Strategic Cruisers
Commonly referred to as Tech 3 cruisers, strategic cruisers ('T3Cs') are the evolution of Sleeper technology into the currently known technology base. In practical terms, they are expensive, powerful, and extremely customizable cruiser-sized ships.
Overview
Each race has their own adaptable strategic cruiser, with their own particular racial traits (weapons, defenses, sensors, etc.).
Strategic cruisers have four subsystem slots designed to create a single ship, each holding a part of your ship's basic layout. No strategic cruiser can be fielded if it lacks any of the four subsystem slots. Each race has developed their own set of subsystems for each ship, and these subsystems are not interchangeable between different races' strategic cruisers.
They also have a special ability to remove rigs without destroying them, making them far more flexible and offering multiple loadouts. To encourage on-the-fly reconfigurations using a Mobile Depot (or other fitting service capable ships), they have 120m3 Subsystem Bay that can carry up to 3 subsystems.
It takes a lot of effort to build a strategic cruiser, and they consequently cost a lot. Most primary components of Tech 3 production are found in Wormholes, and some of the rarer gases and components do not become available until you are deep within wormhole space.
The following are the strategic cruisers, by race:
Subsystems
Each subsystem slot allows the choice of four subsystem modules, and you need one of each of the four subsystems, and one strategic cruiser base hull, to make up the whole ship.
As you may have noticed if you looked up a strategic cruiser in-game, they have very few attributes. The slot layout, hardpoints, hitpoints, drone bay, and cargohold of a strategic cruiser are all determined by the combination of subsystems you choose.
Every subsystem has an associated skill. If you lose a Strategic Cruiser, you will lose one level of your racial subsystem skill at random (note that this is the only way to lose skill points in the game).
Offensive Subsystem
The offensive subsystems give your ship its primary weapon slots, whether launcher or turret hardpoints. They always give 7 high slots. The bonuses provided by these modules include CPU and Powergrid capacity, weapon rate of fire, damage, tracking, and range, drone control capacity, and drone bay size. All Strategic Cruisers have one Offensive Subsystem option which provides bonuses to either Remote Armor or Shield repair systems and allows fitting Command Bursts.
Defensive Subsystem
The defensive subsystems can give either High, Mid, or Low slots. They also give your ship its armor hit points, shield hit points, shield recharge rate, signature radius, and armor and shield resistances. These modules also offer a bonus to a defensive aspect of your ship (resistances, HP, local repair effectiveness, etc.) based on the module. All Strategic Cruisers have at least one Defensive Subsystem option that allows the hull to fit a Covert Ops cloaking device and provides bonuses to Scanner Probes and hacking modules.
Core Subsystem
The core subsystems generally gives Mid and Low slots. They also give your ship its base CPU, PWG, Capacitor, and Sensory capabilities such as scan resolution or targeting range. The bonuses provided by these modules include the attributes the modules grant your ship. All Strategic Cruisers have one Core Subsystem option which improves some form of their electronic warfare capabilities, and (further) reduces the heat damage sustained by Overheating their modules.
Propulsion Subsystem
The propulsion subsystems give your ship its base in agility and speed. They generally give you mid slots, and may give you low slots, but not all of them do. The bonuses provided by these modules include speed or agility bonuses, afterburner bonuses, reduction in microwarpdrive penalties, and warp speed. All Strategic Cruisers have one Propulsion Subsystem option that allows the hull to ignore the effects of non-targeted interdiction.
Capabilities and Uses
So, what are these expensive ships good for? Before discussing practical in-game uses, let's review some potential T3C capabilities:
- Tough tanks. All T3Cs can have very high resistances and very tough buffer or active tanks (the Loki is probably the most fragile, but then again its ability to shield or armour tank keeps the enemy guessing). They can be as tanky as T1 Battleships if fit properly.
- High DPS. Compared to other Cruiser hulls, T3Cs can put out battleship-level DPS if fit properly.
- CovOps cloaking. All T3Cs can be fitted to warp while cloaked like a Covert Ops or a Force Recon ship.
- Bubble immunity. All T3Cs can be fitted to ignore warp disruption bubbles.
- Difficult to probe. The difficulty of probing a ship down is based on the ratio of its signature radius and sensor strength. Although they must make fitting sacrifices, T3Cs can achieve very high sensor strengths and small signature radii, and thus become possible to probe only with the highest of probing skills.
- Fleet Command bonuses. The dedicated Command Ships come with a hull bonus of 3% per level to the effect of two racial warfare links. The T3Cs can't fit as many warfare links at once as a Command Ship, but with the right subsystem they can have a 2% per level bonus to the effect of three racial links.
- Slow-cooking. All T3Cs have a per-level reduction in the heat damage you take when overheating modules, which lets them overheat for much longer than most other ships. They also have bonuses to module repair speed using Nanite Repair Paste. This allows for significantly longer overheating time for less drawback.
Achieving any of these requires trade-offs and sacrifices, of course. But that point itself touches on what might be T3C ships' strongest point: since they're so customizable, when the enemy see one on scan it's hard for them to know what it's fitted to do.
Now let's see how those capabilities work out in in-game uses for T3Cs:
Mission-Running
T3Cs can combine a tough tank with (relatively) high speeds and small signature radii, plus the ability to deal decent damage. This makes them capable of taking on L4 missions. They may not complete L4s as fast as well-fitted and well-flown battleships, but their agility and difficulty to probe makes them suited to mission-running in dangerous low- or null-sec space.
Exploration
T3Cs can combine the ability to quickly and accurately probe things down with the tank and DPS required to do many quite tough exploration sites solo.
Heavy Scouting/Surprise Tackle
Fitted for CovOps-style cloaking and probing, a T3C can be an effective PvP scout, with enough of a tank to tackle a target and (hopefully) survive long enough for help to arrive. Cloak-fitted T3Cs can dispatch weaker targets solo.
Bait
T3Cs can mount fairly ridiculous buffer tanks, pushing over 300,000 effective hitpoints with the right subsystems, skills and implants. In this configuration, they make great (if expensive) bait.
Command Bonuses
With their 2% bonus to racial warfare links, T3Cs can give a fleet very substantial bonuses.
High-Danger Travel
Fitted with an interdiction nullifier subsystem, warp core stabilizers, and a covert ops cloak, a T3C can cheerfully stroll through most camps. This is useful for scouting, traveling through dangerous nullsec or moving small, high-value items which don't justify a jump freighter through Nullsec. T3Cs are the only ships that can ignore bubbles AND covert ops cloak.
A Super-HAC
It's a bit boring compared to some of the other potential uses, but a T3C can just slot into a PvP gang as a tougher, more expensive HAC which can overheat for longer.
