Orca and Rorq: Bring Balance CCP!

I agree that lots of ships have two roles. But this topic is about ships with three roles. Going over your examples:

#1 & #8: It’s generally accepted that T3s and Titans are broken, so they may not be the best examples. T3s have a huge range of roles…but can generally only do one or two of them at a time. Titans are, well, Titans.
#2 & #3: Fair points, but all covert ops cloaked ships have access to covert cynos, so also not necessarily the best examples. Also, counting “exploration” and “scouting” as two separate roles when they often rely on the same bonuses (combat probes) is a bit of a stretch.
#4 & #6: Ships can be “good” at multiple things without necessarily having bonuses geared towards them. Salvaging isn’t a “role” for a Catalyst, it’s a side benefit of a small, fast ship with lots of high slots. Same for mining battleships, 500MN MWD bumping Nomens, etc.
#5: Any fast ship can make a good scout, 'Ceptors are fast because they have to, you know, intercept their targets. Them being good scouts is like Catalysts being good salvagers.
#7: Using a Rorqual as an example of why Orcas and Rorquals should have 3 separate roles is circular logic. Sorry.

So, at the end of the day, when you exclude ships that aren’t broken and look at specifically bonused roles as opposed to happy side benefits or unintended uses, how many ships actually have three roles beyond the Orca and Rorqual? More than a few have two, which is fine, so I think the Orca and Rorqual being mining fleet support and ore hauling platforms is more than acceptable.

Also, keep in mind that saying each ship currently only has three roles is being exceedingly generous. You can only get to that number by lumping “command bursts”, “massively buffed combat drones”, "insane tractor beam capabilities, “powerful mineral scanners”, and “remote shield reps” into “mining fleet support” for both platforms, and lumping “massive ore capacity” and “ore compression” into “ore hauling” for the Rorqual.

Imagine if Marauders had all of their current bonuses, plus a bonus to salvaging, plus the ability to run command bursts, and a separate massive hold for salvaged items, and you’re getting close to how badly broken the Rorqual is.

These ships are ridiculously overpowered. They do anything anyone would want any mining ship to do all by themselves, and they do it in a platform that is far more difficult to kill than any dedicated mining ship is.

It’s time for their mining bonuses (and excavator drones*, since only Rorqs can use them) to go and let the mining ships do the mining.


*Alternatively, keep excavator drones and release a new class of capital ship designed specifically to use them, but without any of the boosting, compression, PANIC, etc. of the Rorq.