It’s not obvious. And I keep stating looting/salvaging which you keep ignoring.
I don’t ignore it. I even DID it. The Noctis can loot and salvage any Anomaly, DED Site, Mission or Event Site there is. Extremely well. And since I don’t only use it in HS but also in dangerous environments like WHs, I can tell you that it doesn’t need a buff in either of these environments.
If anything, CCP could reckognize the fact that ppl prefer a faster/cheaper Destroyer under certain conditions (many jumps to make, potential hostiles around, low m3 values to grab) and add an ORE Salvaging Frigate that professionalize for such tasks. Maybe even in a cheaper T1 version and a more expensive Covert T2 version, comparable to the Expedition Frigs. But a larger, better, more tanky Noctis is useful for exactly nothing.
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You don’t think the Noctis needs more cargo space, tank or utility options. I do. Let’s just agree to disagree on this point.
A more expensive T2 version could feature some (or all) of these ideas. But in your mind the Noctis is perfect and a sequel isn’t needed, so we’ll have to also agree to disagree on this point.
A smaller sized ORE (destroyer?) variant is certainly something I wouldn’t oppose.
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Agreeing to disagree works in some discussions, but in this case you’re trying to accomplish something. You try to convince people that the Noctis needs more cargo space, tank or utility options and you are not succeeding.
While I agreed initially that a MJD on the Noctis could be nice, and I wouldn’t say no to a small cargo increase either, I don’t think the ship needs either of these changes to be useful.
And I don’t believe the ship needs more tank, it can reach 40k EHP already with some fitting choices, of which only a third is plenty to survive a stray shots from NPC still left on the grid or while burn back to gate. And no amount of EHP is going to save you from hostiles players that you failed to avoid.
The Noctis generally isn’t working in combat situations, it does it’s job in places where the combat already happened in the past. It doesn’t need high EHP to do that job, so it shouldn’t have high EHP.
I don’t think the game needs a T2 version of the Noctis when the Noctis itself already has trouble filling it’s own niche.
Salvaging mostly isn’t very worthwhile and even though the Noctis is very good at it, it’s a rare sight to see one. The solution to this issue isn’t powercreep of a better more powerful Noctis (which would invalidate the existing Noctis), but to make salvaging and looting worthwile again.
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They’ve hinted at an expanded salvage role with mining (waste?) Whether this is something that comes to fruition is anyone’s guess.
As for a T2 Noctis, an upgraded hull doesn’t invalidate the existing platform since it will be more expensive overall. This isn’t really any different than T1 vs. T2 mining barges.
As for expanding salvaging and making it more of a career, that might require a comprehensive update - increasing salvage in wrecks, possibly shifting bounties to more loot, etc.
The difference with T1 and T2 barges which both are useful is that the Noctis already is a ‘expensive’ option that people often skip for cheaper destroyers and frigates.
Adding an even more expensive ship to this lineup isn’t the right call, I think.
Miners often use higher yield barges instead of the mining frigates, which gives them a well-filled role and a good reason to have even higher yield expensive exhumers.
Even though the Noctis has higher salvage speed and much more utility and cargo space than destroyers and frigates, the bottleneck for salvaging often isn’t your salvaging or tractor speed like it is yield for mining. The bottleneck for salvaging is the availability of valuable wrecks, which is often too low to warrant anything more valuable than a destroyer which does ‘just fine’.
i’ve never lost a noctis… it has its uses and the cargo and speed and agility etc. are all in a perfect place for it… edge cases where you’ll use a ship other than a noctis is fine too like using a dessie when theres still hostiles nearby
To be honest, the only reason I recommended a bigger Salvaging Ship was because of the other things I posted which made more into Salvaging like Special sites and such. Also a Battleship version might be useful to “Support” fleets while waiting or during the cleanup of messes.
I think we need smaller Salvaging Ships, 1 Frigate, 1 Destroyer, and Noctis being the Cruiser. Primary for the reason for longer jump ranges, the mission set I talked about OR for ninja salvaing lol.
ORE ship exclusive combo tractor + salvager module