Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Forget my other ideas - I just had a wild and crazy one...

bas·tion
• a well-fortified position
• a projecting part of a fortification
• a stronghold into which people could go for shelter during a battle

Suggestion for skill name - "Redoubt" or "Garrison". Bastion works as originally proposed with one key difference: it absorbs ALL incoming fire within a 2.5km radius during its cycle. Thus, it actually functions as its name implies: a stronghold where sub capital ships can temporarily seek a reprieve. It's also unique from Siege or Triage, and might provide an interesting gameplay element.

Why would anyone possibly enter bastion for gang pvp?

The tanking bonus prevents you from receiving reps, effectively nerfing your tank. You don't get a damage bonus and the optimal range bonus is pointless because currently large long-range weapon systems already provide all the range you'll ever need. EW immunity is pointless because you're going to be out of EW range. There is no reason at all to enter bastion as it is.

Unless it gives a significant damage bonus, you're just painting yourself a large bullseye and waiting to die, particularly because both scanning and even a dictor burning will cover the distance in less than the 60 seconds bastion takes.


Also: please, please stop bringing out new skills which only apply to one single module and nothing else. It makes a mockery out of the versatility the skill system the game has. Tactical weapon reconfiguration already covers this scenario. "But TWR lowers consumption and bastion consumes nothing!" isn't a viable excuse because covert jump bridges also consume nothing despite needing a skill that reduces consumption trained.


Sure, bastion seems nice for running plexes and anoms but don't try to sell it to us as some sort of pvp feature, at least with this iteration.

2 slot tank (3 slots if you count the bastion mod), immune to ewar, so much room for damage mods. seems pretty damn good to me.

Will the Bastion module be high slot? Or are we going to see a clear bias against shield or armour fleets when it turns out to be a mid or low slot?

You're missing the part where it has 25-30% farther effective range, is immune to NPC EWAR and much of it's tank is now inherent to the Bastion module, freeing up a low/mid slot for targeting/damage mods.

I think the point was that the Marauder would effectively be replaced by Pirate Battleships for DPS.

The Marauder would effectively be primarily used as a "brick" in space, with some support DPS.

It appears that Pirate ships are slated to be the primary source of DPS in LVL IVs....

I don't know about you, but as operator of help channel with 800+ players at prime, everyday I see recommendations to get a Tengu, Nightmare and Machariel for PVE. Any argument in defense of Marauders breaks against arrogant public opinion "Marauders are not worth invested training time, just get a Pirate BS or CNR".
Now this will change.

Please explain that to me in more detail.

Right now, using the Nightmare and Paladin as an example, the Nightmare has more applied DPS because of it's tracking bonus. However theoretical DPS of both ships is the same.

That isn't going to change. And now the Paladin will be immune to EWAR, vastly raising it's DPS over the Nightmare in certain missions- as well as making every mission feasible to run (I am looking at you, perma-jamming Gurista bastards.) The Paladin will now have unquestionably better range as well, not to mention that it will be indestructible to all but a large, expensive suicide gank squad.

I'm not sure I follow this - if you're talking about missions, a web bonus is not needed - with turrets, you snipe the frigates first before they come in close. Even when they do come close, a 90% web usually isn't enough to keep transversal down to hit them with large guns.

When they're close, use drones - and Marauders still have enough dronebay to use lights and take care of that. With missiles, bit pointless to shoot frigates first. In all cases the web strength is highly situational in missions. Maybe using 2 webs? But that's a bit overkill when they can just be dealt faster with drones while you focus on larger ships with guns.

However, the extra resists, damage projection, EW immunity is going to be of tremendous help in missions like "The Blockade" where there are 1346454 NPCs using E-war while in Bastion mode. Even without it, Kronos and Paladin new falloff and optimal range bonuses are going to be useful 100% of the time, instead of extreme close range like a web bonus.