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[Winter] Existing destroyer rebalancing

First post
Author
Kethry Avenger
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#141 - 2012-08-14 00:11:23 UTC
CCP Ytterbium wrote:
Hello folks,

While CCP Fozzie is having a look at remaining frigates we can start talking about having a look at existing destroyers here. The new destroyers announced in the summer update blog will be discussed in another topic.

This ship class is aimed to be an anti-frigate platform, and should trade resilience, mobility for firepower. The extra role we want for planetary bombardment will come at a later date. Existing destroyers are mostly fine as they are right now, except for the Coercer which has some serious issues, so the changes are pretty minimal so far.

As always, constructive comments are welcome.


Suggested changes are mentioned below:

COERCER:

One medium slot is highly impractical for any kind of solo or even small gang fit and has been changed. Fittings also were quite low and should allow to squeeze medium pulse lasers, even medium beams with the module changes listed below.


  • Destroyer skill bonuses: unchanged
  • Slot layout: 8 H, 2 M (+1), 3 L (-1)
  • Fittings: 85 PWG (+10), 168 CPU (+8)
  • Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 700 (+12) / 900 (+40) / 800 (+70)
  • Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 700 (-3) / 370 s / 1.9
  • Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 255 (+3) / 2.75 (-0.1485) / 4.28 s
  • Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
  • Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 30km / 525 / 6
  • Sensor strength: 10 Radar
  • Signature radius: 62



CORMORANT:

Swapped one medium for one low slot, altered fittings to compensate. Capacitor, agility and signature radius were inconsistent with other Caldari ships and have been adjusted.


  • Destroyer skill bonuses: unchanged
  • Slot layout: 8 H, 3 M (-1), 2 L (+1)
  • Fittings: 68 PWG (+13), 200 CPU (-15)
  • Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 900 (+40) / 700 (+12) / 700 (+23)
  • Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 600 (-25) / 320 s (-13) / 1.9
  • Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 250 (+1) / 2.5 (+0.231) / 4.42 s
  • Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
  • Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 36km / 475 / 7
  • Sensor strength: 12 Gravimetric
  • Signature radius: 65 (-3)



CATALYST:

Slot layout untouched. Brought capacitor amount, agility and signature radius in-line with the revamped frigates and other destroyer variants.


  • Destroyer skill bonuses: unchanged
  • Slot layout: 8 H, 2 M, 3 L
  • Fittings: 60 PWG, 170 CPU
  • Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 750 (+5) / 800 (-3) / 900 (+118)
  • Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 650 (+64) / 350 s (+37.5) / 1.8
  • Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 265 (-1) / 2.45 (-0.352) / 4.04 s
  • Drones (bandwidth / bay): 5 / 5
  • Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 33km / 500 / 7
  • Sensor strength: 11 Magnetometric
  • Signature radius: 68 (+3)



THRASHER:

Left untouched apart from some minor adjustments.


  • Destroyer skill bonuses: unchanged
  • Slot layout: 8 H, 3 M, 2 L
  • Fittings: 70 PWG, 170 CPU
  • Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 800 (-3) / 750 (+5) / 750 (+125)
  • Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second): 550 (+3) / 290 s (-1.6) / 1.9
  • Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 270 (+2) / 2.89 / 4.17 s
  • Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
  • Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 27km / 550 / 6
  • Sensor strength: 9 Ladar
  • Signature radius: 56


MODULES:

The point of module changes is to increase usefulness of weapons we consider as either underpowered or just too difficult to fit right now. This includes medium beam laser, medium pulse lasers and light missiles.


  • All medium beam laser variations: -1 PWG and -1 CPU
  • All medium pulse laser variations: -1 PWG and -1 CPU
  • All light missile variations: explosion radius reduced from 50 to 40, damage increased by 10%



These changes are very interesting since you apparently removed all the hard-points from all the destroyers... All you other rebalancing threads tell us how many turrets/launchers the ships can fit.
Bob Niac
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#142 - 2012-08-14 00:40:19 UTC
I admit .. I lol'ed when i saw the Thrasher was "basically unchanged." Devs must seriusly love the Matari.

