With Fleet Carriers having gone through the beta process starting on PC and then later for console it sounds like a lot has been tweaked leading up to their impeding arrival in June but unfortunately I was not able to take advantage of the opportunity to see it for myself. My PC account had no where near enough credits (from their dated “snapshots” of player accounts) at the time of the first beta and by the time the second beta had come around for consoles my ship was in the middle of the galaxy and I was more focused on trying to get back home so as to take advantage of it. A bit of bad timing for me!

But reading about player responses it’s going to be interesting to see how their introduction to the game impacts the overall experience. For example there’s the Deep Space Support Array (DSSA) which will eventually be a network of carriers scattered across the whole galaxy. Think of it as an expanded version of the now established Colonia Connection Highway, which I leveraged for my long haul to Colonia and Sagittarius A*, just this one is fully player controlled. For those wanting to venture out beyond the two main colonized bubbles it means there could be plenty of safe havens within reach. It does however remove some of the dangers of making such voyages where distance and self sufficiency were integral to success. It may also change how some groups operate like The Fuels Rats who have been known for their epic long distance rescue missions. Will it be business as usual for them or might we see members stationed at carriers for convenience?

It could still be years before Fleet Carriers become prevalent enough to populate the galaxy for an initiative like the DSSA and I kind of hope it doesn’t change things too much when it eventually happens. One of the appeals of travelling between Colonia and Sagittarius A* was that I was on my own for the whole trip with no where to take refuge. It was intimidating but massively rewarding when I reached the end. If those challenges no longer exist in the game or are lessened will those feelings of accomplishment still be the same? I suppose time will tell!