I dislike the idea of fighters in hisec due to their ability to warp around. Perhaps give it the carrier bonus of +1 drone per level but restrict it to heavies. Ie 10 drones at max level. However in all other respects I do quite like your proposal.

No. Use a dominix.

If you want to play with big ships and "higher end content" you'll need to leave the Concord blanket at home.

Outside of the "fun" argument, what role does this ship serve? How does it fit inbetween the current ships?

It's too overpowered for high sec as it's unchallenged, OP ofcourse knows this and tries to hide this by calling it "fun".

If it does about the damage of a BS, and can do some logistics, with a commiserate price tag associated, how is that overpowered or unchallenged?

If a Battleship can fight it, then it is not "unchallenged"

My thoughts.

For each lvl of the skill required to fly this ship, you gain the ability to fit one drone control unit.

Also, I am not under a concord blanket, nor am I talking about "higher end content" Please read my "caveat" from my OP.

Outside of the "fun" argument, what role does this ship serve? How does it fit inbetween the current ships?

you want carrier like abilities in high sec

how about no?

DCU's are already governed by the advanced drone interfacing skill. Plus DCU's are a capital sized mod. However +1 drone per level would be a more appropriate way of going about it without the DCU. I'm still against allowing it to deploy fighters though.

+1 drone per level is almost the same as +20% drone damage per level (as with drone interfacing)

Take a Domi, give up its guns and buff the drone bonus from 10 to 20, and you now have a BS ship fielding the equivalent of 10 drones worth of firepower.

I'd see a light carrier as something that is meant to deploy smaller craft to fight for it - it wouldn't be an oversized logi, or a mobile base.

-No capital reps, no capability similar to T2 logis
-No ship hangar/clone vat/etc

Just a large drone bay for deploying smaller ships that must stay near the light carrier.
I suppose you could make a "Light Fighter" that is like a normal fighter, but lacks a warp drive.


Or you could just make it an ++ber-drone boat.

How about this:
Role bonus: +50 km to drone control range
Bonus #1: +10% to drone damage, HP, speed, combat utility drone effect strength (tps, energy drain, web, jam, etc), and repair amount per level
Bonus #2: +1 to max drone control per level

So at lvl 5, you field 10 drones doing 1.5x the damage of normal drones (or with 1.5x the repair amount for shield/armor maintenance bots, or 1.5x the TP/energy drain/sensor damp. web effectiveness) going 1.5x faster

With max skills, those drones have a base control range of 110 km


I'm not sure how you'd very a light carrier by race, or what non-racial faction would produce it... a vessel made by ORE for deep space patrol of their mining fields?

Maybe we make a new class of T2 combat BS's, and this is the Gallente design?
I don't think it would work like that - it would be **** in fleets, but whatever non-drone T2 BS you give to the other races will probably be pretty good in fleets (unless the caldari one is a missile boat)

Use a Dominix, as stupid idea is stupid.

The idea is simple,
A sub capital ship about the size of an Orca, that can use jump gates, can go in high sec, and DOES NOT have a jump drive. It can field five fighters, or drones. Does not have a corp hanger or ship maintenance array. Cannot fit triage module. The point is to have a ship that can provide the gameplay style of a carrier pilot, without the capital ship. Cost should be between 400-500 million isk.

Should have a drone capacity of 25500, this allows for 5 fighters with 500 extra for drones.

The bonuses on it should be similar to the carrier as far as logistics is concerned, but not able to fit capital shield/armor/cap relays, instead allow them to fit BS/logistics sized modules with a bonus to range and maybe a bonus to cycle time. It should not have a large bonus to fighter damage. It is not designed to be a smaller package of equal kick-assery to full fledged carriers. More like a BS tank combined with a logistics ship and the ability to field a single flight of fighters.

Caveat: I am not a carrier pilot, I am a logistics pilot and I feel there is a gap here that could be fun to play. This thread is not a "give me cap ships before I am ready" or a "fix 0.0 fights by adding _____ ship" thread. It is just an idea that I think would be fun to play, so please keep the flames to a minimum. Also, the stats I posted are obviously open for discussion and balancing. I am just curious if a light carrier idea is viable and if people think it would be fun or not.

