Ships & Modules

Nerfing local would be the biggest possible buff to Blops.

No gate fire to warn your targets that bad guys are here, no local spike, just the insta-point of an SB de-cloaking on top of you while the rest of the squad drops out of warp. With no other buffs, they'd go from being the least used class to causing more QQs than Falcon ever did.

If/when that happens, I'll be more than happy to bring my Viator along just to witness the carnage.

So without local to tip you off, what's the difference between one guy uncloaking, scrambling and bridging the rest in, as opposed to just getting a gang on you?

I'm actually rather partial to my Sin (more jump range and lower build cost would however, be splendid)

Oh and no need for 'MWD-cloak' - the velocity bonus and (in the Sin's case) agility bonus make for exceptionally quick align->warp out

Without local, a conventional force still needs to pass through gates to get where they want to go unless they're bridged in by a titan. Even if they don't run into gatecamps, just the gatefire will warn the enemy to beware.

Without local as an intel tool, a Blops gang would have the ability to be anywhere, everywhere, and nowhere at the same time. Gatecamps and gatewatchers would mean nothing. Sov 0.0 would be just like WH space, except that your enemy knows where you live and how to get to you any time they please.

They only need one or more CovOps pilots to run the gauntlet of gate camps. Once the Pathfinders are in place, any number of Blops gangs can bridge past gate camps, and jump at will through the underbelly of the enemy, without raising any alarms. Once the fun is over, or the gang needs to regroup, the Blops gang can bridge back out without the enemy ever knowing that it's safe to get back to carebearing.

In a major operation, with blops planted from base to target(s) and BRs along the bridge to resupply, the gangs could continuously bridge in reinforcements, hit multiple targets simultaniously, focus, disperse, or withdraw at will. The only limit to how many places you can choose to be is the number of CovOps pilot you have planted. The only clue the enemy would have to where you are is the loss mails rolling in, and the only way to fight back would be to chase the ghosts you let him see.

Blops gangs have most of that ability today, but the enemy knows you have a scout in system, they know your exact player count as soon as you bridge in, they know the moment you leave, and assuming they have eyes on their space they know where you went and by what path.

I don't claim that Eve would be improved by this kind of guerilla warfare, but it would certainly change the face of the game.

The point isn't to gank the gatecampers, it's to completely bypass the gate camps and get to the farmers deep in 'safe' space without raising any alarms.



For the small corps running around low-sec in T1 BCs, what I described may sound insane. I'm talking about guerrilla warfare among the Null-sec super powers; an environment where today alliances field 100+ super caps and 1,000+ players in a single battle.

The manpower and skill intensity to do what I described is not that much of a stretch.
The skills for a cap pilot to cross train into a Blops are trivial. The ship itself is less costly than a carrier, and when used as a node on a bridge network it's more survivable than a fleet carrier.
Cyno alts flying a CovOps are a dime a dozen. Show me a Super pilot that doesn't already have one or more, and I'll show you a pilot that doesn't do much.
If anything, I'd expect the real limiter to be the number of competent SB pilots you can field.

You're right - but to be fair, nobody trains it because Blops are so shite which is the subject of the thread. If local was indeed removed (radical but fabulous idea) L5 Cyno Theory would be number one on a lot of alt's skill queues the next day.

All of the ideas in this thread are terrible, other than removing instant local and reducing fuel usage. Range is fine, bonuses are fine (bring a recon), HP and resistances are fine for the role, and fitting is fine since you don't need any fitting mods for a decent setup, only faction.

Oh no, I have to spend money on my 600M-hull tech 2 battleship. If you think that the faction mods necessary to fit a blops properly are too expensive for you, then you shouldn't be flying it.

What's it been, three years now and people are still complaining about these ships?

Some people have been able to press them into service but I've seen very few implementations that aren't more fun with just a fleet of stealth bombers or recons.

And I could've sworn that I heard one of the devs at Fanfest talking about a "jump module."

CCP seems content with just letting the Black Ops just sit there and gather dust.