The Cargo Kings

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2005-04-24 04:38pm

Is in all the EU, there any mention of who the big Cargo shipping kingpins are and what ships they use? Last night I was looking at my Ep-II ICS and had a marvellous idea for a stripped down Acclamator making a kick ass armoured Transport.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-04-24 04:42pm

Prince Xizor of Black Sun ran an enormous shipping company that made him an multi-trillionaire and economic powerhouse in his own right, Xizor Transport Systems (XTS). Don't know about the others, though-- there's not a whole lot of information upon civilian affairs in SW, regrettably.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-04-24 04:44pm

EDIT: Some of the smuggling organizations are undoubtedly big enough in some regions to be important in their own right-- while a fairly small percentage, true, they'd be large enough in some certain areas that they would be somewhat of an presence, notably spice but also other rare items and materials. Ever see Karrde's Action IV? That's a pretty damn big ship...

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2005-04-24 04:46pm

Elheru Aran wrote:Ever see Karrde's Action IV? That's a pretty damn big ship...

Oh yes, was the first Ship I ever reworked, you should see the DeckPlans I have for my own Action IV

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2005-04-24 04:53pm

Elheru Aran wrote:Ever see Karrde's Action IV? That's a pretty damn big ship...

That thing's small peanuts compared to the Trade Federation transports from TPM.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-04-24 04:58pm

Wicked Pilot wrote:
Elheru Aran wrote:Ever see Karrde's Action IV? That's a pretty damn big ship...
That thing's small peanuts compared to the Trade Federation transports from TPM.

True, but for Karrde, it's probably the largest ship in his fleet, and it's a large one by smuggler standards. Solo's Falcon-- think that's a 'cargo' ship, with what, maybe 100 square feet of cargo space at the most?

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2005-04-24 05:02pm

Publius hypothesized that the Errant Venture is actually an armed merchantman.

Spacebeard · Post by **Spacebeard** » 2005-04-24 05:02pm

Isn't shipping the Trade Federation's racket, also? Their battleships are militarized freighters, so there's another known class of cargo ship (which as Wicked Pilot said is far larger than the Action IV). Larger still are the droid-controlled bulk freighters mentioned in Shadows of the Empire, bringing goods in to Coruscant. I believe those drone ships were said to be many kilometers long, but it's been a long time since I read the book so I could be mistaken.

Spacebeard · Post by **Spacebeard** » 2005-04-24 05:15pm

Elheru Aran wrote:
True, but for Karrde, it's probably the largest ship in his fleet, and it's a large one by smuggler standards. Solo's Falcon-- think that's a 'cargo' ship, with what, maybe 100 square feet of cargo space at the most?

I've always thought the Falcon ought to be classified as a courier ship instead of a light freighter. Even before Solo's refits, it seems to be optimized for speed over carrying capacity, and it's tiny compared to other cargo ships. Me, I would prefer to call the Falcon a courier ship, the Wild Karrde a light freighter, the Trade Federation transports medium freighters, and the drone ships from Shadows of the Empire heavy freighters.

Crazedwraith · Post by **Crazedwraith** » 2005-04-24 05:20pm

Elheru Aran wrote:
Wicked Pilot wrote:
Elheru Aran wrote:Ever see Karrde's Action IV? That's a pretty damn big ship...
That thing's small peanuts compared to the Trade Federation transports from TPM.
True, but for Karrde, it's probably the largest ship in his fleet, and it's a large one by smuggler standards. Solo's Falcon-- think that's a 'cargo' ship, with what, maybe 100 square feet of cargo space at the most?

Action IV is 120 meters long. He's also known to have at least one Correlian Corvette that was blown up in "Conquest" (the NJO book not the fanfic) which is larger but far less stylish.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2005-04-24 05:21pm

Spacebeard wrote:
I've always thought the Falcon ought to be classified as a courier ship instead of a light freighter. Even before Solo's refits, it seems to be optimized for speed over carrying capacity, and it's tiny compared to other cargo ships. Me, I would prefer to call the Falcon a courier ship, the Wild Karrde a light freighter, the Trade Federation transports medium freighters, and the drone ships from Shadows of the Empire heavy freighters.

IIRC Falcon is officially rated at 100 tons cargo capacity. Though it might be 50. Either way, I think light freighter is an accurate term. Just because Star Wars is a huge universe doesn't mean its not still filled with small companies, which need small shipment of goods moved around. Courier to me at least implies very small objects, not anything weighing many tons.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-04-24 05:27pm

To be honest, if you stripped the Falcon down a fair bit, leaving only enough deck to be able to get to the cockpit, and airlocked off the rest of the ship, you could get a fairly large amount of cargo in there-- the 'living room' area with the holochess table, the bunks Luke was on after they grabbed him in ESB, the access areas they went in to fix the engines in ESB, and so forth. There's also the 'pincers' at front, and the area where the concussion missiles are. That configuration would be the 'pure freighter', optimized for cargo carrying at relatively slow speeds. Han's is likely the standard model, which you can mod however you like-- Corellian Engineering Corporation tends to do that a fair bit with their ships, IIRC.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-24 05:36pm

It's Action VI, not IV.

Also, there are some good Action VI deckplans being done over at the SW Deckplan Alliance.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2005-04-24 05:43pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Also, there are some good Action VI deckplans being done over at the SW Deckplan Alliance.

Indeed, thats where I got my orginal Deckplans which I've altered. I actually tried helping them for a while, but, oddly enough, They wouldn't use Vector Drawn Images, only pixelated/Rasterized images, which, I actually have no method of producing efficiently.

If you look on the main page, you'll actually se a notice about an Error I caught concerning the Actions' Turbolift. In any case I havn't heared from wither of them in ages. *sniffs*

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2005-04-24 06:14pm

Depending on the costs of operation, given the speed of Star Wars hyperdrive, a ship the size of the Falcon can theoretically be profitable even when running legal cargos. However, it'd probably be limited to high-value cargos and luxury items, especially given the dimensions of the hold space.

I don't think we have a firm enough grasp on the nature of their economies to really judge, though.

Admiral Drason · Post by **Admiral Drason** » 2005-04-24 06:28pm

X-Wing alliance had YT-1300s that could carry cargo pods. So if you account for that kind of cargo capacity then they can carry a lot more then just the cargo bay size.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2005-04-24 06:35pm

I always thought the YT-2400 was the worst Freighter, the Falcon was small as it is, the 2400 is Just TINY! The older YT-1300 Is actually a good sized ship.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-24 06:37pm

The YT-2400 is more of a light passenger transport, IIRC.