The Prospect is supposed to be an upgrade to the Venture, with a specialization in Gas Mining, but compared to the Endurance, the Prospect feels more of a side grade.
Sure the Prospect gets the Covops cloak and the 25% mining bonus. But compared to the Endurance bonuses, and it’s slot layout, it doesn’t feel like the optimized gas miner i thought it would be.
If I wanted a specialized Gas mining ship. Firstly I’d get rid of the other turret slot, because the ideal setup for a 3 slot Prospect would be Harvester, Cloak, Probe Launcher. Having to switch stuff out on a mobile unit just for one thing seems tedious. Especially since the Endurance gets to fly around with a single turret and 300% ore bonus from losing the turret slot. Why doesn’t the Prospect have this for gas?
Secondly, it feels like the Prospect could use lose a low for a mid, if only to get some extra scanning or defense/escape utility. Since it’s supposed to be a specialized Gas expedition Frigate. Why does it need so many lows? It’s got no drones, its got no gas upgrades and everywhere it should be, it either wouldn’t need drones or they’d be largely useless.
Both the Prospect and Endurance seem like really stupid gimmicks that will never get proper use.
Who in their right mind is going to “sneak” into enemy territory under cloak. And then sit decloaked and laser on a rock for half an hour? Especially if you pick the one that can’t use a CovOps cloak.
The purpose of the Endurance was to be effective at mining within Shattered Wormholes. There is nothing wrong with that except that mining in High-Sec or Sov Null is; more safer, easier logistics, superior boosts/yields, ice drones and orca/rorqual accessible. But that’s the reason it has the 15,000 orehold - is to prolong presence to be in the field. The remaining option is to dial up somehow the value of Shattered ice fields or dial down the traditional sources. (and the establishment will never sign for a nerf).
It might be interesting if the Prospect had a turret change to match the effective of the Endurance. Part of the reason for its current design is to prevent it being used for an offensive role. I would not even mind a review of slot 3/4/3 instead of 3/3/4 layout for improved shield tanking. Which would allow for a prop-mod and still some defense. But it far out-ranks the Venture for defense as it is. Both it’s native resists and its bonus to signature make it solid survivor against NPCs.
Stop right there and look again at the Prospect bonuses.
Expedition Frigates bonuses (per skill level):
5% bonus to Mining yield
5% reduction in ship signature radius
That’s the difference between it and the Venture. No changes for gas income at all.
Prospect has 3 primary uses. The ability to run while cloaked. The ability to mine better than a Venture. And more speed than a barge with comparable hold space.
So if you’re not in danger use a venture. If you want to cloak or carry more use a Prospect. If neither you’re not looking for gas. Gas is also a nitch market. Still… Info:
Endurance can still use a prototype cloak with no penalty.
The difference between the Endurance and the Prospect however.
Endurance
Role bonus
300% increase ore mining yield
50% reduction in Ice mining Duration
Prospect
Role bonus
100% Gas Harvesting Yield
100% Mining Yield
So what your are telling me is that the Endurance is actually the true gas miner? Since it actually has better fitting for Gas mining? 3 High /1 turret 4 mid 3 low?
Endurance loses the gas cloud harvesting bonus so that doesn’t apply. Gas miners need a turret slot. T2 cycles give double T1.
Thus while a Prospect can mine ice it’s slower than an Endurance but better at getting the heck outta dodge. Endurance can fight off the belt rats with drones so long as they’re not battlecruiser or larger.
Gas still is more about risk vs reward. Reward is low. Risk is high. Venture is best. Prospect is possible but not as good an idea if you’re wormhole diving without the probes which would negate the cloak benefits anyway at a higher cost for a ship that is just as easy to lose as a Venture. Endurance can cloak and bring probes but is still only one turret slot. Still a high risk compared to a Venture.
I agree completely they both need to be able to fit a probe launcher + cloak + their normal high slots, as most of what they are good at is for wormholes and you cant be in one without a probe launcher and cloak unless you like dying/ getting trapped.
Well then what is the Prospect for? It has the same bonuses as the Venture, yet it has no drones. It has the ability to cloak, but then you have to drop a harvester or the probe launcher so you don’t have to refit every time you want to change roles.
So it’s a Venture with no ability to defend itself except cloak and warp out, meaning as a belt miner it’s useless. And it doesn’t have any better bonuses to Gas than the Venture, so you are better taking a Venture.
I’d rather lose the cargo space for a mobile depot, lose an extra turret, in exchange for larger ore hold and a bonus to a single Gas Harvester. I mean Gas clouds don’t sit close together like asteroids do. Why have 2 gas harvesters on what is arguably the T2 cloaky Gas Harvester specialist?
That’s the only thing it does better. Most of the time I’d rather a Venture to a Prospect, the losses compared to the gains aren’t worth it to me. But if I’m ore/ice mining, an Endurance does look like it’s worth the price.
Speed of collection for gas clouds is key. Incidentally the distance you can harvest from is also near minimum. Orbit at greater than 500 and you’re outta range.
That’s if your orbiting the cloud directly thou, I found since I was using 10mn ab on mine I had to drop a can in the center of the cloud and orbit that instead.
The Endurance gets one turret slot but a 300% bonus, so why can’t the Prospect get the same thing to free up the extra slots for the cloak and the launcher?