Not if you gut the battleship and repurpose everything but engineering and bridge spaces

Cargo capacity of a ship is just theholds. I'm talking about gutting the crew decks, living spaces and repurposing the entire ship. Not just the bays. One clone is approximately 2 cubic meters. Call a cheap flash growth vat 5 m3 to contain it. You're down to 150 m3 per 30 vat clones. So 1500 m3 for 300 if you pack those bastards in like sardines.

We aren't talking the full medical grade clones used by the empire and capsuleers. We're talking cheapsh*t chop jobs that you intend to expend slightly more slowly than you expend ammunition.

Warbarges should represent innovation, cunning and economy of space and action. Fancy, expensive ( or even legal) operations are the purview of empires, rich moguls and capsuleers.

Immortal clone mercenaries would, by necessity have become the outright masters of squeezing six cents out of a nickel. And squeezing 11 decimeters out of a meter.

The mindset should not be "standardized fitting." The mindset should be "repurposed for killing."

Unsure if this has been touched on or not, but if you do implement earning your first warbarge, I have a couple suggestions.

1) No Aurum Warbarges prior to rite of passage.

I feel this will just cheapen the game. Yes you may not be able to profit from impatient 12 year olds with rich parents but the community (especially poor f***s like me) will appreciate it. After the earn their first one, then offer them the flash looking warbarge.

2) Give us multiple ways of earning our first warbarge.

I'm thinking a ton of isk or a ton of LP.

Additionally maybe you can use the daily missions screen, where, once certain prerequisites are met, you are given a special mission where you must do a difficult but doable stunt/action in battle AND win the battle to earn a warbarge.

Sorry of this seems like a bunch of jumble thoughts

I agree with all of this except for requiring a ton of isk or LP to get into their first Warbarge. Instead, frame it as impressing venture capitalists, or Faction Officers, to invest in your career by covering the cost of your first Warbarge.

So getting your first Warbarge would be about proving yourself, rather than about earning ISK or LP.

Honestly I'd save "earning" a warbarge for later or legion.

It can be a rite of passage storyline for new mercs.

You want a warbarge/new warbarge/better warbarge?

You must singlehandedly infiltrate, assault and requisition a ship for yourself. Whether you do so by attacking a deep core mining installation to hijack an orca, or you attack a blood raider pirate base for a bhaalgorn, or hit a republic shipyard for a typhoon hull.

If I could have my wish, the warbarge release would be heralded by an event representing mercs across new eden assaulting space elevators, stations, hangars, etc. To get into space and hijack ships, materiels and escape their empire babysitters in the wake of proposed CONCORD restrictions upon merc freedoms, caps in pay and elimination of autonomy.

I think that if automatic mail messages could be setup to go to people when certain trigger conditions are reached, it could do a lot to handle the narrative while requiring very little Dev development.

For instance, the first time a player is in a winning match in which they get a kill and earn more than 100 War Points they would get a mail message from a venture capitalist firm saying that they are looking for new mercenaries to invest in, and telling the player that they show promise. Have the message explain that the firm intends to keep an eye on them and if they prove themselves the firm may be willing to finance the purchasing of a Warbarge to take their mercenary career to the next level.

Attaining a loyalty rank with a Faction would trigger a faction specific mail from an Officer in the Faction who is looking to assist up-and-coming mercs to better support the cause.

I think that if automatic mail messages could be setup to go to people when certain trigger conditions are reached, it could do a lot to handle the narrative while requiring very little Dev development.

For instance, the first time a player is in a winning match in which they get a kill and earn more than 100 War Points they would get a mail message from a venture capitalist firm saying that they are looking for new mercenaries to invest in, and telling the player that they show promise. Have the message explain that the firm intends to keep an eye on them and if they prove themselves the firm may be willing to finance the purchasing of a Warbarge to take their mercenary career to the next level.

Attaining a loyalty rank with a Faction would trigger a faction specific mail from an Officer in the Faction who is looking to assist up-and-coming mercs to better support the cause.

This sort of thing is pretty much spot on to where I was coming from too. Though maybe making it part of the mission system would easer and little more intuitive?

I think that if automatic mail messages could be setup to go to people when certain trigger conditions are reached, it could do a lot to handle the narrative while requiring very little Dev development.

For instance, the first time a player is in a winning match in which they get a kill and earn more than 100 War Points they would get a mail message from a venture capitalist firm saying that they are looking for new mercenaries to invest in, and telling the player that they show promise. Have the message explain that the firm intends to keep an eye on them and if they prove themselves the firm may be willing to finance the purchasing of a Warbarge to take their mercenary career to the next level.

Attaining a loyalty rank with a Faction would trigger a faction specific mail from an Officer in the Faction who is looking to assist up-and-coming mercs to better support the cause.

Crafting can be done while you are away, and the rate and quality goes up with the level of the Subsystem, up to Officer. Happy you are happy, we are very excited.

I'm very excited about Warbarges...

...BUT...

...There is one thing that worries me:
I got this kind answer from CCP Rattati in another thread

So: we will all have a Warbarge for free, our warbarge will upgrade itself passively with its Mobile Factory, it will soon start generating passive isks with the Market Network and it will later passively generate experimental weapons.

So: why shouldnt I create 99 alts and have isks and experimental weapons created passively while I play on my main?
I will even be able to send those weapons from alts to my main because we are going to have the market.

I think this is a major problem. How are you going to avoid it?

You will claim your weapons from the lab using components, so that will slow you down quite a bit.

Also, you will have to upgrade the warbarge to level 4 to consistently make experimental weapons, again, which will require components and time.

Very possibly, we will add a "fuel" to the warbarge to keep it running, and you get fuel cells (or maybe just components) by actively playing the game (missions and salvage). So only true players can power their warbarge, this should also apply to alts trying to exploit any free clonepacks for Warbarge Flotillas.

