The Rorqual on the other hand... We are very aware of how dire need of help it is. We're at the moment in the Summer release gonna be taking... well its gonna keep its compression feature, but that's now gonna be shared with a starbase structure, so that's no more unique to it.

Its always a ship that has kind of languished as its got the bonuses for tractor beams, but then you never put it in a belt, because that would be silly.

Its got the gang link bonuses, but it kind of also needs to be inside a force field, which is why we gave the mining links the exception when we removed all gang links from force fields.

So the goal here will be to make a ship that is the kind of thing you want to put into a belt, with extremely strong defensive bonuses, and the ability to not only protect itself but its friends, and the ability to provide also a strong benefit to your mining fleet. Get these things out where they're in a bit of some danger, but also where that danger is manageable, where it is actually sane to put them into that danger.

So more details of what we're thinking of for that will be coming in the future, we're still kind of at an earlier stage with that. That's not gonna be coming out in the Summer release, but it's one of the things we are thinking very heavily about, and plan on getting to basically next.

What amount of tank would it need to be able to possibly survive the dropping of N+1 blackops BS on top of it? I'm not sure. So if not tank then GTFO ability. I suppose allowing it to warp cloaked would work. Evildoers enter nearby systems, cloak up and warp to safe.

There isn't a warpy-cloaky capital in game at the moment is there? Also means it has to give its bonus without being in siege, like an Orca does though.

Maybe when the core is running its has an effect like s POS force field for nearby industrials (or even exclusive to ORE vessels)

The could allow for dual siege both industry core and bastion mode at the same time apply the range bonus to its primary weapons (drones)

In my experience 7 seconds is enough time to GTFO as usually they're in the next system. If they're already in your system it's probably too late. So the only way I'd put a Rorqual into a belt is if it gave bonuses without siege and could align and warp in 7 seconds or fewer (like my Mackinaws can).

With respect to hot-drops as I said before, there's nothing to counter because you don't know what's being dropped. It could be anything from 5 bombers to 50 supers. There's no strategy for defending your Rorqual from a hot-dropper that doesn't involve GTFO in my opinion.

How many rorqual pilots have skills beyond getting it to where it's sat in the pos, and the mining foreman links?

I dare say there will be quite a few that have virtually no defensive skills, no offensive skills, and not many mining skills short of what you need to use the ship since your job is to sit in the pos and dish out juicy bonus.

Allow the Rorq to fit an EMP type system that will knock cloaks out of use for 5-10 minutes. If it is truly an afk cloaky then he gets popped for being shat. If he's an actual active player, then he'll be getting the hell out.

My point is, if the Roqual was changed in a way that made it viable as a PVP ship, really, why would that be a problem. the same has already been done with other industrial ships, why not the roqual, and for that matter why not all mining ships?

As long as it was not superior to the ships it would be competing with, I don't see a problem. Sure its primary design will always be geared to ward industrial use, but that does not mean it can not have a potential alternative use for PVP.

Listen, any/all ideas that involve making the Rorqual a "viable PvP ship" still fail due to something called escalation. Blops, wrecking ball, 10 supers, 50 Titans, you have absolutely no idea what's going to come through that cyno. Well OK you do if you have a spy in his coms.

So no. Absolutely no combat or shield related addition to the Rorqual would make me want to keep it around in a belt. Here's what would:

(1) Much faster align and warp time
(2) Bigger bonus for its gang links when on grid
(3) No requirement to siege it to get (2)

Basically all of those 3 things together would make putting one on field worthwhile. The way the miner works is he mines and watches/listens closely to intel. If there's a red 3, 2 or 1 jump away he'll GTFO. If he's in something that can't GTFO, it's probably going to die, so he'll only ever have put one into a field once before in his Eve career and it's probably on his KB.

But here's the question:

Why can I put a Damnation next to a POS shield and get full bonuses from its hull, whereas in order to get a full bonus for mining I have to fly this massive fat 2.5b capital? It makes absolutely no sense.

