Hello prolific capsuleers!
The EVE Online team is continuing to work hard on the upcoming November expansion, and today we’re ready to share another dev blog with all of you!
This is the second dev blog in our series on “Command Bursts”, the new and improved system for providing bonuses to your allies.
This will be a giant blog covering several topics related to mining foreman gameplay, so we’ll start with a table of contents. If you don’t have time right now for 7000 words and just get to the TL:DR click here.
Mining foreman ships are absolutely crucial to the resource collection gameplay in EVE Online, and we are committed to creating a compelling set of ships with strong shared features and a logical progression. This progression is especially key, as it allows players to choose how much investment and risk their mining organization is comfortable with. Each level requires higher investment and more teamwork in order to provide ever-greater benefits.
After the November expansion, the progression of mining foreman options will be:
We believe all four of these choices will be valuable options for players in different circumstances and each option fills its own niche for different types of mining operations. We’ll go into all the detail about each of these ships and modules later in the blog, but first let’s discuss what they all have in common: the three pillars of mining foreman gameplay.
In order to provide the best experience for mining operations large and small, we knew that there was a set of three key roles that each mining foreman ship would need to fulfil simultaneously. In the existing system, only the first role was being achieved to a satisfactory level and achieving these roles has been at the core of our work on this new system. Those of you who have watched our Fanfest presentations, tuned in for The o7 Show or discussed these issues with us on the forums and at meetups will recognize these three pillars as we’ve been talking about them for quite some time to gather community feedback.
This is the most obvious pillar of mining foreman gameplay and it’s the only pillar that is currently being met to a significant degree. In the new system we are converting the existing mining fleet boosting gameplay over to the new AoE “Command Burst” system described in the previous blog.
Each of the mining foreman ships share the same core tools for helping other players mine more effectively, with improved bonuses across the progression as investment increases:
Mining operations can find themselves under threat by a number of sources, from NPC pirates to other players. Although some mining ships can already do an amazing job of defending themselves (most notably the Procurer and Skiff), we want to ensure that mining foreman ships all have their own teeth to serve as the protector of their mining operation. This defense functionality takes a few forms:
The third pillar is the biggest change from the existing mining foreman gameplay, and the #1 request we’ve been hearing from the community on this topic over the past few years. All mining foreman ships should have their own mining ability to allow them to contribute directly to the results of their mining operation, and give them productive gameplay in between their other tasks.
We decided early on that mining drones would be a better fit than mining lasers for achieving this pillar, as these mining foreman ships would already have plenty of other things competing for highslot space.
To aid with this pillar, we are fleshing out the mining drone skills and progression in November. More details about those mining drone changes can be found later in this blog.
When equipped with mining drones these ships will all provide significant mining yield, with improved mining rates coming from the larger ships.
Thanks to the new Excavator mining drones, the Rorqual will become the most powerful mining ship in the game even without the use of the Industrial Core. With the Industrial Core active it will be in a league of its own, essentially a one-ship mining operation.
These three pillars are visible in each of the mining foreman ships, giving players the option of choosing whichever ship best matches the needs of their particular mining operations.
We’ll dive into the details about any ships soon, but first let’s go over the specifics of the new Mining Foreman Bursts and the revamped mining drones that will be used by all three ships.
If you’ve read the previous dev blog and forum thread covering the Command Burst system, you’ll already be familiar with most of the information this section. In that case feel free to skip to the next section most of this will be repeated information. However, we want to include a quick refresher on the basic information so that people who just want to learn about mining foreman gameplay can get everything they need in one blog.
Command Bursts are high-slot modules that can be fit on the same classes of ships that can currently fit Warfare Links and will be replacing their functionality. There will be five types of Command Burst modules at launch, one for each of the existing fleet boost groups: Armor, Shield (formerly known as Siege), Information, Skirmish, and Mining.
These modules must be loaded with ammo in order to activate, and the ammo choices determine which bonus the module will provide to nearby fleetmates. Ammo can be swapped in the field to change bonuses as the situation changes, although a reload time of between thirty seconds and one minute means that choosing the right time to swap bonuses is important.
The ammunition for Command Bursts will be compact, inexpensive and manufactured by players primarily from the raw materials of ice products.
The burst charges themselves are planned to have a volume of 0.01 m3, and the modules themselves will have a capacity of 3 m3. This means that if you don’t want to change ammo types you can boost for 5 hours continuously without reloading.
