Ships & Modules

No don't hurt me! It's just some idle musing.

I don't know if this is being discussed somewhere else, but with the tiericide plans, I thought it might be nifty to think about. Basically, as the line up is now, Amarr have no drone boat progression beyond the new Prophecy.

People might want the Armageddon for that role, as it already has the biggest drone bay, but I'd rather that stuck to being a fountain of hot laser death. It even looks similar to the Omen and Harbinger, and it fits well there. Equally, I'd like the Abaddon to stay as it is... since it already fits with the Punisher line, and looks like a ship-of-the-line already.

Which leaves the Apoc... and I don't really want to touch it. Sniper Apocs have been around since forever, and it'd be a shame to change it's traditional role.

All I really would like to do is change the bonuses a little.

+5% Energy weapon Range
+10% drone Hp/damage

Keep it as a sniper, but also a drone boat, with a big cap issue, and not so much of a tank. Increase the drone bay, adjust cap levels etc.

Obviously it'll have a split weapon issue, but I think it would be a nice counterpoint to the Domi that way. The Gallente have their close range, high damage bruiser, and the Amarr have a glorious artillery piece, guarded by hordes of canon fodder (thematically used for orbital bombardment and gun boat diplomacy).

I kind of hate suggesting it, as the 8-laser Golden Banana is so iconic, but I also think it would be a ice direction for this ship.

Well here's the thing. Tiericide should eliminate the need for an entry level BS, since they should all be relatively well balanced. And to be honest, with the drone skills trained up from time spent in the new Prophecy, wouldn't that make it an easier ship to hop into for new players? That's partly the reason people go Domi in the first place.... very easy PvE.

I'd imagine the drone bay on the Armageddon being reduced, with a buff to laser damage or speed, so that we have a similar analogue to Harbinger/Prophecy.

Actually, the point you bring up about sentries is interesting. Wouldn't that make it even more of a long range beast? I've never used them, so I'm not sure on their functionality.

Like I said, musings. Just thought it would be nice to have a different take on the Domi's guns and drones set up, especially since there's only one non-pirate dedicated drone BS.

Is the cap drain on Amarr BSs that bad? I've never really flown bigger than a battlecruiser, but I was under the impression people were in more favour of non-cap reduction bonuses. I remember that part of the Prophecy's problem was just the energy gun usage bonus, without any real benefit over other weapon types.

Hate to suggest it, but if cap use is a problem... maybe drop a turret? I'd think that make any Apoc fan cry though.

To the best of my knowledge, the Redeemer is the only Amarr ship to break the 75 bandwidth ceiling and hit the 125 required to properly use sentry drones. And it's T2, meaning it is far beyond the skill and ISK range of many pilots.

So yes, Arbitrator is pretty much the largest dedicated Amarr drone ship, and that makes me sad.



It's worse than bad. It's horrifying and will make you love how the CCP likes to lather gimping on the Amarr.

Hmmm... let's see: Give them crap shields so they have to armor tank. Then give them no mid slots so they can't fit decent cap boost. Then give them the lowest DPS, lowest tracking, highest cap draining weapons in the game.

Now who are these ships designed to fight? Minmatar ships, which require zero cap for their weapons and thus having nothing else to spend cap on they can actually armor tank better than Amarr ships. Just to rub it in, we'll make sure that EM damage does diddly squat to armor by default. Oh but we're not done... let's make the primary damage for those Minmatar ships explosive. What's the biggest weakness in all armor resists? You guessed it, explosive! But that only matters if they break through your... oh yeah... what shields? But hey, let's make it look balanced by giving the Amarr tracking disruptors to reduce their enemy's falloff and tracking... and then while we're at it, let's give their autocanons so much tracking and their howtizers so much falloff that the Minmatar won't even notice those TDs. And for the topping of this crap cake we'll make the Minmatar ships the fastest in the game - see "laser tracking speeds" above. PS - Let's put all the armor repair bonuses only on Gallente ships just for laughs.

It makes the old TIE vs X-Wing comparison back in SWG look fair in comparison. But hey, every MMO has someone they want to be the "bad guys" and they "balance" things accordingly, and since we're it today we just get have to live with it.

If you had been reading the dev blogs the whole tiericide thing isn't hitting BS'es all that hard. MOST of them are already pretty balanced. They are just doing a few tweaks here and there.

The biggest thing about BS'es is the costs. People run an Apoc not because of "ease of entry", but because of how damn cheap it is for what it does.

No official word on battleships but make your own assumptions.

Prophecy:

It is no coincidence that the Prophecy is the least used Battlecruiser in the current meta. The combination of anemic damage and slow speed left the ship relegated to the role of obvious bait with the occasional creative fit that relied on the element of surprise rather than competitive performance.

The Prophecy was in dire need of a completely new role, and it has now found that role as the next step in the Amarr Empire’s expanding drone carrier program. The energy weapon capacitor bonus is being replaced with a 10% bonus to drone damage and hitpoints per level, and the drone bandwidth is being increased to 75mbit (equal to the current Myrm) with a giant 225m3 bay to hold a wide variety of drones in the tradition of Amarrian drone doctrine.

The Prophecy is also seeing two highslots removed to make room for an extra midslot and lowslot, and the addition of missile launcher hardpoints alongside the turrets to give plenty of fitting options for the creative pilot.



Found Here

No just idle theory crafting. Amarr have a new drone policy now, and I'd like to see a battleship to roll with those changes.

The Abaddon will most likely be changed to fit this though. I do't know how drastic the changes to T2 ships will be, but maybe the Paladin and Absolution will pick up the role of all guns / all tank/ limited utility, with the Abaddon becoming a Khanid inspired close range ship, with unbonused missile options. Like the new Prophecy.

I just thought there would be a way to keep the Apocs current role as sniper, whilst giving it more options as a drone boat. The biggest problem so far to that idea is cap use on lasers and the loss of the energy use bonus... and Abaddon pilots somehow deal with that.

Don't you goddamn touch my abaddon you evil man you.

Good god now I know how those dirty minnie pilots felt with the battlecruiser changes.

Scroll down:
http://community.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=73530

OP: Apocalypse and Abaddon are fine, I'd say Armageddon is too, but given the Amarr are getting a dedicated drone line, I half expect it to get a drone bonus and the ability to fit missile launchers along with lasers. Also note that devs said to be working on a new apocalypse model to shift it away from the machine gun look. Considering what they did with Stabber last year, I'm very much looking forward to it.

And changing the cap would be a problem because...?