Player Features and Ideas Discussion

As promised, here is your brand new ship-moving ship - the Bowhead.

We originally expected this to be a sister ship to the Orca, but after digging into the details realized that it was really more of a freighter and by setting it up that way we could avoid heavier skill requirements that had nothing to do with its role. This means we are going to introduce a new skill: ORE Freighter, which requires ORE Industrial III and Advanced spaceship command V just like other faction freighter skills.

There isn't much else to say other than that this ship is intended for a specific niche: high-sec transport of fitted/insured ships. It may find applications in other parts of space (especially because of the reduced jump fatigue), but we aren't really worried about hitting anything outside of the high-sec application. Because we were starting from scratch here, we decided to give a little more fitting flexibility (mid slots and rig slots), meaning the base hp is set a little lower than other freighters since you can actually get the EHP higher using rigs and a DCU.

Let us know what you think.

BOWHEAD

Ore Freighter Bonus:
5% bonus to inertia modifier per level
5% bonus to ship maintenance array capacity per level

Role Bonus:
90% reduction in jump fatigue generation


Slot layout: 0H, 3M, 3L, 3R; 0 turrets, 0 launchers
Fittings: 1350 PWG, 215 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 21000 / 11000 / 39500
Capacitor (amount / recharge) : 3900 / 235000
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / warp speed / align time): 65 / .0675 / 640000000 / 1.37 / 59.89s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 51.5km / 45 / 3
Capacity (cargo / ship maintenance array): 4000 / 1300000 (goes up to 1.6 something with ore freighter 5)
Sensor strength: 12
Signature radius: 3200

edit: base HP and bonuses updated based on feedback.

Interesting. Will probably become a favorite of gankers, and I don't mean in a good way.

Starship, I think I love you.

Me like!

Any idea of the potential price tag?

Waha! Take that, tugboat! Bowhead is a much better name.

Unfortunately, as many predicted, the hp is sufficiently low that this is perfect for gankers. Paired with that speed bonus instead of an agility bonus, and maximum 3 fit battleships.... eh.... I think we're not going to see many bowheads at all.

Very good! The community has been asking for this ship for quite some time and I'm sure it'll be put to good use. As with all highsec capitals, however, it's going to get bumped and ganked like crazy.

Assuming at least one of the mids will be reserved for a MWD, and fitting a hull tank, the defences do seem a little bit weak; I think with DC2 and double bulkheads we'd be looking at about 150, 180K EHP?

That's still significantly less than an armour tanked battleship even though it could potentially be carrying 3 of them inside.

I can easily see transporting 3 or 4 billion isk of fitted ships around inside one of these (moving a couple of decent mission ships around could easily reach 3 billion), I think the defences need to reflect that when we live in a world of cheap ganking .

Crazy idea... slightly less hull, more mids, more shield HP, and a 1000% bonus to the effects of overheating and heat damage absorbed. 500,000k EHP for 30 - 40 seconds then your modules are burnt out.

I'll actually go look for a picture for you, there must be one around here somewhere.

edit: bad news =/ art says no WIP pictures so I guess you have to wait a week or two for it to show up on Sisi. I saw it though and it looks amazing, if that helps.

It CAN fit DC, and since it doesn't need cargo expanders, you can fit bulkheads on it. Dunno about those mids tho...maybe chain ecm burst? Not sure of their hisec legality.

Do you have one of fozzie shooting you with his DD in his kite fenrir? Don't think you've fooled us; we've wised up to your shenanigans...