Nah.

Rather give us more carrier hulls.

Actually, I want it for roaming gangs in null, but it doesn't make sense to restrict it to null sec if it can jump through gates.

Dont assume that everyone who disagrees with you is a high sec care bear.

Your opinion regarding the idea has been made clear. You don't win points by continuing to make it over and over. Thanks for playing.

You must be new to posting.

The idea is bad and this thread is bad and you should feel bad.

Also, after perusing your 26 pages of posts in the forums it is clear that you have never contributed to any discussion you have dropped into ever. /hide posts. Done.

hahahahahahaha

oh so little you know

you're adorable, can i keep you?

Light carriers already exist... carriers. Supercarriers are heavy carriers, and thus regular carriers are the light carriers.

How about making a Heavy Dreadnaught, and then making current Dreadnaughts more focused on an anti-capital/supercapital role?

Hey sketch, good to see you back and trolling again. Its been a while.

It can do that damage while hiding in a safespot though.

Maybe if it had BS tank, restrictions on the range of it's fighters (IE unable to assign them or use them out of regular drone control range) and an actual purpose.

Light carriers already exist... carriers. Supercarriers are heavy carriers, and thus regular carriers are the light carriers.

How about making a Heavy Dreadnaught, and then making current Dreadnaughts more focused on an anti-capital/supercapital role?

A heavy dread? You mean a titan?


also, what role would these light carriers even fill? I cannot see a use for them.

I've had an idea for escort carriers for a while. Basically it would have the power of 2-3 drone boats but none of the versatility. This gives players a chance to learn more complicated drone management and a clearer stepping stone to carriers and super carriers.

Basically for a cruiser hull it would be something like
3-5 high slots (no turrets)
3-4 mid slots
4-6 low slots
drone capacity 25(50?) +5 per level of escort carrier
drone bandwidth 25 +5 per level of escort carrier
drone control range +5km per level of escort carrier
Role bonus
Damage, shield, armor, hull, mining yield of light drones +100% (this could also include stasis and other Ewar drone abilities as well)

The idea is to have a ship that is focused on one kind of drone while leaving high slots open for either drone mods or remote repair and or shield transfer modules to keep your drones alive. It would work similarly for a heavy escort carrier which would be a BC or BS class ship which would focus on medium or heavy drones.

While the ships have more initial power in their drones, they have no real angle other then their initial drone set. Another option would be to give them SLIGHTLY more drone space so as to accommodate an additional 5 drones of the size needed so that they have drones to reinforce should they lose any. Escort carriers would be T2 ships but would probably have slightly lower resists then typical T2 ships.

I was unaware that an ishtar could field more then 5 drones. If so I'm terribly sorry, but it can't, so I'm not. Also I was unaware that the ishtar gained a large bonus for one size type of drone.

I can't help but feel that you didn't actually read what I said but rather skimmed it then thought you would enjoy flaunting your superiority.

That was merely and example. Furthermore the ship only gains a bonus to LIGHT drones, and has little capacity to replace any lost drones. Add this to it's complete absence of turrets or missile launcher hard points and you have a ship that not only has a direct counter (smart bombs) but can't sustain in a fleet fight should it lose it's drones.

Unlike other combat ships this one can have its combat capability completely removed, thus the extra fire power to the drones.

The idea is simple,
A sub capital ship about the size of an Orca, that can use jump gates, can go in high sec, and DOES NOT have a jump drive. It can field five fighters, or drones. Does not have a corp hanger or ship maintenance array. Cannot fit triage module. The point is to have a ship that can provide the gameplay style of a carrier pilot, without the capital ship. Cost should be between 400-500 million isk.

Should have a drone capacity of 25500, this allows for 5 fighters with 500 extra for drones.

