The Barge

[Ash]

Where can you purchase it in SP?

It can't be Bastille cos you undock and spontaniousley explode.

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[worldstrider]

I'm hoping to get one more--haha--when I have a billion hours to trade enough for one. Seriously, it WILL drive you crazy if you aren't really into it.

First, if you actually fill it with valuables, you will cry like a baby if someone torches it--which is pretty easy for a single fighter to do.

Plan to cruise away? Hehe--cruise speed is 260...40 less than everyone else. Oh...and go get a cup of coffee. It will be three minutes before it kicks in...unless a bored player or npc cds you. CDs? Yes, the size of the barge offers no protection. Your engine flames out about as easily as a vanilla freighter's does.

Did I mention that little things like scrap debris and tiny rocks can get you stuck? And I don't just mean "stuck", I mean stuck. The "/stuck" command doesn't work for the barge and getting stuck can require an emergency self destruct to escape.

Then there is the lovely docking. The "sweet spots" are pretty randomly variable for various stations but even if you figure them out the slightest touch of an npc or player will screw the dock up--this applies to gate lanes and jump holes and system gates as well. Nothing like spending 30 minutes getting to a gate then having some starflier bump you going, "Gee--that's really big!"...stand by for another 30 minutes. I am thinking of asking for a battleship mortar but with a range of only 250m--just long enough to kill gawkers who touch my hull.

Of course the handsome array of transport turrets will hold everyone at bay. 'Course they don't aim right--the 2km length of the barge means they sometimes read your aim point wrong and shoot opposite of where you point. Another neat thing is if you decide to mine in it, the aft turret shots arrive just in time to destroy the ore your forward turrets just popped out--and vice versa.

Perhaps you should get green with lots of npcs so they will protect you. They really like to fly erratic and close--like those starfleas I mentioned back there--nothing like having "friendly" fighters throw you in spinning circles while a little fighters nibble you. Its like being eaten by ducks while being water boarded. No worries--the bad guys aren't left out--they will fly into you too. Know how annoying flies are at a picnic when they keep trying to swarm your food as it goes towards your mouth? It's about that annoying. I won't even mention bored players who do it intentionally for fun.

Of course there is the 20km wide turn radius at cruise--that helps you avoid things--like not crashing into planets and suns, colliding with debris fields and not being able to line up on gates and lanes--which are pretty much close to impossible to dock.

But its a real steal at 500 million. Go by a fleet of them and you will be insane by the morning! I looks cool cruising by in a straight line but getting it there is a nightmare.

All that said, I love mine (but the spinning makes me insane).

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[Linkus]

Give it a nicer shield. Solution to single fighter eating it.
Also increase the mass..massively.

And then give me one >.>

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.

[Cosmos]

no.

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[22:50:33] ☆ҳ̸̲Ҳ̸ҳEternal†Nightmareҳ̸̲Ҳ̸ҳ☆(illi): i cyber with leather torps (smoking)

[worldstrider]

Its actually appropriately balanced--spinning aside. The trade off is you can trade more effectively in a standard transport with no more time or cost and certainly less frustration.

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[Ogris]

Tinkerbell, your post is made of a 150% win, you just made we want to fly a barge!

In either case yeah, i tried flying this in single player; Let me put it to you this way, you can turn a battleship round 5 times by the time this thing does a 360 turn... Oh, let's not go into the cruise engines.

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[Elsdragon]

JSF-greyhound ?

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No longer a slave to the man!

[worldstrider]

Tinkerbell, your post is made of a 150% win, you just made we want to fly a barge!

In either case yeah, i tried flying this in single player; Let me put it to you this way, you can turn a battleship round 5 times by the time this thing does a 360 turn... Oh, let's not go into the cruise engines.

Here's the flip side...flying it is like "solitaire in space". It keeps you fully occupied and really requires you to focus on what you are doing (no autopilot while you go eat dinner). So it has a reward of its own. I'd liken it to being a "Goodyear Blimp" pilot. Not a combat or high performance craft in any measure but a class of its own. Other comparisons would be to a supertanker or carrier captain. Its rewarding to make it somewhere and you have a chance to chat a lot as people will contact you (that's a problem in a tricky nav situation though). Have some nav presets keyed...particularly, "Stay clear of us while docking", "Use the next trade ring please" and "we will fire if you continue to collide with our hull--back off."

It is very frustrating when hostile players are on you and the issues happen. That and the spinning are the most maddening and you really learn where NOT to go so you don't get stuck. I think it would be great if they would create a commodity item that takes up the entire hull but sells for a fortune. Heh. Maybe "Class XVIII" armor would be nice;)

JSF-greyhound ?

As for the name--my char got corrupted some when they beamed me in and out. I have a thought as to why and will talk to admins shortly about it. When I can get that resolved, I'll rename it "Mistral Wind" (actually has two French related meanings and I am a Heart fan so perfect for me).

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