Hull C: Planetary Edition

The Hull C is one of the best vessels if you need to move cargo quickly from one location to another there is no other ship that be loaded so quickly with so much cargo. Having successfully used it to salvage cargo and as it's currently not possible to load or unload the Hull C from the designated space stations in 3.21(https://issue-council.robertsspaceindustries.com/projects/STAR-CITIZEN/issues/STARC-84771) it was time to explore other ways to use it.

TL;DR

1 - Can the Hull C land on a planet? Yes

2 - How does it fly in atmo - better or worse than a Reclaimer or Caterpillar? Much better

3 - Is it possible to modify it so it can land with the panels unfolded? Yes

4 - Can we load it from the planet? On a planetary pad? Inside armistice? Yes with a workaround

5 - Can you sell the goods in space? Yes (just not now because of a bug)

1 & 2.) The Hull C works much better than expected in atmo. I expected somewhere between Caterpillar and Reclaimer physics but it's better than a Caterpillar. The huge thrusters definitely help and when folded it's a sleek ship. It's a huge ship though and really impressive when you fly around the surface. Just check how much larger the ship is compared to a Cutty black or Hull A.

3.) When the Hull C unfolds the lower panels block it from landing. The elevator will not reach the ground, nor the landing gear. The panels are parts that can be broken off. Each panel consists of two sections and each direction has two panels - so we would need to break off four parts in order to allow the Hull C to land unfolded on a planet. Time to experiment!

While flying, I disabled the shields and scraped the panels over the ground. After a couple of minutes, the top end of the back panel fell off. While the lower panel showed up in red nothing wanted to break off. I parked on Daymar at a hill so I could use the lift to walk back (later I realised that this exactly might be a quicker way to use it for planetary operations). I got in my C8R and start to fire on the lower panel.

This caused the back panel to drop off the Hull C. But the front panel didn't move at all. After shooting on it for a couple of minutes I thought what if we use the panel as a fly catcher on the C8R? I flew away and then accelerated and hit the C8R. The poor thing exploded upon impact but it was enough to detach the front panel.

I realised later that it was so hard to break off the front panel because I also had to get rid of part of the frame holding the panels. Interestingly enough the folding mechanism still worked - no glitches or crashes! The cargo that I could load on the Hull C was also reduced and the game was aware of that.

I then chose a different location to try it on a larger scale. I brought in a C2 and loaded it up then unloaded it on the Hull C. It's really impressive just how much cargo you can put on the Hull C. The scale is absolutely amazing: just four of those 32 SCU containers is more than a Freelancer MAX can carry.

5.) After loading two C2 loads it was time to return to the space station. While it's not possible to buy anything with the Hull C at the moment, I wanted to try if we could at least sell it. Unfortunately, this is also not the case. The cargo was recognized but the blue box of the cargo services is not detecting any ships. They are working on it so hopefully it will work soon (https://issue-council.robertsspaceindustries.com/projects/STAR-CITIZEN/issues/STARC-85902).

It was a lot of fun trying new stuff out. Looking at the cargo loop for the Hull C, I hope they can either fix it soon or even better: simplify it as the mechanism is too complicated. The Hull C is a joy to fly and it’s a pity it can’t be used planet side but I suppose that is where the Hull B will come in at some point.