The bonuses on it should be similar to the carrier as far as logistics is concerned, but not able to fit capital shield/armor/cap relays, instead allow them to fit BS/logistics sized modules with a bonus to range and maybe a bonus to cycle time. It should not have a large bonus to fighter damage. It is not designed to be a smaller package of equal kick-assery to full fledged carriers. More like a BS tank combined with a logistics ship and the ability to field a single flight of fighters.

Caveat: I am not a carrier pilot, I am a logistics pilot and I feel there is a gap here that could be fun to play. This thread is not a "give me cap ships before I am ready" or a "fix 0.0 fights by adding _____ ship" thread. It is just an idea that I think would be fun to play, so please keep the flames to a minimum. Also, the stats I posted are obviously open for discussion and balancing. I am just curious if a light carrier idea is viable and if people think it would be fun or not.

You should do a search for Murder One's carrier ideas. He thought of this about 5 years ago.

rather then create a new capital lets create a new line of sub capitals for all 4 races,

I think if you took light carriers in conjunction with light dreadnaughts they would serve a very valid purposes of high sec POS bashing and POS reaping.

I didn't think of this application, and though I can understand that they could have a use there, that was not the use that I had in mind.

I had in mind a sub cap for roaming gangs. Right now there is a pretty big gap between BS's and Cap fights in null and I think that has a lot to do with mobility. So, my intended use was support of roaming gangs. It is just impossible to say "let it use gates, but not go into high sec" so....

No, super carriers exist and carriers exist. Light carriers able to jump through gates with BS fleets does not exist.

Also, in my OP I stated that this was not a "fix cap warfare" thread, but I would be more inclined to think of a light dreadnaught (heavy battleship?) sub cap before I would think about a Heavy Dreadnaught (which sounds like a titan to me....)

Let me just interject right there since your not a carrier pilot....

1) The ship your proposing will take minutes to align. It will slow down all fleets its flying with.

2) Will be only be able of fielding 5 drones, amounting to a not so modest 500-700 DPS. Battleships do better than this.

3) It has no fleet value aside from being tackled on gates.

4) It'l be a suicide boat since you wont be able to mwd or burn back to the gates to escape in low-sec.

5) It'l take ages to target anything.

6) No logistical role - See point 3.

7) You can add large remote reps to it, since from the sounds of things it wont have enough CPU or powergrid for a capital remote repper. Battleships can do this also.

8) EHP wise, it sounds like this thing will be between an Orca and a Battleship. Orcas die rather quickly....

9) How many highslots will it have? Because adding drone control modules will allow expanding the drones beyond 5. Will it have any turret or missile slots? Because that might be your saving grace angle.

10) It'l cost 5 times as much (at current prices at time of post) than the Dominix battleship which will, for the most part, fill this role superbly.

Dont get me wrong, I'd love having hisec carriers that could use gates.

What I dont want, is another dominix in drag pretending to be something it isnt.

I personally think the most useful things on carriers are the logistics, triage, corp hanger and maint bays, ive never looked at them as being 'dps' boats. i liked the comment that said t2 carriers, with the new 'role' orientation ccp are taking with their ships i would place any tech 2 carrier as a support ship, and it would seem logical that they had smaller mass for travelling through wh.

Also, +1 to the pos bashing 'light dreadnought'

tnx for the +1, I try, lol

I really feel that they would be a very valuable asset for high sec POS bashing, as long as they were reasonbly priced based on their less than dreanought dps.

How would you set it up?

I had thought of this, but since I am not a capital pilot I am not sure what would work best to have a "light dreadnaught"

Would a ship with the ability to fit Dreadnaught weapons without the ability to go into siege do it?

For instance, a "light dreadnought" with 6 weapon hard points capable of fitting dreadnought sized weapons would only make it about 1.5 times the DPS of a BS, only really viable against capitals, POS's and slow BS's, would be very slow, great tank, and able to move through gates.

Would that work for a light dread?

Perhaps this deserves its own thread. Or this thread should change to a "Sub Cap combat ships" idea thread and edit the OP.

