Test Server Feedback

Each step we take will require balance. If we make an adjustment like lowering the number of NPC because we give them some new ability, we will also look at their damage. So yes we will, but in this case we have not as we have not seen it to be needed.

tl;dr - pve will still be active tank, expect to get ganked :P

but yeah i know you have to take baby steps.

There are things this change does that is not balanced.

It makes drone boats less useful.
It hurts fleets.

vs.

The solo pilot using turrets or missiles is unaffected.

To balance out the effect on drone boats and fleets by reducing the difficulty of the NPCs just makes it easier for the solo pilot using turrets or missiles. The unbalance remains.

Maybe you should talk to others about a small buff to drones and fleets. I suggested:

When drones are set to aggressive, they aggro on enemy ships shooting you when launched without having to wait for a new enemy to shoot you.

My drones and my fleet mates be designated "cooperative targets". This means I can get a target lock on them much faster than normal. This would help with remote reps.

So far in our testing this change has not hurt either of those two groups.

Drone users:
I flew a Dominix into Angel Extravaganza, I began with taking aggro, then I launched light drones to kill off the frigates. While my light drones were out the frigates switched their fire to them, but I dispatched them quickly enough that it was of no concern. Then I switched to heavies and moved on. The whole mission maybe took me a few minutes longer, but based on how long the overall mission took it was not that much of a change. I didn't lose a drone through out it either. So if our "nerf" to drone users is that they have to pay more attention to the game and interact with it, well we can live with that.

Fleets:
I ran a mission dual boxing a logi ship and a DPS ship. My DPS ship carried some logi drones, and my logi ship carried DPS drones. I had to pay some more attention to what was going on, but my logi ship had enough buffer to survive every encounter when paired with a few logi drones. The nice thing is that because the logi ship did not need to run its reps the whole mission, as my DPS ship was not always the target, I could change the fit to be less cap stable and add more buffer/resistance.

Both of these groups will have to change and adapt to the new gameplay, but so long as they put a bit of effort into they can more than easily come up with a new plan that works just as well.

My BIGGEST question is how is this going to affect the aggro in complexes like the maze? I understand what you are trying to do but this is really going to hurt complex runners. It takes a very specific ship to run the maze and be able to tank so I mean where does this leave us?

When I bring in my tank ship to grab aggro from your stupidly overpowered Citidel torp that can only be tanked by like 4 ships in game total and I going to have to worry about all the webbers switching to my Mach and popping it in one volley?

If that is the plan then I give this a thumbs down..

I think you guys really need to look into the 10 of 10s specifically because this is really going to hurt that type of PVE content..

The guys doing ship balancing sit right behind me, are in most of the meetings, and are fully aware of what we are doing. :)

I like this, and I hope it means that PvE will finally be able to support a solid risk/reward balance without having to rely on players to provide the additional risk at the top end. Pure PvE players should lose ships, too.

^^ This. I never quite understood why The Maze's Citadel Torp was EM to begin with, but that's another discussion (as is the discussion as to why the loot table for The Maze is sub-par compared to other 10/10's while being the hardest one to complete). My only concern with this change is if the Citadel torpedo's in DED complexes and escilation sites switches aggro like the rest of the ratts. I really like the change otherwise. I like having a challenge of sorts, managing aggro and ensuring my drones are still alive. Now if we could get random waves and the such thrown in just to keep us honest. I can't tell you how sad it is that I can follow a wiki from 4-5yrs ago and know exactly what is coming and when while running complexes...(and exploration sites, and missions, and...). At least make us adjust our strategies on a yearly basis at a minimum! That said, keep up the good work!

I think the new changes to barges, as well as this change to the NPC rats will level each other out.

However, I do agree that complexes like The Maze will be nearly impossible to run with <10 people.

I dislike the change.

Why?

- drones are the worst damage system ... even if they have "xxx" DPS they need to travel to the target - i look at you 60km orbiting gurista Battleships, - worse case scenary they need to fly 120km ... Ogre II: 840m/s. Same for elitecruiser orbit at 40km range and Hammerhead II with 1680m/s
-> so i only can take small drones (speedy enough) or sentrys (stationary damage projection) as drones ... medium and heavy are then for PvP only
- If i get damped/ecmed I cannot project the damage ... drones need a new ship to shoot me to react if to late deployed
- The drone AI is so bad that if i am jamemd/damped and cannot choose manually the new target sentrys choose a 3000meter orbiting frig as target ... damage dealt: 0 for 20 seconds or 50 seconds to get a target if damped - supposed I am in lockrange (and if i need to travel to get into lockrange I cannot use the sentrys)
- IF i shoot the triger I normaly need to pull back the drones because of aggro (lost DPS, they get damage while flying thanks to mwd siganture bonus)
- IF they switch on my drone while I tank i need to pull back 1 drone - i loose 1/5 off dronedamage, which is on droneship aorund 10-20% depending on the setup, and hope they switch on me and not on the next drone.
- right now the dronebays are to small so I cannot have enough "spare" drones of all sorts -> I need to warp out to get new ones in a droneship ... and if i need to travel to gates in missions it's a waste of time
- an elitefrig can be killed with 4 small drones or 5, just takes longer, so turret/missile boats are mostly uneffected
- if the webfrig gets a medium or heavy drone it is dead. period. Small droens have little chance of survival. No counter possible. (I look at you rooms with 5 elitefrigs or spider drones). And a web drone get soloed fast.


Also the combination with the gallente ship streamlining (less shield, less armor, more structure) gives the droneboats less eHP so they role as tank get's cut too. And a PvP structure tank? who are you kidding.
Just a hint for the guy behind you: give gallente scaling % HP, armarr % resist and all would be fine.

Right now a droneboat has more to do then any other shiptype and need more skills to train (weapons AND drones).
I need to fire my guns (including ammo switch for ranges) like every other boat AND mircomanage my drones - with the change even more ... and all that to do the same damage as other ships which only hit f1.
And that is then called "ballance".

I do realze that afk-flying with droneboats is possible and done in complexes and even possible in mission without respawns (extravaganza f.e.). But i do not think pummeling all gallentepilots for that behavior is the right choice.


Sincerly