. Cause a solo payer flying a big ship will be an easy target.
Do you think master mods will hinder the cargo runners?, I always looked at it the other way, a solo player wont be able to touch a cargo runner, they will defo have to work in packs and that will mean cargo runners have to do the same
@@NoobsGamingSC I'm afraid so. That's why, with my team, we decided to train to escort cargo runners. The cargo ship will have to shut down the shield to jump in quantum. And an Ares inferno can easily cut any ship in pieces faster than the quantum drive spools from 3.5km away. And I don't mention the torpedoes/missiles cause in navigation mode, we couldn't launch shafts, too. I know how much people like to mess around in Stanton because it's funny. So, we should prepare for the worst-case scenario. And hope for the best. That's why loading and unloading will not be the most amusing part of cargo running.
I ran into a similar issue when testing the Syulen, it can only hold 1 SCU boxes, and nothing else. While it is nice to have the box storage, most boxes in the game right now are much larger than that. There were almost no boxes I could pick up with it , especially from bounties.
Modularity has been pushed so many times ... It was in many roadmap several yeras ago. They even said which ship would be the first with it. And they said at the time thye had found a way to connect it to the ship system. And then no news for years.@@NoobsGamingSC
I never understood why people wanted to physicalized cargo .... Star Citizen all ready has too many mundane task to do so manually moving boxes is one more mundane task. Looks like it is even more of pain for the caterpillar.
@@NoobsGamingSC yah that’s a bummer. I hope they find a way to rework some of the ships slightly, in the future, to make them more competitive with newer shiny ships. Time will tell. Awesome video looking forward to what’s next!
As a serious time and motion profit earner I agree it ain't gonna work, ESPECIALLY as you might have to take Hangar time costs, refuelling costs, contract costs (if any) and loading cargo time costs. Yer still gonna make profit, Solo Running, but you are just gonna hafta be CHOOSY about cargo, and cargo amounts
baffles me how you think unloading a whole C2 would take less time than 1 module of the CAT. given much more cargo to move, and you can't side load C2 meaning you have to cart it all the way around the front/back of the ship to the cargo elevator. had you stood inside the cat it would have gone MUCH faster
I think more because the c2 can have a few 32 size boxes around 20 or so, where as in the cat it doesn't so each bay is around 30 so 30 x 5 ish so around 150 boxes instead of 20 odd, these are rough numbers, but each bay of the cat can hold, If I remember correct, 2 x16scu boxes 2 x 8scu boxes 22 x 2scu boxes and 4 x 1scu boxes I think that's correct.
BUT... the reason you drive a cat in the first place is the extra faff. Much easier ships to get to pilots seat but that wasn't what you wanted. I love my M2 for actually doing things but it's souless, I even started running gold in the starfarer because I needed mood😊 (Don't cargo run in a starfarer it's really hard)
The cat cant take 36 boxes of 16, it will only allow 4 lots of 16 in each bay then 12 lots of 2 and 4 stacks of 1there is no way to fit cargo in any other way unless its smaller boxes. the 4 lots of 2 at the back wont fit as an 8 because of the shape and the 8 lots of 2 down the side wont go as a 16 be3cause of the shapo again, its all about how it fits in the grid not dividing the capacity by 16
That's such an odd choice. Why not have the whole ship squat down after landing, instead of adding tons of lifts. Or conversely, just have the cargo bays be low enough that each can just deploy a short ramp.
I quit flying the cat as soon as something better was introduced it is mind-numbingly slow I held onto it for the modularity but it's still not a thing so it's gone I'm not wasting space in my fleet on it anymore haha
don't beat yourself for struggling loading, the tractor beam and specially rotation is a wonky monster. And yeah, CAT is a lovely boat, but too big for a solo player. Maybe once we can buy AI crew, and pay AI to load/unload the cargo, until then, it is not really anything solo players should be going for (specially as a pledge)
I think we need to start looking at this a little different .... "Trading"... buying and selling commodities and such for a profit.... And Cargo hauling which will mainly be mobi-style missions.... Trading will be about loading by hand... Cargo should be more about the action and adventure of getting your cargo to it's destination.. Not loading boxes... I'm talking Smokie and the Bandit type stuff right...
