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[kalaratiri]

New Dev Blog.

Hey guys!

I’m here to tell you about some brand new ships coming to EVE Online in the next free expansion: Rubicon, which is now less than a month away!

I’m sure many of you know a lot about them already, whether you heard us talk about them at EVE Vegas, on our expansion announcement stream, or read about them in the Features and Ideas forum thread where we’ve laid out all the details, but this blog should collect all the important information in one place while shedding some light on their development as an added bonus!

So, without more delay, let me introduce you to the Astero and the Stratios:



 

In a nutshell, this is a new ‘pirate faction’ ship line from the Sisters of EVE.  It combines Amarr and Gallente skills and has a strong focus on exploration and self-reliance in hostile space.

Following off the strong exploration theme in Odyssey we really wanted to create a ship line that EVE’s explorers, both new and old, could be excited about.  We were also inspired by the success of the Gnosis, which was introduced for EVE’s 10th anniversary and was generally well received due to its flexibility and accessbility.

So, if we whittle that down to a more specific set of goals it might look a bit like this:

• Appealing to solo explorers in all security bands of space
• Focused on sustainability and long deployments away from stations
• Capable in combat, whether in sites against NPCs or against other players
• Provides a lot of fitting versatility that translates into support for a range of play-styles and tasks

Let me go through point-by-point and tell you how we’re hoping to meet those goals.

Appealing to solo explorers in all security bands of space

This basically boils down to being able to compete with other popular exploration ships.  We went full-on for this goal by not only giving both ships bonuses to scan probe strength and virus strength for relic and data analyzers, but also by giving them both the ability to use Covert Cloaks.  If you aren’t familiar, Covert Cloaking Ops Device II is the only module that allows you to warp while cloaked, and before the introduction of the Astero and Stratios, you could only use one on certain tech 2 ship classes like Recons or Covert Ops Frigates.  Access to these bonuses and capabilities goes a long way towards creating an exploration ship that can compete with Covert Ops frigates or even Tech 3 cruisers like the Tengu.

Focused on sustainability and long deployments away from stations

This goal is a large part of why we chose Amarr and Gallente as the contributing races for the Sisters of EVE ships.  If you’re going to be out in space a long time without being able to refuel you want weapons that don’t rely on a lot of charges, and so with drones coming from Gallente and lasers coming from Amarr, you won’t have to worry.  Both ships also have very large cargo and drone bays so you can hold even more loot before needing to find your way back to a hangar.

Capable in combat, whether in sites against NPCs or against other players

Now this is a goal I can get behind.  The cloak gives these guys a leg-up to begin with, so we didn’t want to get too out of control, but substantial drone damage, an armor resist bonus on both ships and all of that backed up with pirate faction quality base stats makes both the Astero and the Stratios extremely mean fighters.

Provides a lot of fitting versatility that translates into support for a range of play-styles and tasks

Both ships have above average mid-slot allocation for ships with an armor bonus; 4 for the Astero and 5 for the Stratios.  This means that they sacrifice some raw damage and tank potential but can easily field all the modules necessary for exploration.  It also means that if they aren’t exploring, they have lots of room to field support mods, electronic warfare or even switch to shield tanks for more damage.  This sort of flexibility is a big part of what makes the Gnosis so much fun and we’re excited to have more ships in the game with a similar versatility.

The end result is a very exciting new tool in the sandbox with tons of potential and we can’t wait to see how they get used in the wild.   And again, if you want the nitty-gritty numbers head over to the feedback thread and dig in.

Alright CCP Rise I’m sold, how do I get one?!

Well, as you can see by this graph of LP awarded over the last three months by EVE’s biggest pirate factions, many of you already know the answer: Sisters of EVE Loyalty Points.


 
Both of these ships will be on offer from all Servant Sisters of EVE corporations in the game, which means these will be the first ‘pirate faction’ ships available in high sec.  This doesn’t come without a cost though. Only the Sanctuary Corporation, who are credited with actually creating the Stratios and Astero, will offer them at the normal pirate faction prices.  If you get them from the Sisters of EVE Corporation in high security space get ready for a mark-up of up to 50%.

We hope you guys enjoy the new ships, and make sure to keep your eyes peeled following Rubicon, the Sisters of EVE may not be done giving us new toys quite yet…

- CCP Rise

[Lyn Farel]

Hehehe circle thingies at the stern of the ships.

Now then, I hope they do not prove too powerful as combat ship or I fear they might eclipse a lot of true combat ships...

