Player Features and Ideas Discussion

If you have 130k EHP you only can carry 5,000 - 7,500m3 depending on racial DST. At which point you might as well just fly a blockade runner, since the covert ops cloak provides much better safety and the align time, speed and warp speed on the BR makes it more attractive as well.

I think the following factors are currently what prevents frequent/actual use of DST's

1. In a Maximum EHP fit they are outperformed in every way by Blockade Runners.
2. The Orca is a much better hauler than DST's providing extra hauling capacity, utility and EHP. In high security space if you have access to an Orca there is never a valid reason to use a DST.
3. The Terrible Agility/Speed on DST's make them unappealing for use in lowsec/0.0/hostile space
4. They do not provide much more hauling capacity than T1 Industrials. And are slower and much less agile and expensive.

I think to start with problem 1). Adding a decent sized Fleet Hanger to the DST's (I'm thinking around the 25,000m3 mark) would help out a lot. This means they would have significantly increased base hauling capacity, allowing them to haul 30,000m3+ (5,000+ base cargo + the 25,000m3 fleet hanger) while in maximum EHP fits. This also helps out with problem 4) As with this Fleet hanger all the DST's would be able to outperform the Iteron Mk V which currently beats every single DST in hauling capacity. The fleet hanger also adds some utility to the ship allowing fleet/corp members to take from it. Fleet Hanger is useful as it allows us to increase the base capacity of these ships without significantly increasing the maximum amount it can hold as fleet hangers aren't effected by cargo expanders.

I would also change the bonuses of the ships. Currently all DST's have an active tanking bonus (either armor duration reduction or shield boost amount), this is largely wasted in most scenario's as active tanking these ships is uncommon and the bonus is wasted if you fit passive tank to the ship. I therefore propose changing these bonuses instead to Armor/Shield resistance bonus instead, this increases the EHP of these ships closing the current gap with the Orca, and also gives them very high resist profiles allowing them to be remote repaired by friendly ships to a high efficiency making these better for convoys.

Finally, the agility should be closer to the t1 hull. I think DST's aligning about 10-15% slower than the t1 Hull is about right. Not almost 100% slower! The base speed could probably be higher too, The Impel for example has 125m/s base speed, and that's with the built in velocity bonus from the industrial hull! It only travels at 600m/s when MWDing which is terrible. I think Doubling this number would be good. For comparison, the Prorator travels at 1,738m/s with MWD (No modules fitted on both), so boosting the Impel up to 1.2km/s while MWDing wouldn't put it in the path of the Prorator (same story for other racial hulls) and would make getting back to the gate a low possibility instead of non-existant, this also seperates it from the Orca a bit more.

The fittings on the ships could also do with a balancing pass. On the Gallente/Amarr DSTs it's impossible to fit a 800mm plate and MWD. Likewise, the Bustard and Mastodon should be able to fit a MWD + 1x LSE.

Well, I'm sure the orca is going to lose cargohold and be given a significant ore hold. It may also be given the ability to put out a larger bonus because as of right now it's worthless to use an orca unless u have 3 or more fully maxed hulks, and even then macks outshine with their hold.

This completely nails it. The only purpose DST's serve now is to be a gank-resistant highsec hauler. The armor tanked ones are especially bad, since you sacrifice all your cargo when you fit tank, and at that point a blockade runner is better in every way.

To make this a dangerous space hauler, it needs it's align massively improved. Also, if it can't fit even a standard cloak, this role goes out the window since there's no way to dodge a camp. Basically, there's no way to make it do it's intended job without simply turning it in a larger, slightly inconvenient BR.

Better to revamp them into proto-freighters, since that's currently a role with no solution. I'm not counting the orca, because it's on a completely different skill line, and shouldn't be used as a crutch for the problem.