Player Features and Ideas Discussion

**Reposting in the new forums for more thorough feedback. Original thread can be found here.

Well, this is a post I'm doing to expand on the idea I suggested to CCP Soundwave during PAX Prime. In its present iteration, Defender Missiles are only for self-defense and are not effective in fleet warfare.

So I got to thinking - Since we have blobs and gang warfare going on, why don't we devise Advanced Defender Missiles? We don't have to mess with the original Defender Missiles(and as a result, NPC programming will not be altered), and these systems can be used on ships to defend an entire fleet. Here are the Defender Missile types I have in mind...

Note: Names are tentative.

Advanced Defender Missile Types

Hydra Defender Missile

• Requires Hydra Missile Launcher.


• A single missile that splits into multiple homing warheads.


• Each warhead has low DPS. Effective against Heavy Assault Missiles and under.


• Requires at least 3 to 5 Hydra warhead hits on a Torpedo to destroy it.


• Excellent for reducing overwhelming missile threats.


• Acts against an enemy warhead targeting any fleet member.


• Can not be loaded alongside Gorgon Defender Missiles.

The Hydra Defender Missile is a "cluster" munition that, when fired, splits off in mid-flight to form a swarm of smaller missiles that will home in on any hostile missile threat to the capsuleer's fleet. This is good for medium to large-sized fleet and gang warfare where missiles are the weapon du jour.


Gorgon Defender Missile

• Requires Gorgon Missile Launcher.


• A single missile with a high damage output.


• Effective against Cruise Missiles and Torpedoes.


• Long refire rate.


• Excellent for reducing specific threats


• Acts against an enemy warhead targeting any fleet member.


• Slow flight speed.


• Can not be loaded alongside Hydra Defender Missiles.

The Gorgon Defender Missile is tailored to the battleship capsuleer fleet, specifically designed to handle large missile threats. A single Gorgon will destroy a single T2 torpedo. It also can automatically target any enemy torpedo that is attacking your allies in a fleet.

Here's how I think it would play out in a 20vs20 fleet warfare arrangement: There would be dedicated Defender Drakes, outfitted with either type of the missiles(1), and it would drastically change the dynamics of a fight. Gone will be the days of Drakes being the be-all-end-all of gang warfare.

When an enemy ship fires a crapload of missiles at one of your gangmembers, your T2 Defenders would be able to protect him, as opposed to the old T1 defenders, which only protects yourself.

Here's a scenario for Fleet Warfare: You're a FC, and you have a newbie in your corp who wants to be useful in a PVP role other than tackling. You stick him in a drake fully fitted with Hydra Defenders, and tell him "You're covering our asses. You see any missiles fired at us, you fire ALL of your missiles ASAP."

Naturally, in a large blob war, these Defender ships will get primaried as soon as they give themselves away. So it will also add a new dimension to the blob warfare: Do you give up your defensive assets at the start as soon as your enemy starts lobbing missiles at you, or do you save them until you need to protect your key assets? This is a natural self-balancing mechanic.

Let me know what you think of this concept, and how you think you would use such a defense system. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Also, CCP, I would like to formally submit this concept to the Book of Awesome.

Important Note: Ship/Combat Balancing - You can't outfit your ship with both Defender types, this is meant to prevent a single ship from being capable of defending against all types of missiles. This is to force FC's and pilots to be more careful in choosing which T2 Defender is ideal for their choice.)

Why? WHY?! nerf missiles?

They aren't that effective in PVP, they aren't overpowered. People don't fly around in missile ships and say WIN!

It almost the opposite

Why do you want to introduce a system that would nerf missiles beyond their current state. They are barely comparable with turrets anyway.

Unnecessary and not needed.

Defenders work well when people choose to use them - I know many interceptor pilots that swear by them. Drakes are also not a problem - the whole tier 2 line of BC's is well balanced and by targeting a nerf towards one and not the others unbalances one of the best balanced classes in the game.

While I do think these could be useful, it unbalances the game and would strongly discourage missile use. Its already annoying enough to have a ship deflect your missiles, especially if you're Caldari, but it would make it almost impossible to beat anyone if a ship deployed these against you. This would be about as bad as making something like a flak cannon that absorbs all or most fire from autocannons and rail guns. Its just too potent of a system.

Now, something we could explore is point defense lasers. They are basically modified mining lasers that burn into missiles before they hit you. They take up a regular high slot (turret) and require no ammo or crystals just like miners but constantly consume power as long as active. This way we have a more high tech way of taking out missiles without ammo, but your vulnerable after maybe a minute or two.