Ships & Modules

Been away from eve for years, and recently was curious with the changes to the orca, particularly its extra high slots and drone capacity (way back I think the ship bay was swapped to exhumers only, seems it can fit anything now?).


Want to put a 4 man/alt fleet together for casual game play, centered around fun stuff like exploration/hacking etc. would generally travel in high sec (keep orca out of low/WH space "generally" :) but Low sec and WH space is fun too. Low time commitment, and able to cloak up and log out whenever to keep things casual. Incorporating a major wander lust (thanks to the orca as a mobile base with supplies/ammo/spare stuff), where docking up at a station would be totally optional.



------General goal---------
- log in (30min to 1hour play sessions)
- scan sites down, (with 2-3 scanner ships flying around)
- Bookmark and scout potential sites.
- swap ship/fittings at orca (keep orca cloaked somewhere safe usually) to optimize ships for combat and site
- do site, pulling back to orca to drop off loot
- in high sec could bring orca in to loot (assuming MW is fit for 10s warp out, pre aligned)
- find next site, kill more ****.
- if in low sec/WH space, could even get a little ganking in (need to factor this in for holding spare ships :)




-------So the general parameters is like this--------
- 4 pilots (1 always in orca, other 3 in something else)
- orca holds stuff*, spare fitted ships for looting/hacking/probing. And spare parts to refit ships.
- assume I got min skills needed for T2/T3 ships (for frigate, cruiser, battlecruiser sizes of Amarr/Galente/Caldari)
- keep orca ship bay in mind (fits 1x BC --OR-- 3x Cruisers --OR-- large pile of frigates and a couple cruisers) and may/will need spare ships. Also keep in mind that if you swap from a cruiser to a frigate, need to be able to store cruisers.
- I have a proper paranoia for clicking D-scan induced from living in WH space and getting splattered occasionally and probing is second nature. (What is this "Local" thingy? ;)
- going for an independent wandered vibe, money is not the end goal, but if I generate enough for 1-2 or so Plex's that would be awsome (and much easier on my wallet too).



So let the theory crafting begin.

PIlot A: -Orca-
- Baddass orca fitting? (Cloak and MWD mandatory)
PIlot B: _____
- alt ship?
PIlot C: _____
- alt ship?
PIlot D: _____
- alt ship?

Drones can be fun, especially with easy access to refills.


PIlot A: Orca
- High slots
- cloak
- 2x tractor beams
- 2x Large Remote Shield booster T2
- ?
- Med
- 50MN Microwarp drive (that big enough?)
- 2x shield boosters
- 2x Med Cap Booster
Low
- Damage Control II
- Expanded Cargohold II
Rigs
- 2x Large cargohold optimization II
- 1x Large cargohold optimization I



Pilot B: Helios (scan/hack/relic?)
- Ishtar (dps)
- bomber

Pilot C: Myrmidon (or command ship like Astarte)
- none/ BC take up too much room


Pilot D: T2 cruiser
- recon ship or cheap T1 cruiser/frigate?
- secondary scanning frigate
- bomber


Needing a balance between expensive T2 ships and T1 throw away ships. Keeping multiboxing workload/clicks in mind.

Which reminds me that drones could be a great part of the flexibility of the fleet, taking on DPS and rep roles, from 4 ships.

Was looking at the mobile depots, but you still need one per ship, and each ship needs to hold its own. Then there is the problem of extra supplies fighting for room with your loot as well. Was kinda thinking that once I got enough loot, I would drop it off in a High sec station, and pay red frog (or whoever) to haul it to Jita for me. Guess I could drop the orca in favor of a blockade runner instead though combined with mobile depots and maybe use a few tractor structures for gathering loot, then use salvage drones.

I was thinking T3, but those cost a bit (and are shiny targets) so if I fly them in Low sec or wormhole space, I'm asking for more trouble if anyone happens to be around waiting for me (and they probably will be). With the orca, I can bring a pile of throw away frigates who can go do the more dangerous missions.


Edit, but the ability to refit subsystems in space now would allow all kinds of specialized fittings, so the value of a T3 hull goes way up (covert, combat, scanning, etc.)

It works and can be fun. Small POS with a little fuel is worth having too, means the Orca pilot can leave the Orca in the POS and join in with another ship.

T3C are also well worth the space as thwy can fill a few roles. BCs take up too much space. Possibly worth taking T3D and looking for Wolf Rayet WHs in particular.