Proposal for a new expansion focussing around P-v-P, and piracy in particular.
Hunta Gowk
Adapting the T3 strategic cruiser concept, there would be one new ship, but in four “flavours”, one for each pirate faction, and requiring a new skill to pilot (though not one per faction).
There would also be a pirate version of the Orca, with the mining refinements swapped for combat-based, but also with the autonomous structure repair feature (and with this feature capable of boosting by use of a new module).
The new ship class would be the Dreadnaught – a T2/3 battlecruiser. The basic hull would be the same for all four models, but each faction’s version would focus on different specialisms: with bonuses to energy weapons and energy vampires, to projectile weapons and shield tanking; to missiles and armor tanking; and to hybrid weapons and drones. The eventual aim is to release ships which, while never going into complexes, would otherwise be able to solo the existing L5/6 complexes.
In addition, recognising their pirate origins, and the versatility of pirate engineers, these ships would carry a new bonus of autonomic structure repair (to boost which a new module, available for and fittable only to pirate faction hulls, would be made available). The suggested level is a basic 1% per level of Dreadnaught skill per cycle, and boosts of 1, 3 and 5% for the basic, advanced and T2 modules. This simulates the need for pirates to be able to survive damage which would destroy a lesser ship.
This expansion would also see the first T3 modules, designed by pirate faction engineers, using Sleeper technology. These modules would only be available from pirate faction stations; blueprints for them would be obtained through pirate faction Loyalty Point stores. Generally the requirements for the modules would be such that only a T3 cruiser, a T2 battleship or the military-Orca (name not yet resolved yet) would be able easily to use them, although specific pirate faction ships, especially the new Dreadnaughts, would have bonuses meaning the modules would be more easily fitted.
In general, these modules would be weapon turrets offering range and damage bonuses; improved scan modules, and remote repair logistic modules.
The military-grade Orca (possibly to be called Megalodon) would be able to use one Warfare Link per level of Industrial Command Ship skill, with a 10% reduction per level in Link energy and CPU requirements. Its role bonuses would improve the range of Warfare Links, and offer a flat 10% increase in the links’ effectiveness. Although the drone bay would be no larger than the ORE original, each level of skill would also allow deployment of an additional drone, meaning that at maxed skill level, a pilot will have control of 10 drones. The ship’s tractor beams will also receive a role buff which will mean that they will override ordinary ships’ tractors, allowing the Megalodon pilot to exercise dominion over floating wrecks and containers.
The possibility of allowing the beams to tractor all items regardless of ownership has been considered, perhaps for a later release and perhaps involving a specific pirate-faction T3 module.
There is also the possibility that the Megalodon would receive role bonuses for remote repair and remote scanning modules (but not ECM since this is seen a counter to its piractical function).
Among the new T3 modules will be a module for detecting cloaked ships, which will probably require a new skill to use, and which will be equippable with three scripts, of which the cheapest and easiest to use will allow a cloaked ship to appear on the user’s overview, and to be targeted, but will not bring the ship into visibility for others.
The middle level script, requiring level 3 skill, will enable the cloaked ship to appear on overviews as though not cloaked, allowing all ships in the module-user’s Fleet to target it, thus encouraging further the use of fleets; the most expensive script, with level 5 skill, will enable the module user and his/her Fleet to detect and to target cloaked ships without giving any alert to the detected ship, thus the first the cloaker will know about being detected is when the incoming fire arrives.
Another proposal is for there to be a pirate brand of scanner probes, which would pick up additional information. This would include deadspace pockets, allowing for direct intervention in mission space, or alternatively the locations of the acceleration gates giving access to deadspace. This would match the fact that the exit points from abyssal deadspace are already scannable. Again, these probes, and their blueprints, would only be available from pirate-run stations.
As balance, a new (but very expensive) range of “Croft” probes would be made available to the general capsuleer population, through CONCORD and Servant Sisters, which would allow scanning for wrecks and the like.
There wouls also be a new T3 module designed to “tag” a ship, to allow it to be quickly scanned down anywhere within a given system. For example a specific Hulk or Command Ship could be tagged at one time, and then tracked down later, so long as it was known within which system it was located. Again this would require a specific skill to use, and again there would be an improvement to the results according to the level of training in the skill.
Consideration has been given to proposing a T3 module which would sever anchoring of mobile depots, MTUs etc., allowing an equipped pirate simply to steal these; the proposal has been back-burnered on balance issues, but clearly presents game-play opportunities. By this means a corporation could quickly and efficiently clear a system vital to it from miscellaneous space junk ahead of a battle (or might well simply charge rental for people to establish useful functions for it).
New pirate faction ammunition would be introduced, for lasers, hybrid and projectile turrets, which would provide options of greatly increased range, with reduced damage, or vast damage, with next-to-point-blank ranges. This will broaden the tactical alternatives for the discerning FC.
Additionally two of the empty slots in the EVE mineral spectrum would be used, to generate a new ore and a new refined product, which would be used in a new ammunition and laser lens formula. The key aspect of this new ammunition would be that it would bypass shield and armour and strike directly at a ship’s structure, requiring new tanking strategies to counter it.
The argument for a specific, and pirate only, drone class (light, medium, and heavy) has been considered: again, this probably wants to come later, along with the introduction of super-heavy Drone Faction units, capable of troubling a fully-tanked BS.
In all of these cases, the blueprints for the new ships, modules and ammunition will ONLY be available from pirate faction stations in null-sec, to encourage people to get into null-sec operation. To balance this, and to minimise their use in griefing, certain of the modules would however count as contraband in the highest security level systems.
To prevent complaints that all of this only addresses one side of the player-base, there would be four other developments.
Each race would now have a second shuttle model, which will have a double-sized cargo hold, but also an increased scan signature. This will address the issue of transporting small, high-value cargoes without needing to use expensive T2 ships. The shuttle will have no better shields or amour to maintain the strategic balance.
To meet complaints which have arisen about AFK mining, a mechanism will be introduced which will allow mining ships (from frigates to Hulks) to automatically transfer ore to jetcans which will then be enabled for emptying by anyone. The AFK miner will thus constantly be at risk of having his product hijacked if he has not made specific arrangements for the collection of mined ore.
To reinvigorate the corporation system, the Captain’s Quarters feature, introduced in Incarna and subsequently removed, will be reintroduced in a limited form to allow access, at the corporation’s designated HQ, to a corporation meeting room, where the CEO (or his/her nominee) can post corp-related data and graphics. Access to the meeting room would be dependent upon role, thus also allowing a corp CEO or Master-At-Arms to post false tactical information on forums, but the real data onto the meeting room displays, enabling spies to be identified and weeded out.
And finally, to address an inequality and roleplay imbalance which has long been a source of complaint, slaves, viewed as contraband in certain high-sec zones, would be added to NPC uptake markets, to represent governmental efforts to obtain and manumit these unfortunates. Whilst at first glance this may appear an ISK fountain, it is anticipated that community pressures will rapidly overtake the NPC market and ISK mobility will center on player choices.
So, you want T3 pirate faction ships, with the name Dreadnought (which is already a ship class, by the way), that can permanently tag other ships from any distance, detect cloaked ships, and weapons that bypass shield and armor? Yeah, no thanks…