Player Features and Ideas Discussion

With the revamping of structures across the board it got me to think about the Rorqual boost's, moon mining and T2 based reactions.

Why not rework the Rorqual into a Quasi ship/structure tool that could be used to remove moon mining in its current incarnation aka structure mining. What I mean is replace the passive accumulation of moon goo through structures and use the Rorqual to replace it. Essentially allowing the rorqual to be fit for varying advanced industry modes. How I imagined this is outlined below. Also keep in mind that current towers are to be phased out and replaced by the new structures in time and this a is complete discarding of the current incarnation of the Rorqual.

- Make the rorqual a quasi ship/structure that can be flown to a location and deployed while fitted with a variety of new Capital Industry modules such as Capital Strip Miner I / II, Reaction Bay, Advanced Reaction bay, etc. Once deployed the Rorqual would get a boost to its defenses via resists and would require fuel like any other structure to remain deployed for a maximum of 48 - 36hrs without refueling. To avoid larger cap blobs simply squashing smaller groups allow a 24hr reinforcement timer should the shields get below 10%. Once reinforced mode is active all bonus's or modules go offline. Once the rorqual has been given its assigned task depending on the modules fitted to the ship the pilot can leave the ship allowing the ship to function in a similar manner as towers do now. Allow extra bonus's towards its roles if the pilot remains in the ship aka faster Moon Yield, Reaction speed, Fleet mining bonus's etc. If the pilot leaves the ship and its running autonomously then only the pilot that deployed the ship or those within the pilots corp with the proper role can get into it in order to relocate the ship.

- I understand that destroying the ship would require structure grinding in its current form however that is why it would function as a quasi ship / structure and it would be the only semi structure in the game that required structure grinding and as its a ship and not a structure the EHP could be limited to something that a smaller task force could deal with rather than requiring capitals to send it into reinforcement mode. Also it's entirely plausible that after the reinforcement timer if the owners abandoned the ship the attackers could use the Entosis link on it and someone from the attacking side could then jump in and pilot the ship away effectively capturing it aka even more content and possible an entirely new profession aka The Heisting of Rorquals.

- I'm not sure how the coding would work with the various Rorqual's modes but perhaps it would be easier to manage using a similar system as T3 ships do by utilizing subsystems rather than actual modules to put the ship into varying configurations to allow for the below mechanics. That way you could modify the Power / CPU stats on the ship. based on its role. Could also be used as a means of changing the look of the ship and its animation while deploying based on the subsystems fit to it.

Ship Purpose #1 Moon Mining

Deploy within range of a moon the pilot would target the moon and deploy a capital class strip miner to pull in resources at a rate of one cycle per 10 mins. Limit one rorqual per moon and enable moons to be depleted with their resources refreshing slowly after downtime over several days similar to PI resources. Moons like asteroids would provide a variety of different raw resources similarly balanced in the way that ore is now.

Ship Purpose #2 Mobile Reactions

- Allow the rorqual to function as a mobile Reaction platform used to run simple reactions as an addition to the new structures used for reactions. I'm not saying don't make the reactions possible in structures at all i'm saying allow them to be run in either a deployed structure owned by a corp / alliance while also allowing reactions to be run in a deployed Rorqual that can be used by individuals or smaller mobile groups that would prefer not to put up permanent infrastructure for long term use aka nomads. It would deploy just as in the above moon mining example only it would be fitted with different mods for simple, complex, etc reactions and would use what ever new interface that would be developed for reactions in general.

Ship Purpose #3 Organized Fleet Ninja Mining

- Rorqual would be deployed in either mining anomalies, asteroid belts or safe spots and could be fitted to provide mining boosts as they do now only instead of them being applied to fleets they are applied system wide. Rorquals could then make use of capital tractor beams if positioned in mining anomalies / belts. At the expense of slightly lower defenses allow them to fit a compression module that would allow the pilots and/or miners to compress their ore so long as their within the 15km shielding. Do not allow miners to activate their strip miners while within the Rorquals shields but allow the Rorqual to use its Capital tractor beams as well as Shield transfers and any other logi gear it could fit.

-- Invent a set of NEW modules one that is a capital industrial class cyno that is fit to the Rorqual and once activated while the rorqual is deployed allows mining and industrial ships to jump to it so long as their within 2 systems of the industrial cyno. The mining or industrial ship must also have a new module fitted that allows them to make the jump so long as the module had completed at least one 10 sec cycle. The capital industrial cyno would take up a high slot most likely in order to limit other bonus's it could give to the system or its ability to fit capital tractor beams and logistics. The module fit to barges and haulers could be either a mid or low slot module in order to make the pilot chose between defenses or yield depending on how best to balance them over all as determined by data from testing.

The ability to use a rorqual; or any ship for that matter, for mass harvesting of farmable items would tank the market for them. For a while they would offset the isk printers doing incursions but after an initial week or so the market would die, and trit would be back to 2 isk again.

As much as I would like my industry guys Rorqual to have a purpose beyond providing my corp and myself jump clones I honestly don't see any of the options as presented in the OP as the way forward.

There is nothing wrong with Rorquals other than it needs it jump range putting back to the old Dread ranges.

The new structure changes mean a rorq can't be used (links and compression) unless it is undocked (not berthed, w/e they called the new mechanic for capitals)...and thus targetable. In POS currently, a rorq is effectively a structure taking up an account to run. Not exactly great mechanics as I'm sure we can all agree.

OP thread is game breaking and is trying to skirt around the sudden realization that the new changes mean rorqs, to be useful, will also have to be attackable. I approve this change (and I plan to fly a rorq eventually). This isn't hisec and so it shouldn't be usable like an Orca in hisec - hiding next to a station.

As for ideas on changing the ship, removal of the industrial core and relegating its role to a structure DOES make sense as its original intent (compress ore for transport) makes no sense as a rorq has to jump to leave its system of origin...costing more than just ferrying the ore from the mining fleet in transports or guarded orcas which can use jump gates. If the rorq was changed to function like a jump freighter navigationally (can use gates as well as jump), the industrial core becomes useful on the ship itself - compress ore while out and about mining systems away from the industrial home so as to be able to enable the mining fleet to go longer without waiting.

Of course this change alone probably won't incentivize fleets to move their rorq around...it'll probably remain a station ornament to compress ore still. Beyond changing its navigation restrictions I can't think of another way to make the ship more worth the risk of flying it around.

It's that or remove the industrial core - relegate that role to a new structure - and give the rorqual some other type of mining fleet bonus that would deeply incentivize the ship being mobile as originally envisioned. Super mining links that require on-grid to be used, ten drones instead of five deployed, a larger ship maintenance array to enable fleets to quickly react to attackers, a bastion mode to act as a defensive (as opposed to offensive like marauder) fortress for surrounding ships...the list goes on, but which is best and doesn't harm the utility of other ships is up in the air.