Player Features and Ideas Discussion

It would be good, I think, for CCP to do a pass over on the assault frigates since they've been out for several years, and it would be good to look at how they perform in relation to the other ships in the game since they've been "out in the wild for a bit" as CCP rise puts it.

This is a pretty basic balance pass to bring them all up to equal snuff to accentuate their individual strengths. I also thought it might be a good idea to sacrifice some of their utility for direct combat prowess, since that's more in-line with their role.


AMARR

Retribution: Drop the utility high slot for a mid, giving it the ability to have a point and cap booster with the prop mod. The nos is fairly situational to the other party having a neut, and with the ability to fit a cap booster this becomes a non-issue.

Vengeance: Roll the capacitor bonus into the ship like what was done with the sacrilege, and give it a missile velocity bonus for rockets and lights. Give the damage bonus to lights as well. so it has equal viability.

Both ships should get their PG bumped up to around where the punisher's is now, since currently it has more PG than either of them, which is particularly problematic for the Retribution.

GALLENTE

Enyo: Fine as is.

Ishkur: Roll the drone bay space bonus into the ship, and swap that bonus out for 5 mbit per level, so at lvl 5 AFs it can field 5 medium drones. Add a tracking speed bonus on top of the HP bonus it gives for drones, same as the tristan.

CALDARI

Harpy: Drop the utility high slot for a mid. Buff cap regen and base PG.

Hawk: Drop the utility high for a low slot, and bump the cpu up a bit. Drop the 10% kinetic damage bonus for a 5% omni-damage bonus.

WINMATAR

Wolf: Buff PG slightly, and swap falloff bonus for optimal range.

Jaguar: Increase base speed slightly, and swap optimal range bonus for falloff.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

EDIT: after reviewing a few things and getting feedback, I've dialed back dropping the utility highs, and will be leaving them intact on the gallente and minmatar AFs and the Vengeance. It would be ideal for the caldari AFs to have them drop to a mid or a low due to the fitting difficulties they have, and the lack of use for anything but an off-hand weapon.

Why are you dropping utility high-slots in almost all the AFs? Those are damn useful for heavy tackling, RR-setups, and dealing with neut pressure!

Also... lol @ giving the Enyo more DPS than it already has (+25% firing rate equals about a 33% overall dps boost... meaning that you will be be getting ~500 dps Enyos easily (current max-gank Enyos put out ~400 dps)) and trying to make it a shield tanking abomination.

And no on the Ishkur fielding 5 medium drones. A 5% damage bonus to drones (with the drone space bonus rolled into the hull), maybe... but no medium drones. They are terrible.

Good point on the enyo; might leave that and a few others as is. The retri needs that 3rd mid, tho.

About the ishkur...what exactly is wrong with that? It doesn't get a damage bonus, and it means that you have to train AFs up all the way to 5, so if you already have that, it's a bonus to people who put the time into it. It still does around the same dps as the others, and meds are easier grab and kill than lights. I don't see anything wrong with that.

Also to clarify about the enyo...I said I was dropping its 10% damage bonus down to 5%, then giving it a 5% RoF bonus. It currently has the odd distinction of having only 3 bonuses for a 10% damage modifier, which is kind of odd when you consider the fact that the hawk has the same and still gets 4. So with that in mind, would it still get an extra 33% dps by your math?

or you could keep it the way it is so that the NOS makes needing a cap booster a non-issue...

It can fit a prop mod and a warp scramble, which is all it needs... in exchange it gets to be the toughest AF even edging out the vengeance in some cases.

Hello, 2007 called and they want their terrible ship balance back... I guess you werent around in 2007 before bandwidth was put into the game and the ishkur could field 5 mediums.

It completely ruined frigate combat: NOS + scramble + web + hard to hit frigate = dead frigate/destroyer/cruiser

This would be made even worse by the removal of 90% webs

Giving the harpy a 5th slot for tank would make it tank way too hard with its resist bonus... again I feel like you're missing the fact that a NOS basically eliminates the need for a cap booster especially for a brawler ship.

Also, what could you possibly need more PG for? It already fits neutrons + nos + MWD + all other mods, what more do you need?

yet again you fail to give the reason for this change... That said, I can see the desire for more CPU but why a third low slot? what are these changes trying to accomplish?


Ok, so you want to swap the roles of the wolf and jag, but again, I still dont get why... the shield tanking jaguar lends itself much more to kiting with artilleries and the armor tanking wolf is much more a brawling ship...

My main complaint with your ideas is that I have no idea what design you have in mind so the changes seem random and with no reason...

Remember, T2 ships are meant to be far more specialized (having a specific defined role) and be harder to fit as they are relegated to more advanced players.

All of your suggestions are actually very powerful buffs.

I'm no expert, but since AFs are already widely used and usually kick butt pretty well, an overall buff doesn't really seem necessary to me.