How is the Buccaneer a second take on the Cutlass? It has none of its features: the RIO seat, the search and rescue, the cargo. The original Cutlass was supposedly a utility dogfighter.asked by Kraken
TL;DRThe original Cutlass tried to do everything better than other ships, which they want to avoid, so the Buccaneer focuses purely on the fighter-interceptor role, while the Cutlass still needs redesign to get a more distinct place in the Drake family.
So one of the conundrums of the original Cutlass was at one point it was effectively built to do everything all at once exceptionally well, better than every other ship, to some level of interpretation. And that doesn't fly for good balance, good design, having good risk-reward inside the universe. That's what we're actively trying to avoid. We don't want, and I've said this a bunch of times, we don't want one-right-answer ships. We don't want something where you get this one ship and you never have to choose to fly another ship because, oh, this does it all at once. So the Buccaneer is more to take the fighter interceptor aspects that were originally intended with the Cutlass and double down on those. It is very much purely built around the combat, purely built around fighting and assisting with the larger ships in that Drake family. So, I mean, there's still work to be done on the Cutlass. We definitely have to do some redesign and rework on that. But it'll be to give it a more distinct and purposeful place inside the Drake family as opposed to a weird potential like, oh, it's a one-stop shop for everything.