I waste so much time on useless things, like thinking of new type of ships that could be fun to have in Eve. I’m more of a solo type, non combat player, except for some pve. So logically the ships I create in my mind are gonna reflect this type of game play. Of all the ships I have created in my mind, this is by far my favorite one…until I think of a cooler one, hehe. Anyways here it is.
Just the title says a lot: Explorer Small Mothership, or ESM. Pretty sure someone else has posted similar ideas, so not saying this is a unique idea.
As basic lore, I was thinking that both Ore and SOE corporations would be partners in the creation of this ship. But i got to admit that I have no idea what is the in game lore between these two corporations. So for the sake of this topic, they are best friends.
In this partnership, both corporations need to expand their horizon in the exploration and exploitation of WH and other dangerous sectors. In their discussions they notice that they have a common obstacle; having to travel back and forth in dangerous zones is very risky. So having the ability to enter a high risk sector, explore and exploit and come back out safely is their solution and their mission.
So after years and years of research and billions and billions of isk invested, they have created a ship with the code name, ‘‘Mrs. Doubtfire’’. The first ever ESM (Explorer Small Mothership)
In other words this would be a small mobile base for explorers. An industrial/transport ship with very specific advantages.
The Good
- Cargo Hold 20k m3
- Ore Hold 200k m3 (Can hold ore, gas and PI materials)
- Can dock up to 4 frigates to the ESM, and only frigates. I see it more as having ships being attached
to the ESM instead of having a ship maintenance bay. - About the size as an Orca, but is much more agile. (Good align time, high warp speed)
- Can enter in C1-C2 WH.
- Can align while cloaked. But any warp or sub-warp movement get it out of cloak. Helps it get to its
destination safely. Except for bubbles…then there is not much that can be done to save it.
The Bad
- Very weak defenses. It is big, but needs to be agile.
- No drones capacity
- No offensive capacities whatsoever
- Takes many skills to get into. Its a very complex ship, so skills entry cost should be very high.
- Expensive, at least 1bil isk. This is an ‘‘end game’’ type ship.
The Beautiful
- This ship can be anchored, like a big mobile depot. Instead of 1 minute activation delay, a 2-3
minutes activation delay. - And this next ability is the beauty of it all, and the most important one, it is cloaked while anchored. It
cannot move, it cannot warp, it becomes a mini base. - Once anchored it requires fuel to be operational. It needs to be fueled at a station. You cannot just
bring fuel blocks to it and refuel it. It has a maximum of 7 days of fuel at a time. Its meant to be a
mobile explorer base, not a permanent base.
CAPACITIES: (Only active when ship is anchored) - Can cloak and will stay cloaked as long as there is fuel
- All ships that are docked at the ESM are also cloaked. Only ships of the owner can dock.
- 2-4 clones can be installed on the ESM. Depending on what you put in your rig slots. So there would
be a new module that can accept ''clone charges". A very unique and very expensive technology.
This is only for the owner of the ESM. - Once installed in a system, it gives a small bonus to mining within that system. +10% bonus to
ore/gas mining speed. That bonus is to the owner and people in his fleet. - You can do ship fitting once docked.
- Cloning, fitting and Mining boost are arrays that need to be purchased and installed.
So this is it, my exploring vessel for solo players like me that would like to go into wh, low sec or null and get some resources. At the same time it gives a life to the somewhat useless prospect and endurance ships. It gives explorers an ‘‘end game’’ gameplay that can be useful and amusing. How many times have I entered wh to scan for relic sites but only find gas sites. It enables the prospect to roam around null and mine and having a place to store the ore instead of having to travel all the way back to hs.
