Classified Level Rho...

Recall that ship that was completely REDCATED from the "Dreaming about carriers..." post right? Well for my patrons here it is no longer REDACTED and shown for what it is and what will be coming in the future.

A common complaint about Tiandong Heavy Industries is that they lack any carrier designs above destroyer scale. I always answer that with they don't technically *need* more and or larger carriers since they also use vanilla ships but that I do intend to add cruisers and this capital class one later!

It is more or less a shameless ripoff of the destroyer from a game called Infinity Battlescape, but Starsectorized™... Also keep in mind the sprite is unfinished, and overall exactly what its loadout and specifications will be are to be determined later when time to add it to the mod.

But like when I got down to really thinking about capital carriers added by mods, what is something no one ever really makes? Well, as far as I know that would be one with below average deployment costs and even size / capabilities (light battlecruiser scale). The Xinghen-Class Command Ship will most likely be 35dp, and be a very strange thing in general...

Its weapon slot loadout, I would be amused if anyone guessed it correctly just from the preview of the sprite so I am not gonna spoil that. But it will have 3 flight decks, and Operations Center hullmod built-in. In addition it will have above average fuel and cargo storage, but not quite on the level of a combat freighter or combat tanker. Just more than the average warship, but less than combat logistic vessels and especially dedicated logistic ships.

Overall, it would be a semi-budget capital ship that would be *very* useful for exploration but still have quirks and gimmicks that keep it handy all the way into the late game stage. Could also think of it as a very pissed off Venture scaled up to a capital ship, or a budget Legion with bonuses.

The old Xu-Class is designed for a role that is rarely needed by the corporation thus it is being gradually phased out and relegated to star system defense and mission-critical contracts due to its cost to operate and maintain. In its place, the Xinghen will become the foundation of tomorrow's fleet. Lore wise, it obviously isn't a retrofit of anything. But then what is its true design origin? Heh, that is for me to know and for you all to find out.

Personally I am looking forward to this ship the most out of all the new combat layer content planned for the mod heh. It really is a compelling design in my opinion, and I hope you all agree.