Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Can anyone explain to me what Defender missiles actually do? I know they're supposedly horribly broken, but I haven't heard anything about what they're actually capable of.

Apparently, if you trigger them active to launch the moment before a missile hits you, they may destroy that incoming missile.

They need to be manually triggered in a fairly precise way, though, and do nothing otherwise.

Auto-repeating defender missiles that fire only when needed would be a must for them to actually function at all, but they haven't considered worthwhile enough to fix yet.

They may have some limited use in PvE for example a sniping fit in the WC Gurista room.

Problem is a better way of limiting incoming is probably fit more cruise and kill whatever is shooting at you.

I do think it strange that only missile boats have anything vaguely like an active anti-missile defense. A turret-based CIWS would be nice, especially combined with an improvement over existing defender missiles.

Hell, a cruiser with a dedicated role in fleet defense, where each race gets one optimized for use against whoever they're at war with. Gallente get CIWS, Caldari get magnetic destabilizers, Minmatar get reflective chaff launchers, Amarr get... something.

I heard a suggestion to change them to instead target and destroy bombs. They might be useful then.

I like your thinking! Here's my take on the idea...

Gallente - theyre the ones with the "magnetic hydrodynamics" science skill or some such... Give them the Warhead Magnetic Destabilizer, a mid-slot shield mod that catastrophically destabilizes warhead containment on incoming missiles so that they splash harmlessly against the ship's shields.

Minmatar - as the projectile-using folks, it seems like they'd be the most likely to use the wall-of-lead approach to neutralizing incoming missile fire. Their Close In Weapons System would use a hi-slot missile hardpoint, pleasing those Minmatar pilots who are constantly complaining about that "useless utility hi" on their ships.

Caldari - would utilize a Point-Defense Railgun, a hi-slot turret mod that is essentially a CIWS by another technological route.

Amarr - as the hard-core armor tankers, they would use an Reactive Armor Impact System. The New Eden analogy of the active armor systems of today's main battle tanks' explosive reactive armor systems. As a low-slot Armor Mod, this would allow an Amarran ship's armor to detonate -um- something ( similar to a miniature pulse weapon, or smartbomb system ) that negates the explosive impact of any missile damage.

All of these systems would not even require a new visual effect since the current explosion effect could easily be written off as the destruction of the incoming missile close to the targeted ship. They would also require activation in order to be effective, at which time they would utilize cap, regardless of whether or not they were doing their job or not.

Skill levels would be written to allow for a percentage of damage reduction capping at 80% with perfect skills ( no system is perfect, after all ). Higher damage reduction would be achieved with multiple mods, subject to diminshing returns by existing rules, of course.

While the Damage reduction would apply only to missiles targeting the ship with the appropriate mod installed, I could see a ship type being bonused to allow for multiple mods and fleet defense, probably utilizing an area of effect mechanic. I can also see this system affecting any and all missiles within it's active area, friendly or not, necessitating any missile boats to actively remain at an appropriate distance from the screening ships.

What do you think?

The important thing to remember is that CIWS is not the last line of defense, it is the first line of damage control. So it's just an active tank, rather than damage avoidance.

If you think about how CIWS works in real life, even after you put a number of fist-sized shells through it, you still have an anti-ship missile exploding a few hundred yards away from a ship, sending flaming bits of shrapnel and other not-niceties.