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New dev blog: Ship balancing summer update

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Author
Tippia
Sunshine and Lollipops
#401 - 2012-06-14 21:38:51 UTC
Lord Timelord wrote:
So when you make changes to the Hulk, I would suggest giving it a 15,000/18,000m3 Ore Hold (five or six pulls of ice with the three harvesters), and making sure that the Cargo Hold can hold 6x of each Tech II Crystal Type, so the pilot can carry a full replacement set of each crystal as they currently can do!
…or maybe 8,000m³ ore hold and, say, 300m³ cargo will be sufficient, since your fleet (especially the Orca) can hold the rest, what with the Hulk being the “gang mining” ship and all. That would solve the same problem without buffing the hell out of the Hulk for no particular reason and going completely against its intended purpose.
Rek Esket
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#402 - 2012-06-14 21:41:56 UTC
Zifrian wrote:
One thing I really believe is needed is a Capital Mining ship. People say no, but a Hulk is far too easy to get into with max skill/yield/etc. Rorq's and Orca's are support ships, not mining vessels. Capital mining ships would only be used in 0.0 of course and could really help with the high mineral requirements (Trit anyone?) for 0.0 and the fact that we have the hulk to provide them.


The problem with tritanium availability in nullsec isn't the size of the ship being used to mine this mysterious veldspar.
Gaia Ma'chello
Photosynth
#403 - 2012-06-14 21:45:48 UTC
Giving the procurer a battleship size tank will not make it useful with its current pathetic mining ability. For it to be a useful ship it has to be able to out mine the other option with a battleship size tank: A Battleship. Currently a mining Rokh can out mine a Retriever.

CCP: In your minds eye consider a plot where the vertical axis in mining yield, and the horizontal axis is EHP. If you make different fits on different ships you get a bunch of points. But there is an upper limit, a sort of a limiting line that slopes down left to right above which there are no ships. The exhumers should be on that line, the barges below it, and all other ships even lower.
Denidil
Cascades Mountain Operatives
#404 - 2012-06-14 21:47:47 UTC
Gizznitt Malikite wrote:
Lord Timelord wrote:
CCP, please keep the Hulk's current Cargo Hold capacity the same! There is an important reason for this. The Hulk is built to mine in 0.0 and w-space, and as such can mine all the different minerals in the game.

The Hulk can currently hold TWO SETS OF MINING CRYSTALS FOR EACH ORE TYPE. This allows a replacement crystal set to be carried on board in case you get a good mining stint going in game. It would be extremely annoying if it's cargo hold was nerfed to the point where carrying six of each mining crystal type is no longer possible.

Please pay careful attention to this issue!

Just add to the Hulks current EHP a bit, add the ORE Bay, and allow the current trade-off of max mining yield vs. setting it up for a decent tank.

A lot of players setup their Hulks with Cargo Rigs and Expanders to mine Ice when they are doing other things at the same time on their pc's... like watching Movies and TV shows on one monitor, while mining ice on the other. The large 17k cargo hold allows 'roughly' 25 minutes of ice mining to be done, making a little isk while you're chillin' out watching your favorite show/movie.

So when you make changes to the Hulk, I would suggest giving it a 15,000/18,000m3 Ore Hold (five or six pulls of ice with the three harvesters), and making sure that the Cargo Hold can hold 6x of each Tech II Crystal Type, so the pilot can carry a full replacement set of each crystal as they currently can do!


50m3 x 16 ore types x 3 lasers x 2 (replacements) = Get Real...
IMO, the hulk shouldn't have a bay much bigger than 600m3.

I guess you'll have to chose which ores you plan to optimize for, and not bring a crystal for every type of ore you find... That, or get an orca alt to carry your crystals for you!!

Also, you know what the perfect balancer is for you're 25 minute afk ice mining machine??? --> A Single catalyst!!


make it 700m3 .. that gives room for 12 crystals + ones in strip miners + a little extra room for other stuff (like it not to tell you that your cargo bay is full when you swap crystals) and a 10k ore bay

something like

skiff - 20k ore bay, 500 cargo, +2 warp strength
mack - 30k ore bay, 1k cargo
hulk - 10k ore bay, 700 cargo


as for the catalyst.. you did read the dev blog right? it's going to take more than a cata to suicide gank them soon.

Tedium and difficulty are not the same thing, if you don't realize this then STFU about game design.

