Are fleet carriers worth it?

[Agent Frank Horrigan]

I've been looking at getting a fleet carrier sometime but I always thought, "I wont get one until they remove upkeep costs." But I'm pretty sure that will not happen. I have been wanting one though and the only thing that is stopping me is how much money I need to dump into it. But I've been thinking if I put the carrier in a popular platinum mining spot and buy platinum (or any other popular mining spot) for about 200-250k, then go out and sell it to the highest price at a station, will it be worth it if I do it for that? I am currently at 1.1 Bil credits and I can probably get to over 5bil if I just mine more musgravite and other minerals. I just want to ask the community that owns fleet carriers what the minimum upkeep cost will be if I have the services for cargo, mining equipment, and of course, refueling, restocking, and repairing. Thank you in advance.

[Agony_Aunt]

I also balked at the offline costs, but after they reduced them it became more tempting.

It depends on how you play, but for me the Fleet Carrier has been a major boon. Sure, its a bit of a ball and chain with the costs, but the upkeep isn't hard to make. I did a massacre mission the other day in a few hours that covered the costs for 3-4 weeks. A few hours doing something like Robigo runs (or the burning station rescue missions) and you can cover your costs for months.

The initial outlay though is steep. 5 billion for the carrier, extra for the outfitting, you're going to want to fill it up a bit with tritium, which is either mining time or buying time (average price is 45k per ton, which soon adds up).

But overall, for me, its been worth the time and effort.

A mobile base where i can ship my entire fleet around. Move the whole fleet anywhere in in the bubble in 15 minutes for a tritium cost of a few million and all my stored modules are on it as well.

Its made engineering multiple ships also a lot easier.

Some ships which i used to keep fuel scoops on for travelling have been able to have those swapped out for something else now as well.

[Sighman]

I've had mine for a week or so. Worth every credit and the upkeep is under 10M per week which is nothing. (I have the marketplace, repair & refuel, advanced maintenance.)

I love being able to carry my fleet anywhere, and having all the modules stored on board as well makes it easy to switch roles for a ship if I need to. I've actually started collecting more ships since I got the FC, including an A-rated Sidewinder I'm going to engineer up for the fun of it.

Another benefit is stashing cargo or items on board for later. Eg. eventually I'll go back to Colonia to unlock the engineer who wants 25 occupied escape pods, so this morning I gathered them up and dumped them onto my carrier. Same with anything else I need.

[Wesker]

Parking it at a mining spot to buy up other miners cargo can van work but not as well as you would hope, most people that can get to those out there a bit mining spots will just take the goods to the highest seller,so you would have to be close enough to the max buying price to want them to take the hit for the convenience of you being right there, doesn't leave much room for profit but newer players would take the offer,

Aside from that everything that Cmdr Agony mentioned I will agree with, initial cost is steep but upkeep isn't bad if you know what to do, having all my stuff ready to go anywhere at any time is nice, comes in handy for deep space rescues as well hehe,

Here's a handy tool that can help you calculate your upkeep costs

https://cmdrs-toolbox.com/fleet-carrier-calculator

o7

[Agent Frank Horrigan]

Thank you for the responses everyone. I'm thinking that I will get one once I make enough money

[Mr Robert House]

They’re only worth it as the last thing you buy imo. Buy any ships you need first.

The 10m upkeep is easily managable if you play regularly.

[Sighman]

After a week of combat, mining, etc, I raised enough to pay for the next 18-24 months of upkeep and deposited the lot into the fleet carrier's reserves.

[Agent Frank Horrigan]

A few more questions,

Can I change the name of my carrier whenever I want to?

Is there a way to advertise my carrier besides naming it or spamming in chat?

Do I need a shipyard to store ships?

[Sighman]

A - yes

B - not in-game.

C - no.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Nuke_Gaming512:

I've been looking at getting a fleet carrier sometime but I always thought, "I wont get one until they remove upkeep costs." But I'm pretty sure that will not happen. I have been wanting one though and the only thing that is stopping me is how much money I need to dump into it.

Then I don't think there's much point to discuss if you already made up your mind ;)

IMO it heavily depends on who you're asking and what they're playing style is going to be. Also noteworthy is that there are tons of carriers already out there so I personally don't really believe those stories about "park 'm in a system and players will sell to you" because while that can definitely happen, it also depends on circumstances. And you can bet that popular spots will have more carriers parked in that area which makes it all the more questionable if players will actually pick yours to sell to.

