Player Features and Ideas Discussion

You can transport sh*tload of ore in compressed form in DST or BR so I see no reason for this.

Let's assume you're hauling planetary goods on a character with Gallente industrial V, and acess to gallente transport ships.

An epithal carries 67.5k in it's hold, so 68k total

How much can one of your DSTs carry, given that an existing DST hauls 63.9km with no cargo expanders fit?

And one of your BRs, given the standard ones haul 4.5k?

How is having a small cargohold going to differentiate an ORE DST from a standard DST given that of that 63.9k, only the 3.9k is the standard hold? (I can't speak for all DST Pilots, but I never even use my regular hold)

just give mjd to porpoise. end of story.

This DST would be similarly tankable but be able to carry more of the specialized commodity you choose compared to any other DST currently existing.

Not overall a bad idea, interesting thoughts. I wonder how much use they would get, But I cannot see anything gamebreaking here.

Gankers in HS would whine about the lack of easily popped industrials, and it is the slippery slope da-de-da-de-da...... but I don't think they have a divine right to that.

Overall, not too bad. +1 from me.

On Cargoholds:
I feel like you are missing details on exactly how these new ships would achieve more cargo capacity in the OP, but by the sounds of it you are talking about some kind of subsystem these new ships would be able to fit to add a specialized cargohold. Make these cargohold fittings lowslots which add 30,000 m3 of their specified cargohold and limit the BR variant to a maximum of 1, DST variant to a maximum of 4. That would place the max size of the specialized cargoholds at approximately double the standard cargohold size for each ship type. This also allows for the new ships to change the specialized cargohold as needed, or for the DST to have up to 4 different specialized holds of 30,000 m3 each. Regular cargoholds would need to be adjusted so they aren't large enough to add a meaningful amount of cargospace for non-specialized cargo, but leave enough room for refits and deployables. DST would lose the fleet hangar entirely.

Balancing EHP:
By using a lowslot to provide the specialized cargohold, it's easy to balance out the max possible EHP. Want to fit 4 cargohold fittings on the DST? Ok, but they use a lot of powergrid and you won't have much left for any shield extenders. Only need two cargohold fittings? Sweet, you have room to trow on 2 reactors in the lows so you can fit a mean shield buffer. Let the pilot decide how much cargohold they need and how much tank they need.

On Ganking:
The DST is currently the toughest target to gank in highsec if the pilot knows how to fit and use the ship and the BR is impossible to catch without getting lucky and having them decloak near a wreck or other object that prevents them from using the cov ops cloak.. In their current state, the only reason either of these ship types die is pilot error/incompetence. These new ORE ships would follow in the same vein as their T2 variants: virtually unkillable when piloted correctly. There will still be that guy who maximizes his cargohold with no tank and gets popped with 10bil, but it was his risk to take and no fault of the ship design.

On T1 Indys:
There is a very good reason why we do not see frequent use of the specialized T1 indys: They offer no benefit over DSTs. There only 4 types of people using specialized T1 indys right now:
(1) People unaware of how much the DST can carry and how tanky it is
(2) People who are too lazy/poor to skill into DSTs
(3) People who don't need the extra cargospace with enough frequency to justify training DSTs
(4) People who are still training for DSTs
These proposed new ships are certainly cool and would offer some benefit over standard DSTs, but I don't think they would appeal to the people currently using specialized T1s. To refer to the previously mentioned groups:
(1) They are still stuck in ignorance
(2) They can't afford the pricetag of a pirate ship or can't afford the increased training requirements of a pirate ship
(3) They still don't need the extra stats, certainly can't justify the even longer training requirement
(4) They are still training, but now have more that they need to train
I'm not saying these ships would see little use, but they are not going to appeal to the t1 indy crowd unless the barrier to entry is set far lower than DSTs.

Thanks for the feedback Jason.

The original idea is indeed to use a type of subsystem. Think of each subsystem like the specialized hold on an indy such as the PI hold on an epithal. The ORE DST would be limited to two while the BR would be limited to a fraction of a whole of that bay. Obviously there would be similar limits for bays carrying other commodity types.

That said, using modules is an interesting proposition. It would make for a truly customizable transport ship with the trade off between tank, capacity and speed. This brings up a potential problem however. Part of the trade off for the increased capacity is decreased flexibility. If the modules are small enough to carry spare sets in the minimal standard cargo hold the ships possess this disadvantage is neutralized.

For the record I currently find myself in the still training to fly a DST category. Other things were so much flashier...

If you think about it, the Miasmos should always have been an ORE industrial instead of Gallente. Lump it in with the Venture somehow, some people get happy. (Others get mad, but that only happens on days that end in "y".)

Too late now, though?

Impel X-Types , A-Types, faction plates and slaves.