The blueprint originals for each of these charge types will be sold by NPCs, just like other T1 charges.
The current plans for material requirements for batches of the burst charges are as follows (base values for an unresearched blueprint):
Batch size for all burst charges is 500.
All information command burst charges:
100 units of Helium Isotopes
100 units of Nitrogen Isotopes
300 units of Heavy Water
100 units of Tritanium
100 units of Isogen
All skirmish command burst charges:
100 units of Oxygen Isotopes
100 units of Hydrogen Isotopes
300 units of Heavy Water
100 units of Tritanium
100 units of Isogen
All shield command burst charges:
100 units of Hydrogen Isotopes
100 units of Nitrogen Isotopes
300 units of Heavy Water
100 units of Tritanium
100 units of Isogen
All armor command burst charges:
100 units of Helium Isotopes
100 units of Oxygen Isotopes
300 units of Heavy Water
100 units of Tritanium
100 units of Isogen
All mining foreman burst charges:
500 units of Heavy Water
500 units of Tritanium
500 units of Isogen
This means that the cost of an individual burst charge should land between 200 and 500 ISK, with the mining burst charges costing a bit less than the combat ones.
Command Burst modules will also require a moderate amount of capacitor to activate.
When activated, the Command Burst will apply bonuses to all fleetmates within range of the boosting ship in a sizable sphere. Imagine a smartbomb that buffs your friends instead of damaging ships and you’ll get the idea. Activating a Command Burst will generate a weapons timer and therefore prevent the boosting ship from jumping through gates or docking for one minute. The area covered by the burst is clearly indicated by their visual effect:
When a fleetmate is hit by the Command Burst, their ship will receive a timed bonus lasting between 60 and 130 seconds that continues to operate even if they move out of range, or if the boosting ship dies. The bonus persists through warps within a system, but does not persist through docking and undocking or through system changes. The bonus is applied to the ship rather than the character, so swapping ships in space leaves the buff on your unpiloted old ship rather than having it follow you to the new ship. Since the burst that applies the timed bonus is instantaneous, any ships that enter range after the burst goes off will need to wait until the next cycle to receive their bonus.
Command Bursts will not apply their bonuses to any fleetmates that are tethered to a structure (like a Citadel or Engineering Complex) or within a starbase force field, and ships cannot activate their Command Burst modules if they themselves are within a force field.
Fleet hierarchy does not matter for these new bonuses, so any fleet member can provide bonuses to any fleetmate that is within range. All existing bonuses that use fleet hierarchy will be removed in the November expansion. This means that passive bonuses provided to entire fleets from skills, implants and ship hulls will be removed and replaced with this new active module system.
There will be restrictions on what ship types can fit Command Bursts and how many Command Bursts can be fit to any individual ships. We are planning on converting Command Processors (the module that allow a ship to fit more links) into a rig, which should go a long way towards addressing a current source of imbalance between armor and shield tanked boosting ships.
If a ship is allowed to fit multiple Command Bursts, they are welcome to fit multiples of the same type of Burst module or mix and match Burst module types. So if an Orca pilot wishes to provide three types of Mining Foreman boosts to its fleet at the same time it will be welcome to fit three Mining Foreman Bursts and load each module with a different ammo. Or it could fit two Mining Foreman Burst modules and one Shield Command Burst module and swap ammo on the fly to provide whatever bonuses are most appropriate to the situation.
Like existing warfare links, multiple copies of any given Command Burst bonus do not stack on top of each other. The Command Burst system will only apply the bonus from the strongest version of each Command Burst effect that is applied to any given ship. However, Command Burst bonuses do stack on top of bonuses from other sources (such as modules and implants) and this interaction may be subject to diminishing returns (stacking penalties) depending on the attribute being affected.
Our plan for skill requirements in the new system is:
All Command Bursts modules (including Mining Foreman Bursts) share these common stats:
I’ll list the base bonus ammunition type and the maximum bonus available with the most powerful ship/module bonuses and max skills/implants. Then we’ll go over all the potential bonuses individually. You’ll notice that in several cases we have combined the effects of multiple old warfare links into one Command Burst.
