If some of you have been paying attention to the recent dev-blogs coming out you would of noticed a dev-blog by CCP Fozzie on a research race/competition that players could take part in by donating Sleeper Data Libraries and Neural Network Analyzers to NPC’s from each of the faction Navies.
Well now the lid is off the jar, at EVE Vegas CCP Fozzie announced the results of the competition with the Amarr Navy coming out on top
With this out of the way CCP Fozzie announced the first new T3 ships since Apocrypha, Tech 3 Destroyers otherwise known as “Tactical Destroyers” this new T3 ship will not have sub-systems and you will not lose a skill when you die in one. Instead the ships will have three distinct modes which can be changed mid-flight to change to role of the ship. The modes are:
Defensive: Increased Resistances, Reduced Sig radius.
Speed: Increased Velocity and agility.
Sniper Mode: Improved weapon range, Lock range and sensor strength.
With this said, since the Amarr won the race they will be the first race to get the new ships in the Rhea expansion in December with the other races getting theirs in the following expansions in order of their place in the race (Sorry Gallente pilots you got a long wait).
On a personal note, i am quite looking forward to these new T3 ships they should add a bit of new life to the Destroyer class which i think have been under-utilized.
Heres a look at some concept art on the Amarr Tactical Destroyer
And here’s also some art on the Caldari version, apartleny the Caldari were ahead most of the way so to be safe the CCP art team made some mock-ups on them too.
Nothing in the way of skill requirements have been said, but presumably racial Destroyer V will be one of them, so those pilots who fly Heretics, Flycatchers, Eriss and Sabres will find that they are likely halfway there. Construction of these new T3’s will follow the same as normal T3’s (after the merging of invention and reverse engineering) meaning they will be invented from sleeper hull sections using T3 components. Nothing is said on whether there will be any market seeding.
Along with the new T3 ships CCP Fozzie stated that the Blackbird hull will be getting a update, but nothing has been seen (though something about “Bristling with antennae when it is finished” was mentioned) and another new ship, codename “Tug” which will be a Freighter sized ship with a large Ship bay for moving around multiple fitted battleships . This ship will probably become very popular with Incursion runners. So far the last two of the six week cycle releases are shaping to be quite an ending to 2014, lets hope that the 2015 releases are something to look forward too.