Thoughts?

My thoughts.

For each lvl of the skill required to fly this ship, you gain the ability to fit one drone control unit.

This means at lvl 5 you're able to fit 5, for a max of ten drones, but DOES NOT use fighters.

With a full flight of 10 drones is should have comperable dps to battleships, and also have comperable tank.

That, or they can be fitted with logistics, but due to their shorter range than logis and less bonuses to rep output, they don't replace logis.

That would make them a battleship. Might also be worth noting that 10 heavy drones is not equal to normal battleship DPS in any circumstance unless ship bonuses were ridiculously exaggerated. It would basically make them an expensive, weak battleship that is larger and slower, and therefore more vulnerable to capital ships, as well as less versatile.

You also spelled comparable wrong. How do you do that? These forums have spellcheck for god's sake!

ITT people that don't use capitals talking about capitals.

^^
That's why a highsec "carrier" shouldn't be anything more than a drone specialized battleship.

The carrier logistics role doesn't translate well to highsec as such, and if you aren't in highsec you wouldn't use a sub-carrier if you need a carrier.

Why do you think this thing is needed?

Basically OP wants a Navy Domi.

Because we have ships with double skill bonuses in their weapons for every weapon but drones. A fast locking BS limited to drones but able to launch a large number of them would be an excellent (and more durable then most) picket ship against raids by stealth bombers but also have a degree of tactical flexibility if confronted with a more powerful raiding force (something a destroyer, the more traditional counter to this, lacks)

And if you're response is 'fly a dominix' I do, and therefor know of what I speak when I say it's too easy to kill the handful of drones a dom can cough up. If the old +1 per level bonus was combined with the current +10% bonus, it would be worthwhile, however.


AS to why we don't have this now: we used to, the devs didn't want to upgrade hardware at the time, so they nerfed drones.

The current devs, who replaced the previous ones, just hate drones and have stated they don't feel they're worthwhile primary weapons. I

You neglected to answer the rest of my question.

Point to a situation you have been in that this ship would have been useful. That there was a role that needed filling. A battle report and summary of what happened and why this ship would have helped fill a void would be nice.

If every ship put into Eve was required to fill a needed role, there wouldn't be any ships in Eve, and their certainly wouldn't be capitals. Ships are features of Eve, not necessities and role fillers.

You neglected to answer the rest of my question.

Point to a situation you have been in that this ship would have been useful. That there was a role that needed filling. A battle report and summary of what happened and why this ship would have helped fill a void would be nice.

If every ship put into Eve was required to fill a needed role, there wouldn't be any ships in Eve, and their certainly wouldn't be capitals. Ships are features of Eve, not necessities and role fillers.

This^^

What "role" in a fight was observed that gave birth to Titans? None, it was someone who said "hey, this might be a cool ship to fly, lets do it!"

So, the argument that keeps getting put out "this doesn't fill a role" is a straw man argument.

Its a game, if the ship is fun to fly, then it fills a role.

In all combat situations, one or two bombs can wipe out the entire fleet worth of drones.

Do you live under a rock?

CCP is specifically making an effort to apply a "role" to every ship.

I'm really bad at posting.

Reading these posts reminded me of the "create a starship" contest that was run on deviantArt a while ago. Some one came up with an idea very close to this.

http://kero40.deviantart.com/

The Escort Carrier...

The ones I can think of that did fill a role that was needed
Rorqual
Dreads
Logistics
Interceptors
Interdictors
Heavy interdictors
Industrial ships

If every ship put into Eve was required to fill a needed role, there wouldn't be any ships in Eve, and their certainly wouldn't be capitals. Ships are features of Eve, not necessities and role fillers.

I like the part where its me trolling when you disagree with me, but me being perfectly fine when you agree with me.

Hint: you're not very smart.

and each of those ships you listed? fills a role

I've yet to see a role that this proposed ship fills

Yeah, jump freighters don't have a role.
Tier 3 BCs? Yeah no role
Freighters? You're right, they were just put in for fun.
Black ops bs? Yeah, they were put in game for giggles

This statement just shows a blatant failure to understand the game on a larger scale.

