Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hello, everyone. This is my first time on the Features and Ideas Forum(to my knowledge), and there has recently been an idea rolling around my head regarding Defender Missiles. I apologize if something exactly like this idea has been presented before, however I made an effort to look for it under the Commonly Proposed Ideas Thread, and hadn't found anything. Thank you in advance for all the help and criticism. I did my best to formulate this idea without insulting anyone's intelligence

Defender Missiles: A Proposition_________

I have an idea for Defender Missiles that, in my humble opinion, can make them more usable on more levels of combat. However, it could be better geared for PVE than PVP, as, from what I've seen, not as many peeps use Missiles for PVP in relation to the other weapons, and the use of Defender Missiles, currently across the board, has been miniscule at best. It makes me sad, because I really love the idea of it. Anti-missile missiles have been in use in the real world, and currently exist as a means to neutralize a Nuclear threat. That being said, I think the concept itself is very cool, and can be successfully used in areas of the game. Otherwise, it's a lost skill that is mostly ignored, doomed to a life with no friends. So, in defense of Defenders, I have come up with a major idea, which could lead to a couple minor ones.

Idea: Defender Missile Bay (or Launcher)
Illustrations of this idea may appear after the meat of this post is tidied up. Warning: I am not good at drawing!

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Defender Missile Bay
Description:

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The Defender Missiles deserve their own launcher, primarily because they serve a very different purpose than the High-Slot Offensive Launchers that really are there for offensive means. It's Defense vs. Offense, and when you're deep in a Level IV Security Mission with a missile boat, for example, you don't want anything clogging up your DPS. That, I think, is the major reason it isn't used, in conjunction with how odd the mechanics for the missiles are.


The gut of this idea surrounds this new module, which could make a significant change to how Defenders behave. It also comes in two different sizes: Light and Heavy. Meaning, it accommodates for the two varying sizes of missiles as well. And, each size has three Meta Levels, 1, 3 and 5. 5 being Tech II Defender Missile Bay, which you need Defender Missiles V skill level to operate.

The module essentially responds to threats as they come. For instance, if a Torpedo is heading straight for your ship, your Heavy Defender Missile Bay would automatically deploy a single missile to respond to it. You are freed from the responsibility of locking onto an individual player that is hurling missiles at you, and firing the Defenders manually (activating the Missile Launcher before the incoming threat hits you), which is a HUGE PAIN.

It also responds to multiple incoming threats! For example, multiple rats are hurling Light to Heavy-sized missiles at you, and you have an incoming of 5 from different individual enemies. This Light Defender Missile Bay will use its Detection Range to determine the closest threat, and fire a missile at it first, then the others, respective to distance. In Animation, you will see multiple missiles coming out of the bay, each missile responding to each individual threat, no matter which direction it comes from.

This is all well and good, and sounds almost OP. To alleviate this, there will be a Hard Cap on how many missiles can fire off simultaneously, with a starting amount of two (2). Each level of Defender Missiles Skill will add one (1) extra missile to this amount. This brings the maximum allowable amount in a single volley to six (6). This also reduces the potential lag created by this happening a lot in one place and doesn't detract from the purpose of said devices. Also, it's just enough to make a difference, even though many more missiles may be headed your way. It reduces damage done to you.

As another, smaller downside, it cannot accurately detect Rockets quickly enough to respond. Therefore, it will not respond to them.


There are two ways to go about this module, within my idea. The first being the most backed by my confidence.
(Notice: These are not set and locked attributes. They are subject to change for balancing, etc.)

Method #1: Medium Slot__

• Active Module
• Light and Heavy Sizes
• Different Sizes/Meta Levels affect missile potency/explosive damage
• 3 Meta Levels (1,2,5 like the Adaptive Invulnerability Fields)
• (Light) 7 second Activation time / duration
• (Light) 30GJ Activation cost
• (Light, Skill level 1) Module Unit Capacity: 21
• Reload Time: 10 seconds
• (Light, Skill Level 1) Detection Range: 20km
• Passively Responds to Threats
• Simultaneously launches multiple missiles scaled to incoming threat number
• Does not require a Locked Target
• Cannot respond to Rockets
• Limit one per ship

(Running out of chars)

Method #2 is essentially the same concept, but the module is in the Low Slot. It acts independently and is Passive, has a smaller missile capacity(needs to reload more often but does so automatically), has fewer Meta Levels, costs no Cap but instead hogs more CPU and slightly more Power.



More to come

So, one single Defender Bay can screw up to 7 missiles on each shot?

< NUKEBOMBOFMISSILEDEATH >



Seriously. Please consider how much missiles would need to be buffed if those things would become true.

I'm not upset at all, but you seriously need to consider what any change to defenders would do to missiles. Missiles are the least used weapon system in PVP allready, and your idea of a module which can whipe out whole volley's of BS missiles (7 to 8 launchers - cruises and below have even less) should include a proposition to make up for 100% damage loss on most missile ships - which is not even a one-time occurance, and can be repeated quite often

It would be viable if missiles would be able to one-shot everything, but missiles do roughly the same damage as turrets at the moment, and this needs to be considered.

I agree that defenders could be made more useful (personally, I think they should be removed completely), but it must be reasonable and should not obsolute missiles as a whole. ;)

That said - more than one missile per volley is over the top in my opinion and would need significant improvements for missiles to make up for that.

i think the best option for defender missiles is too be an anti bomb device an actual counter too bombing runs..

i think adding missiles to TD's/TC'sTE's are the best option really to be more balanced

Or... just have a mid/high utility slot item that turns your shields into a bug-zapper in regards to missiles. From a lore perspective, the defender module no longer fires missiles and instead "fluxes your shields, causing missiles to detonate prematurely, thus reducing their damage potential." The concept is similar to how reactive armor disrupts the molten stream of a shaped charge.

The main advantage is simplicity and less load on the servers. You could also put charges (or cap boosters) in the module to power the "bug zapper" effect and to otherwise balance/limit it.

Another additional suggestion would be for the Amarr to have defender lasers instead of defender missiles. These would also take a medium slot and work much the say way as the defender missile launchers.