Ammunition types for the Mining Foreman Burst:
Name | Effects | Base Bonus | Maximum Bonus |
Mining Laser Field Enhancement | Increases range of mining lasers, strip miners, ice harvesters, gas harvesters, and survey scanners | +30% | +114.26% |
Mining Laser Optimization | Reduces cycle time and capacitor use of mining lasers, strip miners, ice harvesters, and gas harvesters | -15% | -57.13% |
Mining Equipment Preservation | Reduces volatility of mining crystals | -15% | -57.13% |
Available modifiers to Command Bursts:
Modules and Rigs | Bonus |
Tech 2 Command Burst Modules | +25% Command Burst Effect Strength |
Command Processor Rig | If ship is allowed to fit Command Burst Modules, can fit +1 additional Command Burst Module |
T1 Industrial Core (while active) | +25% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst strength
+150% bonus to Mining Foreman and Shield Command Burst Area of Effect Range |
T2 Industrial Core (while active) | +30% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst strength
+200% bonus to Mining Foreman and Shield Command Burst Area of Effect Range |
Skills | Bonus |
Leadership | +6% Command Burst Area of Effect Range per level |
Wing Command | +5% Command Burst Area of Effect Range per level |
Fleet Command | +4% Command Burst Area of Effect Range per level |
Mining Foreman | +10% Mining Foreman Burst Effect Duration per level |
Mining Director | +10% Mining Foreman Burst Effect Strength per level |
Command Burst Specialist | -10% Command Burst reload duration per level |
Implants | Bonus |
Mining Foreman Mindlink | +25% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst Effect Strength and Duration |
ORE Mining Director Mindlink (NEW) | +25% bonus to Mining Foreman and Shield Command Burst Effect Strength and Duration |
Ship Bonuses | Bonus |
Porpoise (NEW) | Can fit two Command Burst modules
+2% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst Strength and Duration per skill level |
Orca | Can fit three Command Burst modules
+3% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst Strength and Duration per skill level +1% bonus to Shield Command Burst Strength and Duration per skill level Role Bonus: +50% bonus to Command Burst Area of Effect Range |
Rorqual | Can fit three Command Burst modules
Can fit one Pulse Activated Nexus Invulnerability Core module +5% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst Strength and Duration per skill level +3% bonus to Shield Command Burst Strength and Duration per skill level Role Bonus: +50% bonus to Command Burst Area of Effect Range |
Mining drones have been a part of New Eden since the earliest days of EVE Online, but were generally eclipsed when Mining Barges and later Exhumers were added, increasing the mining yield baseline. The mining foreman ships will be receiving significant bonuses that make mining drones excellent options on those ships, and this has provided us an opportunity to flesh out the line of mining drones and mining drone skills.
In the November expansion we will be adding several new mining drones (including the first ever ice mining drones) and some new mining drone skills to go with them.
Let’s start with the new skills! We’re adding three new Mining Drone skills in November, which both enable the new line ice harvesting drones and allow players to more meaningfully specialize in mining drone gameplay.
Mining Drone Specialization: 2% bonus to the mining yield and max velocity of drones requiring Mining Drone Specialization per level.
Ice Harvester Drone Operation: 5% reduction in ice harvester drone cycle time per level.
Ice Harvester Drone Specialization: 2% reduction in cycle time and bonus to max velocity of drones requiring Ice Harvester Drone Specialization per level.
To go along with these new skills, we are also fleshing out the lineup of mining drones themselves!
(Click image for a larger, animated version)
To support the new Ice Harvesting drones, we are adding functionality to the whole line of Drone Mining Augmentor rigs. They will now also reduce Ice Harvesting Drone cycle time by 10% (15% for the T2 rigs).
It’s worth noting that we are not adding any Mining Foreman Bursts that impact mining drones at this time. The drone mining bonuses on the mining foreman ships are extremely strong and we believe that extending the impact of the Mining Foreman Bursts would potentially take them too far.
Now that we’re covered the new Mining Foreman Burst and Mining Drone changes, let’s get to the details of the ships that will be using them!
In the November expansion we are planning huge buffs to the existing Orca and Rorqual mining foreman ships, as well as adding a new inexpensive and mobile Industrial Command Ship to fill out the lower-end of the progression. Each of these ships hits a different price point and have significant differences in mobility and access to different areas of space.
As you’ll remember from the start of the blog, we’ve divided the Mining Foreman ship progression into four stages:
I’ll cover each of these ships individually in the following section, with specific focus on how each ship fulfills each of the three pillars of mining foreman gameplay.
