Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Yet another effort to think outside the box and introduce more racial variety. Note that this is an effort to get discussion going about how a bit more defined racial variety could enhance balance. The main point is not whether the changes I suggest are ideal, instead my goal is to brainstorm and see whether more racial variety could make EVE more sandboxy and balanced.

Some of you may remember Minmatar balancing and racial flavour . This is basically an effort to do the same for Amarr.

Alright, to paraphrase a certain Amarr forum warrior: It's time to sniff the crazy glue!

Amarr Racial Flavours
Defining doctrine: fleet combat
Weakness: low speed, low sensor strength
Strength: high EHP, high DPS, flexible range
Primary weaponry: lasers
Secondary weaponry: drones
Primary defense: heavy armor tank, smallish signature radius

Fittings strength: power grid
Fittings weakness: CPU

Revisited Amarr T1 Fleet
Choices for pilots to make:
Do I want to use lasers or drones?
Masters of the universe DPS or godlike tank?
Utility or no utility?

As with Minmatar, for the T1 lineup making one choice also makes the second choice easier. The droneboats are naturally tankier and have more utility, whereas the gunboats can get much higher DPS.

Godlike tank
punisher [C] / Crucifier D > dragoon C > abritrator D > prophecy C > armageddon C

Note that none of these ships get godly drone bandwidth or the grid to fit a full rack of neuts with a heavy armor tank. They are also naturally fairly slow (get used to it for Amarr). What defines them are big dronebays, resist bonuses (4%/lvl) and a lot of low slots. The cap recharge is nothing special, due to reliance on drones for dps. A possible t2 progression is more or less as today: add missiles to the mix. This would make the t2 lineup combined drones and missiles for much higher dps. The compromise is the tank stays roughly as is. Of course, alternatively they may all gain neut bonuses.. what do I know? ;) Point being: the t1 lineup without being overly specialized still has a clear focus with a strength and weakness. For t2 you can then plug the holes, add more flavour, or specialize further.

Masters of the universe DPS
Tormentor C / Executioner A > coercer C > harbinger C / Oracle A > Abaddon C / Apocalypse C

All of these get a damage bonus combined with one other bonus to add extra flavour. If the Minmatar filth are not burning in the fiery flames of hell, you turn up the heat, dammit.

However...If it turns out turning up the heat won't do any good because you're simply not hitting, then you use your superior weaponry and intellect to target just the critical spots. Yes, there, right between the eyes. See, he's one step closer to salvation now, happy slave.

The Laser/Ammo Revamp
Standard lasers come with cap vulnerability, flexible short to medium ranges and instant switching between crystals. Now it's time to make the most of all the different crystals.

Crystals are divided into range tiers as before but they now come in two flavours: damage or tracking.

The tracking bonuses are no minor bonuses and make small laser turret tracking sufficient so they can hit unwebbed warriors just fine. Except of course that they will be doing pretty average dps in turn. Basically the idea is to not require Amarr brawlers to fit a web just so they would be able to track.

Some sample tiers (numbers need to be balanced by someone good at maths though ;) :
- optimal x 0.25: + 125% damage or tracking (multifreq, gamma)
- optimal x 0.5: +100% damage or tracking +100% (xray, ultraviolet)
- optimal: +0% +0% damage/tracking (standard)
- optimal x 1.25: -50% damage or -50% tracking (microwave, infrared)
- optimal x 1.50: -100% tracking (radio)

Shouldn't be too hard to figure out where the two t2 crystals could go. That said, there may actually be too much choice here to be healthy. I think 6 basic crystals with two t2 would be plenty already. So you just get neutral range (1 crystal), shorter range (2 crystals), short range (1 crystal), longer range (2 crystals), long range (1 crystal).

Minmatar vs Amarr
All minmatar ships are naturally less specialized, tank clearly less, do less dps but are damn fast and appropriately mediocre otherwise. While Minmatar get relatively low EFT stats in terms of tank and dps, they have an easier time applying dps or avoiding incoming damage due to more flexible slot layouts. In short: fly Minmatar to their strengths and they're pretty damn scary, regardless of the theoretical stats.

On paper Amarr have everything going for them apart from speed: excellent dps or tank, great range flexibility either due to drones or laser ammo choice. Fit them with specialized fits and they can tank whole fleets or vaporize the strongest tanks in seconds. The main problem the Amarr have is applying the DPS. Their lack of medium slots and low speed make them more reliant on fleet support with dedicated tacklers. Note that I am not advocating that Amarr should only be viable in fleets. A solo amarr pilot should be able to solo fairly well with clever piloting. Be it bait tanking to make sure your pray doesn't run as his inevitable end approaches, or designining fits with a lower tank, average speed but insane tracking.