[u]I <3 Logistics:[/u] Pilot of all  T2 logi and my shiny Archon [deceased.] Also a Chimera which may or may not be horrid. I don't make games, I play them. I get that ppl are passionate about change. I post here to plant seeds. You see your idea as is? Holy **** you win! So let's post, and see what the DEVs and our peers use.

Cheekybiatch
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#143 - 2012-08-14 01:15:51 UTC
Michael Harari wrote:
Cheekybiatch wrote:


It is getting pointless that the only "good" destroyer in PVP is the thrasher, mostly due to it's 3 mid and l2 ow slots that everyone else lacks currently.


This is very much not true.


I MAKE LOUD NOISES AND STATEMENTS WITHOUT BACKUP.

But please randomly quote and then ignore the other threads about how much the thrasher is better suited to PVP, which it is and needs to be addressed, not as a issue of balance more as an issue of these other ships need to function better in a PVP enviroment.

Yes the mid and low slot shuffle is great but it doesn't address the key issue of thrasher will always be more desirable than the others, what could be changed to fix that.

You know hence the other parts in my thread if read them.
J Random
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#144 - 2012-08-14 01:27:04 UTC
I'm still trying to figure out the intent here as it drives the ship design.

What I keep seeing on the BBS here is folk want them to effectively be low-end new tier3 BC's but for frigates, i.e. all alpha gank, no tank. In that case, 1 mid is fine, up the scan res so you can actually lock and shoot a frigate before it warps.

That's really the only role I can see here. Chasing somebody down is a interceptors job and straight out brawling would be an assault frigate (which owns dessies).

Would like to see, instead of cookie cutter with each races having the same thing other than model (i.e. the new tier3 bc's) is maybe adopting them to racial play style. Make the minnie dessie more of a brawler (with buffer for the gate guns), the amarr more alpha fit, the caldari and gallant more tacklish (given the missile/drone damage delay).

What I DON'T want is what I'm seeing with the frigates is dps is creep where we make everything do triple dps and give it triple tank just so folk can say "wow I do 10K dps and have a 5M tank". Hitting for 2 dps is the same as 800 dps is you quit tank creeping. I also don't want to get into the situation, like with the AF's and Tech 3's, where they own the next level or two up the totem pole. The new AF's are going toe-to-toe with T1 cruisers and Tech3's with BS's .. that is wrong as it's going to force you to keep balancing everything up which is the doom of the vast majority of long lived paper-based games, i.e.each new sourcebook triples the damage.
Jett0
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#145 - 2012-08-14 01:35:42 UTC
As an Amarr pilot, thank you.

By the way, the medium/light laser confusion gave me a random, terrible idea:

What if, in addition to range bonuses to light guns, destroyers had small fitting bonuses to mediums? Not on par with t3 battlecruisers, but something that gives a range between a full set of lights vs. a half set of mediums with other stuff in high slots. Maybe not this idea exactly, but something to shake up the fitting possibilities.

Occasionally plays sober

Marcus Gideon
Triglavian Assembly
#146 - 2012-08-14 02:18:35 UTC  |  Edited by: Marcus Gideon
Nvm... it's been addressed
Selnix
Sniggerdly
Pandemic Legion
#147 - 2012-08-14 02:40:00 UTC
Oki Riverson wrote:
Also could we get some faction destroyers pls? I mean the models ARE already there... ^_^


This please!
iskflakes
#148 - 2012-08-14 06:57:09 UTC
Unfortunately some of us don't give a damn about (T1) destroyers. I haven't flown one in the last 3 years and don't intend to ever in the future.

I know why these changes are necessary: You think DUST players will want decent ships within the first 30 seconds of starting EVE, something they can get into a fight with and hope to kill something. While I can see why you want to satisfy them, have you considered that any DUST player that lacks the patience to wait a few weeks to get into decent ship won't become a long term EVE subscriber anyway?