So the goal here will be to make a ship that is the kind of thing you want to put into a belt, with extremely strong defensive bonuses, and the ability to not only protect itself but its friends, and the ability to provide also a strong benefit to your mining fleet. Get these things out where they're in a bit of some danger, but also where that danger is manageable, where it is actually sane to put them into that danger.

Just another Idea:

Why don-¦t think about the Mining Role itself? Not only for the Roqual, but for all Mining ships. Why do we always have to be the harmless sheep's running away, if anybody with an evil face is just looking at us? Why can-¦t we be the (weaker) wolf in sheep-¦s clothing?

What I mean is, much miners are getting attacked or ganked every day without having a chance to strike back.

1) Make the Rorq a mobile starbase, thats use is tied to its indy core. Make the shields small enough, or (I'm not sure if the coding would stand up to this) add a rule that only industrial ships can enter the shield. Then add a cleverly named "Bay" that can only contain enough stront, HW, Spiced Wine etc... to generate a timer of an hour or less. During which the ship will remain in space but maintain its Combat timers until the reinforce timer finishes. Ie if reinforced it will maintain its full Capsuleer combat log off timer until it exits reinforce and then the countdown will begin.

2) Create 4 new Capital Mining Lasers(2 for Ice and 2 for ore) that can only be used on the rorqual and requires/ is bonused by the starbase defense management skill. Make them like the usual capital mods where there are the meta 1 version and a second named one to add some bling bling and further fuel the fires of industry and economy.

3) Rework the OGB so that it would still have its current unsieged boost level if off grid and its current, if not better, sieged boosts if on grid. But keep off grid boosting so as to maintain the choice of still using the rorqual but in a safer way or using an orca in its current state.

Final thoughts:

Lolwat.

No. CCP are going to replace POS infrastructure. The new anchorables are baby steps in this direction. Whatever they replace it with will have to have the substantially similar property "invulnerable", same as the existing force field. Without it a whole lot of stuff would just die or no longer bother logging in.

3) Get rid of the force field bubble, partly for technical reasons.

...

3) Force fields (or lack thereof). CCP wants to have docking modules, but they don't want them to be cheap, and they may want to limit the number of ships that can be docked. CCP has been exploring adding mooring modules that would protect a ship that was able to physically get near the module with a small force field around just the ship. This system might replace ship maintenance arrays.

...

Trebor mentioned that not having a force field would be a big change to the way fleets often operate, and Greyscale mentioned that he would be looking into that.

Elise asked about mooring supercaps, and CCP said that that would be allowed, and people could set it so that only the owner or a director of the corp that owned the starbase would be able to un-moor the ship. CCP Greyscale said that he was thinking that people would have to get to 0 meters from the mooring module in order to moor a ship, which would mean that there would be a natural limit of however many ships could fit at the mooring point, and that people would have to carefully consider their starbase layout to take this into account.

UAxDEATH asked about if personal POSes would still allow directors to un-moor ships, and Greyscale said probably not, but that corp POSes would, because corps need to be able to take down a tower.

...

Elise asked about moored ships when a starbase is destroyed, and Greyscale said that they would all un-moor and be able to be stolen.

...

There was some discussion about what the removal of POS force fields would change in things like nullsec fleet fights. Elise pointed out that losing the ability to have a safe(ish) place to park a fleet for 20 minutes or so would be a big change from the current system.

CCP Greyscale suggested that they might look into making an anchorable POS type shield.

Two step pointed out that this would be a big change for all sorts of fights, and might be just a tad controversial. There was some discussion about what exactly might prevent people from mooring at a POS, such as warp scramblers.

The session ended with the CSM urging CCP to "ship it" as soon as possible.

lol.

People talk about EWAR immunity, but I don't think they realize how common HICs are. If null sec mining suddenly became dependent on an on-grid booster with EWAR immunity, every miner hunting roam will bring HICS, and the Rorqual might as well not have EWAR immunity.

I Remember CCP making a promise that they would have a plan for updating the Roqual in the next Update. We have yet to see any dev blogs or information in regards to this. Has the Roqual gone the way of the dodo? looking for something from CCP to let me know why i should keep this ship.