About the MISC Hull C “The MISC Hull C is one of the best-selling freighters in history… but the most famous Hull C isn’t a proper transport at all. Any racing fan knows the dreaded Ship X. Painted in a constantly-changing series of garish colors and capable of seemingly changing it’s Star-Craft Identification Number on the fly, Ship X seems to travel from race to race around the galaxy, displaying profane and bizarre slogans to the assembled crowds. Holo networks always cut around the ship, but its a familiar site to anyone who has ever attended a major race in person. It’s apparent that Ship X carries no cargo, as it escapes at full thrust when its presence is spotted by track officials…”
- Dr. Jave Malloy, Racing Historian
“Best game to play on a long space trip? The Hull C game. When you spot a Hull in ArcCorp markings, you get one point for yourself. When you spot one with the Stor*All livery, you take a point from another player. You’ll either become obsessed or you’ll murder everyone you’re traveling with. Either way, time passes faster on the lonely spacelanes!”
– “Popular Children’s Star Travel Games,” Arcology & Hangar Magazine
“You already know the Hull C: statistically speaking, you passed one on the way in to the dealership. The premiere customizable mid-range freighter ship in any company’s lineup. The Hull C can be the basis for a small business, the workhorse of a mega-corporation, or anything in-between. More a platform than a ship, the Hull C can be outfitted for traditional freight, armored combat transport or even as a highly-defended Discreet platform. The Hull C retains some of the speed and maneuverability of the A and B, while carrying the onboard luxuries of the Hull D and E (such as full cab sleeping quarters and medical interface.)”
- MISC Cavalcade of Transports! brochure, 2945
Backer Question and Answer Attention Citizens! We’re taking questions and answers on individual MISC Hulls that will appear in this space over the next week. Today’s questions focus on the Hull C; if you’re interested in learning more about the D or E, please post to this thread.
“Would some of the third party addons for the spindle accommodate cargo not in a container? For example, I’d like to use a Hull C to carry salvage transferred directly from a Reclaimer in space without needing to wait for the Reclaimer to land/dock every time its hold is full. “ A case like this would require a special container that can open during flight; we’re working on developing exactly this, both for ore transfers on the smaller ships and so that fighter scan be stored and constructed from parts on the larger models (E and possibly D.)
“Maybe the Reclaimer can compact salvage into the size and shape of Stor*All boxes which can then be ejected and fastened to the Hull C’s spindle?” In all likelihood, you would need some kind of ‘basket’ container for actually carrying the salvage. But know that the Hull series is intended to be fully modular in the Star Citizen world, allowing crews to work in tandem with all of the game’s other ‘working ships.’
“Will the larger Hulls, say the Hull-C for example, have an interior cargo area so that we can still haul some cargo without having the spindle extended?” When the spindle is collapsed, most of the space between the cab and drive unit is filled, although you will be able to use any free space on the ship thanks to the Grabby Hands system.
“The center spine on the C D and E. Is it large enough to have crew walk through it, and for that matter is it hollow?” Yes! We’re still working out the details, but it should be large enough to walk through on the Hull D and E, and large enough to crawl through (similar to the Jeffrey’s Tubes on Star Trek) on the Hull C. In all of these ships, it will be advantageous for an engineer to be able to reach the drive unit on occasion.
“Why should anyone NOT prefer the Banu Merchantman before the Hull C?” The primary advantage of the Hull C is the modularity. Where the Banu Merchantman will allow you to swap fixed hardpoints, the Hull C gives you an entire spindle of attach points to access. The Hull C is also intended to be more common (and less expensive!) than the Merchantman.
“How likely will running a Hull C without escort go well for the owner?” This will depend on what you’re going up against! We expend Hull C will make ‘safe sector’ transit without escort quite handily, and that they will have the speed and weapons to fend off some attacks traveling towards the frontier.
“Is the Discreet not an option now? Is that role for the Caterpillar or a MISC future design?” The Hull C Discreet is still in the cards for the finished game! It will include specialized containers to support it’s ‘Q-ship’ purpose.
“Is the discreet model a separate variant or something you can make yourself with modules?” The latter! Although per the fiction, MISC will offer the Discreet ‘purpose built’ in the finished game universe.
“What do the other 2 crew members do? Can it be operated without them?” Additional crew members will run the turret, navigation, scanners, repair team or whatever the captain assigns them through the multi-crew seat system. One thing to remember is that we build our ships as they should ‘work’ in the game, even if some of that isn’t as exciting for gameplay. In the Star Citizen universe, it makes sense for larger transports to have crews that ‘trade off’ the pilot seat during long-duration runs.