In a recent forum post, CCP Terminus introduced a new soon-to-be-unveiled Expedition Frigate: the Discovery. The Discovery will be a dedicated ice harvester, and was included in the Winter Roadmap as a single line-item: “Ice Mining Frigate”. Along with the new ship, new ‘Ice Mining Laser’ turret-slot modules will be released as well, though these will be limited to only being able to be mounted on the Expedition Frigates.
Unlike the current Expedition Frigate, the Prospect, the Discovery will not be able to make use of a Covert Ops Cloaking Device – though there are some fairly nice bonuses to encourage non-covops cloaks. The Discovery is intended to be used to mine ice in hostile space, including nullsec and w-space, and according to Terminus, the two Expedition Frigates will be “be the only ship[sic] capable of mining ice from the frigate only Shattered Wormholes.”
The stats for the new ship are as follows:
Expedition Frigates bonuses (per skill level):
5% reduction to Ice Harvesting duration
4% bonus to all shield resistances
Mining Frigate bonuses (per skill level):
5% reduction to Ice Harvesting duration
5% bonus to Mining yield
Role Bonuses:
200% bonus to Mining yield
50% reduction to Ice Harvesting duration
50% reduction in Cloaking Devices CPU requirement
Cloak reactivation delay and targeting delay reduced to 5 seconds
No penalty to ship max velocity when using Cloaking Devices
Slot layout: 3 H, 4 M, 3 L, 1 Turret
2 Rig Slots, 400 Calibration
Fittings: 40 PWG, 280 CPU
Defense (shields / armour / hull): 1100 / 400 / 500
Base shield resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 0 / 20 / 40 / 50
Base armor resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 60 / 35 / 25 / 10
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / average cap per second): 300 / 125s / 2.4
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / warp speed / align time): 420 / 2.4 / 1,600,000 / 5.5 / 5.32s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 15 / 30
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 20km / 750 / 4
Sensor strength: 10 Magnetometric
Signature radius: 40
Cargo capacity (cargo / ore): 200 / 15000
Taking a quick look at these stats, this ship is designed not only for ice mining, but dangerous ice mining: the ship has a nice feature where it can stay cloaked while retaining its base max velocity. I can already hear the evil cackles of goons and PL ship crafters devising ways to utilize nanofiber mods to this ship when it comes out. On top of this, the ship has a couple nice bonues to shield resistance, which can be a boon in wormholes or hostile space.
Also included were the stats on the new Ice Mining Lasers:
Ice Mining Laser I
Skill Requirements: Mining IV, Ice Harvesting I
Fittings: 5 PWG, 50 CPU
Activation Cost: 10 GJ
Optimal Range: 7 Km
Duration: 360s
Mining Amount: 1000 m3
Ice Mining Laser II
Skill Requirements: Mining IV, Ice Harvesting V
Fittings: 6 PWG, 60 CPU
Activation Cost: 15 GJ
Optimal Range: 8 Km
Duration: 330s
Mining Amount: 1000 m3
ORE Ice Mining Laser
Skill Requirements: Mining IV, Ice Harvesting I
Fittings: 6 PWG, 60 CPU
Activation Cost: 15 GJ
Optimal Range: 11 Km
Duration: 330s
Mining Amount: 1000 m3
In the initial post, CCP Terminus indicated the Discovery would mine ice “slightly slower than mining barges”. In a follow-up Q&A post, he went into further detail (all times based on perfect ice mining skills):
Ice Mining Laser II – 1 block / 330 sec
Discovery Role Bonus (50% reduction) – 165 sec
Mining Frigate 5 Bonus (25% reduction) – 123.75 sec
Expedition Frigate 5 Bonus (25% reduction) – 92.81 sec
Ice Harvesting Skill 5 (25% reduction) – 69.60 sec
Inherent Implants ‘Yeti” Ice Harvester IH-1005 (5% reduction) – 66.12 sec
‘Ingenii’ Ice Harvester Upgrade (10%) – 59.51 sec
‘Ingenii’ Ice Harvester Upgrade (10%) – 53.56 sec
‘Ingenii’ Ice Harvester Upgrade (10%) – 48.20 sec
Fastest Cycle = 48.20 seconds
CCP Terminus also added that at this time, there are no plans for a Small Ice Harvester Accelerator rig to be added.
As a final word, CCP Terminus has not said what the final color of the ship will be, but Terminus is hoping for something ‘icy’.
The ship is planned to be deployed this December.
UPDATE: The ship’s name has been changed to the Endurance.
