The reasons for choosing one DST over another vary from player to player, depending on the type of delivery to be made and the difficulties to be overcome.
I’d like to suggest a slight modification that could provide some interesting additional gameplay, by influencing the choice of the type of DST you’re going to train for: give a 100% cargo bonus when you transport ships of the same lineage as the DST.
For example, if you use a mastodon, you could get a 100% cargo bonus if you transport other Minmatar ships. This would mean that you could - for example - transport 12 rapiers instead of the current 6. (at Transport ship skill level 4). But if you transport Arazu, you would be limited to 6 as at present.)
The logic would be to say that the way in which ships are packaged is linked to their lineage, and that it’s normal to have an advantage when transporting ships of the same lineage as the DST.
This could be extended to other industrial vessels along the same lines. For example, it would be possible to transport an occator in a viator, opening up new gameplay possibilities in deep space.
I really don’t think they need anything and they’re fine as they are. If anything were to be added, as the more “combat-oriented” variety of haulers, bonuses related to combat would make a bit more sense IMO.
Just basic stuff like turret/launcher hardpoints, drone bays, damage role bonuses, etc. that they can use to fight back, but probably nothing tank-related since they’re already tanky enough as they are.
Expanding their carrying capacity… I’m not so sure about. Hauling close to 70k m3 between fleet hangar and cargo is already pretty crazy for a medium sized hull. In terms of pure cargo/fleet hangar capacity and not counting maintenance/mining holds, the large sized Orca can haul just under 80k m3 while being far less capable of surviving a gatecamp than a DST.
Personally, I’d rather just see some new large-sized industrials get released.
I’m thinking haulers that can last longer and contribute in combat, but can’t use interdiction nullifiers so they can’t get away from a fight as easily as a deep space transport can. Something like “Combat Supply Ships” that are large sized between battleships and orca. Something like:
Combat Supply Ships
similar mid/low slot layout to battleships, but with fewer high slots and only 2 or 3 hardpoints
~ 175k m3 fleet hangar baseline
5k m3 cargo bay
25 m3/mbit drones (50 instead for gallente)
50k m3 ship maintenance bay
Frigate escape bay
Empire traits for respective industrial skill for increased fleet hangar and cargo capacity, and provides 7.5%-37.5% (based on skill level) faster reload speeds on all ammo and charges for fleet members within 100 km. Does not stack with other nearby Combat Supply Ships.
Role bonus for 100% shield extenders, 50% armor plates, 5% reinforced bulkheads
Role bonus for 70% reduction in micro jump drive reactivation delay.
Role bonus: can fit cargo transfer link module
New module: Cargo Transfer Link
Can only be fit by Combat Supply Ships
Can only fit 1 Cargo Transfer Link at a time
Activation of the module (15 sec per cycle) on a locked target within range (up to 50 km) creates a matter transference beam that connects between the ships, causing charges and boosters you jettison to be immediately transferred to the target’s cargo bay instead of appearing in a cargo container. Transferred cargo will not trigger the cargo jettison cooldown. If the target does not have space for the items in their cargo bay, the jettison attempt will fail. Only ammo, nanites, cap boosters, other charges, and combat boosters can be transferred via Cargo Transfer Link. Default Cargo Transfer assistance from other capsuleers can be disabled in the settings, if so desired.
I too enjoy loading giant secure containers on my orca or haulers to overfill it with junk. I’d like to see some new expanded containers like… Enormous Secure Container that takes up 10k m3 and holds 13k m3, and Colossal Secure Container that takes up 50k and holds 70k m3.
That way we’ve got the whole reverse-alphabetical size scale in order: Small for 20% gain Medium for 20% gain Large for 20% gain Huge for 30% gain Giant for 30% gain Enormous 30% gain Colossal 40% gain