Noctis Balance Pass
The Noctis needs a balance pass. For a salvager, it has almost no cargo capacity. Adding a small fleet hangar, some more fitting options and maneuverability would bring it up-to-date and give it more versatility.
• +2 mid slots
• +5,000m3 Fleet Hangar
• Ability to use a medium Micro Jump Drive
The mid slots give it the potential to run a decent 30-40k EHP shield tank. The small fleet hangar address the cargo shortfall and gives the Noctis new options for the low slots (maneuverability, additional tank, etc.)
. . . . .
This is one variation on how the Noctis could be fit with the new changes:
High Slots
4x Salvager II
4x Small Tractor Beam II
Mid Slots
2x Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Medium Micro Jump Drive
Large Shield Extender II
Low Slots
Damage Control II
Signal Amplifier II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Rigs
2x Medium Hyperspacial Velocity Optimizer II
1x Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints II
. . . . .
It could even receive a new design along the lines of something like this:
I usually don’t like requests of “please buff my ship”.
However, I do think the Noctis could really use these buffs. As a salvager it has plenty of cargo volume for salvage (which is tiny), but the Noctis doesn’t only salvage, it also grabs the loot which is a lot more m3. Additional cargo space in the form of a fleet hangar would be nice!
Another big downside of the Noctis is that it lacks range compared to a MTU, even with the massive tractor beam skills. The Noctis also isn’t very fast (especially not if it’s slowed down by cargo-expander modules) so it’s a pain to get to the wrecks outside your range. A Micro Jump Drive would be an ideal solution, and also is a nice defensive tool.
I’m not convinced the Noctis needs more mid slots, but I guess that can’t hurt.
But it’s good to try and think outside the box. The suggested buffs to the Noctis would make it a lot better as bait, for example, as it can light a (industrial) cyno, a rack of neuts, multiple scrams and points and decent tank with those 2 extra mid slots, but it doesn’t seem to be much better at that role than for example a DST.
I cannot really think of other ways these buffs can break the game yet.
I happen to agree with this, but not on the subject of mid slots or an MJD. A cyno ship with MJD sounds quite exploitable, but idk how people use them in interesting ways. I think an increased tractor beam range, increased lock range, increased tractor beam speed, slightly larger signature, slightly increased maximum velocity, slower align time, and very slightly increased capacitor capacity would be a nice balance.
Strangely enough, just having more cargo space on the Noctis remedies a lot of issues. Not having to utilize all the low slots for expanded cargohold modules opens up a wide range of possibilities.
• Signal Amplifier II - This increases the # of targets from 10 to 12, scanning strength from 112 to 129mm and the maximum lock range from 93.75km to 121.88km. Consortium small tractors allow the Noctis to reach out to 112km.
• Inertial Stabilizers II - In combination with a Low Friction Nozzle Joins rig this drops the align time from 13.7s to 9.63s (an improvement of 42.2%).
• +2 Mid Slots - These allow you to take the EHP for the Noctis from a base of 14.2k to 31.6k - without the need for Nirvana implants or Core Defense Field Extender rigs.
• If you’re prepared to sacrifice your last mid slot, swap the rigs for Core Defense Field Extenders and run Nirvana implants - you can take the EHP for the Noctis a lot higher (but sacrificing mobility in the process).
And yes, you could also give it some turret/launcher slots to give it some hybrid mining/defensive capability (although I think this is a rare case scenario).
Just a few changes are all it needs: more cargo space, mid slots and the use of a micro jump drive. Then the low slots and rigs can be used for utility to address any additional shortcomings.
The Noctis will still outperform any MTU in both a loot and salvaging role (as well as any destroyer). MTUs can greatly enhance the role of the Noctis - we just need to make the Noctis a bit better first.
There are a lot of good ideas here that would buff the Noctis but I don’t think any of them address the core issue why a MTU is still the preferred option. I think the solution requires a bit more.
100% agree on buffing the cargo, that does free up fitting for utility
Nobody uses it because opening a hundred cans on grid is a clickfest nightmare. What the Noctis needs is a bonus for being an actively piloted ship. Like the ability to auto-loot all cans in range. This would make it actually better than a MTU
I don’t think more automation is a good option for EVE, especially not ‘dumb’ automation where a player might want to make intelligent choices instead.
When you open a wreck you may not want to loot it all.
Cargo space is often limited, some loot is significantly less valuable per m3 than others and some loot is simply too big. I wouldn’t always want my cargo to automatically be filled with bulky low value stuff while I’m trying to select the more valuable items first.
Aside from that I also just don’t like the idea of more automation in EVE.
We’ve seen how MTUs nearly made the Noctis useless (easy Noctis fix: remove MTUs), I am not in favour of more automation that removes parts of EVE gameplay.
Nah, it’s has its uses and clearly outperforms the MTU+Destroyer variant on certain occasions.
You are farming a hostile WH and have an active Salvager behind you. We do this regulary and let me tell you, a single Noctis can grab the loot faster than a group of 4 Marauder + Support can shoot down the Sleepers. Which means in case anything bad happens the whole fleet can evac and instead of having 6 MTUs in space of which 90% will fall to the enemy (or get your own ships killed while trying to take them), you get away to your home hole with 99% of the loot.
You are farming a hostile WH and don’t have an active salvager with you. Well, you simply bookmark the sites and leave the wrecks there. No MTU, no probing. Nobody can ever get this locaction because the anomaly despawns and wrecks can’t be combatscanned. For the next 2 hours your loot is “safe”.
After an hour of farming you get all the expensive farmingships back to your home and send a Noctis with 4 Tractors, 3 Salvagers and a Cloak which can then grab all of it in near 100% safety as long as you hit Dscan for Combats (can be done by someone else while the Noctis is salvaging). It can fly always pre-aligned to your home hole or a safespot, so even in the worst case that it is combatscanned, the opponent will only get the location of one loot site. And then you know and can either blueball him or bring a PvP squad that is able to fight him off. Again in case of MTUs, the attacker would have all locations after a minute and would easily either take half of your loot or kill ships trying to scoop them or at least preventing your from getting it.
So, for me personally, the Noctis doesn’t need much changes. Maybe a T2 Version that can warp covert to do the same things even further out the chain, and thats it.
Increased cargo space (5k fleet hangar would be ideal) and +2 more mid slots is all the Noctis really needs - along with being able to use a medium MJD. This gives it s wide range of utility options.
A T2 covert cloaky option of the above would be fine also.
I don’t really get why the Noctis would need these things. It does what it should do absolutely fine. Why does it need a fleet hangar or more slots or anything? You don’t need these things for salvaging a field full of loot fast and efficiently.
