Supercarrier Disucssions - Part 3 - High Slots

Previously:
Part 1 - Drones
Part 2 - Tanking


Of all the slots on a carrier and supercarrier, the high slots are perhaps the most contentious because the ship has no "preferred" weapons like a battleship or dreadnought. So let's take a look at the Wyvern's relevant bonuses.

- 50% bonus to Shield and Cap Energy transfer range per level
- 99% reduction in CPU usage for Warfare Link modules
- Can fit one additional Warfare Link module per level
- Can fit Projected Electronic Countermeasures
- Can launch 3 additional fighters or fighter bombers per level

So in those bonuses we receive some hints as to what we should fit, but we should not let ourselves become blinded by those hints.

The first approach is to maximize the drone damage of the ship and throw on five drone control units so that a well skilled supercarrier pilot could launch 25 Fighters / Fighter Bombers / Drones instead of just (!) 20. But while a 25% increase in damage is attractive, you have to take into account what you are sacrificing in order to accomplish that boost.

Supercarriers can fit Capital shield, armour, and energy transfer modules and in fact are some of the best ships to receive remote repping due to their typically high resistances and massive buffers. They lost the ability to use Triage modules but they are still excellent logistics ships in the right situations. Plus they can through 20 logi-drones into the operation in a POS module repair op for example.

The Project Electronic Countermeasures bonus refers to one thing: Remote ECM Burst I. Conversely the module can only be fitted on supercarriers. With an optimal range of 150 kilometers, a strength of 25 on all sensor types, and an area of effect of 20 kilometers, and a 20 second cycle time, it seems like a godly weapon. Except it has a 225 second reactivation delay, that's 3 minutes and 45 seconds between attempts to jam a group of hostiles. Good for a one shot surprise maybe but not great as a dependable weapon.

The bonuses for warfare links seem attractive and one might consider fitting a full 6 warfare link modules on their ship as the ultimate command ship of DOOM (Trademark pending). However its worth noting that those warfare link modules are unbonused unlike on a command ship that gives a 15% bonus to effectiveness per level for the racial type (or even a Strategic Cruiser and its potential 25% bonus). In reality, supercarriers are rarely in positions of command to give out bonuses from warfare links and if they are, its only to a couple other cap ships probably anyways. Better to leave the bonuses to another ship better suited like a command ship.

So looking outside the bonuses of the ship, what high slots modules would be advisable? Some point defense is always a good idea on a carrier or supercarrier, and smart bombs and energy neutralizers are popular choices, especially faction and deadspace/officer versions. For smartbombs, the high end modules have greater range to hit annoying frigates and drones. And for heavy neuts, sucking cap from a heavy interdictor could be the difference between escape and certain doom.

Finally, consider a cloaking device. Yes, supercarriers have no bonus to these devices and that means penalties to scan resolution and targeting delays, but the upside is that you can warp to a safe spot and cloak to avoid being easily probed out. Since you can't dock and there is always the risk of being bumped out of a POS force field, cloaking in a safe spot is often the only way to be safe in a system with a supercarrier.

So what am I planning on doing?

Well, my standard fitting will be a shield transporter, cap energy transfer, smart bomb, heavy neut (oops, I see in the image I have a heavy nos... that is an error) and a remote ECM burst along with a cloak. I plan to have modules to refit to POS repping such as additional capital repair modules and cap energy transfer, and perhaps a couple extra smartbombs and neuts for certain scenarios. I don't know if I will bother with the 5 extra drone control units, we'll see how things shake out.