There is initially discussion on Evenews24 that these are Amarr vessels, but the hull textures don’t add up in my opinion. These look like hybrids, or something new all together…
Are we witnessing the arrival of a new NPC faction in New Eden? Perhaps this is what the Drifters are being dealt such heavy damage by. Maybe a modern version of Talocan tech; are they returning after they realized their Stellar Cluster Swarm was wiped out by the events in the 3rd gen. Jovian Territory.
So I brought this up on the Eve subreddit, but the faction name’s inspiration might be related to Triglav, the “Three-Headed One” or “Three-Headed God”, which a quick and lazy Wikipedia shows is a deity of Slavic theology that serves as an overseer and ruler of a heaven, and earthly plane, and an underworld. Probably merits some deeper investigation, but if this is indeed the inspiration it would suggest a faction made up of a collective of powerful individuals that believe themselves to be masters of the known universe.
Also of interest is the CONCORD video released yesterday. Part of the footage shows a a red orb or swirling energy, which looks pretty similar to that seen in the medium and large hulls. Given this, they definitely seem involved.
They seem to be Amarr hulls only insomuch as they use the Amarr nebulae as their portrait background, and probably incorporate some Amarr tech (current masteries reported to involve armor tanking and energy turrets, but are likely subject to change). But, lore-wise, I doubt they have much to do with the Amarr.
So basically what I’ve seen are two running theories: (1) This is somehow tied to CONCORD’s recent rumored research into anti-Drifter tech that we may see provided to capsuleers or otherwise involved in events that incorporat NPC-NPC faction fighting using the new AI CCP’s been developing, or (2) this may be some kind of overseer faction, perhaps even a branch of The Order/Enheduanni, bringing the Drifters back into check (at least at first). My money’s on the latter, given the implied arrogance of the name. Or at the very least, it’s a faction that has been influenced behind the scenes by the Enheduanni.
One thing I did just notice upon a second review of the video is the vessels appear to have more conventional looking propulsion systems, unlike the Drifter vessels. So perhaps this is a Empire originated hybrid vessel. Very intriguing either way.
Additionally, the frigate sized craft appears to be unfinished and I’m assuming will receive the red orb thing by the end.
Another observation I made is the finished hulls have typical blue navigation strobe lights like Empire vessels often do. I don’t believe any drifter or sleeper vessel have those.
Given the disparities in size for what I assume are hardpoints… I’d almost say that both the cruiser and battleship size hulls are supposed to have greater than usual power to punch up or down from their size class but be weak to ships within their own hull size.
Because it would mean against smaller vessels they have the good tracking to accurately smack them and the tank to brush them off fairly easily and several large guns to threaten larger vessels or structures… but be weak to ships within their own size class that follow normal rules because they’d be either out ranged on their smaller guns or absolutely hosed on tracking on the large guns.
Absolutely crazy potential for the doctrines you could employ or break into pieces with such ships in fleet.
So the general speculation is the Large could field perhaps a Dreadnaught weapon. Cruiser could field a Large turret. Small would I guess field a medium turret. This could give a cheaper hull that could help punch to larger classes but be weak against ships of the same size or smaller. The drawback of this is you already have a BC that can field large guns making the cruiser variant odd. And for a frigate, mounting 4 weapons, like a Kestrel, could still out dps a medium turret.
So maybe the frigate sports one large turret becoming similar to a bomber mounting torp launchers. Cruiser could mount a lone dread gun and the large… Not sure maybe 2 dread guns? Still this seems odd for the large, unless the large can mount 1 dread gun and maybe a few large turrets.
One other option… These are a new variant of the flagship class. The idea being that the hard point is actually for a special tank module. Something that helps the commander ship last a little longer when needed.
In the HoboLeaks lists of changes there are a set of new weapons that may be related. http://hoboleaks.space/
There’s a set of three energy weapons labeled only as “ABC” (assault beam cannon? automatic beam cannon?), a new railgun type called “Kalli”, and a “Lux Xiphos”. Not sure if these are at all related to the large apparent hardpoint, but it’s an interesting point for speculation.
This Drifter weapon system appears to be a more compact version of directed energy weapons used by Drifter battleships. It is semi-autonomous and is floating freely from the vessel deploying it. The weapon’s firing signature indicates a broad spectrum of disruptive energies are used against its targets
Right, I’d been thinking that the larger “hardpoint” might be an inelegant attempt to mimic whatever technology suspends the Lux weapons in place on Drifter ships. Or maybe it’s just a big ol’ magnet, like the kind used in the “floating globe” models you can find in some stores.
It’s fun to speculate, I just really, really hope it isn’t a mixed-weapon, Attack Battlecruiser-with-point-defense-abilities kind of thing like some here are thinking.
im hoping we can fly these buggers. we need new ships in this game. though…it begs the question. wtf are these things? why create a new faction? or new name?
also your soon should have a ™ next to it…like so: Soon™
The new more compact lux xiphos weapon is for a new drifter cruiser which already has an unfinished model-it kind of looks like a stingray with same antennae like propulsion as current drifter Bs.
To add a bit to the speculation in my opinion the ships have a very ‘tanky’ look to them and don’t use the almost organic curves the old jovian ships had or the smooth design drifter Bs have.
Now to point out the propulsion system seems standard to what the 4 main empires use no weird antennae instead of engines like drifters have.
Another thing the armor plates/panels forming the ship exteriors remind again of standard building techniques similar to empires like the amarr.
Another very weird thing is these ships have no ‘lights’ for where crew quarters/rooms/corridors/observation decks whatever would be.There are some on the exterior and that’s it furthermore more having the word’collective’ in their faction name leads me to think they may be a form of AI controlled ships-perhaps a splinter faction/more evolved forms of rogue drones that may have explored wormhole space even?