[Vincent Pryce]

inb4 everyone and I mean everyone in FW uses these. double or even triple td ships from hell with a cloak, now plexing without even a single effort or sense of danger. I wonder if current condor-pros go to 1337town with these.

[Ollie]

Hehehe circle thingies at the stern of the ships.

Jedi fighters design workshop FTW!

[Saede Riordan]

inb4 everyone and I mean everyone in FW uses these. double or even triple td ships from hell with a cloak, now plexing without even a single effort or sense of danger. I wonder if current condor-pros go to 1337town with these.

Lol, thats actually a good question. I hadn't thought of how hilariously OP they would be in the context of facwar, with the Astero being able to enter novice plexes.

[Lyn Farel]

I just looked up at the Stratios in EFT out of curiosity, and I hope these stats are not final because lolwut, 950 DPS with ogres, a covert ops cloak, 5 low slots and 5 med slots... And still 1700m/s with MWD. 550 DPS with med drones as well.

Compare that to a pilgrim... I hope they made a mistake on the drone capacity (125m3 bandwith, 500m3 dronebay).

The astero looks more reasonable, though still really tough. 170 DPS or so on... With a cov ops cloak as well ?

[Vincent Pryce]

They did drop the drone bandwith down. I think those are the old stats but yeah. Those are going to be nasty ships nevertheless.

[orange]

I just looked up at the Stratios in EFT out of curiosity, and I hope these stats are not final because lolwut, 950 DPS with ogres, a covert ops cloak, 5 low slots and 5 med slots... And still 1700m/s with MWD. 550 DPS with med drones as well.

Compare that to a pilgrim... I hope they made a mistake on the drone capacity (125m3 bandwith, 500m3 dronebay).

The astero looks more reasonable, though still really tough. 170 DPS or so on... With a cov ops cloak as well ?

Please share the whole setup.

The Gila has similar Cruiser bonuses (Caldari Cruiser: 4% Shields/Gallente Cruiser: 10% Drone HP & Damage).  It is slower, but it has about 500 more hitpoints in Shields and Armor.

With 2 Drone Damage Amp IIs and 5 Ogre IIs, a Gila has a DPS of 701 (no other weapons).  The Stratios should not do much better, unless the plan is to forgo any armor mods.

I do not think the Astero is nearly as reasonable as the Stratios.  The current stats for the Astero it outperforms Ishkurs and Worms in terms of drone damage & quantity and is a capable exploration ship (but not quiet as good as a CovOps).

For FW, I think the Accel Gates will help to mitigate the cloak a bit.  If someone wanted to sit in a Frigate or Cruiser complex in a cloaked Faction ship (like a Gila), they could do that already.

[Lyn Farel]

Mostly the same than the Gila then, around 790 DPS with drones only, close to 940 with beams aside. 30k effective, that can go up to 40k without the XLASB. Gila is probably a lot tougher though. But the stratios has a cov ops cloak... @_@

[spoiler][Stratios, New Setup 1]
Damage Control II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Co-Processor II

10MN Microwarpdrive I
Large Ancillary Shield Booster, Cap Booster 150
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Large Shield Extender II
Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption Script

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Focused Medium Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency M
Focused Medium Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency M
Focused Medium Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency M
Focused Medium Beam Laser II, Imperial Navy Multifrequency M

Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I

Ogre II x5
Hammerhead II x5[/spoiler]


Also, it is still possible to take an acceleration gate before a PLEX while remaining cloaked. I already did that countless times to hunt bombers farming missions with a rapier. It worked almost every time and pissed them off to no ends.

[Morwen Lagann]

If people are curious about how the Stratios and Astero will fare in PVP, they will be allowed in this weekend's SCL so you may get to see some in action.

Dunno how many teams will try or think to field any of them, though.

[Lyn Farel]

I am pretty sure that those bandwith and dronebay numbers are insane and actually a lot lower in reality than on EFT, as Vince said above.

[Morwen Lagann]

I am pretty sure that those bandwith and dronebay numbers are insane and actually a lot lower in reality than on EFT, as Vince said above.

Dronebay is 400m3, bandwidth is 100mb for the Stratios, confirming this.

[DeadRow]

Why would you fit Beam and field Ogres?

[Katrina Oniseki]

Why would you fit Beam and field Ogres?

Beam + Ogres = Bogers.

[Lyn Farel]

Why would you fit Beam and field Ogres?

Dunno I was just quickly looking at the damage potential. If I really wanted a long range setup I would probably have done otherwise than ogres. Wasn't it how Ishtars worked once though ?

Honestly it has been ages since I have not tried to do a serious fit. This one may not be serious.