Ships & Modules

So once upon a time CCP decided that salvaging wasn't efficient enough and needed a boost. The Noctis was born and replaced catalysts everywhere, which now do their proper job of ganking retrievers everywhere. Then this happened:

Mobile Tractor Unit: Grab all the modules without your own tractor beam!

Salvage Drone I: Salvage everything while you go take a leak!

Reprocess all the things!: Nerf reprocessing of modules by ~50% (and in fact, reprocess none of the things)!

IMO, these combine to make the Noctis just about level with the Primae in terms of usefulness. Should the Noctis be fixed or repurposed, or is this nerf a good thing given the income from actual salvage?

My preferred anomaly running ship,, Tengu, does not have a drone bay. So I tend todrop the MTU runthe anomaly then come back in a noctis with a full rack of salvagers and mop up that way.

Because part of the summer expansion is an overhaul of industry. Trying to make null sec more industry viable and reduce gun andmissile mining.

Better things to change in null.

Primae was never useful.

With the MTU in every pocket, I do feel like the noctis could once again be replaced with any 8 high slots ships, with little lost in the process. The wrecks are all conveniently bunched up, no need for the increase in tractor speed/range. Its only advantage is its large cargo hold.

I recently moved from one L4 agent system to another, some 27 jumps out. Too lazy to go back for my Noctis, I bought a Catalyst, fitted it with cargo mods and rigs, and 8 salvagers.

Not really sure at this point what I was getting from the Noctis that my Catalyst isn't doing. Yes, it has a cycle bonus, but "downgrading" to the Catalyst hasn't really made me feel that difference. The drones weren't speeding up my salvaging all that much, either.

The Catalyst moves about quicker, too. And with the cargo mods + rigs, its cargo bay is just about large enough to handle all the loot and salvage from multi-room L4s (Extravaganzas, Scarlett, the anti-faction missions. etc.) + as many MTUs as I may have dropped during the course of the mission.

I loved the Noctis' Tractor bonuses most of all, but now they seem fairly useless, at least for my needs. It is still, as you noted, a better salvager than others, but is it worth the 60+ mill you have to pay over a regular 8-high slot desy? Not for me.

As dangerous as it is, Noctis still works best on Sleeper wrecks.

Before the MTU I used a Noctis fitted with an Inertia Stabiliser.

This helped a little with alignment times but it dropped the cargo capacity.

It didn't really make a difference to me as my loot was already in station before any salvaging was done.

In the end it's all down to your personal preference.