Greetings all. Ive been playing 15 years and im pretty much burned out and tired of the null blocc bs, the blobs, the politics, as well as a few other aspects youll find anywhere in Eve. Now that im older and have a much busier personal life, and have “been there, done that” in the game, i find myself wanting to go back to the days where i played eve on my terms, it didnt feel like such a job or a chore at times, and it was just pure fun!! Im considering selling off my characters and creating/injecting an Orca pilot and spending the rest of my Eve days living the space nomad life! Id carry a few different ships with me to suit my needs and home is where ever id log off!
But, what is the future of the Orca?! Ive heard and read here and there that its going to get nerfed/changed?!
I would bet that unless you plan on AFK mining in it, the nerfs wont impact you much. On a live stream, the comment was made that they were going to put them back in their place. I assume that they are going to nerf mining amount or maybe drone mining mechanics so that they go back to being boosting/support ships instead of primary mining ships.
I heard it was a rumor my self. Honestly I do believe CCP will do SOMETHING to the orca. nerf/buff. Who knows but I’m positive the orca will be changed. I do support the fact they should be boosting/support ships. I believe they are my self. Orca doesn’t pull in more ore then a t2 exhumer would.(check me on that)
They won’t remove maintenance bay and as far I can tell you only care about it.
Nomad living in WH from orca FTW! Done for almost year. Best and most exiting times in my EVE career. But all that scanning and rolling, takes hours per day before you even start making any isk and you need few alts.
The (unpopular) problem I have always had with the Orca is that they tried to make a jack of all trades out of it.
Its good at boosting and hauling, but not at the same time since you have to leave the fleet if you are hauling. So anymore than a couple of miners, and you end up hauling more than boosting.
Its good as a small mobile base. But again, any more than a couple of miners and it can no longer hold spare ships.
Now the problem is that it is a good enough miner than its cargo hold significantly out shines the mackinaw and its tank out shines the skiff. Which makes the little less that it mines per hour not as big of a deal.
The future of YOUR nomad wandering orca is to die in a fire on day 2 - 3, unless you stick to hisec avoiding ganker spots and keeping a good sitational awareness.
Class one could be a booster/ore hauler like it was in the beginning.
Class two could be a support/ore hauler, no ship bay or maintenance bay. Give it the support role of repping armor, shields, and cap. Give enough cap and CPU sp that it can rep 4 or 5 ships at the same time.
Class 3 could be the combat/fleet command support role. It could support fleets with command burst and hold extra ships but not be able to haul ore. Give the extra space to holding more ships and keep the maintenance bay so ships in the fleet could refit on the fly.
Maybe give them a fleet bonus that only works if all 3 classes of Orcas are in the same fleet.
How about a different distinction, a Miasmos, Porpoise and Orca?
One specialized in hauling, one specialized in cheap boosting, storing ore and support and one specialized in expensive boosting, storing ore and support, as well as a ship maintenance bay?
There are a lot of options already and the Orca is not always the answer. I don’t see why we should split up this one ship when you can already fit it for the different purposes you mention.
Would be nice to see the Orca and the other mining ships get overhauled to where they are a pseudo tech 3 class of ships, only instead of subsystems, they retain the current slot layouts while gaining bonuses, utility, etc. via specialized rigs.
The Orca, for example, could be fit with drone mining rigs, but would lose it’s ability to boost and it’s ore hold would be just 10% of it’s base size. A fleet orca would use rigs that allow for boosting, ore storage, and the ship maintenance bay, but could also be configured to forego the ship maint. bay in exchange for a compression array.
The same could be done with exhumers and barges. Configure them for yield, tank, capacity, etc.
But… “legacy code” etc. will keep that from ever happening, even if it’s the best idea ever (which it likely isn’t).
While t3 miners is a nice dream, I cannot understand the part about doing subsystems differently. T3 works the way T3 works and you could get just about everything you want using T3 basics exactly as they are.
That said, be careful what you wish for. Its highly unlikely CCP would actually give you more utility out of the Orca for making it T3. What they would do is nerf it and then you would have skill up, spend isk and refit just to regain what you lost.
T3 in general is associated with more power, etc. It could fall under T3, yes, and it would be fine by me, but I was thinking more of mining ships (frigates, barges, exhumers, etc.) becoming their own class of ship utilizing something akin to the T3 subsystems without having to completely re-make the ships. Instead just move all their bonuses, etc. to new rigs that use the current hulls as they are.
Forget the T3 mining, and splitting up the orca into multiple specialized roles. Bring the rorqual to hisec. Make the PANIC module not function in hisec. Remove the ability to use any mining drones. I’d say Any. Leave the orca alone. Let the big boy be the true king of boosting and mining fleet support in all corners of New Eden.
Oh if you want, make the same rules for Upwell structures apply, to undock, you MUST be in a player corp. Makes them valuable war targets.
You can’t drop an Upwell structure unless you’re in a player corp. Apply the same for undocking a rorqual. And rorquals were introduced long before the economy was “ruined”. It was harvester drones and the PANIC module. I suggested removing all that as well. Make them strictly boosters and ore collectors.