Ships & Modules

I'm optimistic about some of the proposed changes. the ferox might end up being a reasonable choice for close to mid range hybrid combat while the naga sticks to sniping. also nice to see the raven is getting a look in and the typhoon becoming a torp brawler.

I was suprised to see the idea of making the prophecy a drone boat, not yet sure how that one will work out. the prophecy does look like its spent all day eating drones though so perhaps it does make some sense

That would make no sense. But could be OK if -1 turret/launcher hardpoint follows, which brings them closer to HACs in terms of DPS.

Either way, I'm excited and anticipating lots of fun both from actual PvP and forum tears.

Sounds like CCP is mixing things up, where "mixing things up" means more intra-faction choices which in turn means more cross-training to fly all of a faction's ships which means more training time which means more sub money. Quixotically, it also encourages inter-faction cross-training since Faction A's skills are now easier to carry over to Faction B, and, as previously noted, more cross-training equals more sub money.

Looking forward to how the balances pan out,as a whole.But i do feel Gellente hulls really do need something,either a speed buff to offset tracking ,espically for the blaster ships because of the weapons very short range .Or a buff for hybrid weapons as a whole blasters either need to deliver a massive scary DPS or a range buff so they are inline with ACs and P-Lasars,while railguns imo should have the longest range in game of any gunnery system .To fit in with what i precive to be Gelente military doctrine,Drone hulls like the Myri or Domi should have bonuses for railguns and Drone DPS,while Megs and Brutix ect ,should have bonuses for speed and blasters or speed and armour resists

if given a buff with pg and cpu a drake can easily afford a low slot loss or a med if not a low without a pg or cpu buff.

That on the other hand have to do with player-labelling (that CCP have also encouraged suggestively). Rails are considered sniping weapons on the same premise that made some people consider Caldari ships rail platforms and Gallente ships blaster platforms. That backwards logic have made people refer to them (correctly, but on incorrect terms) as snipers because many Caldari turret platforms had range bonuses.

When properly defined: Rails are sniping weapons because they are a long-range weapon, same as HML are sniping weapons as they too are long-range weapons, like Beam lasers and Artillery. That also mean that the loose term "sniper" today can be estimated to average ranges for common setups on ships without range bonuses (ie., "sniping" have gone from being defined as 150km+, to 100km+, to about 80km+). It'll be interesting to see if the HML nerf affect the consensus regarding ranges or wether the SR BS systems manage to sustain the trend on their own.

It'll also be interesting to see how that (together with the booster changes) change the outlook on Recon ranges and how those things together will affect the game at large. Up until this winter expansion you have been able to point people outside the range of L-pulse, HML and other "upper midrange" systems. Prior to Crucible there were also very few ships that maintained the older defined "sniping range" of 100km (from bonused Cruiser-systems and Recons), and also had the mobility to affect distances the way a ship with Cruiser speed and BS reach does. Alot of people never thought about that when it came to L-pulse and HML that have been at ranges popular for years.

A 125m^3 Myrm would in no way impinge upon the role of the Ishtar and Domi. The Myrm is too slow to replace the Ishtar and doesn't have heavy neuts/large RR/large blasters as the Domi does.

-Liang