Assembly Hall

According to a recent dev blog CCP is trying to introduce a new class of Batlecruiser that uses Large weapons and "will be capable of similar damage output as a battleship". (url is http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3001 - forum can't parse the BBCode for a link.)

This is a stupid, horribly unbalanced idea.

Battlecruiser tank is already sufficient for over 95% of the activity in Eve. Battleships are slower and much more expensive. The main reason anyone flies a battleship is for more DPS at longer range.

Making a BC with BS DPS and BS Range, combined with BC maneuverability and BC cost will make Battleships completely and utterly obsolete.

It has been said that "the main purpose of the CSM is shooting down bad ideas before they make it into the game." This is a horrible idea that needs severe modification before it should even be considered for the game.

In principle, I am in favor of a BC-class ship with Large weapons. It would make for a new option in terms of ship choice and tactics. And it would be a useful stepping stone, in terms of training, between current battlecruisers and battleships, as it would take BC pilot skills with Large weapons skills. However, BS weapons already have a huge range advantage over cruiser weapons. So to be balanced, such a ship would need to do less damage than a current Battlecruiser.

This means something like 4 weapons hardpoints, with 3-4 fewer overall slots than a current BC. Also, powergrid and CPU need to be considered very carefully. The extra powergrid and CPU for fitting Large guns can easily be converted into insane tank by using it for things like triple 1600 plates. So the Large weapons should be fittable by a ship bonus discounting their fitting requirements rather than by increasing CPU / powergrid of the base ship.

CSM, please shoot down this idea until CCP comes back with something where they've given at least 5 minutes of thought to game balance.

The Tier 3's interest me, just in the sense that while they have the ability to fit large (battleship-class) weaponry, they also will not be able to tank like a battleship, and will have to rely on more maneuverability.

So you have a couple options:

- Fit Large weapons, and half*** tank
- Fit Medium weapons, and massive tank

Either show potential to either be an incredible strategic tool, or an overpowered piece of **** that needs to be nerfed severely.

Only time will tell.

agreed the last thing this game needs is another bc hull much less another t3. fix the broke stuff first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buff battleships. Battlecruisers are currently really close to battleships in terms of damage. Which isn't how things are supposed to work.

The problem is, battleships have troubles applying their damages to smaller ships (Basicly, everything is smaller than a battleship), and when they manage to really apply their damage, they don't do much more than battlecruisers. And it's pretty sad.

Try yourself, almost every battlecruiser can achieve 700 DPS (The Brutix can go over 1k but hey, blasters). Battleships can reach 1k, some of them can reach more than 1k (Blaster battleships, maybe the Raven). Battlecruisers will apply 90% of their DPS, Battleships will apply, say, 70% or their DPS.

If I keep the numbers from the previous paragraph, that gives you 630 DPS for a random battlecruiser (Hurricane, Harbinger, Brutix, the Drake being an exception, or maybe not, didn't try the HAM fit yet), and 700 DPS for a random battleship. Those are ingame, real DPS against a decent target, not a structure or a ship that is sitting still.

All that with a tracking problem, more tank, less maneuverability, more skills needed for large weaponry and 3 times the price. The few added DPS doesn't make up for all that. The added range however is great, but still. Pretty much the only thing that's great about large weaponry (Aside with alphastrike for arties).

No, they aren't.

They're TIER 3 tech 1 BCs, the same way a maelstrom is a TIER 3 TECH 1 BS.

And we don't have a clue what they'll be like, so let's not scream for nerfs yet? :V

Battle cruisers as far as I am aware were supposed to be less capably tanked battle ships with similar damage output. BC's make up for this in speed and agility though. This new tier 3 BC is just an extension of this although magnified.

Ship for ship, even the new tier 3's will die in a fire to a BS so why do BS's need buffing?

I am very interested to see exactly what these machines do to the face of the battlefield. Will they be able to fit 7 or 8 of the largest BS guns? probably not. Will they tank like an Abbadon? No way. Will 10 of these things be able to outfight half a dozen BSs? I guess it depends on what fits are used and so on.

I dont think they will unbalance play, or make BSs redundant. I think it will just make for a changing and more dynamic battlefield, exactly what we need.

They're just mad little carebears. They're mad because they didn't get a shiny new toy before the PvPers.

Well here's the harsh reality:

EVE IS A PVP GAME

EVERYTHING YOU DO IN EVE IS PVP

Combat: PvP
Market: PvP
Contracts: PvP
Scams: PvP
PI: PvP (either by marketting or using it to fuel a POS)
Trading: PvP
Mining: PvP (competition for belts, marketting, marketting of manufactured goods)

Single shard universe folks.

Hmm... BC with large guns: slower and less accurate then HAC or T3... yeah, an engagement between the two will go badly for the Tornado pilots, I think. Sounds about right.

I am not to worried about these new BCs yet, since we have not seen them in game.

But the sad truth is, that Battleships are not the DPS powerhouses and valuable fleet asset they use to be.

The role BS use to play has been eroded over time. The large tank, big guns lots of DPS battleship but being slow and cumbersome is not as desirable as it use to be in small fleets.

Nor do they have a place in large fleets BS use to be used to overwhelm enemies fleets with there shear shock and awe power and ability to soak up damage. Other ships have started to infringe on their roles as well as capital ships being so common now, they sort of take the place that BS use to.

BS ships just have not scaled well with changes, that have happened over time.

Maybe they need a looking at to find a new place in fleets, in the game.

Maybe having large tanks, lots of DPS if you can hit it. And being about as slow and agile as a brick in molasses is not working out so well for them.