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Hello fellow Capsuleers!
CCP Terminus here to share some design stats for the new T2 Expedition Frigate. As some of you may know from the Evesterdam presentation by CCP Foxfour, this new frigate will be focusing on ice mining in the far reaches of New Eden. We think it will give a chance for the more adventurous miners out there to explore and mining valuable ice in places they haven’t had a chance to before, such as shattered wormholes and null-sec. So without further ado, here are the stats:


Endurance (Note: The ship was originally called the Discovery)

Expedition Frigates bonuses (per skill level):

• 5% reduction to Ice Harvesting duration
• 4% bonus to all shield resistances

Mining Frigate bonuses (per skill level):

• 5% reduction to Ice Harvesting duration
• 5% bonus to ore Mining yield

Role Bonuses:

• 300% bonus to ore Mining yield
• 50% reduction to Ice Harvesting duration
• 50% reduction in Cloaking Devices CPU requirement
• Cloak reactivation delay and targeting delay reduced to 5 seconds
• No penalty to ship max velocity when using Cloaking Devices

Slot layout: 3 H, 4 M, 3 L, 1 Turret
2 Rig Slots, 400 Calibration
Fittings: 40 PWG, 280 CPU
Defense (shields / armour / hull): 1100 / 400 / 500
Base shield resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 0 / 20 / 40 / 50
Base armor resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 60 / 35 / 25 / 10
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / average cap per second): 300 / 125s / 2.4
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / warp speed / align time): 420 / 2.4 / 1,600,000 / 5.5 / 5.32s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 15 / 30
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 20km / 750 / 4
Sensor strength: 10 Magnetometric
Signature radius: 40
Cargo capacity (cargo / ore): 200 / 15000


The Endurance will also be able to fit one of three new frigate sized Ice Mining Lasers, which can only be fitted to expedition frigates. They have the following stats:

Ice Mining Laser I
Skill Requirements: Mining IV, Ice Harvesting I
Fittings: 5 PWG, 50 CPU
Activation Cost: 10 GJ
Optimal Range: 7 Km
Duration: 360s
Mining Amount: 1000 m3

Ice Mining Laser II
Skill Requirements: Mining IV, Ice Harvesting V
Fittings: 6 PWG, 60 CPU
Activation Cost: 15 GJ
Optimal Range: 8 Km
Duration: 330s
Mining Amount: 1000 m3

ORE Ice Mining Laser
Skill Requirements: Mining IV, Ice Harvesting I
Fittings: 6 PWG, 60 CPU
Activation Cost: 15 GJ
Optimal Range: 11 Km
Duration: 330s
Mining Amount: 1000 m3


Some notes:

• The Endurance mines ice slightly slower than mining barges, but mines individual blocks at a rapid pace with all its duration reductions.
• Standard ore mining in a Endurance will be about as fast as a Venture due to the 300% role bonus to mining yield, but will be slower than a Prospect.
• While the Prospect can fit the new Ice Mining Laser modules, and has an extra turret slot to fit two, it is still much slower at mining ice than the Endurance, and will require more trips back due to the smaller ore bay.
• The Endurance cannot fit covert ops cloaking devices, though it does get bonuses and penalty reductions to fitting regular ones.
• The Endurance and Prospect will be the only ship capable of mining ice from the frigate only Shattered Wormholes.
• We’re hoping the Endurance works well for ninja mining the more valuable ice from null-sec. With its speed, shield tanking, and cloaking bonuses players should be able to make runs into null-sec for some of the crunchier ice.

I like this, however, it does put a bit of a skill wall up for younger players who wish to gather resources under hostile conditions.

The powercreep has now arrived in the ice belts aswell.

Neat. When is this going to be on sisi? :x

You have to be part of the cool club to mine ice of course. i.e train for 8 days into a mining barge

We're playing it safe for now, and not introducing ice mining at such a cheap investment as a venture. This could change in the future if we felt it was warranted.

the actual question is: what color is it?

lol, art has the final say but I'm hoping for something icy

No, it does not. They can still attempt the same thing in cheap ships.

I like the idea. I'm sure it will have some use for WH folks, but I have yet to ever see someone ninja mining ores in null sec - gas, yes - but not ores. Not sure ninja ice mining will ever be a thing.

I like the cut of your jib.