You will claim your weapons from the lab using components, so that will slow you down quite a bit.

Also, you will have to upgrade the warbarge to level 4 to consistently make experimental weapons, again, which will require components and time.

Very possibly, we will add a "fuel" to the warbarge to keep it running, and you get fuel cells (or maybe just components) by actively playing the game (missions and salvage). So only true players can power their warbarge, this should also apply to alts trying to exploit any free clonepacks for Warbarge Flotillas.

Ok lets say you could see warbarges on the map

You warp your warbarge over your corps district

and it becomes part of thier powerful fleet

Can other corpations board your warbarge and attack and take it over and put it in thier fleet?

Are we getting new art assets in dust for the warbarge or is it going to just be new menus or reusing the match waiting room.

Dear Players,

I want to describe the premise of the 1) Mercenary Warbarge and the 2) Warbarge Flotilla.

The Uprising is over. Mercenaries have taken to the skies in makeshift or stolen Warbarges.

The Warbarge is your mercenaries base of operations.

The Warbarge is presented as a new screen in the NEOCOM.

The Warbarge can be upgraded using Warbarge Components.

Each upgrade adds a single new Warbarge Platform.

Each Warbarge Platform houses a single Warbarge Subsystem.

The Warbarge Subsystem can be upgraded using Warbarge Components.

The first Warbarge Subsystem is the "Mobile Factory" that generates Components at a rate, and can be upgraded.

Subsystems can give bonuses and/or produce a "yield" that can be claimed. Those that have yields, also have a max capacity.

For the first phase, we are working on these Subsystems:

Phase 1 - Merc Warbarge
Mobile Factory - generates Warbarge Components
Market Network - generates ISK
Battle Statistics Center - SP boost
Augmented Ammunition Facility - Primary weapons damage boost (we wanted to start with armor rep or max armor, but it was difficult, eventually we want to have a choice here).
Armory - Increased number of fittings + something smart
Experimental Laboratory - creates a random number of weapons, up to officer but also new Experimental weapons, meta level 9, better than proto, need level 5 primary weapon skill.

Phase 2/3 - Merc Warbarge
Salvage Drone Bay - more EOM salvage
Reprocessing Plant - turn gear into Nanites
Code Research Center - generate Hacked keys
Augmented Armaments Facility - an ingame bonus
Focused Laboratory - creates specific weapons using Nanites and Components

Phase 2/3 - Warbarge Flotilla (Corporation Warbarge)
Mobile Factory - generates Warbarge Components // OR // The Flotilla depends solely on donations of Components from Members
Mission Network - Corporate MIssions are available to all Corp Members, with higher rewards // AND // possibly some earned Activity Points that are needed for Flotilla Actions
Clone Vats - generates Clone Packs // MCCs if we change the name of Clone Packs to MCC's // may need Components to claim
[img]Hangar[/img] - upgrade MCCs or more owned

Phase 4 - Warbarge Flotilla (Corporation Warbarge)
Space Elevator - claims unique resource from Districts owned
and more

Other Subsystem Ideas
We had tons of ideas, and I will share them in another thread.


Please discuss

Q&A from thread
1) Merc Warbarges will not need Skills - Flotillas will need a CEO/Director of some level to run as any Corp mechanic does.
2) Some Flotilla Subsystems may stack with Merc Subsystems, yet another reason to be in a strong Corporation and help it grow
3)Manufacturing skills are not currently in our plans, and that's just to keep the designs simple, not because it's a bad idea
4) ISK generation, is meant more as a reason for new players to check in and get your ISK yield than another alt farm. It will require some investment to get to a high enough level to alt farm.
5) The concerns about in-game bonuses are loud and clear. The intent is for this to be at max like a single complex dmg mod.
6)Experimental is between Proto and Officer, they are hard enough to get, so they don't require extra skills above lvl 5, Specialist Weapons will only be in FW, Experimental only in Warbarges
7) Taxing Components instead of relying on Donations - doesn't sound like teamwork. This is also the first foundation of player trading so we may need that step towards player trading.
8)Phases are development cycles, I want you to know there is a longer roadmap, with Phase 1 being the foundation, later Phases being rolled out over the year.
9) Flotilla Actions would be to claim a generate Clone Pack from the Warbarge Flotilla, or move it from System to System to attack Districts
10) Yet to be fully designed, but the plan for Flotilla Upgrades is that it's always upgrading, if it has Components, just choosing the cheapest one to work on next. Otherwise it's too reliant on failing due to a CEO not logging in, etc.
11) Components will be earned with the Mobile Factory, more to be earned by upgrading the Mobile Factory. They can also be earned through Salvage/Strongbox/Mission Rewards and bought for AUR.
12) A level 5 Warbarge has 5 Platforms. Every platform has a fixed Subsystem that can be upgraded so no need to purchase the first Subsystem. Later we may introduce choices for Platforms.
13) Everyone gets the Warbarge for free
14) You can only build a single Subsystem of every type, and the Platform is automatically populated with it when it gets upgraded, there is no choice of Subsystems, the Mobile Factory goes into Platform 1, Market Network into 2, etc. Later there may be choices.

This is supposedly part of the warbarge. At one point there was more to it as far as concept went as ccp showed a mu h bigger layout one fanfest.

This should be used/expanded on imo.

I agree with all of this except for requiring a ton of isk or LP to get into their first Warbarge. Instead, frame it as impressing venture capitalists, or Faction Officers, to invest in your career by covering the cost of your first Warbarge.

So getting your first Warbarge would be about proving yourself, rather than about earning ISK or LP.

Just thinking about warbarge exterior appearance for a minute... Ratati - Are they the ship that the clones are loading onto in this EVE video around 1:22?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFTUazuGdTw