Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I'll comment directly on the Prophecy.

Prophecy.
WiIl it now perform better than the Myrmidon.. probably with exceptions. The prophecy has now turned into the wildcard ship. It will be an armor tank, but now it has complete access to every weapon system and every damage type. Yes it is unbonused on the hull, but you can fit any type of turret AND any type of missile. Hell you can set the ship to be a blaster boat, an Artillery ship, a Missile boat... and it now has drone access and the option for another Mid slot (which it desperately needed). If you think of your fleet being all shields.. yes the prophecy sucks.. you run an armor fleet though and the thing is now one of the best boats out there. You gain no damage bonus to turrets, but now you can shoot every ammo type, at multiple ranges, and field any type of drone you like. Prophecy, great versatile ship for armor fleets.

With a few combinations of fitting rigs and implants and meta 4 gear out there, I bet you can. Just like the cane has for some of it's fits. *shrugs*

It's just the way things seem to be heading for some ships.

That stupid high slot was used by explorers. Either probe scanner for WH exploration or salvager for low sec exploration (you know, those mag sites).

Removing that high slot it is pretty much a nerf to some explorers.

Drake was already nerfed once with retribution.
Less damage, less range.

New changes will nerf it even more... almost into oblivion ...
Less tank, harder to fit, slower align (almost by a second) , mass increase.

And as i said, indirectly a nerf to some explores.

Oh well, we will adapt.
With some drones/armor training, Prophecy it can become a nice replacement for the exploration Drake.
Cylone too. Less damage from missiles but with drone skills can compensate and it will have 2 useful utility slots for WH exploration.

If they are serious about trying to make the Cyclone into a gimpy Drake, then why does it have 2 fewer launcher points? Seriously? Do, or Do Not....there is no Try. If you go half way with this thing you end up with a Quasimodo piece of crap that nobody uses because there are better alternatives on every point.

Just curious but since the Minmatar Command ships also use the Cyclone hull, should we expect to see the Minmatar Command ships forced into being missile boats too?

Basically Minmatar pilots are left with a half-baked Drake in the Cyclone, and a Hurricane that has been castrated then sodomized.

Basically CCP is telling all Minmatar pilots to go screw themselves, and find another class of ship to fly.

Agreed with your comments on the additional low slot essentially being its damage bonus, but don't change the visual of the Prophecy. Its iconic chicken head is really what makes the ship, and is one of the most widely viewed (visual) ships in the beginning of the Eve game.

Fozzie,why u killing the cyclone?that ship is a legend.

Why not change the Ferox optimal to a damage or RoF and change the Brutix repper bonus to a falloff bonus.

C'mon, we all know those hulls need some love, least it'll mean people will fly them. I mean who the hell even uses medium rails, their literally the most niche'/terrible cruiser sized weapon anyway. Or hell, take away the resists on the Ferox and add a damage bonus, make it a mini Naga. I mean leaving their bonus' as is makes no sense when looking at the prior t1 changes.

And the Brutix as an active tank is just blergh. You got the Myrm for that, I have no doubt some derp will post saying "BUT I HAZ L33T PEEVEEPEE WIT ACTIF BURTIX" but lets face it, their usually idiots so. Lets make **** useful.

This doesn't really seem to fit with how the smaller ship tiericide went. If each race had 3 battlecruisers, why not give them 3 different roles?

With these changes we'll have 2 combat BCs and a big gun attack BC.

Seeing as BCs are intended to use gang links and form the platform for dedicated command ships, why not treat one of these like you did with logistic frigs & cruisers?

Make the "Tier 1" BCs combat ships as you've outlined (though drop the active tank bonus for Gallente) and make the "Tier 2" BCs "Command Ships Lite"

I'd assume the lite/entry command ships would get a good buffer bonus (7.5% bonus to resists vs 5%), no damage bonus, and either a bonus to a gang link or the ability to run 3 without a bonus. (or something else, you're the designers, not me)


TL;DR: It seems non-tiericidish to make all BCs direct combat focused when they have a history with Gang Links.

I don't understand the removal of the utility high slot if the WL bonus is kept; fits already have to be severely modified to fit them. If the intention is to use BCs as on-grid boosters, why not keep the utility high, and change the role bonus to reduce the PG (and maybe cap) needs of WLs.

If BCs are meant to be used in roams with smaller ships, they need to be sped up for the most part, not slowed down; however, if they are becoming more fleet focused, then the speed changes are not too damning.

Just a small point on the drake:

I sort of understand the mass change - the drake can fly sustained mwd, though this severely gimps the tank and dps; better would be to keep it's current speed (and with other BCs) but change the cap so sustained prop mods are effectively unfittable. However, the ship is a total pig to fit as it is; that high slot that people have pointed out is always empty, that's why. I have just short of perfect fitting skills, and still struggle without using meta mods or implants (disregarding the utility high). The fitting changes will just mean that newer toons will not be able to use bread-and-butter fleet fits; the drake is and will be a shield fleet ship, its tank determines that (but other ships roam better due to better dps, balancing it out).

*edit* Although I've never flown one, even I know the cane didn't deserve this.....

Essentially, they *are* different by the virtue of using different weapon systems.
Now in the case of Ferox vs Naga, this may not seem like much of a blessing, but moving on.

If one of the ships for each race would become a dedicated booster ship, it would naturally suffer in the combat role, like T2s do today.
Should it be the Brutix, or the Myrm?
The secondary weapon systems (love them or hate them) would suffer, and CCP is already supposedly moving away from this with what they envision for the T2 BCs.