TL:DR - Exploration Capital Ships, Unique resources in WH space, PI “Farms”
I recently went with some friends into WH space to do an extended camping trip. While we were there we discussed how it was a unique and fun experience to move our POS to a new hole every few days so as to keep getting new sites and new experiences. We learned a lot of lessons, some more expensive than others.
Lesson 1: Dont fly something expensive when something cheap will do.
- We lost a Nestor and 2 Rattlesnakes, Torp/Missile Ravens and Hyperions would have worked 10% worse and cost 60% less.
Lesson 2: Move often.
- Staying in a hole for several days at a time caused us to be completing the sites faster than they would spawn, leaving us with less content to do in the imaginary safe space of our hole.
- Expand your area of operation to include holes that are near by.
- Use a WH mapping tool like Tripwire to help keep your friends aware of the holes that are near by and potential isk making opportunities.
-Do not undervalue scouts/hacking site pilots. The information they bring to the table is invaluable to the rest of your group
Lesson 3: POS Life is fun.
- The POS we brought with us gave us the opportunity to have a safe place to store our loot and reships. We were able to set up and break down in about 30 minutes. Having the shield to hide inside of when we stepped away for a few minutes really helped us to feel like we were sitting in the safe light of our camp fire while the shadowy dangers of WH space were all around us. My personal experience was so positive that this has become the ideal way to play the game in my mind and left me thinking of ways to get other people involved in it too.
Lesson 4: Logistics is King, and you live and die by his whim.
- Based on the amount of stuff we were able to carry with us in a Bustard and a Nereus, we were easily able to establish our POS, the modules, and put our reships and the extra fits for them into the hangar. Once we started mining gas, Mercoxit, and other assorted loot, moving all of our stuff quickly became a problem.
- Bring an Orca or bring several large capacity Indy ships to hold all your stuff when your Caravan moves. An Orca can double down as a repair station with 1 of each large remote repair system, allowing you to easily fix damaged drones and ships.
Recommendations 1: Exploration Capital Ship.
- Given that POS’s are being removed from the game, and an Orca does not have a shield, I think that it would be a great idea to have a Rorqual style ship that can enter WH space, deploy into “support mode”, and then provide some of the same functions that the POS modules provided in the past, chief among those being the defensive bubble. I think that this could be further customized by using a system similar to the T3 Cruiser hulls, where by different sub system pieces can be installed in order to achieve different effects when deployed. For instance, a repair system that would cause pilots in range, when not in combat, to be repaired. Or a Mineral system that would compress and store minerals for you. A different module can “Bottle” compressed gas. The ship can be much stronger than a Rorqual when deployed, but have less resilience than a POS. Use a system of weapons platforms similar to a POS to protect it.
Recommendation 2: Mobile PI Farms.
- I think that it would be a great addition to the WH Nomad experience if one of the options for that Capital Exploration Ship, or some other kind of deployable module, would be to deploy a platform that acted in a similar way to PI. The Ship its self could provide the access to the planet, bring the resources up, and manufacture PI materials locally to be shipped out of the hole along with any other loot and goodies that adventurers may find, or tactically acquire from Sleepers and other players. It would be very interesting, and push people towards this style of play, if there were some sort of resource that was particularly valuable in production that could be acquired this way.
These are just some ideas that I had and tips I wanted to share with other people who are on the fence about WH life, or curious about other ways to get content there.