What exactly do you do in Eve?

Spaceships and spaceship combat and thus spaceship roles and balancing are literally the core components of Eve.

If every ship put into Eve was required to fill a needed role, there wouldn't be any ships in Eve, and their certainly wouldn't be capitals. Ships are features of Eve, not necessities and role fillers.

Whether the role was "needed" or not is irrelevant.

You or anyone else in this thread has yet to say what this ships role is. What this ship adds. What role is missing that ship would fill besides "haha wouldn't it be cool if..."

also, Iol at the definitions

my point was that you noted ships as being nothing more than just another "feature," implying that the roles they serve aren't very important, when its the complete opposite; their roles are key to the game

.

This is the relevant part where you are mistaken.

You're right. No roles are "needed." But, ships nonetheless have roles. They fill a purpose that was otherwise not filled.

Ships are not just "shiny features" of Eve. They are literally the core components of Eve. Ships need to have roles in order to fit into the game.

Now, answer my question. What role does the propose ship fill? How does it fit into the game besides "it'd be cool if..." What role is missing that this ship would fill?

"Haha wouldn't it be cool if..." is the entire basis of creating games to begin with. >.>

Its like talking to a wall with you...

Okay. I'll post a thread tomorrow asking for a frigate that can use battleship guns and covert cloaks.

Its a cool idea I think and it'd be fun to have.

lol... WOW....terrible terrible attempt.

Those exist...they're called stealth bombers.

lol...see...It sounded like a cool idea, and poof, there it is....

would you like a lesson on any other ships?

And a really important role I might add. Stealth bombers can literally turn the tide of a battle.

Again, they have a role.

Answer my question: what role does the proposed ship fill that is currently missing in eve?

You literally just don't get it.

The dominix style t1 drone boat, only more drone focused, high sec POS and/or close range heavy immobile logistics, or a heavy tank command ship(limited to on grid bonuses)

Ship "designs" as you put it push them into certain roles. You don't see people using a sacrilege as a sniping ship do you?

Yes, T2 ships are the "specialized" role ships. But that doesn't mean other ships don't fit roles within the game based on their "designs." Thats what the different ship bonuses do. They push ships toward various roles that we as players come up with based on these designs.

Now tell me, what "design" does this proposed ship fill?

T1 ships don't fill certain roles, they're specifically designed not to fill a specific role.

The different ships bonuses are designed as fun and cool factor, but are also part of balancing a racial aspects, such as bonuses to target painters, neuts, webs, or jams.

The design it fills is almost the same as the design you gave for the dominix, only more drone focused, like I said.

You know you're being more of a troll than I am right?

You've literally become what you dislike. How's it feel?

They fill certain roles when put in combat. CCP balances their designs based on what roles they might fill. Destroyers are T1 and I'm pretty sure they are designed with bonuses to make them anti-frigate, which is a role, is it not? The griffin has ECM bonuses and is thus an ecm boat; pretty sure ECM ship is a role, is it not?

The problem with the proposed ship is that its trying to fill a hole that doesn't exist.

Precisely.

Others have as well. Go back and look through the thread. Multiple people have said "what role does this ship fill?"

If you can tell me a viable role that this ship would fill that is otherwise missing in the game and would not imbalance anything in the game or lead to abuse because of its abilities, I would gladly support it.

I'm not defending because I feel this ship NEEDS to be in the game, but rather, I defending it because I'm tired of people attempting to shut down ship ideas because of this crap thought that new ships HAVE to fill roles and/or holes when many of the ships in game don't fill specific roles or holes, and those that do are only there because of ones that don't, or fill a specific role that isn't a needed role, but rather a "cool" or "fun factor" role, such as ewar ships...

So in the midst of all of the sperg in this thread, has anyone actually worked out the purpose of these ships yet? Other than being a BS with pisspoor damage I mean.

