Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Not sure what makes you think otherwise, there is no ship in game which could stand alone vs. gang. How many freighters got blown daily, is that mean CCP should change them to protect? The whole idea is to add new role to ORE cap ships, that's it and as I said it's a common question - isk vs. risk. So its up to you will you move Rorq to the belt alone or have a strong back up for it, really doesn't matter to me.

true even ccp statet that putting the rorqual right know in a belt is suicide

Want to see a Rorqual in a belt? Let them use gates into Empire space. Want to see a Rorqual in a POS no matter what is done to buff the offense or defense of the ship, operate one in Low/Null/WH.

As many have commented, there is absolutely no reason to deploy a multi-billion ISK asset in an environment that could result in its destruction, when it can provide the same bonuses from the safety of POS.

I see no reason to buff the Rorqual with capital strip miners or added combat capabilities. It is an industrial support ship plain and simple.

What I would like to see is the drone bonus removed and the ability to use empire gates in exchange.

This should prevent the Battle-qual from becoming a reality, without changing the operation of the ship in Low/Null/WH from how it is used there already.

I am not for this type of change. Frankly, I think the Rorqual just needs its bonuses changed to reflect how it is used. Get rid of the tractor beam and scanner bonuses and accept that it will only be used in a POS.

I think there should be a T2 Rorqual added to the game that is a game changer for mining in PvP space, namely an invulnerability field set up with a specific set of uses and factors for onlining and offlining and all that will let it be the centerpiece of timer battles as well as making mining ops in dangerous space viable.

Regardless of the specific changes, though, the idea of a capital level booster and compressor is a cool one and I would hate to see this game without the Rorqual as it fundamentally is, a booster ship. It has always been very utilitarian and I would not mind seeing its jump range increased a bit so it can be closer to the hauler it once was. Ideas such as expanding its industrial role in various ways, such as letting it do reprocessing, are good. Also, hopefully clones and clone vat bays will be updated so that clones can actually jump to and from the ship and be stored in the ship rather than just being a way to create new clones. Things such as this that increase the Rorqual's general utility are what it needs.

If people want a capital mining barge or a T3 mining barge or if they want some kind of mining ship that does more than the mining ships we have, then it needs to be based on a mining barge hull or a completely new ship. Please do not adopt this idea of making the Rorq into something other than a command ship/booster. The Rorqual is a great ship that could use some love, but is a great concept. The game would lose a lot without it.

Really I think a lot of the Rorqual revamp ideas, especially those that involve killing the ship and making it as something else entirely (such as a capital mining barge) are from people that don't fly or use Rorquals. The idea doesn't appeal to them. But nullsec mining corp CEOs love them.

Because it can be used to transport to and from a POS. It can also jump and fly to various POSes. Its compression alleviates the need to devote POS CPU to compression. It can also carry POSes in its cargo hold along with indy ships and fuel to set up POSes wherever it will operate. And these POSes can be small, as they don't need to devote CPU to compression.

Do you run a mining corp? Do you fly a Rorqual? I flew my Rorqual all over the system and jumped to all sorts of various systems even though it is only wisely sieged in a POS. And when I was in deep remote blue null and things were safe, I would drop siege regularly and fly it to he belt to scoop cans or empty containers and fly back to the POS to siege it.

If you ran a mining corp or flew a Rorqual you'd know about all the uses it has as a cyno capable moving ship that sieges from within a POS.

I actually love the idea of replacing the scanner and tractor bonuses to a link bonus to ships' ore holds that would be usable from within a POS.

So then it's a big expensive workaround to bypass the CPU requirements of the POS modules.



Not a fair comparison. The Cadillac was sitting in the garage unused; these Rorquals are providing fleet bonuses without opening the garage door.

Bump

I think there are a few interesting things you could do with the Rorqual, and the ideas presented to both expand its use and increase its combat or defensive capability are good ones.

Someone mentioned the idea of a new class of fighter-sized mining drones for the mining capital.

But really, getting the Rorq to use its bonuses in a belt is a matter of changing where and how ores are found. It'll mean massive belts, deadspace mechanics governing bookmarks and industrial cynoes. It'd mean new variable d-scan inhibiting mechanics for asteroids, and emitting a warp disruption field around them to make it at least a little fair for the hunters. LINK

Perhaps there could be new mechanics around the new structures to help find more hidden fields.

Survey range bonus? Expand this to the ability to find asteroids. Perhaps the details of asteroids could be anonymized until they are scanned. Only a trained geologist can tell what a rock type is, and even then they have to sometimes pull out the HCl dropper or bring it back to the lab.

Surveying in general could be a timesink replacement, allowing for displacement elsewhere. The lengthier the process, the more worthwhile it is to give industrial ships bonuses to it. The only people training up survey skills now are people who do ship/cargo scanning, a long ignored miniprofession in itself. Perhaps with at least 100km of scan deviation, it could be used for in-deadspace warping, sending off a barge as a scout, and then having them cyno in the fleet.

Some of the abilities overlap painfully with the Orca. Really, there's no reason for Orcas to not also get a mining drone bonus and a more serious drone bay.

Clone vats really only have any utility in WHs.

Ore compression is really the key ability. Activated in the d-scan shadow of a remote asteroid, a core coupled with the vast storage of the Rorqual should allow a comparatively "nimble" ore hauling ship to carry a vast amount of ore collected on that expedition to some refinery. This is the ability that leverages the cargo storage abilities of an attendant Orca. This won't change so long as pilots can simply warp between a dropoff POS and a bookmark next to an asteroid. Mining ships need a reason to get and stay wherever they are. It should be possible for a solo venture, but investments should have obvious rewards.

A game of cat and mouse should be possible, with the lengthy travel time that ought to be part and parcel of ore extraction. Surely some pirates out there should be keen on the idea of following a miasmos back to its friends, and giving the miasmos pilot a strong reason to train for a blockade runner. Darting from rock to rock might be interesting, and faster even for the Blockade Running as they can open up their MWD by decloaking. However, d-scan shadows, like mobile scan inhibitors, affect both those hidden as well as those who hide.