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The Porpoise-class Industrial Command Ship is the most affordable and mobile mining foreman platform ever released in New Eden. This new ship fills the hole at the bottom of the mining foreman ship progression line. Although it shares a group with the larger and more expensive Orca, the Porpoise is as cheap as a tech one battlecruiser.
Thanks to ORE’s tireless work advancing hull materials technology to reduce mass, the Porpoise is light enough to travel through small-ship wormhole connections.
This new ship should be perfect for mining operations in more dangerous space where lower cost ships minimize exposure to loss for the operation. It’s improved agility and warp speed also make it the best choice for providing coverage of mining groups at multiple locations with one ship.
Industrial Command Ships bonuses (per skill level):
5% bonus to ship cargo capacity and ore hold
2% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst Strength and Duration
10% bonus to drone hitpoints, damage and mining yield
-10% reduction in drone ice harvesting cycle time
Role bonus:
50% bonus to drone mining yield
400% bonus to Remote Shield Booster optimal range
90% reduction in powergrid requirements for Mining Foreman Burst modules
90% reduction to effective distance traveled for jump fatigue
Can fit two Command Burst modules
100% bonus to Tractor Beam range
50% bonus to Tractor Beam velocity
300% bonus to Survey Scanner range
Slot layout: 4H, 4M, 2L
Fittings: 420 PWG, 350 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 6000 / 3000 / 8000
Base shield resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 0 / 20 / 40 / 50
Base armor resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 50 / 35 / 35 / 10
Capacitor (amount / recharge / cap per second) : 3500 / 875s / 4
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 100 / 1.5 / 4,500,000 / 9.36s
Warp Speed: 2.7 au/s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50 / 125
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 50km / 90 / 5
Sensor strength: 20 Magnetometric
Signature radius: 300
Cargo Hold: 500 m3
Ore Hold: 50,000 m3
Fleet Hangar: 5,000 m3
Cost: ~50-60 mil ISK
Max Mining Yield: ~980 m3 per minute + drone travel time
Max DPS: ~400 dps
Despite its low cost, the Porpoise is a powerhouse in mining support and fulfills all three of the pillars of mining foreman gameplay:
Help fleetmates mine more effectively:
Defend the mining operation:
Contribute with powerful mining drones:
We can’t wait for you to be able try out this new ship on the test server! For specific feedback and discussion on the Porpoise head to this thread.
(Click image for a larger, animated version)
The Orca is receiving a massive overhaul in the November expansion, with huge buffs to almost every attribute.
The newly refinished Orca will be a mining powerhouse, a heavy duty ore hauler, a significant combat deterrent, and the strongest foreman burst platform available in highsec space.
We’re listing the full stats below. Changes from the old stats will be in brackets. Take particular note of the four extra slots, huge drone damage and drone mining role bonuses, and tripling of its old ore hold volume.
Industrial Command Ships bonuses (per skill level):
5% bonus to ship cargo capacity and ore hold
3% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst Strength and Duration
1% bonus to Shield Command Burst Strength and Duration
10% bonus to drone hitpoints, damage and mining yield
-10% reduction in drone ice harvesting cycle time
Role bonus:
100% bonus to drone mining yield
-25% reduction in drone ice harvesting cycle time
100% bonus to drone damage
400% bonus to Remote Shield Booster optimal range
90% reduction to effective distance traveled for jump fatigue
Can fit three Command Burst modules
50% bonus to Command Burst Area of Effect Range
250% bonus to Tractor Beam range
100% bonus to Tractor Beam velocity
500% bonus to Survey Scanner range
Slot layout: 6H (+3), 5M (+1), 2L
Fittings: 1200 PWG (+240), 550 CPU (+120)
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 30,000 (+19,250) / 7000 (+100) / 45,000 (-1000)
Base shield resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 0 / 20 / 40 / 50
Base armor resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 50 / 35 / 35 / 10
Capacitor (amount / recharge / cap per second) : 8000 (+3800) / 1200s (+400) / 6.67 (+1.42)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 60 / 0.26 (+0.1) / 150,000,000 (-100,000,000) / 54.07s (-1.38)
Warp Speed: 2 au/s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50 / 200 (+125)
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 70km (+10) / 75 / 7 (+5)
Sensor strength: 30 Magnetometric (+15)
Signature radius: 1000
Cargo Hold: 30,000 m3
Ore Hold: 150,000 m3 (+100,000)
Fleet Hangar: 40,000 m3
Ship Maintenance Bay: 400,000 m3
Cost: ~700 mil ISK
Max Yield: ~1,400 m3 per minute + drone travel time
Max DPS: ~800 dps
As the middle ship in the mining foreman progression path (and top of the pack for highsec) the Orca is extremely capable in all three of the mining foreman pillars:
Help fleetmates mine more effectively:
Defend the mining operation:
Contribute with powerful mining drones:
We’re really interested in hearing your feedback on these Orca changes! Head to this forum thread for all the discussion focused specifically on the Orca.
