Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Tossing the idea around for a while, but I think it's time CCP put a little bit of thought into gettng more industrialists out into Lowsec, and that means some special considerations..

For highsec, there are retrievers and covetors able to handle rats as low as 0.5 status, and then there's the Mack and Hulk better designed for nullsec operations and being shot at by multiple battleship rats.

What I would like to suggest is an intermediary cousin designed for the special considerations required for lowsec operation, since the threat from rats is limited to maybe a handful of battlecruisers, but the real threat is from player pirates.

The idea is that while combat options and opportunities constantly evolve for PVP'ers (weapon retools, scanning/probing overhauls, combat 'FOTM's), that mining tactics and options should evolve accordingly.

This is NOT to make mining 'safe'. It's to provide enough countermeasures to make 'afk' mining hazardous, but lowsec mining profitable in the face of combat-savvy pvp players.

For example:
Poacher
T2 (retriever base)
3 high, 4 mid, 2 low
50m3 drone bay

Barge skill bonus:
3% bonus to mining yield per level
5% bonus to shield resistances per level

Exhumers skill:
20% Bonus to Cloak CPU costs per level
3% reduction to Strip Miner and Ice MIner cycle times per level

Role bonus: 95% reduction in scan resolution penalty for modules requiring the Cloaking skill
Can only fit 2 Strip Miners or Ice Harvesters.

The ship design would favor cycle speed over yield, and provide a defensive mechanism for evading roaming pirate gangs by masking its location and ship type. It, however, would not be able to warp away from the belt it was mining at. it would have enough defense to cope with 0.4-0.1 rats, but not have the overall throughput that you would get from a Hulk. Also important is a reduced cost compared to the hulk, this ship was meant to mine fast in very high risk zones.

The faster cycle yield would require more attentiveness on the part of the miner, and, as always, paying attention to local like a hawk. Pirates catch the complacent, the weak, and the unwary, as it was meant to be.

Bot swarms would fall victim to 'belt sweeps', since they wouldn't be able to warp off while cloaked. The play style is an evolution of 'ninja mining' and would compliment the capabilities of a Blockade runner nicely in the rough, unpredictable territory that is lowsec.