Fleet Carriers are privately owned megaships and are used as a central base of operations for any CMDR fulfilling their services. It could be used for mercenary purposes, a resting stop for long-distanced trips or a trade ship for huge trade efforts.
Fleet Carriers are considered to be end-game content as they are expensive to purchase and maintain. Yes, your mobile command center has a maintenance fee you'll have to pay in order to keep operating the megaship.
Fleet carriers can only be purchased from Fleet Carrier Vendor systems. Fleet Carrier Vendors provide CMDRs with the ability to purchase a Fleet Carrier, outfit the carrier with services, and stock the carrier up with shipyard and outfitting packages. Here are the following systems with a vendor service:
There are other Fleet Carrier Administration stations that do not provide the ability to purchase carriers but instead offer the installation of carrier services and outfitting and shipyard packages.
A Fleet Carrier's stock price is 5 Billion (5,000,000,000) credits and is limited to one Fleet Carrier per account. If you wish to have more Fleet Carriers, you need to get alt accounts. It is not recommended to purchase a fleet carrier when you reach 5 Billion credits.
We recommend having around 8-10 Billion credits before you go and purchase your fleet carrier. This is broken down into:
You are able to customize your Fleet Carrier's layout by visiting its customization page. When buying a carrier, they will always be in the Drake Classed layout. There are currently 4 Fleet Carrier designs:
Fleet Carriers uses the commodity Tritium as supply of its fuel for jumps. You can store Tritium in the Fleet Carrier's cargo capacity or donate them into the Carrier's Fuel Reserves. Other CMDRs are able to donate Tritium to the Carrier Fuel Reserves.
Fuel consumption is measured out by this formula:
Maintenance is determined by the amount of core services and jumps a carrier has and takes in the period from the last server maintenance to the current server maintenance. Maintenance is broken up into:
You can use this approximate Fleet Carrier calculator to see how much your weekly upkeep is.
You can also decommission your Fleet Carrier if you are transferring accounts cross platforms or feel like you don't need a Fleet Carrier to supplement your Elite endeavors. If you fail to upkeep your Fleet Carrier's maintenance costs, it will go into debt. Surpassing 250 Million Credits in debt will result in the carrier automatically being decommissioned.
When a Fleet Carrier is slated for decommissioning, it enters "Pending Decommissioned" status with a countdown timer notifying the owner how long until the vessel is fully decommissioned. The timer will always expire on server maintenance after the Fleet Carrier enters Pending Decommissioned status, giving the owner up to one week to settle their vessel's affairs. During the Pending Decommissioned period, the owner can still dock with the Fleet Carrier, sell off individual services if the vessel is stationed in a system with a station with a Fleet Carrier Administration, retrieve stored cargo, set buy and sell orders, schedule a jump, donate fuel, and change livery. The owner will be unable to purchase new services, hire crew, or use the Remote Workshop service. Any CMDRs who have stored modules and ships on the vessel can transfer their property to the station of their choice.
When a Fleet Carrier finally enters "Decommissioned" status, it is taken over by a recovery crew and dismantled. The owner is refunded the full cost of their Fleet Carrier and any installed services, minus any unpaid debt in cases of automatic decommissioning or a fixed fee of 125 million credits in cases of voluntary decommissioning.
There are a number of optional services a Fleet Carrier can have on top of the core services a Fleet Carrier already has.
Bridge Crew
A group of personnel staff commanded by a Deck Officer that manages the jump sequences and other security defenses of a Fleet Carrier.
Commodities Market
Allows any visiting CMDRs to purchase and sell commodities through a buy or sell order. A commodity can sell or buy between 5% to 1000% of its galactic average (100%). Currently there is a 2 Billion credit limit transfer, you cannot sell or buy commodities with a profit of more than 2 Billion credits. You are not allowed to set a buy order at the same time of a sell order, it is either or. Carrier owners have the ability to transfer commodities directly into the commodities market reserves.
The Commodities Market's space begins with 25000 tonnes of reserved space with a fleet carrier that has no services installed. This reservoir of storage gets used if new services gets installed or if packages are bought. Any used reservoir will become weight added onto a fleet carrier's total mass, making it use more fuel between jumps.
Tritium Depot
Manages the Fleet Carrier's Tritium fuel stockpile. CMDRs and the owner all can donate Tritium into this depot.
Landing Pads
There are 16 landing pads in total on the fleet carrier. 8 Large, 4 Mediums and 4 Smalls.
Tariffs
As the owner of your polished fleet carrier, you can impose a tariff that any visiting CMDRs using your services will need to pay premium price for any transaction they make. Tariffs go as far up as 100%, which is double the amount of the regular prices offered at 0% tariff.
Along with Core Services, the owner is allowed to store other ships and additional modules onto their carriers without having the shipyard or outfitting service.
You have the ability to switch your crew members for all services and your carrier's deck officer if you're in a fleet carrier vendor or administration station.
There are packages carrier owners can buy and choose to sell to other visiting CMDRs or themselves. Currently, there are 14 Optional Internal packages, 6 Weaponry packages, and 9 Ship Bundle packages. All optional internal and weaponry packages have 3 grades ranging in quality and price of the bundle package.
OPTIONAL INTERNAL PACKAGES
WEAPONRY BUNDLE PACKAGES
SHIP BUNDLE PACKAGES
There are no Federal Ships, Imperial Ships or locked ship bundles.
Jump sequence initiated! A carrier has a sequence of lockdown procedures before and after the jump, which spans a total time of 20 minutes per jump including spool up and cool down.
T - 15:00 : Jump Destination Requesting
When you request a jump sequence, you'll have to wait around 5-6 minutes, depending on the traffic of capital classed signature jumps occurring at the same time before the jump request is confirmed. During this time, you can cancel the jump request to jump to another system, or jump to a planetary body within that system. If you do decide to cancel, you'll be given a cooldown period before you can replot.
T - 10:00 : Jump Request Confirmed
At this point, the jump request is confirmed by the crew deck, meaning you will not be able to cancel the jump sequence. This is the point of no return. The crew and carrier will be preparing for a massive hyperspace jump in 10 minutes before the jump. You will also see a marker indicating where your fleet carrier will jump to at the destination system
T - 03:00 : Pad Lockdown Initiated
Landing pads will be retracted and be brought to a lockdown following a massive frame shift drive jump in 3 minutes. CMDRs who did not make it in time will not be allowed to dock on the carrier following a lockdown. CMDRs in Odyssey in the concourse will be asked to go to the seating area or otherwise be escorted there by force.
T - 00:30 : Frame Shift Drive Initiated
You will hear the massive frame shift drive begin to spool up, and the lights begin to go dim.
T - 00:10 : Frame Shift Drive Countdown
The deck officer will commence countdown of the massive frame shift jump.
T - 00:00 : Frame Shift Drive Engaged
At this point, the Fleet Carriers opens a wormhole connect its current position to the destination. If the command deck misaligns with the countdown timer, the fleet carrier can fail a massive frame shift jump. If you are waiting at the destination, the carrier will jump into the system instantaneously. This is not a game glitch, as rather a fun feature about time and general relativity.
T + 02:00 : Frame Shift Drive Complete
If you are in the fleet carrier or sitting in the seating area, you will notice the carrier coming out of its jump. By this time, it is safe to leave the seating area or resurface. The Fleet Carrier's Frame Shift Drive begins its 3 minute cooldown.
T + 05:00 : Frame Shift Drive Cooled Down
The frame shift drive will be cooled down completely and another jump request can be initiated at this point.