I think you are spending too much time on balancing the beginner ships at the expense of leaving serious gameplay issues that affect older players completely unfixed. In particular, I would rather see a post about giving supercaps proper roles and abilities than about adding 6 CPU to a destroyer.

-

Keith Arika
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#149 - 2012-08-14 08:22:18 UTC
So catalyst is still worst of them, all seem to have 3 mid slots, and cat has drone bay, maybe it should be considered to give him some bonus to speed or to web drones, so lack of middle slot would be at least a bit less painful?
If it should be anti-frig boat, it can't do its role unless it has proper tackling abilities.
fenistil
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#150 - 2012-08-14 08:25:53 UTC
Gush, FIX CRUISERS instead or as well... Dessies are nice to have but most of the players are not in FW

.

Spugg Galdon
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#151 - 2012-08-14 08:34:39 UTC
I'm not blown away by these changes. I really don't like the fact that the Corm is loosing it's mid slot. The Catalyst is still too difficult to fit and the Coercer might just work but is still lacluster compared to the power of the Thrasher. The changes seem to just try and balance them into each other instead of keeping any flavour. I would suggest:

Coercer:
Move a low slot to a mid slot. Drop the laser cap usage bonus for a 5% armour resist bonus. This way it keeps its style of excellent armour tank and gains the mid it needs whilst leaving it (more) vulnerable to energy neuts.

Cormorant: +1 turret harpoint
Keep the 8/4/1 slot layout Adjust PG/CPU

Catalyst:
Drop the falloff bonus. It's a split bonus and we all know they are stupid. Find another bonus. I really like the 10% armour rep bonus the Incurses gets. Makes that ship great fun.
Increase fitting ability and fix the pathetic capacitor recharge rate.

Thrasher:
Just make fitting it harder. It has way too much PG and CPU.
ChromeStriker
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#152 - 2012-08-14 08:51:45 UTC
dont want to be picky but you didnt add the 125hp to the thrashers hull Blink

No Worries

Kuehnelt
Devoid Privateering
#153 - 2012-08-14 10:02:26 UTC
Spugg Galdon wrote:
Coercer:
Move a low slot to a mid slot. Drop the laser cap usage bonus for a 5% armour resist bonus. This way it keeps its style of excellent armour tank and gains the mid it needs whilst leaving it (more) vulnerable to energy neuts.


It only takes twenty seconds or so in EVEHQ to create this variant of the Coercer.

With DLP, Scorch, an MWD, and a warp disruptor, it'd cap itself out in 1min 10sec. With max skills. You only gain 40sec from turning the MWD off. The TQ Coercer is stable at 63% with the MWD turned off. I'm used to pvp ships not being cap stable, especially small ships, but this is a case where the Coercer will shut its own guns off before the end of any engagement. You don't need to neut it.

Tiericide won't continue to blow people away when it moves on from retrofitting completely useless T1 frigates, but yeah, these changes...
Dr Sheng-Ji Yang
Doomheim
#154 - 2012-08-14 10:37:11 UTC
I have to agree with Kuehnelt. Coercer has a really bad cap problem and it is not really possible to make any use in fleets with this ship. You run faster out of cap than you can imagine.
TBH Thrasher is so much overpowered in comparison ti the other dessies that I believe that only an artillery nerf can do sth.
I mean artillery is really tooooo good. Thrasher can everthing. Shortrange damage and tank monster, long range killing machine. Aditionally it is one or even the fasted destroyer. It has no weaknesses. Weird.
I will say it again: Buff the other destroyers more (coercer more cap and cpu, cormorant needs REALLY more buff, catalyst I don´t know) and nerf artillery.
Main problem with Coercer is really the risk. No Cormorant, Catalyst or Thrasher needs to take 2.5mil isk ammunition minimum to be able to fire all weapons. Coercer for long and short range ammo at least costs minimum 5mil isk. No other dessie has such big risks.
Again: big Risk= good ship, little risk=bad ship. Thats how it should be. It wouldn´t even be that bad if Coercer would be a litle bit op (only a little bit and not minmatar like op) because of these risks.
You want fast skirmish in a Thrasher? 0.8m in ammo is more than enough. You want fast skirmish in a coercer and be able to shoot at long and short range? You need 5mil isk in ammo minimum in cargo. That is more than 6 times the amount Thrasher needs.
And additionally with these stats a coercer can fire a minute with good skills. Thrasher can fire almost the same damage until he goes out of ammo. That is really not a good rebalancing.
Spugg Galdon
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#155 - 2012-08-14 10:52:54 UTC
Kuehnelt wrote:
Spugg Galdon wrote:
Coercer:
Move a low slot to a mid slot. Drop the laser cap usage bonus for a 5% armour resist bonus. This way it keeps its style of excellent armour tank and gains the mid it needs whilst leaving it (more) vulnerable to energy neuts.


