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How To Rorqual
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Shurra Davaham
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#1 - 2016-03-15 03:04:27 UTC
The Rorqual: Mostly Harmless
The Rorqual is a deployable POS that can provide mining boosts and can dock. That’s the reality of it. It’s not a capital ship. It was built to be one, and it even looks like one. I’d be willing to bet it smells and tastes like capital ships too. It can stay in a belt until it’s totally mined out without the need for haulers. It can use sentry drones. It’s a transformer! It’s awesome.

No one actually pilots Rorquals. They aren’t in belts supporting their miners, so mining ops in low/null still need haulers. They could compress ore, but why would they? They’re sitting at a POS already. Might as well throw a compressor on there so people can compress when the Rorqual is offline.

The Rorqual also has some of the worst possible “bonuses” to it. Let me enlighten you as to how bad this is.

Clone Vat Bay
The first I want to argue against is actually the Clone Vat Bay. There are two situations where this is a mildly convenient thing to have.

1 - You join a corp in null but don’t want to bother dodging through the first few systems of null to get out to your destination. But the friendly neighborhood Rorqual is in the area. You instal a clone, they jump away, and you use your new clone when the Rorqual arrives in the homeland.

That is a a good use for it.

2 - You get attacked and need to get PVP pilots in system right away. They first have to dock, leave their ship, and activate the jump clone, assuming they haven’t jumped that day. Now their in their pod, somewhere in space and need to get a ship. Maybe the Rorqual has a ship they can use. If the Rorqual isn’t in the field then the pilot must fly to the Rorqual first, get the ship, then get to the field. By this point people are already dead, because they’re probably in Hulks if they’re in null and mining with group with Rorqual support. If it is, either they have to fly to a POS for a ship or risk getting spaced by the enemy while still in their pod.

That is not a good use for it.

If the clone vat bay functioned like a mini docking station for capsules that would be better. People could get in ships right away and launch from the Rorqual. Probably not happening, and really it’s not necessary to change it just because it’s worthless on the Rorqual. But if there was something else, mining or defense related, that would be better. For now, my advice: just use a drone link augmentor.

900% bonus to survey scanner range.
This is not a bonus. If that 900% range affected my miners, THEN it would be a bonus. THEN, and only THEN, would I want to keep this. I consider the survey scanner to be an excellent piece of equipment. Helps a lot when you’re actively trying to min/max your mining.

But how is the Rorqual going to use this? It’s not. No one in a Rorqual has ever gotten all hot and bothered fantasizing about how many cubic meters are in “'dat asteroid.”

200% bonus to Cargo Scanners range
Ever had someone in your alliance say “Hey, let’s go kill some guys!” and someone else says “Yeah, let me just grab my COMBAT RORQUAL so we can scan their cargo!”

Points to you if you’ve flown a combat Rorqual on a PVP roam. I too like to live dangerously. But seriously, what am I going to use this for? Checking my miners ore holds to see if their full? Sure, I could, but its up to my miners to keep track of how much ore they have on hand.

So how can it be fixed?
Its an academic question at this point. CCP has been "talking about making the Rorqual a more viable ship" which at this point means "Stop bothering us about it." The Rorqual is here to stay in all its mangled, inefficient glory. However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't change how we use this ship. At its core the Rorqual is a logistics support ship, and I mean logistics in the more real world sense. It holds equipment for fleet members, lets them refit without docking, change out ships, and stay in belt all day long. It gives excellent bonuses to members and can hold multiple flights of drones to aid in defense. But its best point is the two extra high slots. Those could be used for a capital tractor beam and clone bay...but MTU's exist and you know my feelings on the clone bay. Thus, the best use for those slots are for the Capital Remote Shield Booster to help keep your people alive.

So, CPP...if you will consider any of this, do us all a favor. Replace the Rorqual worthless bonuses into logi bonuses. Bonuses to range. Bonuses to cap. It doesn't have to be a lot, but it will go a long way to making the Rorqual a ship worth flying with the fleet.
Shurra Davaham
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#2 - 2016-03-15 03:05:02 UTC
Fitting a Rorqual
If you go to zKillBoard and look at Rorqual deaths, you'll notice a pattern. Almost every single time they have nothing fitted to them at all, or their fits are so ludicrously bad that they deserved to be destroyed like the abominations that they are. The first step to properly fitting a Rorqual is this: ignore every build that tells you to fit Expanded Cargoholds and Cargohold Optimization rigs to your ship. You’re an ORE ship. An ORE ship that can hold an unreasonable amount of ORE. You’re not a general purpose freighter. You’re just dropping your EHP by 1 to 2 MILLION POINTS. Do you really NEED the extra cargo space?

No. You don’t. You’re a POS remember? An un-anchored POS that requires a capsuleer to function. You're not moving anyways, so its fine.