The Caterpillar is much easier and nicer to load with cargo, salvage missions with multiple teams actually show this quite well. The C2 isn't bad but its more for vehicles with how it has the drive on drive off stuff
Catapillar: bunks for 4 crew, two turrets, engineering rooms... clearly a ship meant to be flown solo. The game is becoming what it was always intended to be. The Cat was never meant to be a solo ship. Two crew minimum to run efficiently in any way. You want to solo cargo run? Hull A, Cutlass, Spirit. Maybe Freelancer Max or Connie sized ships. But soloing a Cat or even a Herc? You're asking for pain. Loading and unloading cargo, ship maintenance and breakdowns, pirate attacks. The more the game gets completed, the more solo BIG haulers are gonna have to adapt to the original concept or suffer.
I think we have to see the caterpillar with other eyes. Its not gonna have cargo as its main function. Its a modular ship so once modules comes live it can be modified to something else. As you mention in your video. 😉 Thanks for making good videos mate 😁
I think you are right, we will have to look forward to that, hope you are doing well fella. Hope workis going well. Tha k you for the kind words It means a lot
All Large volume cargo running will be severely impacted once cig removes the magic… I’ve already resigned myself from doing any large volume cargo purchases, handling and running. Life’s too short, the game play too boring for such a time sink and adversely affected game mechanic. I’d much rather loot cargo from bounty missions.
@@NoobsGamingSC If so, I hope CIG re-balances the profit margins to cater for that. I imagine that there will be a natural requirement for autoloading ships at the large cargo transfer stations. There will still be some, "magic" required to make cargo hauling viable.
Hey @NoobsGamingSC , I never actually thought about how this would affect certain ships, I think you are right about the Caterpillar. Not only because of the size of the boxes you will have to use and the time it takes to load them but also the Caterpillar is not designed to easily access the cargo areas in the ship. If there are ramps that you could move would definatlly make it much easier. How do you think they will handle this moving forward? I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this and how you think this will affect other ships in the upcoming updates.
I think people are talking of the doors lowering down to put cargo on, and then back up, I wonder if they will stop cargo being put in front of the ladder to allow access to the area to get cargo in and out. but I think they will introduce a pay and wait system like the Hull C has now. it will be needed for the Carrack
@@NoobsGamingSC I think the issue with the doors being blocked is a great point, this makes it incredibly difficult to get to specific cargo and if you don’t pack it right will make for a nightmare trying to load an unload at multiple locations. Do you think they may rework the cargo space on this ship, and if so how do you think this will affect players moving forward?
They may rework it so you can get around the bays that may work, I think going forward the modularity of this ship will be what it ends up being used for as other ships dedicated to cargo running come in
The cat is ment to be crewed, not solo, that right side tractor is ment more for moving cargo into place to be pulled in. Part of the future plan for the ship though is the command center detaches and flies separate from the main body, and someone in the tractor station on the lower level of that module can use that tractor beam as well to then place cargo into the main body. yes solo can be done that way but more efficient with 2. Long story short, cat was never intended as a solo cargo transport.
I never purchased my Caterpillars as cargo ships. I hope to convert both my Caterpillars into specialized factory ships. One will take damaged but servicable parts from a Reclaimer, refurbish complex advanced parts befor handing them off to a Crucible. The other will construct complex construction components too tedius or impossible fr a Pioneer with feed stock supplied from mining/re refineries
I think youre making the mistake of judging an old ship and future gameplay based on current game mechanics. Much will change and fhe ship is old enough to justify a redesign. Don't worry.
I'm hopeful to see ships like the Caterpillar become a huge hassle to use solo. We've had a very lucky run where we could use pretty much any ship solo, but fortunately the end is in sight. The Hercules might be "easier" to load and unload, but when you have multiple commodities with multiple sell points, I think you'll be way better of with a Caterpillar
@@NoobsGamingSC also true! Around that time we'll see the Galaxy and Endeavor come into the game as well, still curious on how swapping the modules will work though; will it be outsourced with a timer? Or will it be a hangar feature? Or personal hangar only? And if done by yourself, is it instantaneous? Or is there a "claim" or "install" time? So many questions xD
Nothing will kill the CAT, best and most beautiful ship ever put in game. (bUt It HaNdLeS lIkE cRaP! - cuz it's coded to fly as if it's fully loaded, once the empty weight and cargo weight system is in it'll fly way different) even the Fatterpillar won't kill it due to crew size requirements :) C2 does need nerf, for sure. to be fair, cat wasn't supposed to be a cargo ship but a modular ship and the modules are taking 5ever to put in. Eventually all crew ships will require crew. larger the ship, the more crew required to use it. C2 will take 3x longer to load/unloadd than CAT hull-c even longer, hull-e good luck.
I defo love the cat it is still my fav ship, and with engineering coming in, that will kill off the solo c2 I think. it will take a team to run a large ship, I cant wait for that, and then some of the smaller cargo runner ships will become better used for solo players
