Carrier ability is a high priority because it adds something to aim at, a goal, to have a nice carriers filled with your ships...
Next on the list is space exploration and discovery.
Carrier ability is important if you want to relocate your fleet at minimal cost to fuel at some extravagant ranges. Preliminary tests though seem to show that a carrier can only be a cargo vessel for ships. At the moment there is no combat association with a carrier from what i can figure. If a carrier enters into a combat carrying vessels, i would like to see that those vessels are included in the combat automatically. Sir Emi, i think your view of a carrier is a cargo ship that will deposit combat vessels in a location and then withdraw. The real power of a carrier is to be a powerful vessel in itself with a mass of defences, which include the ability to haul and hold offensive attack ships.
I see where you are working towards, which is to explore the universe as cheap as you can with your ships. Unfortunately, the hangar is so small that it cant pick up an entire fleet unless you spend untold wealth, resources and science to achieve it in its current form. No help for the new members, as BB Goode points out, and of limited worth to the large corps. I was hoping that when i load on a few ships, from different members, and then that carrier engages a target, that all ships will deploy and fight for the carrier. This doesnt happen right now. So for the small savings you make in fuel as a transport vessel of other vessels isnt really worth the cost of the upgrade and the science associated with it.
Just another big waste of space, time and resources until the combat association with carrier is implemented. Perhaps you could have an option check box to auto deploy and engage per loaded vessel so that a fleet admiral can determine which ships are off-loaded for combat, which ships stay carried as support ships.
Dadds
