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The civilian Cargo Drone is a civilian ship in Escape Velocity Nova.

"The Cargo Drone is an inter-ship and in-system cargo transportation droid. It has a very simple Lebowickz-Huffman neural net, little turning ability and absolutely no shields. In war-torn systems these inoffensive craft are usually the first to be scrapped in a big firefight... not because they are deliberately targeted, but because one stray shot will total them." ― Buying a Cargo Drone

A drone for carrying cargo. Easily destroyed. Used as cannon fodder or as part of an early trading fleet.

Stats[]

"Cargo drones that are offered for escort duty operate a sophisticated one-time-cipher key system to tell the droid brain who its current master is. Once the term of contract expires, or the owner runs out of funds, the drone will peel off to return to the corporation that owns it. Many free traders still have suits outstanding for produce hijacked by a drone that defected mid-run." ― Hiring a Cargo Drone

Green/red numbers compare the variant's stat to the stats of the basic model. The basic model is Cargo Drone #130.

Standard model (ship #130)[]

  • Purchase/Hire Appearance %: 0%/95%
  • Purchase Cost: 2k
  • Hire Cost: 200cr/upfront 20cr/day
  • Nova pict 6070 thumb Speed: 400
  • Nova pict 6069 thumb Acceleration: 200
  • Nova pict 6072 thumb Turning: 20
  • Nova pict 6067 thumb Shields: 20
  • Nova pict 6065 thumb Shield Regen: 2
  • Nova pict 6065 thumb Shield Recharge per second: 0.06
  • Nova pict 6065 thumb Minutes to recharge Shields: 5.555
  • Nova pict 6052 thumb Armor: 20
  • Nova pict 6309 thumb Disabled at Armor %: 33%
  • Nova pict 6309 thumb Pre-disabled Armor: 13
  • Nova pict 6309 thumb Total Fighting HP: 33
  • Nova pict 6134 thumb Max Ion: 3
  • Nova pict 6134 thumb Deionize: 1
  • Nova pict 6061 thumb Cargo Space: 10t
  • Nova pict 6128 thumb Energy: 200
  • Nova pict 6053 thumb Mass: 10t
  • Nova pict 6074 thumb Jump Time: 1 day
  • Nova pict 6139 thumb Fast Jumping? Yes
  • Nova pict 6186 thumb Length: 4m
  • Nova pict 6099 thumb Crew: 0
  • Targetable by PD?: Yes
  • Strength: 1
  • AI Type: Wimpy Trader

Economy at Work (ship #393)[]

This variant moves between space objects in the system. You can observe this behavior in the Rautherion system.

  • Nova pict 6072 thumb Turning: 40 (+20)
  • Nova pict 6061 thumb Cargo Space: 5t (-5t)

Gameplay Analysis[]

"You can't buy it, only hire it. It's cheap. It's cheap for a reason." ― EVula Survival Guide

Cargo Drones are known to be the weakest ships in the game, even more so than the Shuttle, as they have no weapons, nearly zero shields and armor, and cannot move quickly at all. On the other hand, it is an incredibly cheap way of increasing one's cargo capacity early in the game, costing only one-fifth of the amount required to hire a Shuttle, for the same amount of cargo space.

An unorthodox use for Cargo Drones is to use them as meat-shields. Their hiring cost and pay per day is negligible, you pay no penalty for losing them, they follow you no matter how far you go (according to specifications, the drone should only have 2 jumps worth, but escorts ignore that stat), and your ship can shoot right through them without damaging them. Thus, Cargo Drones may pass for makeshift cover in a tight pinch. They might not be able to take more than a single hit, but if you have a whole fleet of them, that sometimes can mean the difference between breaking through a blockade and ending up a crater on a planet's surface. They will be scattered easily by any sort of weapon with area of effect damage (like Hellhound Missiles or EMP Torpedoes).

Don't bother disabling and attempting to steal the cargo from a Drone, as due to the design, cargo cannot be transferred from one to a different ship.

Images[]

The Cargo Drone was made by Scott Vardy, with a remodel and animations by Dave Williams.

Spins[]

This ship has 36 frames per set, 216 frames in total and 6 sets.

  • Ship: 24x24
  • Lights: 24x24
  • Engine: 28x28

The Engine is visibly misaligned with the Ship.

Shipyard Images[]


Nova Civilians
Civilians Civilian Ships: Cargo Drone (v) (i) 2k as escort only, Shuttle (v) (i) 10k, Heavy Shuttle (v) (i) 17.5k, Viper (v) (i) 80k, Asteroid Miner (i) 150k, Terrapin (v) (i) 150k, Lightning (WG) (v) (i) 250k, Thunderhead (v) (i) 300k, Valkyrie (v) (i) 350k, Star Liner (v) (i) 500k, Starbridge (v) (i) 600k (Modified (v) (i) 750k), IDA Frigate (v) (i) 750k, Pegasus (v) (i) 2M, Leviathan (v) (i) 12M
Civilian OutfitsCivilian WeaponsFederation Licenses
Side Missions Cunjo HuntEscort BandGLi-Tech (Missions) • Launch ProbeSigma Shipyards (Main MissionsRepeatable Missions) • Temmin ShardTerraformingTutorialUnited Shipping (Main MissionsRepeatable Missions)
Other Missions DerelictsDuelsRevengePunishmentBlow Stuff Up
Bounty Hunters Bounty Hunters Storyline (Minor StorylineHeraan LinkRebel Link)
Wild Geese Wild Geese Storyline (PreambleIntro MissionsPath 1Path 2Heraan LinkAssociation Link)
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