Worth Specialising

A balance pass on the cargo jets from v0.98. The first cut left a Coal Cargojet carrying barely half what the old Industrial Freighter carries, at up to three times the price. The freighter stays — it fills a hole vanilla always had, a mass cargo hauler anyone can fly — and every single-cargo jet now beats it by about a third on its own cargo, so specialising is worth the node.

What changed

• Bulk cargo jets carry the freighter's tonnage at a third more speed, for the freighter's price. A Coal Cargojet II lifts 163 tonnes at 758 km/h where the Industrial Freighter II lifts 163 at 568. Same purchase and running cost ladder, generation for generation.
• The fast jets keep their character. Goods, perishables, valuables and mail jets carry less and fly faster; measured as hold times speed they come out 30 to 40 percent ahead of the freighter on their cargo.
• The price fault is gone. Cargo jets were priced by a different pass from the freighter and paid two to three times as much for identical stats. They now share the freighter's price ladder.
• The sky cranes are untouched. Heavy lift, slow, at a premium, exactly as v0.98 set them.

The freighter's job

Vanilla never had a plane for coal, ore or grain. The Industrial Freighter is that plane, and it is deliberately not a specialist: it carries anything, it needs no cargo node, and it is what an Aviator flies before the talents arrive. The specialists are the reason to go and get them.