CIG put RSI up front at the start of the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo this year because they wanted to lead (sales) with the new Galaxy multi-purpose Dorito.

I had been planning on CCU’ing my Star Runner to the Galaxy in order to get the lifetime insurance copied over, but realized that if I melted the Galaxy some day, for some reason, it wouldn’t go into my buybacks; I’d only see the original pledge — the MSR — available for reclaiming using the buyback token. So my plan is now to roll with the Galaxy for a while, melt it back to store credit — putting it into buybacks — and then CCU the MSR into the Galaxy. The only reason I would do this is because CIG likes to take certain ships off the market outside of events like IAE or DefenseCon. If we want a certain ship that we don’t already own during those periods, we either have to wait, or get it from the buyback queue. I would complain, but CIG could have never implemented this system at all, so I will take it for what it is.

I am impressed with the Galaxy, though not as impressed as I could be. It’s claim to fame is that it is modular, meaning I can swap out midsection modules in order to change the “function” of the ship.

This is the medical module. The blue area is a drop-lift which can accommodate a vehicle such as the medical URSA rover (aka “Nursa”). The gist is that when in the field, the Galaxy can park off-site, drop the Nursa with folks in it who can then drive to the mission site. If anyone is injured in a way that can’t be handled by the Nursa, they can drive back to the Galaxy, take the entire vehicle into the medical bay, and get moved to the advanced tier medical beds. The Galaxy medical bay contains all three tiers, allowing it to treat every injury a player can sustain. Contrast this to the Apollo Triage or Medivac, which has two swappable medical bays, allowing for only two tier combos (1 & 2, 2& 3, 1 & 3).

The rear of the ship has a small hangar, shown here from the inside. I parked the medical Pisces here while the medbay was installed, so technically, in this configuration, the Galaxy is the best equipped medical ship players can acquire in the game right now. I could drive a Nursa to a site to help, or fly the Pisces if the ground vehicle can’t reach them.

The other module is a cargo module. It removes everything from the space, replacing it with a central lift elevator (shown here while deployed, complete with warning hologram to mind the gap) and parallel perimeter storage grids. The grids allow for cargo boxes to “snap” to the bulkhead so they don’t roll around.

There is also a console at the front of the cargo bay that opens and closes the lift, as well as two operator stations for dual tractor beams mounted on the ceiling. Now, players can move cargo from a freight elevator into the lift, which can be brought up by the console operator, and two “trunk monkeys” can operate the tractor beams to move the cargo from the lift to the magnetic pads. Like a lot of features in Star Citizen, the more people you have working in a ship the more efficient it will be.

After replacing the medical module with the cargo module, I moved the Pisces out and the Salvation salvage ship in to the hangar. Here, I can take the Galaxy out to a salvage contract, scrape and crunch until the Salvation is full, then return to the Galaxy to off-load the boxes into the cargo hold. I can then take the Salvation back out until I’ve completed salvaging the entire contract, and not have to worry about leaving anything behind. Time is money, friend!

I had hoped to be able to fit the Salvation and the Golem mining vehicle in the hangar, but the Salvation is squat and wide while the Golem is tall and narrow. Both can fit into the hangar on their own, but can’t fit side-by-side, at least not comfortably; I’m not one of those players who will accept an ill-fitting configuration just for the sake of doing it. The good news is that we were able to get the new RSI Skylark and an MPUV tactor vehicle into the hangar in @CakedCrusader’s Galaxy.

The idea here being that I’d take a better salvager such as a Vulture to a site, scrape, crunch, and transfer the output to the Galaxy’s cargo bay, and the MPUV could collect all of the outside parts such as weapons, and maybe inside components. The Skylark is there just because we could.

Despite it’s size, the Galaxy handles really well, though not well enough to serve as even an introductory combat ship. The pilot has control of all three size 5 gun emplacements, so woe to any small fighter who strays into path of that light show. The problem is that small fighters are too fast to keep track of, which is why the Galaxy really needs at least two other players to man the port and starboard turrets; a third could control the ventral turret if a third person is available, and that’s the best case scenario. Otherwise, any player who grew up with space dog-fighting games will be used to trying to keep targets ahead of them because that’s where the firepower goes. In Star Citizen and with any crew controlling turrets, the pilot needs to realize that maneuvering the ship is not in the best interest of the gunners, as it screws up their ability to keep track of the targets. It’s really hard to just not do anything except fly in circles, essentially, so while the Galaxy’s size 5 guns are great, they’re just impractical unless fighting another, mostly stationary ship of the same class, or with a full crew taking over all three turrets.

The last module I picked up isn’t available yet, and that’s the refinery module. This module is really why I wanted the Galaxy, as I already have cargo and medical ships. Refinery modules will allow mining ships to offload their raw materials for processing. Currently, we have to take our raw goods to a refining station and use public facilities. Personal refiners aren’t in the game yet which is why the module is not yet available, but considering CIG has a habit of increasing prices over time, I figured I should pre-acquire this kit to ensure I have it when it goes live, and to get the best price on record.

I also picked up all four paints (three public, and one only available to Chairman’s Club members), because why not. In for a penny, in for a crap-load of store credit.