Richard Desturned
Royal Amarr Institute
Amarr Empire
#405 - 2012-06-14 21:47:55 UTC
Gaia Ma'chello wrote:
Currently a mining Rokh can out mine a Retriever.


i'd say that the retriever's much higher cargo capacity makes up for that

npc alts have no opinions worth consideration

Denidil
Cascades Mountain Operatives
#406 - 2012-06-14 21:48:22 UTC
Gaia Ma'chello wrote:
Giving the procurer a battleship size tank will not make it useful with its current pathetic mining ability..


READ THE ******* DEV BLOG. ffs

Tedium and difficulty are not the same thing, if you don't realize this then STFU about game design.

Jorma Morkkis
State War Academy
Caldari State
#407 - 2012-06-14 21:56:36 UTC  |  Edited by: Jorma Morkkis
Petrus Blackshell wrote:
I haven't actually ganked any exhumer yet, but once these changes drop and the carebear glee is high, I may want to fix my sec status and show miners a sweet game called "bumper cars".


Are you sure you can bump that Hulk out of Scimi's rep range if Scimi pilot is actively piloting his ship and not on Youtube watching Lady GaGa's videos? And actually do some damage before Concord lands?

Richard Desturned wrote:
i'd say that the retriever's much higher cargo capacity makes up for that


Ever heard of Orca?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=eve+online+orca
Katy Ling
Crimnson Concept Flame
#408 - 2012-06-14 22:05:04 UTC

well, seems nice that you guys are improving the game ships - that's the sort of stuff that adds game value.

often we see ships that are lacking in some area, and continue playing the game, because it promises a lot, we continue, on hopes that you , the game developer make sensible adjustments that will make worth for us the pilot to say : "this is a nice ship that i feel nice in steeping in and fly"

but it seems that time is now. finally you're making balances ! i like those useless frigates to have better skills and roles.


The amarr Destroyer "Coercer" still needs a 2nd midle slot, for a tackle point, and a improvement on dps, instead of the cap usage.



GREATH JOB ! KEEP IT UP !!!
Gaia Ma'chello
Photosynth
#409 - 2012-06-14 22:05:10 UTC  |  Edited by: Gaia Ma'chello
Richard Desturned wrote:
Gaia Ma'chello wrote:
Currently a mining Rokh can out mine a Retriever.


i'd say that the retriever's much higher cargo capacity makes up for that


Solo, yes. In a group, not so much. But even with a battleship you can fit expanders in the lows, a tank in the mids, and miners in the highs. Less yield, sure. But it would still beat a Procurer. ( I wonder how close you could get to a Retriever, given travel time cutting into your yield, assuming solo mining without a jet can).

If you are solo mining or fleet mining in high sec and want to deter gankers, the ship to pick should be one of the new barges or exhumers that compromises yield for tank, not a Rokh.
Nicolo da'Vicenza
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#410 - 2012-06-14 22:08:03 UTC
Hey devs, quick question -since you're buffing the t1 ewar frigs, will you be altering the underused T2 ewar frigs so that they're in line with their t1 counterparts?
Rek Esket
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#411 - 2012-06-14 22:10:40 UTC  |  Edited by: Rek Esket
Jorma Morkkis wrote:
Petrus Blackshell wrote:
I haven't actually ganked any exhumer yet, but once these changes drop and the carebear glee is high, I may want to fix my sec status and show miners a sweet game called "bumper cars".


Are you sure you can bump that Hulk out of Scimi's rep range if Scimi pilot is actively piloting his ship and not on Youtube watching Lady GaGa's videos? And actually do some damage before Concord lands?

Richard Desturned wrote:
i'd say that the retriever's much higher cargo capacity makes up for that

Ever heard of Orca?


A mining Rokh fully fit for yield has to do ridiculous things like stagger cycles and empty the cargo bay into a jet can between each to avoid maxing out its cargo space and wasting cycles.

No thank you, even if it mined more than a Hulk I'm not dragging minerals into a can every 10-15 seconds.
Gaia Ma'chello
Photosynth
#412 - 2012-06-14 22:12:43 UTC
Denidil wrote:
Gaia Ma'chello wrote:
Giving the procurer a battleship size tank will not make it useful with its current pathetic mining ability..


READ THE ******* DEV BLOG. ffs

The blog gave no numbers as to how much they plan on buffing yield. I'm pointing out it better be a good buff, one that improves the Procurer's ability to mine to above that of a Rokh.
Tippia
Sunshine and Lollipops
#413 - 2012-06-14 22:17:11 UTC
Gaia Ma'chello wrote:
The blog gave no numbers as to how much they plan on buffing yield.
…aside from the bit where they intend to “increase all barge mining output to be within an acceptable margin of the Hulk”. That should put it a fair bit ahead of a Rokh.
Yonis Kador
KADORCORP
#414 - 2012-06-14 22:18:05 UTC  |  Edited by: Yonis Kador
Good read. It's pretty exciting to get a sense of where rebalancing is headed.