So in the midst of all of the sperg in this thread, has anyone actually worked out the purpose of these ships yet? Other than being a BS with pisspoor damage I mean.

I personally think the most useful things on carriers are the logistics, triage, corp hanger and maint bays, ive never looked at them as being 'dps' boats. i liked the comment that said t2 carriers, with the new 'role' orientation ccp are taking with their ships i would place any tech 2 carrier as a support ship, and it would seem logical that they had smaller mass for travelling through wh.

Also, +1 to the pos bashing 'light dreadnought'

I have started working on a revised version. Calling them escort carriers (and using the link for the awesome artwork that guy did on deviant art)

Some issues that need more discussion to be good though:
Fighters? yea or nay and why?
Logistics bonuses? How big? What type?
Triage? Is it a good idea or not?
Drones? allow up to ten or focus on fighters?

The "role" of the escort carrier is to escort BS and below sized fleets with support and DPS. Also to provide a "next step" to dedicated logistics pilots who are eyeing carriers and need A:time to train the skills and B:time to learn some of the strategies of carriers.

Please lets discuss these specific factors.

If you don't like the idea at all, your disagreement is noted, please don't feel the need to extoll yourself by giving us your treatise of why we are too bomb not to biomass, it is assumed if your simple "-1" post. Thank you.

The role that everyone seems so butthurt over not being pointed out is pretty simple. It is a support ship with BS sized DPS able to stay with a BS fleet as it jumps around and provides a stepping stone to capitals that currently doesn't exist.

IF you don't "like" that as a role, then please say so, but don't say it doesn't have a role just because you don't like it.

I like the "Escort carrier" name, it implies that it is able to escort other forces, which is its role.

As a logistics pilot who likes to support fleets, I have to spend months flying other things before I am able to jump into carriers. If I just like flying logi/support why shouldn't there be a ship that bridges that gulf between cruiser support and CAPITAL support? That is a big gap.

So, either argue against the idea as it is instead of saying it doesn't have a role, or argue that what I have just said is not a role.

I still believe that since it is a game, role is less important than you might think, but in this case, I see the role clearly.

ilet me get this straight, you want an orca sized ship with no jump capabilities, no corp hanger, no maint bay, no logistics capabilities, no turrets/missile slots and no triage, just fighter drones?

what on earth would be the point in it?

I want a drone carrier...

as in....

- jump capabilities, logistics capabilities, turrets/missile slots, triage and fighters/fighter bombers

+ max drones ( +1 per skill lvl ), 20% drone damage per skill lvl, 10km control range per skill lvl, 10% MWD speed per skill lvl, 1k drone bay amount per skill lvl and possibly some racial bonus

In terms of corp hanger and maint bay I cant care less if it goes on or not.

buy a sin then

You neglected to answer the rest of my question.

Point to a situation you have been in that this ship would have been useful. That there was a role that needed filling. A battle report and summary of what happened and why this ship would have helped fill a void would be nice.

Where and how does this ship fit in?

The "role" of the escort carrier is to escort BS and below sized fleets with support and DPS. Also to provide a "next step" to dedicated logistics pilots who are eyeing carriers and need A:time to train the skills and B:time to learn some of the strategies of carriers.

The problem with throwing ships into the game without some sort of desired role/purpose is the unforeseen side effects they may have on the game. Titans are probably the best example of this. Look at how they have been abused since their inception.

This ship and any other ship needs a reason to exist and it needs to fit into the current scheme of ship balancing.

You need to stop getting all damn defensive and assuming its a case of 'OMG HE JUST DOESNT WANT NEW THINGS IN THE GAME.' I'm all for new ships being added to the game, as long as they have a purpose and any potential imbalancing is accounted for (i.e. the ship has trade offs).

Tier 3 bcs are a great example of this actually. They can use battleship weapons and move fairly quickly, but they are paper thin. There is a trade off for their awesomeness and thus they fit well into the current scheme of ship balancing.

Where and how does this ship fit in?

But either way, this ship's ROLE is support.

