Our story begins about six years ago people have been speculating if Jove space or Jove ships will ever be unlocked by the CCP:
http://www.eve-search.com/thread/457817-0/page/all#48
As you can see, the ship on the right is as old as EVE itself. Only NPCs have been flying it until now (vide Sister Alitura Epic Arc). Players from the thread above were not far from the truth, actually. One year later CCP has released a Jovian Shuttle, the Apotheosis for the fifth anniversary of EVE Online. Back in the day CCP seeded the gifts directly to hangars of each active character, so I have immediately collected 5 of these little buggers (had 5 chars at the time).
This year marks the tenth anniversary of EVE and guess what – Nicholas Barker and Gogela will be happy (granted Nicholas is still playing; by the way, an excellent Crystal Ball speculation there, Gogela!). CCP is looking to release the ship that used to be called “Generic SOCT Cruiser”, possibly as the Tenth Anniversary gift. The new name has also changed: it is now known as Gnosis.
The devil is in the details, so let’s have a peek:
First off, this ship actually looks to be a useful one to fly. While the Apotheosis or Primae look cool, their stats make them pretty much useless hangar spinning toys. Gnosis is different.
Many players will immediately voice their concerns about this ship being almost too versatile, giving bonus to every weapon type. And probes, too. And Gang Links as well.
I will however remain a sceptical: while the list of damage bonuses indeed looks nice, they don’t make the Gnosis king of the hill immediately. While the slot layout of 6H/6M/6L makes it extremely versatile, the firepower will be reduced by only 6 high slots, which divide into 5 turrets and 5 launchers.
To make a lethal weapon, Railguns need a tracking or optimal range bonus to be really useful, while Blasters and ACs would benefit from a falloff bonus. Lasers on the other hand would be much easier on the capacitor with a reduced capacitor need bonus. As you can see, that means the Gnosis will be useful, but it won’t make other BCs obsolete. It also does not sport any tank bonus, while many other ships of this class do (even after the proposed battlecruiser rebalancing).
Gnosis will primarily be useful as a PVE toy for high and low sec exploration. Limited edition of the ship will affect the price no doubt, so only players with tons of ISK will be flying this for PVP.
It could potentially be useful for PVP because the exploration bonus will work on combat probes as well. Unfortunately the high CPU requirement of the Expanded Probe Lanucher counts as a limiting factor, so we are unlikely to see such fittings in use.
