Player Features and Ideas Discussion

But would it be better than the cloaky option?

LOL. The DST's biggest flaw is the 25s align time. No need for a point. If it takes longer than that to kill one, just bump scramble it. Besides, drag bubbles only catch rookies and AFK pilots. If you've spent any time in 0.0 and you are getting caught by drag bubbles, the ship you're flying is not the problem.

Moving this from Ships and Modules to Features and Ideas.

make it able to fit a large micro jump drive, but keep it slow as sh*t

The problem with DST's is that they have way too much overlap with the Orca I feel (At least in highsec). There really is no need to buy a DST if you have access to an Orca since the Orca just does everything better while also having much more utility and being able to do much more stuff!

The Orca holds more than even the biggest DST, The Impel. These figures are assuming the lowslots are filled with Cargo Expander IIs. And that the rigs used are Cargohold Optimization I's
Orca: 92,714m3. Not to mention it also benefits from a Fleet Hanger and a Ship Maintenance Array.
Impel: 36,219m3.

I would also like to mention that the Orca provides over 3x the effective hitpoints that the Impel does when both are fitted for maximum capacity. The Orca is also useful outside of this role for its abilities as a mining booster/super tractor beam ship.

When fitted for Maximum EHP. The Orca hauls almost 8x as much as the Impel. While greatly outperforming it in terms of EHP.



37500m3 Cargo Base + Fleet Hanger + SMA and an Incredible 287k EHP. It is incredibly difficult to gank an Orca fit like this it has roughly twice as much effective hitpoints as a Freighter does.

The Impel is a lot more disappointing. While still possible to get an impressive 125k EHP on a max tank Impel, It's 5,000m3 base cargohold leads a lot to be desired.

The agility gap between both ships is not that bad. 19.1 vs 37.8. The Impel warps roughly twice as fast. But I think it's worth mentioning that you can fit a 100mn AB on an Orca and align/warp in 15s (2x 100mn AB cycles) vs 10s if you fit a MWD on an impel. It's also possible to warp in 10s on an Orca if you fit a 100mn MWD but this requires a fitting rig or RCU to fit.

--

In Low/Nullsec DST are incredibly vulnerable because of their horrible agility/speed. Having +2 WCS doesn't matter in the slightest when a Carrier can lock you before you're into warp. Having tank is meaningless in a ship that is never going to make it back to the gate at it's snail-pace and can be solo'd by 2x Frigates. At least the Orca has a (limited) way of deterring solo/small attackers.

I don't think giving DST's interdiction nullifier subsystem built in is going to help with any of these shortcomings. I think what needs to happen is for a niche or specialization to be found for these ships. I kind of wish CCP have the cargo scanner immunity to DSTs instead of blockade runners.

The question I have is, what is the point of either of these ships being built for null sec when u have jump freighters? Tbh, it seems that they're more built for low sec, and high sec when at war/avoiding gate ganks...

They're transport ships, and the name does not suggest what they actually are.

That said, the cloaky surpasses the interdiction hauler in usefulness in both low and high sec.

This is the problem right here. All that would happen with a nullified DST is they'd see you jump through the gate, jump through after you and point you. By that time, you'd be *just* aligning.

I'm sure DSTs will have a pass to make them more useful, as Fozzie has proven that he and his team have a good understanding of where weaknesses are in the ship lineups and how to fix them.

Personally, though, I think NOT giving DSTs the unscannable hold was a big misstep. BRs already are "invulnerable" whilst traveling under cloak, and if you are locked (to be scanned), you're already dead. DSTs could have put up a respectable tank (for random suicide ganking protection), and they aren't afforded the cloak, so it'd give them a niche in hauling--that and they could probably stand to be the 100k-200k m3 "middle" hauler everyone has been looking for.

Yes, DST need immunity to non targeted interdiction, faster align time and ability to survive ad least single 10k alpha while still having decent cargo hold.

The Cov-Ops haulers is fast and cloaky so it makes sense to have the Deep Space Transport Nullify and Tanky.

For something worth 130mil youd expect it to have a decent tank.

Apart form Backfyre's idiot am i wonderful post this has been a surprisingly good topic. We agreed that ccp needs to do some work on the DST?

Points raised:

Bubble invulnerability
Align time
Warp speed
Capacity
Tank.

Should do for starters. Pick 2 and grief CCP.