I’ve been playing eve for ten years now give or take and my love for it only grows, today while drone mining in my first Orca (I only recently pursued a mining career), I was struck with a vision that might create new gameplay mechanics and more fun.
A new class of tier II ship.
This new class of ship could be called “extractors” or a more functional name could be “covert drone miners”
Please do not dismiss me at this point as a simple carebear looking for an OP upgrade.
even though I am a simple carebear.
The first available ship in this new class could be called “Belugar” to keep with the oceanic mammal theme, and would be based on the Orca hull with some cosmetic and many substantial differences as follows;
Extractor ships bonuses (per skill level)
5% bonus to all shield resistances
15% bonus to drone damage, hit points and ore mining yield
15% reduction to drone ice harvesting cycle time
5% bonus to capacitor recharge rate
5% bonus to shield recharge rate
Role Bonuses
150% bonus to drone ore mining yield
30% reduction to drone ice harvesting cycle time
150% bonus to drone damage
90% reduction to effective distance travelled for jump fatigue
Can fit covert ops cloaking device
High slots 2
Mid slots 6
Low slots 5
As well as sacrificing the ability to provide fleet boosts, and four high slots, it would have no need for a fleet hanger or ship maintenance bay, allowing for a much bigger ore hold.
This ship is (if you haven’t guessed already) would be the final word in solo mining. It’s just a shame there is no way it could mine with drones while cloaked, but that would be OP. I think it would create some very interesting games of “cat and very big mouse” outside of hisec, or even in hisec during a wardec.
Most people would take advantage of the capacitor bonus and fit a heavy neut in the free high slot.
Most people would take a mix of shield power relays and nanofiber internal structures in the low slots.
I’m used to being shot down in flames in game and in forums but be gentle, what do you think?
A cloak will not save you, comman falsehood of new players. This will be a costly ship that players will fly solo, which you should not be doing with costly ships, and then complain when killed.
Since it’s covert ops, the drone yield/damage should be 100% bonus, with a 5% bonus per level and a 15% reduction to ice harvesting cycle time and a 5% reduction per level.
If the covert ops version of the orca is better than the regular orca, why bother with the orca at all?
First off, you think that a cloaky miner is a good idea. There are already a couple of Venture variants that can cloak, and neither one is worth a damn. Because as you said, you cannot mine while cloaked. Which means you can sneak into enemy territory, and then take up orbit around an asteroid and remain a sitting duck for the next half hour while you mine. And in this case, you’re a really big sitting duck b/c you’re a big fat Orca instead of a little tiny frigate.
Also…
These are the mining values according to Pyfa, fitting the most lasers and mining upgrades, onto the most commonly used solo miners. Ships that are capable of performing the job by themselves, without a support fleet.
As you can see, the Orca falls squarely in the middle. Better than a “hobbyist” miner, but not as good as a “career” miner. Drone only mining is nowhere near as productive, and it really makes you look like a lazy ■■■■ who doesn’t want to work for anything.
However, just looking at the bonuses and the slot layout you’ve suggested, what you’re really after is a better version of the Gallente Sin Black Ops. You want a drone boat that can actually use a CovOps cloak (Black Ops are the redheaded stepchildren of the Covert family). You’ve got a straight 150% bonus to drone damage, plus an additional 75% from skill.
So good on you for making a semi-capital sized, shield tanking, Black Ops drone boat. But it’s a shitty idea for a solo mining craft.
well i wanted to pvp in an orca but it kinda sucks because there is not enough pg for a prop mod and even if it had a prop mod it would still be too slow
so it kinda sucks it gets surprise 700 dps with hammerheads but cant even tackle anything
if this hull is based on an orca its still gonna suck for pvp activities
I’ll take that, but I think with improved native bonuses to drone mining and a huge ore hold it would be a good solo miner, you just trade off size and vulnerability against it’s improved defences.
Give it agility and speed of a frigate and make tank bonus like additional 10% across all resistances and put it into store for PLEX. Aha, and bump and scramble immunity.
Yeah, that’s pretty obvious and why none will take this seriously. If you want to add a new ship it needs a special role and the role “efficient mining ship” is already taken by the Exhumer class. Power creep is just bad and you should feel bad for suggesting it.
What niche are you talking about? It has to specialize on something other than efficient mining, so whatever else it is doing it has yo be at least worse than the worst Exhumer.
the whole reason I bought an orca was because I felt limited by the size of the orehold, even on a mackinaw.
I don’t feel the need to boost fleets or carry other ships. niche?
Why not the Cuckoo Wrasse, or the Conger Eel, or the Box Jellyfish, or the Slipper Limpet? Just what IS it with you and the blatant mammal favoritism? I mean really? It’s 2018 ffs.
Take your arrogant, Eocene mentality and shove it up your blow hole.
Yeah, limitations are there for a reason. And seriously you can mine with a Mack forever until the hold is full.
To not have something is not a niche. Also the Mackinaw has no boots too. Why would anyone still use the Mack if there is this super Orca which does every single thing better?
