Player Features and Ideas Discussion

First a definition of what I think an Attack Cruiser should be. Mainly a light fast cruiser that foregoes tank to go faster. Another words, less tank, more gank. An attack cruiser is a military based creation designed to perform a distinct military mission of ambushing and attacking high value enemy assets deep behind enemy lines. Get in, destroy and leave before reinforcements arrive.

The more generic Combat Cruiser is the fleet brawler, more heavily buffer armored, its designed to take a punch, and hit back hard. It should be slower, but tougher with more staying power. Designed to function as part of fleet, and not as a general rule by itself.

Based on the definition above for Attack Cruisers, the last thing one should do with an attack cruiser is hang heavy slabs of metal on the thing. Not that you can’t do it, but if you do, it should invoke the same look as usually reserved for the Noob mixing his gun sizes on his fit, i.e, that is not a good idea, it will make you slow, and you will probably die, horribly. Active tanking of Armor based Attack Cruisers is the way to go. One suggestion I would make is for Attack Cruisers, design one mid slot as a dedicated shield slot for ships designed to be shield tanked, or a cap booster dedicated slot with power bonus for active armor tanked Attack Cruiser. Nothing else can fit in the dedicated mid slot. For active armor tanked Attack Cruisers consider granting a bonus similar to the 7.5% bonus to armor repair the Myrmidon gets.

Next is the speed issue. There is not enough difference between the proposed Attack Cruisers and Combat Cruisers. I think there should be at least a 10% to 20% difference between the slowest Attack Cruiser and Fastest Combat Cruiser. Yes, I’m looking at the Rupture. Attack Cruisers should always be able to outrun a Combat Cruiser, otherwise its just a suicide ship.

While we are on speed, I also want to say that one gives up EHP for speed, not DPS. The attack Cruiser needs to be able to kill the target before reinforcements arrive. Thats the design criteria that would have been used by any Navy. So whatever the mean cruiser DPS is at basic minimum skills, meta level 0 equipped vessel, add 50 DPS above, and 50 below that mean to give us a range of DPS, and Attack Cruisers should be in the upper range, Combat Cruisers should be in the lower half, and long range Attack cruisers should be in the lower range, in my opinion anyway. That should be for any Attack Cruiser, including the Stabber. The faster the ship, the lower the EHP it can produce should be the guiding rule.

Concider making the Vexor the Gallente Attack Cruiser and return the Thorax to rightful place as a Combat Cruiser. The Vexor is fast, can produce 700DPS easily now, even before getting another mid and low slot you have planed for this Winter expansion, and can be easily shield fitted or armor fitted. It is in my opinion a perfect choice as an Attack Cruiser, which I cannot say about the Thorax.

Still no word on how Navy or T2 ships will be buffed in response to these buffs?

Yeah we'll have a whole range of redundant Navy Cruisers after this patch but once they're balanced I imagine they will be pretty badass.

Well right now the Navy Cruisers provide a significant boost over their T1 variants right now, but I admit some are useless even in our current enviroment (NOsprey, FSFI, NExeq) but the rest (especially the NOmen and FStabber) are pretty good.

one of my best kiting nano ships I am using for pvp .... is nanoarbitrator .... several customers can tell you my drones raped them pretty fast, while I was zipping around. Everything matters based on setups.

Ooooooor make active armour work?


Instead of making everything the same they should make the different alternatives viable.

My argument is that in the Attack Cruiser role the Attack Cruiser will be either solo or small gang usually, and the Vexor can project damage long distance, medium distance or in your face - all equally well. The 700 DPS is from drones AND Blasters, of which the Vexor currently carries 4 of (one less than the Thorax) and after the Winter upgrade under the proposed changes I've seen. will still carry 4 guns, so the DPS potential shouldn't change.

Deploying and collecting drones in my experence is more an issue in fleet ops than on solo or small group actions, my normal MO is launch light drones as I approach, orbit at 500, join with blasters to deliver full DPS. If the target is BC or bigger, I'll recall the light drones and deploy the 2 x Orger II, 2 x Hammerhead II, and 1 x Hobgoblin II for max DPS. Being I'm on top of the target blasting with my blasters , recall is not an issue and fast if needed. Recall time only becomes a problem when travel time is involved.

Lastly if the situation is so bad leaving the drones becomes mandatory I consider that a plus in that I at least have that option and a good chance to save my ship by abandoning the drones (which I normally carry a second set of in my cargo hole) and another ship such as the Thorax would probally not have any chance of surviving.

So no, I do not see having to deploy and recover drones in anyway perventing the Vexor from carrying out a role as Attack Cruiser if assigned this role.

I shall now make an alt named TERRIBUBBLE.

Well you can always use the fitting mod for less tank and big guns. Not many ships allow for biggest gun and max tank, is always a compromise..

He says it's dumb because CCP Fozzie wrote that those cruisers would have been able to fit a 1600mm aAND the smallest guns but the thorax can't do it.