The Problem
Exploration PvP is almost entirely Astero vs Astero or Astero vs Free Kill. No affordable ship can match an Astero’s ability to simultaneously conduct PvP and exploration. Ships which could contest the Astero are limited to the Pacifier (110mil+) and AT CovOps (400bil+). This, against the good sporting spirit of EVE, creates a stagnant scope of content for people looking to PvP in the exploration environment without scaling up to Cruisers, at which point there are more options but much less content.
The Solution
A new line of racial T2 frigates, which are true spiritual successors to T1 explo frigates, in that they are equipped with offensive systems as well as exploration systems.
In each race, every T2 ship is a complete upgrade of the T1 version, with one exception: Covert Ops frigates. In every race, T2 CovOps ships are completely defanged and severely limited in their uses, limited to being purely loot-and-run ships. Even in this, they are far excelled by the Astero and Pacifier. Another way that T1 exploration frigates are betrayed by their T2 counterparts is that there is only one option to choose from - which completely removes the potential for the other aspects of these ships to shine in T2.
We could kill two birds with one stone by creating T2 exploration-PvP frigates like the Astero requiring these T1 ships in the blueprints. They could be called something like Infiltration Frigates. An example would look something like this:
Gallente Infiltration Frigate
Structure HP: 685
33% all structure resistances
Armor HP: 600
50% EM / 35% TH / 45% KN / 10% EX
Shield HP: 385
0% EM / 20% TH / 50% KN / 50% EX
Cargo Capacity: 200 m3
Drone Capacity: 50 m3
Drone Bandwidth: 20 Mbit/s
CPU: 225
PG: 30
3 High Slots with 1 Turret hardpoint
4 Med Slots
5 Low Slots
Signature Radius: 39
Inertia Modifier: 3.25
Mass: 1,000,000 kg
Maximum Velocity: 310 m/s
Warp Speed: 6 AU/s
Role bonus:
10+ bonus to Relic and Data Analyzer Virus Strength
50% reduction in Cloaking Device CPU requirements
90% reduced targeting delay after decloaking
Cloak reactivation delay reduced to 10 seconds
Gallente Frigate bonuses (per skill level):
10% bonus to Small Hybrid Turret damage and tracking speed
10% bonus to Light Drone damage and Hitpoints
Infiltration Frigate bonuses (per skill level):
15% reduction in Cloaking Devices CPU requirement
7.5% bonus to the strength of Core and Combat scanner probes
5% bonus to Armor Repairer amount
Compare to the Astero’s stats:
Structure HP: 600
33% all structure resistances
Armor HP: 600
50% EM / 35% TH / 35% KN / 10% EX
Shield HP: 540
0% EM / 20% TH / 40% KN / 50% EX
Cargo Capacity: 210 m3
Drone Capacity: 75 m3
Drone Bandwidth: 25 Mbit/s
CPU: 170
PG: 32
2 High Slots with 2 Turret hardpoint
4 Med Slots
4 Low Slots
Signature Radius: 35
Inertia Modifier: 2.87
Mass: 975,000 kg
Maximum Velocity: 312 m/s
Warp Speed: 5 AU/s
Role bonus:
100% reduction in Cloaking Device CPU requirements
Can fit Covert Ops Cloaking Device
Cloak reactivation delay reduced to 15 seconds
10+ bonus to Relic and Data Analyzer Virus Strength
37.5% bonus to Core and Combat Scanner Probe strength
Gallente Frigate bonuses (per skill level):
20% bonus to Drone hitpoints
Amarr Frigate bonuses (per skill level):
4% bonus to all armor resistances
I picked the Gallente race to demonstrate this concept because the T2 Imicus would be the most similar to the Astero, so if I could clearly indicate that a T2 gallente explo ship could be made without it being a direct copy of the Astero, then other races could accomplish this even easier.
I look forward to one day being able to fight an Astero in a ship that isn’t an Astero and doesn’t cost twice as much as an Astero and having a moderately level playingfield, stats-wise.
I look forward to the day when I engage another explorer in combat, the only question of the fight won’t be whether his Astero can rep more hp/s than my Astero’s drone dps.