It only takes twenty seconds or so in EVEHQ to create this variant of the Coercer.

With DLP, Scorch, an MWD, and a warp disruptor, it'd cap itself out in 1min 10sec. With max skills. You only gain 40sec from turning the MWD off. The TQ Coercer is stable at 63% with the MWD turned off. I'm used to pvp ships not being cap stable, especially small ships, but this is a case where the Coercer will shut its own guns off before the end of any engagement. You don't need to neut it.

Tiericide won't continue to blow people away when it moves on from retrofitting completely useless T1 frigates, but yeah, these changes...



You could easily buff the Coercers capacitor a little bit to compensate. I'm not sure how long it takes a Catalyst to cap itself out but it can't be much longer.
Takeshi Yamato
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#156 - 2012-08-14 10:55:10 UTC
Quote:
Coercer has a really bad cap problem and it is not really possible to make any use in fleets with this ship. You run faster out of cap than you can imagine.


When solo though, the -10% laser cap usage bonus is next to worthless.

This is why the cap usage bonus sucks. It's so situational.
Johan March
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#157 - 2012-08-14 11:12:05 UTC
Don't move the midslot on the cormy. Move a high. That will make it "different" instead of a thrasher nobody flies.

Kuehnelt
Devoid Privateering
#158 - 2012-08-14 11:12:53 UTC
Spugg Galdon wrote:
You could easily buff the Coercers capacitor a little bit to compensate. I'm not sure how long it takes a Catalyst to cap itself out but it can't be much longer.


No, it's much, much longer. DLP activation cost is twice that of the highest-tier blaster, and DLP cycle faster.

Coercer capacitor would not need to be buffed "a little bit" to compensate for losing the cap use bonus. It'd need more than a halving of its recharge rate, or it'd need more than a doubling of its capacitor amount.
Spugg Galdon
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#159 - 2012-08-14 11:22:17 UTC
Kuehnelt wrote:
Spugg Galdon wrote:
Coercer:
Move a low slot to a mid slot. Drop the laser cap usage bonus for a 5% armour resist bonus. This way it keeps its style of excellent armour tank and gains the mid it needs whilst leaving it (more) vulnerable to energy neuts.


It only takes twenty seconds or so in EVEHQ to create this variant of the Coercer.




So how else does it perform with a 5% armour resist bonus and a 8/2/3 slot layout with the other proposed stats? (just out of curiousity. I'm at work and can't really start installing 3rd party stuff that isn't work related)
Kuehnelt
Devoid Privateering
#160 - 2012-08-14 11:44:07 UTC
Spugg Galdon wrote:
So how else does it perform with a 5% armour resist bonus and a 8/2/3 slot layout with the other proposed stats? (just out of curiousity. I'm at work and can't really start installing 3rd party stuff that isn't work related)


*shrug*, that takes more than 30 seconds.

But OK, a +5% resist bonus, including the proposed Winter changes, gives you 14k EHP (19k EM, 14k Thermal, 12k other) with a damage control, 400mm plate (which fits easily), EANM, and trimarks.

The TQ Coercer is better at everything but the EM resist with a similar fit (+1 EANM), but it's harder to fit.