So, to everyone begging for a lowslot, have you actually considered the results of that?

The most likely mods to go there are a DC2, and a Cargo Expander 2. So for just one low slot you are paying for:

A ~24% cargo loss.

And a ~38% loss of tank.

For a single lowslot.

You would lose those things because, as Tippia mentioned, you have to account for both potential extremes in every potential case of what mod or rig might be fitted in there. They cannot under any circumstance be allowed to have more than a certain amount of cargo hold thanks to having to keep capitals out of highsec, and their tank can only be allowed to go so high.

So the more "options" you ask for, the more gets taken away overall by necessity.

That's not an assumption. Cargohold can NOT be permitted above a certain level. Tank too. The agility can stand to be increased a bit, but it's the exception.



Yeah, it would become overpowered immediately. You would have to nerf each area that could be improved with a module, by only slightly less than the extreme of the module can provide a benefit.

Cargo expanders for example. The T2 can give 27.5% bonus, yes? So if they got a lowslot, they'd have to lose about 23% cargo to keep them under the capital carrying mark.

Same thing with tank. A DC2 would give it so much more EHP that it's overall tank would have to be nerfed close to 40% to compensate.

And in the end all you do is lose.

"Why not modules instead" is a bit of a common question, so on a whim I threw together a concept for just that.

New Module: "Warp Speed Lowslot"
Requires Warp Drive Operation V
50 CPU
+35% Warp Speed

The most obvious issue with low slots on freighters is lack of a warp speed rig. Solve that with a warp speed low slot. At +35% you get a bit larger benefit than with three T1 warp speed rigs, though smaller than three T2 rigs, but at 50 CPU you'll be making some major choices to fit them. The high fitting cost also serves as a check against their casual use for subcaps, as they'd be a huge, huge deal for shield tanking subcaps. 50 CPU isn't necessarily a final number but I'm not sure about going lower either.

e: Has been pointed out to me that this module would instantly obsolete the new Angel bonuses. This is somewhat problematic, but for now I'm not going to worry about it.

Providence

Amarr Freighter Bonus per level:
+5% Cargo Capacity
+5% Maximum Velocity

Slot Layout: 0H, 0M, 3L
Fitting: 1 PWG, 100 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull): 2500 (-2500) / 12000 (-12000) 60000 (-52500)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time / warp speed): 70 / 0.0625 / 900,000,000 / 107.22s / 1.37
Cargo Capacity: 500000 (-235000)


Charon

Caldari Freighter Bonus per level:
+5% Cargo Capacity
+5% Maximum Velocity

Slot Layout: 0H, 0M, 3L
Fitting: 1 PWG, 100 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull): 32500 (+26500) / 6000 (-14000) 45000 (-61250)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time / warp speed): 60 / 0.0625 / 960,000,000 / 114.37s / 1.37
Cargo Capacity: 517500 (-267500)


Obelisk

Gallente Freighter Bonus per level:
+5% Cargo Capacity
+5% Maximum Velocity

Slot Layout: 0H, 0M, 3L
Fitting: 1 PWG, 100 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull): 3000 (-2313) / 8000 (-14500) 62500 (-57500)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time / warp speed): 65 / 0.0625 / 940,000,000 / 111.99s / 1.37
Cargo Capacity: 500000 (-250000)


Fenrir

Minmatar Freighter Bonus per level:
+5% Cargo Capacity
+5% Maximum Velocity

Slot Layout: 0H, 0M, 3L
Fitting: 1 PWG, 100 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull): 30000 (+24375) / 8000 (-13250) 44000 (-56000)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time / warp speed): 80 / 0.0625 / 820,000,000 / 97.69s / 1.37
Cargo Capacity: 492500 (-227500)

Still no free lunch here; you're not getting better at everything at once, unless I messed up somewhere. For the most part it hews to the same overall principles as with rigs (tighten the gap between the different classes a bit) but the upsides are bigger (though the downsides are too) and you can hit a lot of interesting combos. It also doesn't demand a fortune to swap. Use of low slots is obviously an advantage for the armor tanking freighters. To offset that, shield freighters put a great deal of their EHP into shields while armor freighters continue to focus mainly on structure. This has the following effects:

• Fully tanked (DCII+2x Bulkheads), armor freighters have the most EHP, by ~10% or so.
• When "low penalty tanked" (DC plus either two PDS II for shields or two hardeners for armor), armor has the most EHP by about the same ~10% when considering blaster damage specifically.
• With two tank mods, they're about even.
• With one tank mod, shield freighters have slightly more EHP, and more still with no tank mods.

A few fit examples for illustration; this all assumes all skills at V and Tech II mods.

DC II, 2x Bulkhead
Providence: 324k EHP, 495k cargo
Charon: 297k EHP, 512.3k cargo
Obelisk: 328k EHP, 504k cargo
Fenrir: 291k EHP, 487.6k cargo

DC II, 2x Expanders
Providence: 151k EHP, 1.016m cargo
Charon: 167k EHP, 1.051m cargo
Obelisk: 148k EHP, 1.036m cargo
Fenrir: 164.5k EHP, 1m cargo

3x Expander
Providence: 65k EHP, 1.295m cargo
Charon: 96k EHP, 1.34m cargo
Obelisk: 60k EHP, 1.32m cargo
Fenrir: 94.7k EHP, 1.28m cargo

DC II, Expander, Bulkhead
Providence: 218.6k EHP, 709k cargo
Charon: 217.7k EHP, 734k cargo
Obelisk: 218.7k EHP, 723k cargo
Fenrir: 214k EHP, 698k cargo

"Low Penalty" tank (DCII, Thermal & Kinetic hardener for Providence/Obelisk, 2x PDS II for Charon & Fenrir)
Providence: 229k EHP (omni), 253k EHP (against Caldari Navy Antimatter), 625k cargo
Charon: 224k EHP (omni), 230.6k EHP (against CNAM), 646.9k cargo
Obelisk: 225k EHP (omni), 241.9k EHP (against CNAM), 637.5k cargo
Fenrir: 220k EHP (omni), 226k EHP (against CNAM), 615.6k cargo

DC II, 2x Inertia Stabilizers
Providence: 218k EHP, 625k cargo, 25.3s align
Charon: 218k EHP, 646.9k cargo, 26.9s align
Obelisk: 218.6k EHP, 637.5k cargo, 26.4s align
Fenrir: 214k EHP, 615.6k cargo, 23s align.

One warp speed low is 1.85 AU/s. Two is 2.41 AU/s. If the CPU allowed fitting three, that'd be 2.9 AU/s.

Going to sleep now, if people like the idea maybe I can whip through jump freighters to illustrate them as well.

One low creates its own (pretty significant) headache: we still have that annoying DCII that needs to be taken into account GÇö 2.5+ù the hul EHP of anything you fit it to. As long as it does what it does, hull generally has to come down in order to not be completely silly. At the same time, people will want to fit cargo expanders, but since the base hull is down from having to anticipate the DCII, you start out at almost half the current EHP, and then it gets another chunk cut out by a single expanderGǪ and suddenly you have a cargo-fitted freighter that is weaker than most mining barges.

With only one slot, the DCII kind of becomes the only viable module so you might as well just fold it into the ship and not have the lowslot at all, at which point we're right back where we started.

Highsec suicide ganks on freighters are exceedingly rare.

And stats nerfed to **** to make sure they are not unbalanced.