And what exactly do these people think they're holding? Enough heavy water to run for three days straight? With your fuel bay filled up with heavy water and an additional 50,000 heavy water in your normal cargo bay you can run for 7.5 hours. If you need more than that get a hauler, or dock for 2 minutes. Or fill up the whole bay with heavy water and run for 16 hours. If you are only in your Rorqual when people are actually mining, 16 hours is plenty. You might not even be running that long each day. Are you actually running that much? I'm sure someone can take 12 seconds out of their day to fetch you some more water. Or you can just dock. The world wont end if the Rorqual docks for a minute.

Beyond that, you should be holding equipment for your miners. Crystals, cap boosters, and drones will be most of your cargo. Ice/Gas harvesters if that's also a thing that you have going on. You can, and will, hold all of that in the fleet hangar so people can have access to it. And the fleet hangar is not expanded by Expanded Cargoholds or Cargohold Optimization rigs.

So, recap: 7.5 hours of fuel, because we can have someone fetch more, and enough cargo space to outfit 391 miners. No need for cargohold optimizers.

Oh, wait. Did I not explain that? Yeah, that's not an exaggeration. That includes 5 replacement drones per ship, a mix of t1 and t2, light and medium drones (17,106.25m3), 6 mining crystals per ship of various types (23,460m3), and 8 Cap Booster 100's for each pilot for their ancillary shield boosters or cap injectors (9,384m3). With all of that you still have enough space to carry extra fuel to keep going for 7.5 hours.

You will never need cargohold expansion equipment.

You will never have a fleet of more than 391 miners.

Don't fit cargohold expansion equipment.


How to fit a space whale

Defense. You fit for defense. You make sure you have pvp support somewhere that can come to your aid, and then you keep your people alive. That is your job. You are the space whale. Here is a fit that will help you stay alive. You can always downgrade the deadspace equipment in favor of T2 equipment if you're not comfortable with the idea of losing that much isk or if you have no guaranteed pvp support. But if you can count on your corporation/alliance to rescue you, then use this: View Active Fleet Support Rorqual on Osmium
Shurra Davaham
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#3 - 2016-03-15 03:17:30 UTC 
[Rorqual, Fleet Support]
Unit W-634's Modified Damage Control
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II

Capital Neutron Saturation Injector I
Pithum A-Type Adaptive Invulnerability Field
Pith X-Type Explosive Deflection Field
Pith X-Type Kinetic Deflection Field
Pith X-Type Thermal Dissipation Field
Pith X-Type EM Ward Field
Sentient Drone Navigation Computer

Mining Foreman Link - Mining Laser Field Enhancement II
Mining Foreman Link - Laser Optimization II
Mining Foreman Link - Harvester Capacitor Efficiency II
Capital Remote Shield Booster I
Capital Remote Shield Booster I
Industrial Core I

Capital Core Defense Field Extender II
Capital Core Defense Field Extender II
Capital Core Defense Field Extender II

Ogre II x5
Ogre II x5
Medium Shield Maintenance Bot II x5
Eli Apol
Definitely a nullsec alt
#4 - 2016-03-15 03:54:19 UTC  |  Edited by: Eli Apol
Just fit a T2 hull tank and you have a ton more ehp.

E: and it can't be neuted out anymore!

but what would I know, I'm just a salvager
Shurra Davaham
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#5 - 2016-03-15 05:18:53 UTC
Yeah, even just using t2 stuff. I spend an hour looking at rorqual wrecks yesterday. All of them had almost nothing for defense.
Sim Cognito
Obani Gemini Corporation
#6 - 2016-03-15 16:55:16 UTC  |  Edited by: Sim Cognito
Quote:
But seriously, what am I going to use this for? Checking my miners ore holds to see if their full? Sure, I could, but its up to my miners to keep track of how much ore they have on hand.


I think the idea is to use the cargo scanner for containers that the Rorqual will be tractoring with the capital tractor beam.

But all of that works on the assumption that the ship is in the asteroid belt.


There are some changes coming, according to the latest CSM minutes, I sugest you take a look at them. They made new mining drones (fighter-sized) and are considering giving it a forcefield ability.


http://now.eveonline.com/post/138738115633/reverse-engineering-of-the-active-specimens


I trained and bought mine a long time ago, but I still haven't found a use for it, especially now its worse than ever. It's not worth using even as a light JF.
Mephiztopheleze
Laphroaig Inc.
#7 - 2016-03-16 01:46:48 UTC
Think outside the box!

Battle Rorqs have seen some eclectic uses fit with massive tank and Neuts. One use I heard of was as a capital bumper, kind of like a supersized Machariel. They've also been used to bait out Titans in the not too distant past (fit them properly, eg: know what damage profile you're up against, and they can survive a Doomsday!)

Occasional Resident Newbie Correspondent for TMC: http://themittani.com/search/site/mephiztopheleze

This is my Forum Main. My Combat Alt is sambo Inkura