Hello folks! This thread will serve as the discussion point for a new ship scheduled for the upcoming March release: the Monitor-class Flag Cruiser.
The goal of the Flag Cruiser class is to provide a new specialized tool for fleet commanders in large battles to counter “headshotting” tactics. This is an idea we first heard from players and we’ve been discussing it with the community for quite some time now. After allowing the concept to percolate for a while with the community we have now heard quite a few fleet commanders express favourable views of the idea and we’re planning to release the ship this March.
As an anti-headshotting tool for fleet commanders, the Monitor has two key functions it must fill to meet its role:
- First and foremost, this ship must be extremely survivable in large fleet combat situations. It shouldn’t be impossible to kill but it needs to have strong enough defenses to significantly change the calculation for opposing fleets when they are deciding whether to headshot hostile FCs.
- The ship must also be able to stay with its fleet and lock targets reliably so the FC can maintain situational awareness of relative ranges between their fleet and other groups of ships and keep track of the health of primary/secondary/tertiary targets.
This ship is intended to fulfill these two functions extremely well at the expense of all other functions.
For survivability, the Monitor combines similar EHP to a command ship (including across the board 90% resists that increase to 92% with the ship skill) with signature radius values closer to frigates (and a 70% resistance to target painters).
For locking targets, the Monitor has a base lock range of 250km (before skills), 12 locked targets, and the best base scan resolution of any mass-produced cruiser. It also enjoys complete immunity to ECM (including your own fleet’s ECM drones) and a 70% resistance to sensor dampeners.
The Monitor can also keep up with virtually all BC and BS fleets and many slower cruiser fleets, thanks to cruiser-class mobility and the ability to fit ABs, MWDs, and MJDs.
In exchange for these extreme benefits the Monitor also has some extreme limitations to keep it balanced. It has no cargo bay, drone bay, or weapons. It can only fit propulsion modules. These limitations are designed to ensure that the Monitor does not become a problem in other areas of the game, and to prevent it from becoming the “default” FCing ship to be used in all circumstances. We want there to always be multiple good choices to make between different ships for any given role, so it’s important that the Monitor take its place alongside the other options instead of completely eclipsing them.
The Monitor is the first capsuleer-accessible ship produced by the CDIA division of CONCORD. It is also the first ship in a new T2 Cruiser group known as “Flag Cruisers”. Like the Enforcer Recon Ship before it, the Monitor requires all four racial cruiser skills at level 1 as well as the T2 ship skill at level 1. Training each of those skills to higher levels provides separate bonuses connected with their faction. The Flag Cruisers skill is a new rank 8 skill with Willpower/Perception as primary and secondary attributes respectiely.
The Monitor will have a similar cost to Command Ships, with T2 materials as build inputs and with BPCs sourced from the CONCORD LP stores at reasonable prices.
Here’s the stats currently planned for this new ship:
MONITOR
Amarr Cruiser bonuses per skill level:
5% bonus to ship armor hitpoints
Caldari Cruiser bonuses per skill level:
5% bonus to ship shield hitpoints
Gallente Cruiser bonuses per skill level:
5% bonus to ship agility
Minmatar Cruiser bonuses per skill level:
5% reduction in ship signature radius
Flag Cruisers bonuses per skill level:
4% bonus to all armor, shield, and hull resistances
Role Bonus:
Can use Medium Micro Jump Drive modules
99% reduction in powergrid and cpu requirements for Afterburner, Microwarpdrive and Micro Jump Drive modules
99.9% reduction in powergrid and cpu requirements for Scan Probe Launcher and Target Painter modules
300% bonus to Target Painter optimal range
99% reduction in Target Painter effectiveness
100% resistance to ECM effects
70% resistance to sensor dampener, target painter, energy neutralizer, and energy nosferatu effects
Slot layout: 1H, 3M, 0L; 0 turrets, 0 launchers
0 Rig Slots, 0 Calibration
Fittings: 3 PWG, 1 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 9000 / 9000 / 2000
Base shield resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 90 / 90 / 90 / 90
Base armor resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 90 / 90 / 90 / 90
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / average cap per second) : 5000 / 500s / 10
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 220 / 0.6 / 16,000,000 / 13.31s
Warp Speed: 3.3 au/s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 250km / 400 / 12
Sensor strength: 20 Gravimetric
Signature radius: 40
Cargo capacity: 0
Ammo bay capacity: 10 m3
The Monitor will be available for testing on our Singularity test server starting later this week.
Let us know what you think!
Q&A:
-
This ship seems extremely niche
Yup! The goal here is to add a new option for FCs who are concerned enough about headshotting that they are willing to make other sacrifices in order to combat it. We don’t expect this to become an extremely commonly used ship, but we do think that it will be very useful to the very small number of people who do need it and that small group of people helps provide content for many others. -
Why no cargo bay?
For a ship with such strong defenses we wanted to avoid it becoming too powerful for hauling small volume items. -
Why no command bursts?
We want to ensure that any ship providing utility roles is vulnerable. We also don’t want this ship to become the “default” FCing ship and therefore reduce player choice. The fact that other ships may be more attractive to FC from in any given fight because of the utility they provide through probes or bursts is completely intended.