Drake Buccaneer - Concept Art

“The ‘verse keeps getting bigger, but some things never change. Whatever you got, no matter how much or how little, there’s always someone waiting to take it from you. You either let it happen or you fight. Don’t know about you, but I’m damn well gonna fight.”
- Dosh Mallory, famed frontiersman, 2656

Greetings Citizens,

Another Concept Sale, another Question & Answer session. Since Friday, we’ve been collecting questions from the dedicated Q&A post here and today our designers working on the ship will answer 11 questions for the community. Tune back in this Friday to see the answers to 10 more questions.

Drake Interplanetary builds starships for the way you live, and we are pleased to add the Buccaneer to our expanding lineup of craft offered to legitimate businesses in human space. Intended to complement the Cutlass/Caterpillar system, the Buccaneer was developed based on careful examination of actual after-action reports and extensive pilot feedback. What did all of our research tell us? You want a ship that can maneuver and pack a punch without breaking the bank.

Special thanks to Matt Sherman for taking the time to answer these questions for us.

The original blueprint that was released has been updated to the image above due to having some inaccurate information in the chart. Blame Lando for not updating the temp version to the final version. <3

Question & Answer

How is the Buccaneer expected to perform in combat, compared to other ships?

Built to hit above its weight-class, the Buccaneer brings a notably more potent gun-loadout to lighter ships like the Avenger and the Gladius. Beyond this the Buccaneer would be about the same if not slightly weaker in durability compared to the F7C Hornet. Against something like the F7C-M, the Buccaneer would definitely be less durable, though able to bring a comparable gun-loadout. Matched up against a Sabre, while it would have comparable guns, the Sabre would definitely have the stronger Missile loadout, hull durability, and be emitting notably less signature than a Buccaneer. Compared to something like a 325a, it would be able to deliver a heavier hit, but lacks any of the interior accommodations the 300-series provides.

Is there a bed on board the ship? If not, will we be able to add one eventually using the modular components mechanics?

No, the Buccaneer is not designed for live-in operations and will not have any sort of dedicated bed/sleeping area.

Does the Buccaneer have Quantum Drive? Jump Drive?

It has a Quantum Drive stock, though we’re still undetermined if it will also include the Jump Drive attachment as stock equipment. If it doesn’t, you will absolutely be able to buy/install one to make the Buccaneer fully Jump-Capable.

Are the S1 pylon mounts meant to take guided missiles or dumbfire rockets?

The S1 mounts will be capable of firing full guidance missiles. While the exact count in the launchers may vary from the concept (currently shows 12 total) into the working ship, they will be a part of the Buccaneer’s combat-toolkit.

Does zero actually mean zero in regards to cargo? Or can we still smuggle some small capacity of cargo? Trinkets? Small treasures?

Zero is zero, there is no latent cargo capacity to the Buccaneer. We are actively planning out how we want Smuggling mechanics to work, but those wouldn’t be ship-specific aspects, and any form of storage they would offer will come at a direct trade-off.

Will having this ship (or any Drake ship for that matter) inherit any negative faction points by default due to the manufacturer reputation?

No, overall, Drake is still seen as a reputable manufacturer, regardless of what purposes their clients decided to put their ships into. They won’t be subjected to a back-end systemic bias or penalty just for owning one.

Will there be any bonus/advantage to using this ship in conjunction with other Drake ships? (i.e. easier docking/refueling/etc.)

No, there wouldn’t be any raw statistical advantages to flying the Buccaneer with other Drake ships. While we want the Drake line to work and feel like a family of ships, you should still feel like you can get the most out of your ship without being forced to fly with a specific composition.

Can we replace the bottom turret with any other equipment, possibly for cargo, electronic warfare, or interdiction?

We’re definitely looking into a few other equipment options for the S4 hardpoint, including an Interdiction-specific weapon, but at this time, those are still more at the napkin-idea stage so we’ll need a bit more time to fully develop them out before we can say for certain what options will be available.

Could you explain more about how a turret will function on a single seat fighter? Will you be able to turn it backwards while you fly forward?

Yes, we anticipate this being accomplished through use of the look-behind camera view. If you want to see just how this would play out, the current Hornets and Mustangs can also turn their canard turrets behind them to fire in Look-Behind.

There appears to be a space behind the pilots seat that looks like room for an additional seat or potential space for small cargo. Will there be any function to this space?

There will be a few components the Pilots would be able to access from this space with the most notable being a full size weapon rack available. It won’t be any sort of discrete cargo space, but you will have enough space on the rack for at least 3 standard FPS weapons up to the size of the Sniper Rifle. As for the possibility of an additional seat, the Buccaneer is intended to be a single-seat fighter. We do not anticipate a change to this in the future, or for any potential variants.

What would the loaner ship be for the Buccaneer while we await it to finish development?

As with all single-seat ships in the game at present, we intend to provide an F7C Hornet as the loaner.