Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Disclaimer

I know there are probably 300 threads a month about supers and titans, many of them are locked, should this one be locked under rule 17, so be it. I chose to post this not to jam up the forums but because I have posted this on 4 different super threads that are now no longer garnering attention and i believe 3 of them are getting close to the locked point.

Here is a link to one of them to continue the discussion of this topic should this be locked.
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=413657&p=26

My posts are on the current last page (#26) for this topic i want to focus exclusively on super carriers, i may re-post my titan idea at a later date, probably not.


Now on to my idea:

What i believe the issue with supercapitals is boils down to the fact they do not fit a specific role like most ships in EVE. They instead all fill the DPS role, with titans gaining clone bays and jump bridges with fleet warfare boosts.
The problem is that we have more than enough DPS Ships already, the resume backlog is dozens long. So what can we do, particularly with the impending launch of Sov System 5.0 to make these ships fill a role and still be valid as both fleet assets and conflict drivers?

My intent is to re-focus them on multi-pilot roles rather than single pilot controlled weapons of supercapital escalation.
LET ME BE CLEAR: I do NOT want to make these ships piloted or controlled by multiple pilots, just enhance their ability to benefit fleets in Sov 5.0 as listed above.

Here's how i envision it:

Phase 1 - Titans forfeit the clone bay and warfare link fitting bonus, these then transfer to super carriers permitting them to more efficiently utilize links and fill my proposed roles

Phase 2 - Enlarge or add a second maintenance bay to all super carriers, allowing them to carry a large number of assembled ships, how many determined by the doctrine being utilized, for example a cruiser fleet will be able to fit more ships than a battleship fleet, this is a no brainer.

Phase 3 - This is where people might start to dislike or stop reading, but here it is none the less.

Rework the capital clone vat bay to permit pilots to not only use it for jump clones but to use it as a mobile medical station, The balancing factor here is that in order to spawn in it the supercarrier must be deployed, logged in, and have the module active. The pilot then wakes up inside the supercarrier, and this bases off the proposed mechanic that if a station is destroyed pilots will be able to log in inside the wreck, but will be unable to dock again once they undock, the same goes for supers in this case.

This allows pilots who die to wake up inside the super carriers, grab a fitted ship from the Maintenance bay, and return to the fight if any ships are available. Now how many pilots the super is allowed to have respawn should be linked to the skill, i think 12-15 is a fair number. Now should the super be destroyed while someone is inside they will be unable to pick a fitted ship and will be force ejected into space in their pod, due to the rebalance of medical clones SP loss is not an issue in this case.

I also would say supers shouldn't have station services available, so they will be restricted to pilots waking up, grabbing a ship, and leaving, should the super jump, the pilot will be ejected into space when the super lands, maybe beforehand, debate below if you wish.

Exploits:
- Could be used to bypass the clone jump rework
- Could make super carriers devalue the rorqual's clone bay

Now why would i suggest this?
Because i believe it makes super carriers more versatile, more effective when deployed in Sov 5.0 ( more on this below )
And it gives them a secondary purpose for a new generation of dynamic sov war.

Now continuing with the idea

Part of my logic when i formatted this idea was the fact that entosis combat with be largely dominated by subcapital ships, YES capitals will still be deployed but i see carriers being deployed the most, not supers. ( unless you deploy entosis supers fitted for max tank designed to take the node and then catch reps from triage when the cycle ends )

If supers were remodeled this way this would make sov fights multi-front wars, chiefly because you would have a subcapital fleet with light capital support meanwhile supercarriers are off grid guarded by a heavier capital fleet to allow pilots to reship and return to the fight, acting as multipliers for force sustainability rather than simple tools of escalation and the already established DPS Role. Plus when stations are armed this also means that your supers would be out of range of possible chain doomsdays like CCP teased in the blog, or even used in this way to thwart enemy stations built up around weapon systems used to kill capital fleets over subcapital fleets.

Of course this also means that supers sitting offgrid could assign fighters to subcapitals, allowing their DPS to still be applied to enemy capital ships on grid, while the supers sit at range providing a safer haven for pilots to reship, rearm, and possibly for capital ships to bounce to for repairs or strontium should they have run out. ( i thought about adding a second non jump fuel bay for supers to carry large capacities of stront into combat to further amplify staying power but decided against it for now )

This also makes entosis sov more complex relying on fleets moving positions and trying to sabotage the hostile super capital fleet while also maintaining, or trying to maintain control of the hardpoints for entosis conquest. And in turn relying on multiple well diciplined fleets, with diciplined FC's coordinating attacks on multiple fronts to ensure maximum damage and success probability rather than focusing on dropping enough ships that the system can no longer cope or simply out blobbing the opponent:

Example Scenario In next post:

that would do nothing... It'd just make it slower to rebuild supers, well until they start building 3 times as many to offset the duration...

Buddy of mine builds a super every 48h, if that turns into 6 days he'll just put 2 more in the build que to keep his production up:S

I think the idea has some merit, but I would leave this role to Titans. Its fits the lore, it might be easier to implement and makes better sense in my mind to have the biggest ship in the game be the one that has space for pod pilots to wake up in and jump into their ship.

To add to the idea, I would make the "clone siege" module force a no warp/no jump/no DD/no remote rep status on the titan, but add a self rep bonus (like triage) so that if the fleet is committing to sticking around, that really HAVE to commit.

If memory serves...super carriers used to be able to equip and use clone vats anyways when they were then called Mother Ships. Im not sure giving them that functionality back would be that great unless you also gave it hefty restrictions. Titans on the other hand, I could see having clone vats. Unfortunately any change to a super carrier would also mean changing its role and purpose.

At the moment it is simply an oversized carrier with way more DPS and ewar immunity. It doesnt really have anything that makes it stand out like a titan, dread, or carrier does. Its a super carrier in every sense of the word. Id like to see something unique added to them that the other 3 combat caps cant boast having.

Which it can' even properly apply now a day to anything non-capital (and proper capital fits can tank it so heh).