EVE General Discussion

Personally, I am pissed off that my harbinger does not use projectile turrets as effectively as my hurricane. I think all ships should be exactly the same; empty blocks in which to toss modules!

That isn't really a usage case =P. Although I supposed you can argue that one valid usage is also for travel. Cynos aren't the only usage case for newbie ships, just a common one. Either way, you are getting into ship balance again, which is beyond the scope of what we are discussing.

This is taken from the Blog on ship balance:

•Impairor, Ibis, Velator and Reaper: let’s not forget rookie ships, as they also are lacking at the moment. We want them to be very versatile ships, able to give new players a good taste of what their race ship philosophy is all about, without reaching the efficiency of other tech 1 frigates in any given role.



Notice the new player part, that's what a rookie ship is all about. It's not a ship for some alt to use as a cyno, that's not it designed function.

it is a choice and a strategy. Some people like cheap frigs, some people like to try and tank something really well and rep it. Others use newbie ships. Each method has advantages and disadvantages. To use a newbie ship, you have to train Cyno IV which is more time off your main. With a cheap frig you only need Cyno III generally as they have larger cargo holds. You also don't get as many fitting slots so when you are travelling you can tank and/or cloak your rookies ship, but if you do you won't be able to carry the fuel you need to light the cyno. You can tank and rep, and you will have a character who is far more versatile and can do quite a bit more than cyno, but you won't be able to pod jump them to a Non-medical bay station without risking losing skills.

These are all perfectly valid strategies that have been used pretty much since cynoing was introduced and were available to all races equally until now. Amarr now has a disadvantage when using one of those strategies and that disadvantage is incurred before it is possible for the player to make an informed decision. That is where the balance issue lies.

Umm.... Uhh... Ok.

EDIT: Thanks a lot, I had to start drinking now because of you.

Then as you don't seem to have any valid argument I can only assume you've just been trolling.

You are completely correct. Once again you have brilliantly reduced an argument that I have not actually made down to nothing. Good job sir!

LOL fleets are certainly fun, but hardly a common use for the ship.

The reason that this isn't a ship balance issue is that the Rookie ships are not available to everyone equally. Normally the choice of what ship to fly is left the in hands of the player and they can make and informed decision based on the intended use of the ship. Because you get a rookie ship when you dock, they do not follow this pattern. The player choice of which Rookie ship to get was made before character creation and before you, as a player, could make an informed decision based on the abilities of the ship.

You can change this by moving the critical choice to later in the game (by seeding rookie ships cheap through NPCs at all stations, including sov space, for instance). Give people the option to change their rookie ship spawn type through some game mechanic once the have had an opportunity to make an informed decision (say by joining a certain faction in FW), you can remove the ablity to fit a cyno on rookie ships period or you could increase the cargo hold of the Impairor by 5.2 m3. Of the choices, the one with the least wide ranging effects would be to boost the cargo bay. To be honest, I would prefer any of the other choices myself.

I'd go with that too, there's no need to use rookie ships unless you're a rookie.

With the exception of corps like RvB using them for combat training purposes.

It would be a perfectly acceptable solution to this issue to just simply not allow cynos to be fitted to Rookie ships. It isn't like a new player on a trial can train cyno anyhow. It is one of the first solutions I suggested. To be fair, it is a much larger change than boosting the cargo by 5.2m3.