A little thing for the Noctis

[John_Amton]

The Problem

Well, I’ll save you the writeup and take for granted that any Noctis can be replaced by an MTU and a salvage-fit destroyer for 1/5th of the cost.

The Possible Solution

I’d not alter the ship itself too much, it is good in its current state in regards of tank and pricing.
It does, however, lack Scan Resolution to quickly lock on wrecks and process them.

Therefore it makes sense to increase the Scan Resolution to a value of 200mm, which is enough for the ship to be on-par with the locking speed of a generic destroyer.

Inspiration

If you look at the way the barges are designed, they can fit equipment which is way better than the equipment you can fit to standard issue vessels, but this is not the case with salvage- and tractoring modules.

Following this thought, the introduction of a hull-specific module is a logical consequence.

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The Hook!

It combines the functionality of a tractor beam and a salvager whilst having an increased Activation Cost in conjunction with raised powergrid- and CPU requirements.

When activating the module on a wreck, the following should happen:

• wreck is tractored towards the activating ship and simultaneously attempted to be salvaged
• if the wreck was successfully salvaged and contained loot, the respective items are jettisoned
• the newly created can is directly locked by the module (in other words: the module is activated on the newly created can without being locked by the ship) and tractored towards the ship
• once the can is within 2 500m of the ship, it is automatically looted if the ship has sufficient space in its cargo

To make sure that it is not overpowered, the hook’s accessibility modifier is range-depending, using an optimal- and falloff range.

The Hook is supposed to behave as follows:

• Within Optimal + Falloff Range:
  • The targeted wreck is attempted to be salvaged
  • The wreck is being tractored towards the ship
  • If the wreck is close enough to the ship, it is automatically looted in case the ship’s cargo allows for this
• Outside of Optimal- + Falloff Range:

  • The targeted wreck will not be attempted to salvage and not be tractored towards the ship. A respective HUD warning will be displayed:

    Cannot activate {Hook}: The targeted wreck needs to be within {Optimal + Falloff} m

Atrributes

Attribute	T1	T2
Access Difficulty Bonus	5%	7%
Tractor Velocity	500m/s	600m/s
Cycle time	10 seconds
Optimal	5km	6km
Falloff	15km	18km
Activation Cost	25 GJ
Limited to Ship	Noctis

Fitting

• CPU: 34TF || 40TF
• PG: 20MW || 24MW

• Rigging: Affected by salvage tackles

Requirements

• T1

  Skill	Level
  Science	III
  Salvaging	I

• T2

  Skill	Level
  Science	V
  Salvaging	V

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The Noctis

Additionally to the currently present traits of the ship, the following changes would be needed:

• Attributes:

  • Scan Resolution: 250mm

• Role bonus:

  • Can fit Hook salvage-modules

• ORE Industrial (per skill level)

  • 2% bonus to Hook Access Difficulty Bonus
  • 60% bonus to Hook optimal- and falloff range
  • 71% bonus to Hook tractor speed
  • 10% reduction in Hook duration
  • 3% reduction of Hook activation Cost

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Example fitting:

[Noctis, Hooks with max Scna Res skill]
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II
Expanded Cargohold II

50MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Sensor Booster II

Hook I / II
Hook I / II
Hook I / II
Hook I / II
Hook I / II
Hook I / II
Hook I / II
Hook I / II

Medium Salvage Tackle II
Medium Salvage Tackle II
Medium Salvage Tackle II

Scan Resolution Script x1

Stats:

• Ship

  Attribute	Value
  PG	296MW
  CPU	331TF
  Scan Resolution	400mm

• Hook I:

  Attribute	I	II	III	IV	V
  Access Difficulty Bonus	7%	9%	11%	13%	15%
  Activation Cost	24,25GJ	23,5GJ	22,75GJ	22,0GJ	21,25GJ
  Optimal Range	8km	11km	14km	17km	20km
  Falloff Range	24km	33km	42km	51km	60km
  Tractor Velocity	855m/s	1210m/s	1565m/s	1920m/s	2275m/s

• Hook II:

  Attribute	I	II	III	IV	V
  Access Difficulty Bonus	9%	11%	13%	15%	17%
  Activation Cost	24,25GJ	23,5GJ	22,75GJ	22,0GJ	21,25GJ
  Optimal Range	9,6km	13,2km	16,8km	20,4km	24km
  Falloff Range	28,8km	39,6km	50,4km	61,2km	72km
  Tractor Velocity	1026m/s	1452m/s	1878m/s	2304m/s	2730m/s

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Conclusion

With the above mentioned changes in mind, I think that the noctis could potentially live up to its supposed role due to the fact that no other ship is as easily to handle for salvaging (it’s lock and activate module, then repeat when done) and neither could any other subcapital tractor “cargo” as fast as the noctis could!

Thanks for reading!

[John_Amton]

(reserved)

[Do_Little]

Noctis predates MTU and should be rebalanced to provide a meaningful choice. I don’t think we need a new module.

Increasing the tractor range/velocity bonus to 100%/level instead of the current 60% would make it far superior to the MTU for gathering wrecks. A 2% or 3% / level access difficulty bonus for the salvager would make it far superior to a destroyer for salvaging.

Last but not least - if CCP can find room for a 50K m3 ore hold in the Porpoise - which is the same platform - we should be able to do a bit better than 1.5K m3 for the Noctis! I don’t see this as a serious limitation but a larger hold - say 3K m3 would increase the flexibility of the ship and I don’t see a downside.

[Kiddoomer]

A bit more agility wouldn’t wreck balance too much with that boost to the scan resolution.
It’s too much of a fat brick easily popped, while a destroyer is really cheaper.

[Anderson_Geten]

@Do_Little

A 2% or 3% / level access difficulty bonus for the salvager would make it far superior to a destroyer for salvaging.

not really. The real increase is max target allowed and salvage speed. As soon as you are around 50% chance to salvage, you need less than 2 cycles average to salvage, thus you need to target things faster than your salvager cycles (ctrl drag does not always work ) otherwise you are just losing time. a gain of 5pctpt would be completely irrelevant.

[Salt_Foambreaker]

Different tack, if the MTU is a viable option to replace a ship then it should be nerfed.