Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hey everyone. As we announced at the Fanfest keynote, we are rebalancing Freighters and Jump Freighters in the Kronos release. The biggest change in this rebalance is the addition of customizability to a class that has previously been entirely static.
We originally approached this through rig slots, but a few valid concerns were raised in this thread and we've made some significant adjustments to the plan to address them. The CSM has been a very significant help in this process.

The most significant issues raised in the thread are:

• The permanence of customizability that relies completely on rigs. As the only classes to have rig slots alone with no fitting slots, Freighters and Jump Freighters would have allowed customization towards a player's most common use cases, but would still lack the very important ability to adjust fittings in response to changing needs and environments.
• The relative lack of interesting choices for Jump Freighter pilots. Due to the very unique situation of Jump Freighters, they did not receive very significant benefits from any rigs other than cargohold optimization. This is partially an issue with the lack of gameplay around JF use and their near complete safety when used optimally, but it also reflected a lack of good options.

To deal with the first issue, we are making the significant change of providing the goal of customizability through low slots rather than rig slots. Keeping this path balanced requires a few extra tricks but we believe that it will provide a more interesting set of gameplay choices for freighter pilots to make on an everyday basis.
All Freighters and Jump Freighters will receive 3 low slots, and not receive any rig slots. They will have very restrictive powergrid and cpu totals, and a special role bonus that allows the use of Reinforced Bulkhead modules.

In Kronos we are also adding a new set of low-slot warp speed enhancing modules that can be obtained through low-sec exploration. These modules will increase warp speed by a flat addition of 0.2, 0.25 or 0.3 au/s each. We expect that these will be popular modules for use on Freighters.

To help address the lack of interesting options for Jump Freighters, we are planning to introduce a set of jump fuel conservation modules in the Crius release in July. These modules will not be available in Kronos.

So we expect that most Freighter and Jump Freighter pilots will use their three low slots to mix and match the following modules to meet their needs:

• Expanded Cargoholds
• Reinforced Bulkheads
• Hyperspatial Accelerators (warp speed modules)
• Inertia Stabilizers
• Overdrive Injector Systems
• (For certain armor tanking fits) Adaptive Nano Platings
• (For Jump Freighters) Capacitor Power Relays
• (For Jump Freighters after the Crius release) Jump Fuel Conservation Modules

The base cargo capacity of Freighters is being decreased so that a set of three Tech Two Expanded Cargoholds adds 21-25% cargo above the previous maximum values. For Jump Freighters, three T2 Expanders will increase cargo capacity by 1-2%.
This means that Freighters can get significantly higher maximum capacity than before using modules, and we're increasing the volume of packaged capital ships (to 1.3 million m3) and unpackaged station containers (to 2 million m3) to compensate.

The base EHP of all Freighters and Jump Freighters is being increased (since Expanded Cargoholds affect freighter hp more than cargo rigs do) and more emphasis is being placed on armor and shield than before (although all Freighters still gain the majority of their hitpoints from hull).
Note the change in the Jump Freighter HP bonus, which now only applies to their main tank and hull. The large increase in JF base HP and resist more than make up for the bonus change and all JFs have more base EHP than before.

PROVIDENCE

Amarr Freighter Bonus per level:
+5% Cargo Capacity
+5% Maximum Velocity

Role Bonus:
100% reduction in CPU requirements for Reinforced Bulkheads

Slot layout: 0H, 0M, 3(+3)L;
Fittings: 3(+2) PWG, 1 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 10000(+5000) / 46000(+22000) / 100000(-12500)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time / warp speed): 70 / 0.0625 / 900,000,000 / 77.98s / 1.37
Cargo Capacity: 435000(-300000)m3


CHARON

Caldari Freighter Bonus per level:
+5% Cargo Capacity
+5% Maximum Velocity

Role Bonus:
100% reduction in CPU requirements for Reinforced Bulkheads

Slot layout: 0H, 0M, 3(+3)L;
Fittings: 3(+2) PWG, 1 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 50000(+44000) / 15000(-5000) / 77500(-28750)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time / warp speed): 60 / 0.0625 / 960,000,000 / 83.18s / 1.37
Cargo Capacity: 465000(-320000)m3


OBELISK

Gallente Freighter Bonus per level:
+5% Cargo Capacity
+5% Maximum Velocity

Role Bonus:
100% reduction in CPU requirements for Reinforced Bulkheads

Slot layout: 0H, 0M, 3(+3)L;
Fittings: 3(+2) PWG, 1 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 14000(+10687) / 40000(+17500) / 110000(-10000)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time / warp speed): 65 / 0.0625 / 940,000,000 / 81.44s / 1.37
Cargo Capacity: 440000(-310000)m3


FENRIR

Minmatar Freighter Bonus per level:
+5% Cargo Capacity
+5% Maximum Velocity

Role Bonus:
100% reduction in CPU requirements for Reinforced Bulkheads

Slot layout: 0H, 0M, 3(+3)L;
Fittings: 3(+2) PWG, 1 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 48000(+42375) / 22000(+750) / 65000(-35000)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time / warp speed): 80 / 0.0625 / 820,000,000 / 71.05s / 1.37
Cargo Capacity: 435000(-285000)m3


ARK

Amarr Freighter Bonus per level:
+5% Cargo Capacity
+5% Agility

Jump Freighters Bonus per level:
+10% to armor and hull hitpoints
-10% jump fuel requirements

Role Bonus:
100% reduction...

Looks okay. Not as bad as we thought they would be. Prepare for destruction either way

Ouch -- that agility nerf on Jump Freighters is going to suck some. What's the thought process behind that?

See… there was a reason why I was against rigs on freighters from the very start…

T2 capital rigs and a significant reduction in survivability and/or speed requried to get them back to where they were. Gee thanks.

T1 rigs are easily enough to bring normal freighters above their current cargo values.

Why are jump freighters with T1 cargo rigs worse off than now? Even T2 rigs only gives a very small improvement.

How come the fairly pointless speed bonus on T1 freighters was left, rather being replaced with something more useful like agility or HP?

That wasn't the point.
No one thought that getting rigs would leave us with a lower cargobay.
The reason people argued against was that you would end up with the same bay but a lower tank.
Plus the cost of rigs.
Still idc really just need to work out what cargo bay i need and then slam warp speed rigs on.
The JF agility nerf if going to be really annoying though. Only 2 rigs to make up the agility and cargo loss and just eat the tank loss i suppose.

I guess this is a direct nerf to null-high-null import/export, together with the increase in jump fuel consumption. At least you can produce directly in null now. Time to import some miners. Mineral hauler spawn elimination next?

Is the tank the same AFTER the two tech 2 cargo rigs? Because I'm guessing that in practice you get only one of the three, you can just change it based on rig selection.

The people have got what they asked for, let the bloodbath begin