Bustard

"Bustard" Civilian Light Carrier
Ship Class	Liner
Built by	Generic Civilian
Technical information
Guns/Turrets	0 / 8
Opt. weapon class	7
Max. weapon class	7
Other equipment	1xCM
Hull strength	1,200,000
Max. shield class	9
Cargo space	1,800 units
Nanobots/Batteries	800/800
Max. impulse speed	80 m/s
Max. thrust speed	Thruster not available
Max. cruise speed	290 m/s
Power output	7,000,000 u
Power recharge	220,000 u/s
Additional information
Ship price	$500,000,000
Package price	$502,000,000

Designed and manufactured to serve in dark corners of space where the closest friendly base is but a memory; the Bustard is a mobile retreat point intended for snubcraft operating away from friendly installations.

The Bustard was designed with the intention of avoiding the sheer cost and quantity of resources manufacturing and maintaining a military carrier requires, and so, sacrificing combat capabilities of a warship, its design leans toward availability and ease of maintenance, and so becomes a practical choice of carrier for smaller groups lacking the means of maintaining an actual warship.

Handling

• This ship is too large to use docking bays, it must use mooring points.

Review (4.88)

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The Bustard has gotten a certain amount of hate due to its replacing the Barge. However, I took it for a spin, and was not completely disappointed by what I found. To begin with, at any given time, you will have at least 5 out of your 8 turrets on something, and six out of eight if going up top or down below.

The lack of a Thruster means that you are dead in the water against Novas, the transport shield only means that you will spend more time with your shields down than anything if you get into a serious scrap, and the generally deplorable maneuvering means that this is a support ship more than anything else.

I've found that having Basic/Faction turrets for turrets 1-6 and 2 pulses on your last two mounts is a fairly good loadout. Use the pulse cannons (4k range) on enemy caps as often as you can while they focus on what they perceive as actual threats.

General strategy: Strafe like a boss to dodge incoming fire. Rely on a fighter screen and other caps to not die. You are a CARRIER. Your job is to sit a little back and keep enemy fighters off your buddies as they come in for repairs. The actual military carriers are more along the lines of Battlestars. They don't NEED their fighter screen, but it helps. Here, you actually need a fighter screen to not be attrition'd into pieces in about three minutes. The relatively small amounts of armaments helps in that regard.

EDIT for the new model

You know how the Bustard was generally pretty bad? Well, guess what, it's... actually pretty decent now. Don't expect to kill anything bigger than a Gunboat on it, but it can now successfully troll no less than two Bombers and a Gunboat at once and force them to retreat (No CD is a pain, but eh.)

The new Bustard is a tank. Pure and simple. You can doj incoming torpedoes sometimes, if the Bomber has no idea what he's doing, but generally, you will take the hit, but you don't care, because a Cap 8 gives you 4.8 million hull. That's 30 Torpedoes or 37 SNACS that need to connect on your hull, with at least three to take down your shields, and another torp every few seconds to remove your regenerating Cruiser Shield. The absence of bots doesn't hurt as much as you think, because it's less loot for the bastards when they finally get you.

But if you're using a Bustard to fight at all, first off, I salute you, you insane soul, but then I must point out that you're using it wrong. Look at the Equipment Type 1 slots. For 1600 cargo space, that's a Jump Drive Mk IV and a Hyperspace Scanner Mk IV. Be the ultimate survey ship! ('course, you can just forget mounting an Armor Upgrade bigger than a HAU IV, but if that problem has come up, you're already boned beyond belief.

Actually, the Bustard is now a valuable teaching tool. Make it have a 10% powercore somehow (AI turrets are a good way to do it). You will have roughly 120 seconds of continuous fire and then 319 seconds of regen. When you fight in it, you appreciate your energy regen, so when you "graduate" to a more serious cap, you remember to do it right. You remember what it's like to burn yourself out of energy from firing enthusiastically. And you stop and think. "Will my shots serve a purpose beyond draining my powercore if I fire now?" If you don't get overconfident like I've seen cap pilots with big fancy guns do, that act of choosing to not fire that barrage could save your life. And that is why the Bustard is a good ship. It's not the best ship to fight in, but it's a great ship to learn in. Go forth, grasshopper, and show Sirius what you're made of.

-Agg~Exo'Dai

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Review by Paladin

Hardpoints

• 8 Cruiser Turret
• 1 Transport Shield

Availability

Spoiler: Buying Locations
Base Owner System Location Corfu Base Zoners Omicron Theta Edge Worlds Freeport 6 Zoners Tau-29 Border Worlds