Having said that I can definitely see value in having the ability to quickly move all your ships from one area to another without too much extra costs ("sorta").

Even so, at this point in time it's most definitely not for me and I don't think I'll ever get one myself because of all the extra hassle that comes with it. Upkeep costs are an issue IMO but also things as fueling. Not to mention that you can't "just" cross across the galaxy, once you landed in a system there's a cooldown before you can jump again. So unless you really need to have multiple ships around it might also be cheaper (or easier) to simply fly out there, find a station and move the rest over (of course, once again it depends on context and circumstances).

[Sighman]

I wondered at the huge number of fleet carriers infesting most popular systems, but I just watched a youtube vid where the streamer mentioned that there are 500,000 people playing E:D at least once per month (excludes all the EGS freebie players). That explains the number of carriers, because there seem to be thousands of the things.

[Agent Frank Horrigan]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Originally posted by Nuke_Gaming512:

I've been looking at getting a fleet carrier sometime but I always thought, "I wont get one until they remove upkeep costs." But I'm pretty sure that will not happen. I have been wanting one though and the only thing that is stopping me is how much money I need to dump into it.

Then I don't think there's much point to discuss if you already made up your mind ;)

IMO it heavily depends on who you're asking and what they're playing style is going to be. Also noteworthy is that there are tons of carriers already out there so I personally don't really believe those stories about "park 'm in a system and players will sell to you" because while that can definitely happen, it also depends on circumstances. And you can bet that popular spots will have more carriers parked in that area which makes it all the more questionable if players will actually pick yours to sell to.

Having said that I can definitely see value in having the ability to quickly move all your ships from one area to another without too much extra costs ("sorta").

Even so, at this point in time it's most definitely not for me and I don't think I'll ever get one myself because of all the extra hassle that comes with it. Upkeep costs are an issue IMO but also things as fueling. Not to mention that you can't "just" cross across the galaxy, once you landed in a system there's a cooldown before you can jump again. So unless you really need to have multiple ships around it might also be cheaper (or easier) to simply fly out there, find a station and move the rest over (of course, once again it depends on context and circumstances).

I am well aware of the CD after jumping. I know about the basic stuff of the carriers

[Reggit]

If you have 5 billion - I recommend getting a Carrier - they are handy!
If you don't have 5 billion....well....how willing are you to grind??

[Wesker]

Originally posted by Sighman:

A - yes

B - not in-game.

C - no.

C - not to store your own ships but yes to store other people's ships,

I wish there was an in between option on this as I have no intention of selling ships or modules, the astronomical cost involved in stocking them leaves no room for profit and no reason for anybody to buy from you when they can just go to a station and spend less money, you MUST by in packs not specific ships you would like to sell and even though you are forced to buy in bulk because of this you do not get any kind of discount, this still needs a rework, the other aspects of the carriers are fine though, I just keep my shipyard and outfitting suspended unless one of my squadron or friends messages me that they need use of it, add an extra 7 million a week just to have them online o7

[caaront]

If I had not of gotten mine, or was to get rid of it and get most of my money back, I'd have a bunch of money and not be interested in getting any more ships, so there I am, I have all the benefits of the FC whether I use it much or not, pay for the 11 million weekly upkeep fee with 20-30 minutes of BHg, and have 5 billion credits in the carrier account and almost that much in the bank, so upkeep is never a stress for me.

[Sighman]

Yep, and it opens up new ways to play the game too. For example, I picked a Famine station (Ambartsumian Port in Croatigae) where there are loads of 'bring us x tons of y' (y = foods/etc) from most of the factions. Then I headed off and put 1k tons of each good in the carrier, before coming back and parking it in orbit.

Now, I'm convinced those missions avoid requesting any cargo you already have on board your ship, but they can't see into my fleet carrier. So, I load up with missions and take a short flight to my carrier, load up the Cutter, come back and complete them all. Then I take another batch.

Now and then I do a round trip in the carrier to load up with all the supplies again.

It's not a money-maker, and I take a break now and then to do a CG or bounty hunt. That's the thing with the carrier though - I can leap to a new system, switch ships and head out to fight pirates or rescue passengers from a burning station, but when I come back to the carrier my goods are all there, my Cutter is still equipped as a flash-looking space truck, and I can leap back to Croatigae and continue delivering aid.