With the Catalyst expansion set to release in Eve Online on November 18th, some information and even testing have dropped. I’m quite excited for one ship in particular, depending on what all gets changed between now and release.

While it seems mining is going to be a major focus of the next expansion. I kind of found most of what was announced so far to be a little meh. I do, however, think this expansion is sounding more like a wormhole expansion than anything else. Based on what has been seen, and for that I'm rather thrilled.

I was on the test server a couple of days ago, hoping I could jump into one of the new ships that are coming out in the expedition. While they did not have any available yet. I could pull up its information and get a bit of a better look at it myself than what has been shared online.

The Odysseus ship, which just looks sexy. It is listed as a command ship, but I feel for solo players in wormhole space, this thing is going to rock hard. It’s also a Sisters of Eve ship, so the BPCs for it should be sold for LP. I’m hoping that will mean that after people price-gouge like crazy over it that you can get a built one for 500 million to 1 billion ISK. At that price, sign me up for one.

While finer details for this thing are subject to change since it’s not officially out yet. This thing looks like it was meant to stay farming sites in Wormholes for a very long time. It has a shocking 50k M3 cargo hold for expedition loot, including things you find from data and relic sites. Along with gas. That is just wild.

This thing has the standard bonus you would expect for an exploration ship for hacking sites and scanning down signatures. It can also mine gas, which in wormhole space, something people tend to need to have alts for or another ship to switch into.

A big deal here is that it also fits a covert op cloaking device. That means having the ability to warp around while cloaked. This is really a must in wormhole space. Since there is no local chat, the fewer clues you give that you are even in a wormhole, the better.

I would not be shocked at some point if they nerfed some of the slots on this thing. Having 5 mid slots on an armor tank ship is just nuts. That is just begging you to put a point in one of them for PvP opportunities.

This thing also has quite the damage output from what is shown. While I love my Covert Ops Anathema, with how quickly it is for exploration sites. It lacks any teeth. If the wind blows the wrong way, it’s dead. Odysseus, on the other hand, while a lot slower, has 5 high slots for guns and a decent-sized drone bay. It could not only eat a lot of things that bumped into it while out exploring. It might be able to do more than that.

I used to run combat sites back in the day in a T3 Legion cruiser. The few times I've been back in wormholes, I've stayed away from combat sites. The Odysseus, on the other hand with its a bonus to drones, medium energy turrets, and is an armor tank. Looks like something I'd clear combat sites with as well. Now, while the T3, you can swap its core systems out to make it do something else, it’s only a cruiser, and then you've got to carry around all those expensive subsystems. This thing you don’t need that.

I have already started to train into Gallente Battlecruisers for the drone bonuses on this ship. There is also a bunch of expedition skills I can’t train yet since those training books have not been released. I for sure am going to have 500k SP unspent by the time this expedition rolls out to train for this ship quickly, if I can get one at a “fair” price.

While also on the test server, they showed off the new site and ore. The site looked cool, but for someone into solo and small gang things. This kind of site is more than likely not going to be for someone like me.

This thing was inside what they are calling a Phase Field. It will require some kind of new deployable structures. It first starts off giving a small yield, and the closer to the site it becomes unstable, the yield increases.

Interestingly enough, it feels like they are playing it rather safe with the new kind of ore that can be farmed. It’s called Prismatcitie. Despite there being a new ore, it refines into already existing ores. While I did not have a chance to refine any myself. It seems you get a random mineral from ones already in the game. You could get unlucky and just get loads of Titanium. You could also get all the way up to Morphine in quite a small amount.

Don’t I wish I could come across some of this in some place I'd be adventuring around in. This seems tough for those Null Sec players with massive alliances. It was at least cool to go out and mine some on the test server. It just won’t be something in the real game, I feel I'll get to see.

Speaking of mining. There is going to be a new mining ship. I was hoping it would be something that would get me out of my old and dusty mining barge ships that I've had for like a decade or longer now. Perhaps if I were going to try mining in wormhole space, the answer is yes. Otherwise, no.

The new ship is a destroyer-sized one, and it seems they want new alpha players to be able to get into it in just a couple of days. My first thought is the fleets of mining bots and the crashing prices of minerals.

Intently enough, this thing gets a gas farming bonus as well. It’s almost like this ship, and the Odysseus are meant to go together for farming gas. The only issue is that Odysseus can’t compress gas unless there is some unknown factor in play.

There is also going to be a T2 variant of it. I’ll be honest, I never trained for the T2 variants of the last frigate mining ships that came out from when I took a long break from the game.

Mining has always had the issue of not being worth the risk unless you are in a massive alliance in null sec and mining moon goo. For everyone else, you lose your mining barge, and it’s going to take a week or longer if it was something like a hulk to mine back its cost.

They are attempting to address this by adding in “mining crits”. My issue is if my cargo hold is already almost full, and then I get a crit. How much did I just lose out on? You can’t hold more than your cargo hold.

They are also looking to speed up mining cycles. I, for one, never cared for how long it took for a full mining cycle. I am also rather lazy when I mine and don’t try and manage my cycles. This usually results in my last mining cycle before an asteroid blows up, giving me next to nothing. While this change does not change the amount you mine per minute directly. For those of us who don’t manage our mining cycles well, that will give a tiny bump in how much we are mining per hour. It’s just still not enough.

I can also understand why they don’t want to rock the boat too much in terms of a new mineral or giving mining a massive boost in yield, outside of whatever getting some critical mining hits in will do. Past changes to mining yields and other things have caused years of turmoil for the mineral markets. They are still to this day monitoring mineral prices and only dare to make small changes. Despite how important minerals are for building everything, the person mining usually makes very little per hour in ISK unless they are in null sec.

According to the release post for the upcoming expedition, they are also bringing back Omber and Kernite to high sec. Apparently, we will get these in rare mining escalations and other opportunities.

I feel this is quite the mixed bag. The minerals I can get from these, I get by other means. It is nice to have another option. It's just not an update to mining I have been hoping for.

Escalation sites when it comes to being in high sec have never been worth my time over the long run. I just hope they are not a wild goose chase in a mining barge hundreds of jumps all over the place, hoping to find Omber at the end. Also, if it ends up being at the end of the escalation chain, some low sec system with 100 active pirates in it, like it always is. FORGET ABOUT IT. Not to mention the logistics of hauling it all back home unless I'm in a fleet with someone who can compress ores.

I can see there are some attempts to try and shake up mining. As someone who has been let down again and again by combat escalations in high sec. I don’t see it being worth it for mining. It’s already bad enough with how low-paying mining is, to then spend hours moving around to just be given the middle finger and increase my chances of getting killed.

Final Thoughts

While they are trying to showcase this up-and-coming expansion as a mining one. For me, at least, it really is all about the Obysseus. I just hope that over time, it will be reasonable in price, and its lack of mobility will be made up for by its ability to defend itself.

As far as the mining changes and a new ship are going. I might get some use out of it. If I decide to go live in a wormhole. If an escalation pops, I'll try them out.

Now, with all that said, who knows what else may or may not be coming also? On top of that, everything is subject to change. Like with a lot of expansions, if there is at least one thing in it that interests me, that's usually enough.

Information

New to Eve Online or a returning player? Use my recruit a friend referral link and get 1 million skill points on signing up or logging into your Eve Online account (can only be claimed once per account). Disclosure: I might receive in-game rewards.

Screenshots were taken, and content was written by @Enjar about Eve Online.