Remove the fighters and range bonus to remote reps and I'd agree with you. Fighters are a capital thing and bonus to remote rep range overshadows logistics, a specialized class.

I'd almost be in favor of having a small corp hangar/ship maintenance bay similar to an orca. Perhaps a bonus to rep amount would suffice?

As far as drones go, the most I'd be okay with is a +1 drone per level.

Definitely high sensor strength akin to carriers. Scan resolution...I don't know.

Is this going to be a racial ship? What's the tank like?

The problem with giving them fighters is the amount of damage fighters can dish out. This would make the ship provide more DPS than it should and it would cease to be simply a "subcap support ship." It would be a subcap support ship with considerable damage as well.

To be fair:

fighters don't take bonuses from any of the skills.

Really though, there's no advantage to having fighters beyond being able to assign/have them warp around. And I don't think this ship should be capable of doing this.

It should be limited to 5 heavy drones really.

And protip Joe: nobody who is competent uses drone control units in combat as you implied.

Sorry but this ship just shouldn't be a damage dealer. As OP said, its a support ship and thus its damage potential should be limited. A large drone bay would be okay though.

Ship bonuses, I could see including:

• remote rep amount based on race (shield for minmatar/caldari; armor for gallente/amarr
• a resist bonus for tanking
• cpu reduction for warfare link modules
• drone control range bonus (10km per level)

• 10% Bonus to drone damage while assigned, per level
• 10% Bonus to Drone HP while assigned, per level.

And I say allow +1 drone per level.

As for fighters, they are NOT that large (a Einherji is 23m long) they just take lots of drone bay space. Also, if fighters are restricted in which security systems they can be used then there is no worry about them being used in high sec. I could still support being able to have 5 fighters usable in null sec in the same way carriers are able to use them, only limited to 5 instead of 10+.

Drone HP yes, Drone damage no. Drone HP and range control should be enough for a "support role."

+1 drone per level, but limited to 125 bandwidth. (thus only 5 heavies).

And you're missing my point on fighters. I don't like them being added to this because of the potential for assigning them. One could then sit safely somewhere and provide damage. I don't like this potential at all.

I'm not sure but I'm sure the limitation could be made regardless.

The question is, why do you want fighters anyway? Those things are also extremely expensive and without the ability to assign/follow in warp, you are pretty much better off using heavies/sentries anyway and not having the isk liability that comes with fighters.

To everyone saying escort carriers have no role. Small gang combat and wormholes.

We would now have a ship that is perfect for small gang fights. It has strong drone bonuses to protect itself while it's high slots are used for logistics to either keep its drones alive or keep it allies alive. Furthermore we have a carrier like ship that is useable in C1-4 WH as capitals cant fit. (not so much for C4s but it would still be useful there)

25% the size of a carrier for both corp hangar and ship bay.

To everyone saying escort carriers have no role. Small gang combat and wormholes.

We would now have a ship that is perfect for small gang fights. It has strong drone bonuses to protect itself while it's high slots are used for logistics to either keep its drones alive or keep it allies alive. Furthermore we have a carrier like ship that is useable in C1-4 WH as capitals cant fit. (not so much for C4s but it would still be useful there)

I am a simple gamer.

Just make it look cool and big and a suitable choice for overcompensation with lots of pretty blinkies and details and spinny bits.

I'll be happy.

Needs to be closer to a billion ISK and I'd suggest it be a T2 Orca. Also: Less hangar space than an Orca and give it a good drone bay but possibly remove Fighters/Bombers as an option and make it like above post with Drone Control Units for a max of 10 drones. Ogre IIs would do nicely.

Substantial tank, limited fittings except the Highs which can support up to 5 Drone Control Units and maybe one Command link or Remote Rep. 4 mid slots, 3 low slots, and 2 Rigs. Give it a bonus to fitting the Drone Control Units, but no bonus to Logistics or tank.

Call it an Ore Industrial Support Ship and give it an appropriate name like the Kraken.

you want carrier like abilities in high sec

how about no?