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
- Speed: 400
- Acceleration: 200
- Turning: 20
- Shields: 20
- Shield Regen: 2
- Shield Recharge per second: 0.06
- Minutes to recharge Shields: 5.555
- Armor: 20
- Disabled at Armor %: 33%
- Pre-disabled Armor: 13
- Total Fighting HP: 33
- Max Ion: 3
- Deionize: 1
- Cargo Space: 10t
- Energy: 200
- Mass: 10t
- Jump Time: 1 day
- Fast Jumping? Yes
- Length: 4m
- 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.
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[]
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 Outfits • Civilian Weapons • Federation Licenses | |
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Side Missions | Cunjo Hunt • Escort Band • GLi-Tech (Missions) • Launch Probe • Sigma Shipyards (Main Missions • Repeatable Missions) • Temmin Shard • Terraforming • Tutorial • United Shipping (Main Missions • Repeatable Missions) | |
Other Missions | Derelicts • Duels • Revenge • Punishment • Blow Stuff Up | |
Bounty Hunters | Bounty Hunters Storyline (Minor Storyline • Heraan Link • Rebel Link) | |
Wild Geese | Wild Geese Storyline (Preamble • Intro Missions • Path 1 • Path 2 • Heraan Link • Association Link) |