A few thoughts:

Heavy Payload Delivery -

RE: Amarr ships:

Executioner - It makes sense to move the Executioner to a "fast interception role." Of the Amarr frigates, the Executioner's speed is arguably its most important asset. Ive used one with a mwd virtually every time I was forced to do that rescue the diplomat mission and its usually the go-to when I don't have an INS handy for distance travel. But wouldn't it then make sense to have it's bonuses more in line with interdictors? A mwd bonus or warp speed bonus maybe?

Magnate - I've got lots of opinions on the role Exploration plays in game currently, how challenging it is to new players, and how exploration is the first thing many of those players arrive here wanting to do, which we should encourage, so I think any boosts you give to scanning, incentivizing that profession on principle, will almost without exception be welcome.

Crucifier - I'm not so sure exchanging one useless bonus for another is all that great here. A drone bonus for a ship with only one drone? If you're going to give the Crucifier a drone bonus, signaling it's a drone ship, at least give her two drones.

Barge in on Me -

Segmenting the mining profession into role-specific ships as opposed to a graduated system, is an interesting development but it doesn't change a whole lot in the grand scheme of things imo. I'm not completely convinced that what it does change is necessarily beneficial.

If we accept that risk-aversion is one consequence of ship design that precludes engagement, of which evasion is the primary and usually best defense, evasion that cannot be great for the quality of overall player generated content in EvE, then this just gives players more ways to evade. It may increase industrial player satisfaction, but it will probably also increase aversion in game and thus negatively impact the quality of player generated content.

On the whole, increasing player options is always a good thing for the player, irrespective of whether it's good for the game. It's difficult to predict how changes to aversion will play out in the sandbox. Time will tell. Make it too tough to gank and the less-devoted may give up entirely. Make it too easy to evade and half the playerbase becomes pariahas and contribute minimally to the volume of player generated content.

I'd like to see more ways to engage period. It's nice that miners will now have frigs that can be used for combat, and they look great btw, love em, but I'd like to see us keep going down that path. Arm those suckers. Reduce the designed tactical avoidance and increase the opportunities for engagement. I wouldn't mind seeing a mining support cruiser with one strip mining slot and two turret hardpoints.

I guess my thoughts overall are if the ehp on the Hulk isn't going to be adjusted, and Hulks are already popped like popcorn all across New Eden, these changes may incentivize miners to fly less expensive ships somewhat, but they also give gankers targets in less expensive ships to shoot at (which means less-valued killmail prizes.) How all of this translates to the quality of player generated content remains to be seen. It may reduce risk-aversion somewhat in game as some miners will be piloting less expensive ships now and may be more willing to risk them, but the overreaching issue of their necessary avoidance to survive still hasn't changed.

EDIT: Of course, if the ore bay changes and specializations are too much for the industrialists to take and they mass unsub, well I guess that would in fact remove quite a bit of aversion from the game. Hadn't thought of that. - YK

EDIT2: If the industrial changes successfuly limit afk mining, that would also reduce aversion too. So it's quite the dynamic situation. The same changes have the potential to both increase and reduce aversion. I'm curious to see how it plays out.

Gas Harvesting Ship?

I've seen a few requests for one and the game has needed a dedicated gas mining vessel for a long time. I'd like to see CCP go all out on this. Just go nuts. Give us something unexpected and out of the box. Archaeologists can discover an ancient Jove storage unit and in it they find a gas miner that looks like the crystalline entity with a cockpit, that absorbs gas through its spiny tendrils, and forces its operator to play a damage control game while they are parked inside the cloud receiving gas cloud damage.

Blow us away.

Yonis Kador
Gaia Ma'chello
Photosynth
#415 - 2012-06-14 22:18:08 UTC
Rek Esket wrote:
Jorma Morkkis wrote:
Petrus Blackshell wrote:
I haven't actually ganked any exhumer yet, but once these changes drop and the carebear glee is high, I may want to fix my sec status and show miners a sweet game called "bumper cars".


Are you sure you can bump that Hulk out of Scimi's rep range if Scimi pilot is actively piloting his ship and not on Youtube watching Lady GaGa's videos? And actually do some damage before Concord lands?

Richard Desturned wrote:
i'd say that the retriever's much higher cargo capacity makes up for that

Ever heard of Orca?


A mining Rokh fully fit for yield has to do ridiculous things like stagger cycles and empty the cargo bay into a jet can between each to avoid maxing out its cargo space and wasting cycles.

