I honestly don't see any problem with the cargo ships. After probably doing every Dev mission this game has to offer several times, I can say I enjoy cargo ships more than warehouses and office buildings.
Sure, I can see people points. To each his own I guess. Certainly having a well written story arc helps me "get into" the missions but just because it is on a certain map hasn't and won't cause me to quit. It never did with the Dev's missions and it won't now.
Cargo ships are the greatest of tactical maps; I find them easily the most enjoyable of mission maps to move around in.
The ability to pull the "camera" back a long distance makes hovering/flying combat (as mentioned above) feasible without disorienting vertiginous camera shifts (as in low-ceilinged instances).
You can pull back your vision to maximum and lay out drops and AoEs to full effectiveness.
Superspeeders can zip in and out of combat without getting hung up on wall sconces and desks; combat jumpers can heroically bound onto the big containers and smack the bad guys in the face.
Most of all, you can see everything.
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its an ugly looong map that no matter how it spawns is ALWAYS the same size / length with only minor details differing...
(otth i remember 3-4 varieties but thats only due to running so many of them)
it also is a 'room' too big... and waay to many kill alls on this horrid map...
to describe this map in relative terms... the cake room aka room of doom is bad but only sometimes do you encounter it...
you always encounter the cargo ship map the same way
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Hmm, there are 5 variants for the cargo ship, most aren't really significantly different [and pretty much all have the same last room].
The cake room though? Really? The problem I have with the cake room isn't too big or boring, it's spawns that are a pita to get to with certain powersets.
Re Clave:
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After spending a LOOONG time trying to work out which maps work best for my first arc, I realized why people use the cargo ship map: laziness.
1) It is linear so you know the front/middle/back placements will work 100%
2) There aren't ten, fifteen versions of it to consider and have to test
3) It's also at the top of the list. 
At this point, I'm starting to think that seeing the cargo ship when I step into a mish is an instant sign of upcoming crapiness - but I will keep an open mind and not quit-right-there-and-one-star. Hm, that action needs a good acronym or slang term...
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Actually, 1 is wrong. Floor collection objects do not work well on any of the cargo ship maps. I just absolutely cannot get a floor-spawn collection item to show up in the last room [prolly the other reason I'm a bit "blah" about the size admittantly ].
[edit/add] Thank you for reminding me why I actually had temporarily set my cargo ship map to the long one too, was trying to find a way to force the floor collections to the last room.
And thank you, I forgot Striga. I've been playing Villain side for a while and had forgotten that Striga really heavily uses the cargo ship map.
Makes me wish the two room cargo ship map [I really wish I remember what mission I saw that in too] was available.
Let's Dance!
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Makes me wish the two room cargo ship map [I really wish I remember what mission I saw that in too] was available.
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I am hoping we eventually get the outdoor/indoor cargo ship map and the Villain's Longbow battleship map. More maps the merrier!
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I am hoping we eventually get the outdoor/indoor cargo ship map and the Villain's Longbow battleship map. More maps the merrier!
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Can't argue with that.
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I dont mind the map per-se, but I am seeing it being used a whole lot. Overexposure to the mpa is the issue.
The other one I see a lot of is the ruined AP, which has the double whammy of not having a functioning mini-map. Its my own over exposure to that map which has left me in a quandry, of using it in one of my own arcs. Its 'right' for story reasons, but I dont want folks to come in see the map, see the foes and quit with a 1 star.
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Which is making me rethink a mission concept (my first idea, actually). I was going to open with intercepting a shipment of military grade explosives and end with ruined AP (even had a good narrative to go with it). Agh!
But after playing through several missions using the cargo ship -- and now seeing your comments about ruined AP -- maybe I just need to scrap that storyline or drastically revamp it.
Personally, I'm hoping the devs give a truly "small" cargo ship map. Maybe just have the first "room" that the current long ship maps have. From a plot perspective, I needed a ship for one of my arcs, but I don't need a big one. In fact, a small ship would fit my plot better.
Some people in this thread have mentioned a problem with objects spawning properly in ship maps. In my ship-arc, I have run through the map dozens of times and never had something not spawn (I use floor objects). If you want, I can look up which map I use when I get home to my game machine.
I blame Stephanie Peebles.
Chill.
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50's: Jennifer Halloween, DM/DA Scrapper; Black Peet, 50 DM/WP Brute; Siansha, Soldier; Miss Terie, Elec/Dark Corrupter