Wednesday, November 12, 2014

The Bowhead Bonus

We have the stats for the Bowhead! The new freighter cum carrier-without-a-jump-drive for carting your important internet spaceships about!


BOWHEAD

Ore Freighter Bonus:
5% bonus to max velocity per level
5% bonus to ship maintenance array capacity per level

Role Bonus:
90% reduction in jump fatigue generation

Slot layout: 0H, 3M, 3L, 3R; 0 turrets, 0 launchers
Fittings: 1350 PWG, 215 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 10000 / 11000 / 36500
Capacitor (amount / recharge) : 3900 / 235000
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / warp speed): 65 / .065 / 640000000 / 1.37
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 51.5km / 45 / 3
Capacity (cargo / ship maintenance array): 4000 / 1300000 (goes up to 1.6 something with ore freighter 5)
Sensor strength: 12
Signature radius: 3200

So basically its a way of moving around big assembled/insured ships. The SMA can hold 3 fitted battleships, 6 battlecruisers, 13 cruisers or 71 frigates, roughly at max skills.

CCP Rise said "this ship is intended for a specific niche: high-sec transport of fitted/insured ships. It may find applications in other parts of space (especially because of the reduced jump fatigue), but we aren't really worried about hitting anything outside of the high-sec application"


Hang on? Then why even put it the jump fatigue bonus? If you are not worried about any use outside of high-sec WHY PUT IT IN? I think its been put in for a reason, tinfoil hat time, otherwise is a very odd choice.

Then again, we can say that about that max velocity bonus? If you ask industrialists and haulers what would be important in thier ship I think you'd get:-

Cargo capacity
Agility (speed to get into warp)
Warp speed
Survivability

If you asked them if velocity was important they'd look at you funny. These ships will move from station to gate, gate to station or station to POS. Unless you are using auto-pilot you're not using sub-light engines really at any point (even inside the POS you are going to bookmark the assembly array or the ship maintenance array right?). Another odd choice.

Further down the thread Rise said it had about a third of a million HP in the Client fitting window. My alt in a normal freighter gets 210,000 base and 350,000 when I tank it so they are certainly around the tanked freighter mark.


Is this designed as a potential gank target? Is CCP (don tinfoil hat) hoping to encourage autopiloting in these things with the velocity bonus and thus increase chance of ganks and thus remove some ISK from the game? Are they hoping force projection effected null-sec groups will see these as ideal to bridge BS fleets across the map and end up getting them slaughtered in some elaborate trap?

Its all a bit odd to me!

5 comments:

  1. Well the jump fatigue bonus is applicable only in sov nullsec. So outside of high sec this ship could be used to quickly supply a frontline station with fitted ships on contract.

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  2. I thought I read yesterday that the velocity bonus was being replaced with an agility bonus

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  3. One thing I did see (at work now so I cant actually get a link) is that the devs have said that they are ok with the idea of making the EHP high enough to carry 3 tech 2 fitted battleships without being profitable to gank. this happened somewhere near page 15 to 20 of the thread. So expect the max ehp to be higher.

    The fatigue bonus was explained as "all freighters and transports get this bonus so its included" by one of the devs as well.

    However the devs give and they take: plan for rhea (also in same thread) is that the ship bays in orcas etc will be able to drop loot. so now you can actually get what you pop from them. Currently they drop nothing so its actually the best way to transport really expensive fittings (on fit ships)

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  4. Yeah, your stats are slightly out of date. The speed bonus has been replaced by agility, and Rise has added 11k shields and 3k structure.

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  5. Something that I only realised this morning. The removal of axow also impacts those that rely on the double web slingshot for the fast freighter warp. I am betting that will catch quite a few on Day One. It is easily solved by duelling. (smart pilots will even remember to toggle duelling on and off as required).

    So we have your bowhead pilot with his tugboat (webbing) companion and they are hauling three battleships. My question is why bother? Just one bump and its all over. Recently one of the organisers behind Eve Down Under lost a freighter load of small ships which was destined to be used at the Meet Up - to just that exact scenario. Plus the story of some poor freighter got bumped for 70mins (the aggression flag was extended by a pilot shooting with a noobie frigate). All of which means if the gankers don't get the job done in the first go - they can come back after fifteen and finish the job.

    Something is in the works, maybe tinfoil is involved.

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