New to the line-up this week are the MFC ‘Heretic’ Heavy Cruiser and it’s sister ship, the MFC ‘Hexen’ Medium Cruiser. These ships will be added as part of the ‘Open-world Overhaul’ update.
More of the same from the Mineral and Fusion Corporation as they continue to evolve their Cruiser line-up. These generation 4 ships are designed to be the multifunction foot soldiers of any unit and have a versatile internal and external configuration allowing them to be used in a variety of combat and civilian roles. For example the ‘Hexen’ is often used without weapons as a Civilian personnel transport and the ‘Heretic’ has a number of variants designed for specific combat roles such as escort or assault. The key to this flexibility is a complex interwoven power distribution lattice printed into the ships armor carapace segments at manufacture. This allows for the versatile location of turret hardpoints anywhere across 75% of the surface of the ship, with energy to power them drawn straight from engines. In contrast, the two other leading ship manufacturers PLC and INC are still using fixed conduits to provide energy to the hardpoints. Configurations are sealed at production, but regardless it allows for the creation of a highly specialized force at a relatively low cost.
Click on the image to view a 3D turntable! Some of the more advanced tech such as Negative Space Encroachment has been left out of the design of these budget craft, but beyond cost, it seems that MFC believes that efficiency can still be derived from clever tweaks to geometry and do prove that effort in both ships. That same winning geometry and lack of NSE tech letting the design down also however, with minimal support module capacity on either ship.
Click on the image to view a 3D turntable! The TCN view the craft as a natural evolution of previous MFC Cruiser offerings, but note that next to PLC’s expensive high tech ‘Pegasus’ Cruisers, or the INC’s slightly cheaper and yet more versatile modular Cruiser the ‘Armstrong,’ competition is tough. MFC ships continue to be the designs of choice within both the Navy and the subversive factions. The artists always leak images ahead of the announcements, we try to stop them, but they just don't listen, can't blame them really it's an exciting business! - anyway follow the twitter to stay ahead of the game @shallowspace1!