TANK THAT!!! Mister Asteroid Killer (Part 2)

Greetings my fellow pod pilots, & blog readers!!!

During the same Notalotofnews 79^th Episode, were Jason was talking about the high sec gank, of a Covetor Mining Barge, he again mentioned his desire for the next level of mining ship.  He has repeatedly attempted to make an effort to convince his co-host FrFmPukin that EvE needs a mining ship that has the battleship equivalent of a tank.  FrFmPukin thinks that things are just fine.  The fact, that a Battle Cruiser and/or smaller ships can warp in, lock up, and Alpha Strike a mining barge into oblivion is Ok with him.

Often FrFrmPukin’s argument is that the mining barges should be more observant, or careful.  That may be easy to say from a Null Sec stand point.  You can just watch local, and listen or watch intel channels.  But what about those folks in High Sec, were local has constant traffic?  How about wormhole space where local or intel channels do not exist?  How about those that don’t want to depend on anyone?

So in essence the only defense a mining ship should have, from other players, is to warp away???

My response to that is... WTF!?!?

How can a PvP/Combat pilot expect that CCP should continue to add more ships to make their Pew Pew more fun and survivable, yet give no counter to those that are getting shot at?  Case in point, with the new Crucible expansion CCP added four new racial specific Tier 3 Battle Cruisers(BC).  These ships gain the fire power of a Battleship!  A BC could already Alpha Strike most industrial ships with medium guns.  Now they are granted even more fire power to make quick work of the defenseless industrial ships.  So in essence, if you are an industrial minded player, there is no way to effectively survive or tank an attack.  Regardless of isk invested into your ship, it will never… ever… be able to survive an attack.  An industrial based character cannot even hope to last long enough for help to arrive!

I don’t know about you, but I watched CCP's video called The Butter Fly Effect and I don’t think that was what CCP had in mind.  Let me quote you a section of dialog from that trailer:

“…and in your travels you encounter this, a defenseless mining barge under attack by pirates.  You have a split second to make a choice.  Without your help the miner does not stand a chance.  You decide to be the hero and succeed in driving the raiders away.  The victim is thankful and in the conversation that follows, a friendly gang that was on its way to help finally arrives…”

I do think CCP intends to create more opportunity for things like this to happen.  I also think that CCP could kill two birds with one stone.  They simply need to give the miner a ship that can weather the storm until help arrives. (This could be a double edge sword as that aid may be coming to help the pirate!)

What I would like to see added, and I do believe Jason does as a well, is a mining ship with a battleship sized tank.  So I have decided to do a bit of theory crafting and this is what I have come up with.  As you can see it isn’t close to being done… but I figured I would start the converstation:

(Click for original image on Deviant Art)

THE TORTUGA

The Tortuga is the largest craft in the third generation of mining vessels created by the ORE Syndicate. Deep Space Exhumers, like their mining barge cousins, are equipped with electronic subsystems specifically designed to accommodate Strip Mining modules. They are the most resilient Exhumer built to date, designed specifically to handle the dangers of hostile space. What the Tortuga lacks efficiency is made up in its survivability.
 

So what kind of stats would it have?

Until next time,

Be Bold…