John Crewe · Designer

Again, it's the scale of it. The Vulcan's great for those little small repairs, small to medium repairs. If you've got, I don't know, a Caterpillar and half the front's missing, that's something the Vulcan's not going to be able to manufacture and replace it with. Whereas the Crucible, it's got its remote arms, it's got the onboard facilities to do that. It's sort of the economy of scale. You saw in the concept images the Vulcan's hanging around a Javelin doing small repairs, but if that Javelin's taken huge damage, that's where the Crucible comes in. And again, the same pros and cons as with the Starfarer. If you've got a Crucible, I'm doing repair. That's what I've chosen to do. It's like a flying mechanics warehouse, really. And the Crucible has actually got a little bit bigger than it was, because the Hornet's got bigger. It has that enclosed workspace where you can put an entire ship in, close the doors, repair it all, replace everything. If it's too big to go in there, then you're alongside doing the big repairs.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

So again, just like it is with the Starfarer, the Vulcan is meant to be your starting point for these professions. It allows you to explore multiple professions at once. It lets you operate these professions less expensively and with a lower threshold of commitment than operating a Crucible or a Starfarer would. But when you decide, hey, okay, I really do like repair, I really do like refueling and whatnot, your upgrade paths are to the Starfarer or to the Crucible.

Will Maiden · Designer

Yeah, you're going to need a big crew. You're going to need to pay them when you get the money for the job. So the costs, like you say, to operate a ship like that, where every hand is pulling together, you're expecting a big payday. So you don't get called out for the smaller jobs.

John Crewe · Designer

They're not exclusive options either. I can see an org, if there's a dedicated repair org out there, you call for help, my ship's damaged, they're probably going to send a Vulcan first because of the cost involved in getting a Crucible out there. The Vulcan will be there to do what it can, like patch up perhaps the hull breaches and holes, repair some of the basic components, but if after that everything's safe, secure, the atmosphere is refilling, but it's beyond the Vulcan's capabilities, then you've got the Crucible that can come out and finish the job.