(Click image for a larger, animated version)
The Rorqual-class Capital Industrial Ship is the premier mining foreman ship in New Eden. This once great ship has fallen into disuse as its formerly unique functions were slowly added to other ships and structures. It’s time for the Rorqual to get a full revamp from the ground-up and that’s exactly what is happening this November.
The Rorqual represents the most powerful version of all three mining foreman pillars by itself; capable of providing strong Mining Foreman Bursts, repairing allies and fighting off enemies, and vacuuming up ore faster than any other ship in New Eden.
Beyond its built-in functionality, the Rorqual has the ability to use two unique modules that allow it to enter specific modes for extra capabilities.
These modes are intended to be powerful but situational, and the best Rorqual pilots will know when to use them and when not to use them.
Whether these modes are running or not, the ability to field 5 ‘Excavator’ Mining Superdrones will make the Rorqual the greatest mining vessel in the history of New Eden.
There are a huge number of changes coming for the Rorqual in this patch, and the full stats can be seen below. Changes from the old stats will be in brackets. Since they might be easy to miss in the rest of the changes I want to bring special attention to the three extra slots, reduced mass (allowing the Rorqual to travel through the same wormholes as Freighters), and increased jump range to 5ly base (10ly with max skills, the same as Jump Freighters).
Capital Industrial Ship bonuses (per skill level):
5% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst Strength and Duration
3% bonus to Shield Command Burst Strength and Duration
5% reduction in fuel consumption for Industrial Core
10% bonus to drone hitpoints, damage and mining yield
-10% reduction in drone ice harvesting cycle time
Role bonus:
400% bonus to Remote Shield Booster optimal range
90% reduction to effective distance traveled for jump fatigue
Can fit Clone Vat Bay
Can fit Industrial Core
Can operate Excavator Drones
Can fit three Command Burst modules
Can fit one Pulse Activated Nexus Invulnerability Core
50% bonus to Command Burst Area of Effect Range
5x penalty to Entosis Link cycle time
900% bonus to Survey Scanner range
200% bonus to Cargo Scanners range
Slot layout: 8H (+2), 7M, 4L (+1)
Fittings: 420,000 PWG (+115,000), 1200 CPU (+280)
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 90,000 / 60,000 (+30,000) / 300,000 (+50,000)
Base shield resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 0 / 20 / 40 / 50
Base armor resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 50 / 35 / 35 / 10
Capacitor (amount / recharge / cap per second) : 67,500 (+12,940) / 4500s (+600) / 15 (+1)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 60 / 0.07 (+0.02) / 800,000,000 (-380,000,000) / 77.63s (-4.16)
Warp Speed: 1.5 au/s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 125 / 6000 (+5700)
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 200km (+40) / 75 / 7
Sensor strength: 115 Magnetometric
Signature radius: 11500
Base jump drive range: 5ly (+2.5)
Jump drive fuel consumption: 2000 Oxygen (+500)
Cargo Hold: 40,000 m3
Ore Hold: 300,000 m3 (+50,000)
Fleet Hangar: 40,000 m3
Ship Maintenance Bay: 1,000,000 m3
Fuel Bay Capacity: 10,000 m3
Cost: ~2.3 bil ISK
Max Yield (no Industrial Core): ~3,000 m3 per minute + drone travel time
Max Yield (with Industrial Core): ~18,400 m3 per minute + drone travel time
Max DPS (no Industrial Core): ~1000 dps
Max DPS (with Industrial Core): ~2000 dps
No discussion of the Rorqual would be complete without covering the unique modules that provide its special modes.
(Click image for a larger, animated version)
The Industrial Core module will continue to be the most important unique module for the Rorqual, and in November it is gaining powerful new bonuses in addition to those it already possesses.
The Industrial Core deploys the Rorqual into a temporarily immobile mining support platform and magnifies all three of the mining foreman pillars.
In addition to the new bonuses provided by the industrial core, a new Tech 2 version of the core will be added in November, bringing it up to par with the similar Siege and Triage modules.
