Ships & Modules

So, the gap needs filling and the Thukker's would do it well (imo)

You'd have to get creative (but not TOO creative) with the lore to make it work, but I can imagine a situation in which the Thukker's share tech with a large Caldari corp for reasons.

Anyway, the basics


So, thematically, the Thukker's are nomadic, seeking to evade combat entirely and only engage under favorable conditions, if at all. Through some kind of backroom deal, caldari corps have traded shield and cloak technology for something (access to Thukker trade routes, information on thukker doomsday tech... whatever. A tech trade deal has been struck to benefit both groups)
-alternatively, a Caldari defector group is supplying the Thukker's with this tech for money/to harm the state.. The lore has a lot of options.

To fit the nomadic, evasive theme, Thukker's ships (frigate and cruiser) are able to fit Cov Ops cloaks, and have a moderate role bonus to projectile weapon sniping. Hit and run tactics being the idea.

Balance-wise, it would be nice for there to be a live alternative to the SOE ships for T1 Cov Ops, as these ships have nearly become mandatory in J space for pilots who don't have access to Recon ships or Strategic Cruisers. Cloaky T3's are generally quite weak compared to "proper" cruisers, and this is the niche Thukker ships would fit into. Cloaky snipers, with lowish dps, and decent maneuverability and a shield tank focus.
Mid slots could be rationed such that being able to tackle/ewar comes at the expense of fitting tank and vice versa.
Low slots would generally be fewer, 2-3 to restrict choices to between weapon upgrades and propulsion upgrades, again forcing a choice between tank or gank focus.
Generally each ship should be able to field a utility high slot (for a probe launcher, seems like a 'must have' for space nomads, but also important for this ship to be able to fill its role in J space, and occupy some of the roles that the SOE ships currently fill there)

So, example ship names and layouts (more for an idea than to be definitively well balanced or anything) plus rough trait descriptions.





So those are the rough ideas. Conceptually, they are fragile, long range high alpha, mobile ships, vulnerable to high alpha attackers, as well as being hard tackled and forced into a brawl. Excellent at recon work, and ambush sniper attacks.
Can be fit to either kite, active tank, ewar, or deal maximum up front damage, but limited to only really being able to focus on one of these things.
Potential to fit these ships with polarized artillery, for max gank, but negating entirely one of the racial bonuses granted.
Filling a role that lies somewhere between a cloaky T3 and a stealth bomber, but with a price that makes them less disposable than stealth bombers, and lower SP requirement than T3 cruisers (and also much lower survivability and flexibility)


There is also the possibility of a Thukker carrier (probably a FAX, thematically) although not being a carrier pilot, I wouldn't know where to begin with trying to bonus them to fit thematically and be useful members of that class.


Anyway, let me know what you think. I reckon it'd be nice to have a cal/mm hybrid faction, and it would also be nice to have some competition for the SOE Covert Ops role which has dominated wormhole space (in contrast to when I played 5 years ago before SOE ships, where you seldom saw covert ops fits on anything except T3's and maybe the odd Falcon in wormholes)

We already have Thukker ships. Nomad, Cheetah, Vagabond and Panther that I know of - possibly others. The only faction that doesn't have their own ships that I can think of are the Ammatar.

Imo, would be good to have a pirate faction to fill mm/cal.

Thukker Mix isn't the same as Thukker's.. But if that were an issue, could easily tweak the lore. Could make it the specific thukker caravan who were lost in a wormhole for example.

Main point being in my opinion there should be a cross faction represented by cal/mm, and there should also be T1 ships that fit cov ops to occupy the same space as SOE ships, with a different role.

Not against different classes of ships either, but its not a one or the other thing.

The current mix includes:

Guristas: Missile/Drone/Shield
Sansha: Laser/Speed/Shield
Blood: Laser/EW/Armor
Angel: Projectile/Speed/Shield
Serpentis: Hybrid/EW/Armor
SOE: Laser/Drone/Armor
Mordu's: Missile/EW/Shield
SoCT: Balanced/Low skill/Limited edition
Concord: Balanced/Limited edition

Missing are Missile/Armor which could be Ammatar using Khanid technology, Projectile/Armor which could be Thukker and Hybrid/Shield which could be resurrected Defiants. http://wiki.eve-inspiracy.com/index.php?title=Defiants

Aren't all the missile using Amarr ships Ammatar? Or am I thinking Khanid?

You could be right about missiles over projectile (though there is nothing inherently wrong with having 2 projectile bonused factions IMO)

But I think there is a unique place for Thukker's (or some sub-group of Thukkers) to run a Cov-Ops cloak focus, to balance out the use of SOE ships in WH space. Given that SOE getting WH bonuses fits lore-wise, you could make the same thing work for Thukkers (given their connection lore-wise to wormholes)

Currently the Stratios and Astero are almost mandatory for WH space (from scouting and hunting to solo PvP out there) due to their covert ops cloak ability. This is good, and they fill an important niche in the game, but they fill it so well that very little else gets a look in. Other covert ops capable ships are significantly weaker than a well fit stratios, with the possible exception of the cloaky-T3C's)
This raises a problem, which is without training to T3 Cruisers, the only viable covert ops cloak ship to fly around in wormhole space is an armor tanked drone boat, usually fitted with neuts. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, except it almost defines the solo engagement profile in WH space alone.
Given the Thukker 'style' in the lore of hit and run and generally evasive combat tactics, I believe the idea of cloaky high range low tank snipers would fit both thematically, as well as add a new element into the combat typically found in WH space.
Now, of course cloaky ships aren't the only things flown in wormholes, but generally speaking, out of cloak ships are flown in fleets, with cloaky hunters/tacklers in the target hole, and the fighting ships waiting outside. Most of the time, an astero or a stratios are the best at this role as well (in terms of being able to sneak up on a targets, and hold tackle long enough for backup to arrive)

The proposed stealth sniper thukker ships would fill a similar nice, being able to sneak up on targets and deal high up front damage to them, and potentially escape to safety before backup arrives. Almost the opposite role of the SOE ships.

A sort of hit and run, versus pounce and hold style of gameplay, that would create interesting new fleet compositions and tactics (for example, timing a ship throwing up a bubble between a site and a citadel with an ambush to drive the prey into the trap, or roaming with a larger fleet of the thukker ships looking to alpha weaker ships before backup can arrive)

All of which would lead to different, interesting and new gameplay options. Which IMO is healthy.

Whether the Thukkers are the best faction to make T1 Cov Ops ships for can be debated, but IMO, there needs to be a live alternative to armor tanked drone boats in the T1 Cov Ops 'catergory' which is almost mandatory in WH space.