No thank you, even if it mined more than a Hulk I'm not dragging minerals into a can every 10-15 seconds.


You do two groups of 4 miners with just a short pause between them. Just after one set cycles, but before the next you transfer ore. Then a few seconds later the other set cycles and you transfer ore. Now you got almost 60 seconds before you got to do it again. (OK, 40 seconds if you got an uber orca pilot. Still more than 15 seconds.) Yes a pain. Being blown up by gankers is also a pain.
Jorma Morkkis
State War Academy
Caldari State
#416 - 2012-06-14 22:25:28 UTC
Gaia Ma'chello wrote:
You do two groups of 4 miners with just a short pause between them. Just after one set cycles, but before the next you transfer ore. Then a few seconds later the other set cycles and you transfer ore. Now you got almost 60 seconds before you got to do it again. (OK, 40 seconds if you got an uber orca pilot. Still more than 15 seconds.) Yes a pain. Being blown up by gankers is also a pain.


That would work only with Miner IIs. Not with Deep Core Miner IIs and T2 crystals.
Lili Lu
#417 - 2012-06-14 22:29:01 UTC  |  Edited by: Lili Lu
Gizznitt Malikite wrote:
Hungry Eyes wrote:
Denidil wrote:
Hungry Eyes wrote:
i think it's really disheartening that you guys arent touching the heart of the game (BC's and cruisers) until next year. why are you dragging your feet like this? balance the damn drake already, bring T3's in line, buff command ships, give HAC's a freaking role... i mean what are you doing? who gives a **** about t1 frigs?


because they're trying to do it right - balance from the ground up and you don't have to go back and rebalance later


it's not ground up. frigs are an entirely different beast from cruisers and bc's. unless your talking modules, which we're not.


I care about balanced frigate hulls. I love flying them, and even use them to solo cruisers and BC's. Balancing them is extremely important for balancing cruiser & BC hulls... although I bet you'll still cry "unfair" if I gank your vaga with a frigate...


@ Denidil - they will always have to "go back and rebalance" as they cannot create perfect balance, they can only strive for it. Every little change in the game affects other things in the game in unexpected ways. The "butterfly effect" if you will.Lol

@ Gizznitt - Balancing frigates is fine. It is not though a necessary precursor to fixing, even temprarilly glaring usage disparities in other ship classes. Small, relatively easy nerfs or buffs can be handed out as temprorary bandaids.

For instance, damps on damp boats. A 5% per level bonus to damps means that they are incredibly weak, even on the ships supposedly specialized for their use, compared to 30% per level bonuses on ecm usage on ecm boats (not to mention that ecm is musch more powerful from the getgo anyway). Ditto the 5% per level bonuses for TDs and Painters.

These ships are forced to use their secondary tackling ewar and forget about their "racial" ewar. Wouldn't it be nice if every time you saw a Lachesis you weren't sure it was packing 2 or 3 long points, and instead were suprised to find 3 of your gangs ships scan res damped, tackled by ceptors, and locking those ceptors incredibly slowly? What would be the harm of increasing damp boats damp bonuses to 10% per level to see if anyone might then bother using damps on them? They would hardly become op and displace ecm boats now would they? But damps might then get fit and used on damp boats which would make the game more interesting, the way it was envisioned.

CCP does not have to step-by-step quest for a totally elusive goal of perfect balance. It can never be achieved, but it can be getting better al the time ~ Just because you have a grand plan to rework ship roles, tiericide, a worthwhile effort. Does not mean you can't simultaneously put some flame retardent on problem fires that have been burning for far too long.
Linda Shadowborn
Dark Steel Industries
#418 - 2012-06-14 23:01:29 UTC
much love for finally looking at our mining ships!

and it always amazes me when people put anything but tank rigs on their hulks but ah well to each their own so it wont bother me if cargo rigs wont work anymore. Its why the orca is there after all and since I never afk mine... no biggie moving ore.
RubyPorto
RubysRhymes
#419 - 2012-06-14 23:17:22 UTC
Hey, uh, question about the ore hold. Does a ship with a full ore hold fit in a Ship Maintenance Bay? If so, a couple of macks (w/ new biggified ore holds) in a Rorq will really help ship compressed ore to HS.

"It's easy to speak for the silent majority. They rarely object to what you put into their mouths." -Abrazzar "the risk of having your day ruined by other people is the cornerstone with which EVE was built" -CCP Solomon

Jada Maroo
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#420 - 2012-06-14 23:18:31 UTC
Since there's an excess of t1 frigate hulls, why can't we have a cloaky ewar frigate and a ganky ewar frigate? Or a frigate sized logi?