The stats and bonuses of these modules are:
Movement Effects:
Assistance and Electronic warfare:
Mining Foreman Burst Bonuses:
Tanking and Remote Repair Bonuses:
Drone Damage and Mining Bonuses:
Movement Effects:
Assistance and Electronic warfare:
Mining Foreman Burst Bonuses:
Tanking and Remote Repair Bonuses:
Drone Damage and Mining Bonuses:
As you can see, the Industrial Core is now gaining a huge number of bonuses covering all three mining foreman pillars. It is receiving local tanking bonuses even more powerful than triage modules, and remote repair bonuses that are second only to triage. It is gaining ECM immunity and increased lock speed to help it support its allies. It is also gaining massive bonuses to drones that turn it into a combat powerhouse and a mining operation all on its own when used alongside Excavator Drones.
We expect that individual Rorqual pilots will make decisions about when to use their Industrial Core modules based on the danger in their local environment and the amount of support they can receive from allies. Due to the massive benefits of the Industrial Core on one hand and the increased risk of locking yourself in place for 5 minutes on the other, there won’t be one universal “right answer” for when the Industrial Core should be used.
The Pulse Activated Nexus Invulnerability Core (P.A.N.I.C.) is a new defensive superweapon available exclusively to the Rorqual. It allows the Rorqual to make itself and its allies invulnerable for a short time. This ability also prevents any of these ships from warping for the duration of the effect. This can allow time for the allies of the mining fleet to arrive and defend the fleet from danger.
The P.A.N.I.C. module is a powerful situation effect that can be used whenever the owning Rorqual sees the opportunity for advantage and avoided in situations when it isn’t advantageous.
This new module requires a new rank 8 skill called Invulnerability Core Operation that requires Tactical Shield Manipulation level 5 and Capital Shield Emission Systems level 3 to train. The module only requires Invulnerability Core Operation level 1 to operate, and the skill increases the duration of the P.A.N.I.C. effect by 10% per level. This means that Rorqual pilots can strategically train the Invulnerability Core Operation skill to whatever level they wish and ensures that the Rorqual pilot and its fleet have more information about when the effect will end than the attackers do.
P.A.N.I.C. Module:
Bonuses to all affected ships:
Mining remains unaffected so ships can continue to mine as normal while under the protection of the P.A.N.I.C. module.
We are interested in hearing what the community thinks about cyno restrictions for ships affected by the P.A.N.I.C. module. We are currently leaning towards allowing cyno lighting and watching closely to see if this causes problems. If needed, we can change the effect to prevent cyno lighting and prevent ships with an active cyno from receiving the P.A.N.I.C. effect.
The Rorqual represents the ultimate mining foreman vessel, providing the best possible bonuses with commensurate increases in investment and risk. The base Rorqual and all its modes provide the most complete expression of all three of the mining foreman pillars:
Help fleetmates mine more effectively:
Defend the mining operation:
Contribute with powerful mining drones:
The Rorqual isn’t a small investment and the risk of using the Industrial Core in dangerous space can be significant, but in the hands of a wise pilot supported by friends and allies the Rorqual will be one of the most effective ships in the game. We’re very interested in hearing your feedback on these changes, and we’ve opened up a specific feedback thread here for discussion of the Rorqual and its modes.
In addition to all these new ships, drones, and functionality, ORE has a few other announcements to make for the rest of their ship lines.
Hey there. If you took the option of skipping here from the beginning, I’d like to welcome you to the end of the blog! If you have the time later I highly recommend reading the rest at your leisure.
The short version of all this is:
Big thanks to everyone who took the time to read through this (admittedly long) dev blog today! We’re really excited for the chance to finally revamp this area of gameplay after years of talking to all of you about it. We want to give special thanks to all the players who have talked to us about the Rorqual and mining support gameplay at Fanfests and other player gatherings over the past few years, and to the CSM who made a great contribution to this process.
We are very interested in hearing what you all think about these proposed changes and to see what issues you foresee. We’ll be spending much of the next month going through your feedback and making changes as necessary, and we are sure there will be plenty of tweaks made after release as well once we see how players use these ships in New Eden. You can give feedback for each mining foreman ship in the threads linked from their section, and use the general feedback thread for this blog to give us any feedback that doesn’t fit in those specific areas.
Thanks and happy mining!
-Your Friendly Neighborhood Team Five 0