# Breaking The Astero vs Astero Meta - New T2 Frigates for Exploration **URL:** \ **Category:** Player Features & Ideas\ **Created:** [February 13, 2020, 1:08am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/breaking-the-astero-vs-astero-meta-new-t2-frigates-for-exploration/219431 "2020-02-13T01:08:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Viktor\_Desrosiers](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/viktor_desrosiers/32/180007_2.png) [@Viktor\_Desrosiers](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Viktor_Desrosiers)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 1:08am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/breaking-the-astero-vs-astero-meta-new-t2-frigates-for-exploration/219431/1 "2020-02-13T01:08:49Z")
**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. ---
**Author:** ![Scoots\_Choco](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/scoots_choco/32/262262_2.png) [@Scoots\_Choco](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Scoots_Choco)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 1:10am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/breaking-the-astero-vs-astero-meta-new-t2-frigates-for-exploration/219431/2 "2020-02-13T01:10:30Z")
Nah, let’s not. ---
**Author:** ![Xeux](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/xeux/32/428022_2.png) [@Xeux](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Xeux)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 5:32am UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/breaking-the-astero-vs-astero-meta-new-t2-frigates-for-exploration/219431/4 "2020-02-13T05:32:37Z")
Surely you have to include Tech 3 Cruisers in your list of exploration/combat ships. ---
**Author:** ![Bronson\_Hughes](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/bronson_hughes/32/189075_2.png) [@Bronson\_Hughes](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Bronson_Hughes)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 1:00pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/breaking-the-astero-vs-astero-meta-new-t2-frigates-for-exploration/219431/5 "2020-02-13T13:00:38Z")
I can kind of see where you’re coming from, but why exactly are you limiting yourself to frigates only? You’ve got the Stratios and T3 cruisers, and if you’re willing to forgo the covert cloak the SoCT line of ships make fine combat exploration ships as well. -1. You’ve got a solution looking for a problem. The diversity you seek already exists, you have just artificially excluded yourself from it. ---
**Author:** ![Salt\_Foambreaker](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/salt_foambreaker/32/280119_2.png) [@Salt\_Foambreaker](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Salt_Foambreaker)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 5:57pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/breaking-the-astero-vs-astero-meta-new-t2-frigates-for-exploration/219431/6 "2020-02-13T17:57:11Z")
Also, and it has been a few years, I once fitted out both ships and the T2 ship had better scan, so there are (were?) tradeoffs. -1 ---
**Author:** ![Xeux](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/xeux/32/428022_2.png) [@Xeux](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Xeux)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/breaking-the-astero-vs-astero-meta-new-t2-frigates-for-exploration/219431/7 "2020-02-13T18:00:35Z")
You can also explore in an interceptor if you want a rush. ---
**Author:** ![DuuurtyDreemz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/duuurtydreemz/32/283782_2.png) [@DuuurtyDreemz](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/DuuurtyDreemz)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2020, 4:05pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/breaking-the-astero-vs-astero-meta-new-t2-frigates-for-exploration/219431/8 "2020-02-15T16:05:12Z")
> The diversity you seek already exists, you have just artificially excluded yourself from it. this ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/original/3X/4/1/41ec4921cbaca7a6f9ea556e7cc20018461eae5e.png) [@system](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2020, 4:05pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/breaking-the-astero-vs-astero-meta-new-t2-frigates-for-exploration/219431/9 "2020-05-15T16:05:13Z")
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