Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hey everyone. Sorry for not getting this post up sooner, been pretty busy here at CCP.

I've been reading all the feedback here and everything I can find on other websites, thanks for the help so far. I'm going to pick out a few common questions to answer today.

Are the Battlecruiser skills being split into racial version at the same time as these changes?

We have been planning to split the Battlecruiser and Destroyer skills into racial variations (Details can be found in CCP Ytterbium's dev blog here) for a while, but we've been vague about the when. Originally I had hoped to get the changes into this point release, but we've seen an opportunity to both build better tools to help players understand the changes (communicating the mechanics involved is something we could have done better so far) and also combine the skill changes with some other adjustments that fit together well. So I now have permission to let you all know that the skill change is scheduled for our Summer expansion 2013 (which most of you know tends to fall in the late spring). We'll be working to make sure that as many people as possible understand the changes beforehand. I know that some of you may feel that we've been stringing you guys along since the changes were first proposed so long ago, but we're working to make sure a huge change like this is done in the most responsible way possible.

To repeat, the skill split is scheduled for the big Summer 2013 expansion.


Why aren't there Tier 3 BC changes in this thread?

This thread is focused on the Combat line of Battlecruisers, which are the former Tier 1 and Tier 2 ships. The Tier 3 BCs will be rechristened Attack Battlecruisers and will have their own thread when we're ready to start gathering feedback.


What about armor tanking? The imbalances caused by the mass of plates, the speed penalty on armor rigs and the weakness of armor reps in pvp situations are a problem that becomes more pronounced for these ships than for any of the smaller classes and should be fixed as soon as possible!

I completely agree. ~Working on it~. However since we want to be very careful about what we promise and when that's all I can say at this exact moment.


Even if active armor tanking gets better, Gallente don't need two ships with a active armor bonus! Why not give them more variety in bonuses?

This is a very legitimate concern and is something I am open to changing, we have other options being looked at and are always interested in all your ideas. However I want to wait a bit before switching the design around.


Why is the Ferox keeping the optimal range bonus? A damage bonus would be stronger for blasters and nobody snipes with a Ferox!

There's a couple of things going on here. I completely think that PVP Ferox fits will continue to be mostly blaster fit after these changes, I want to be clear that we are not trying to force people into rails with the optimal bonus. However there are a few reasons we decided on keeping the optimal bonus:
1) The Blaster Ferox works quite well with the current stats, and the optimal bonus is in fact useful with blasters (especially with Null or Void ammo, as well as alongside a TE module) and creates a nice (if subtle) gameplay distinction between the Ferox and other blaster ships. We were weighing the option of switching the bonus to damage, but chose to add the extra turret instead. This way the blaster Ferox fits get more DPS while also keeping their range benefit (at the expense of tighter fittings).
2) We have metrics on how people are fitting their ships, and many of you may be surprised to know that the most common highslot modules fit to Ferox in the game are named 250mm rails. There is actually a significant number of people using the Ferox for turret based PVE that many veteran players can easily overlook.
3) The issue of balance between long range fit Combat BCs and Tier 3 BCs is an important one. In the end the solution will likely revolve around making sniping with medium weapons and sniping with large weapons more distinct. I'm not expecting people to use RailFerox fleets in pvp after this point release, but while also keeping a strong BlasterFerox alive I want to put the ship in a place where it can benefit from any changes we make to both help medium rails specifically, and the balance between medium and large long-range weapons in general.


I thought the Drake was going to get missile range and RoF bonuses?

That rumor stems from a discussion that was made during a previous CSM summit, and represented an early idea rather than a completed design. I have always been of the opinion that the Drake was actually decently balanced other than the problems with the weapon system, and now that we have taken our shot at balancing heavy missiles in Retribution the changes the drake needed are smaller.
There has also been a feeling expressed that we had been planning to remove all single damage type missile bonuses. It is true that we switched a few ships to omnidamage in Retribution, but we also specifically left the kinetic bonus on the Condor, as well as adding new racial damage bonuses to the Corax and Talwar. We do not consider the single damage bonus to be obsolete. Both RoF and damage missile bonuses are valid tools to use, and I prefer having a variety. Both have their advantages and disadvantages and provide different interesting gameplay in different situations.


Why is the Cyclone getting just 5 launchers and why does it keep 2 turrets?

Creating effective balance between the Cyclone and the Drake is tricky business. We are aiming for a useful tradeoff between the ships, with the Cyclone significantly faster and more maneuverable and with two utility highs vs the Drake's extra missile damage, with the...

Double drone bonus on myrm would be pretty kick ass. The ship flys better as a shield tanker anyway

Nerf off-grid boosts a bit to make on-grid boosting more interesting (even if it's just a slight reduction in effectiveness; something like 25% or 50%.

I don't want off grid boosting nerfed. I want all boosting nerfed. And I have something around 25M SP in leadership.

-Liang

I really like your t1 cruiser changes as i do for the BC change and BS change coming soon.

But what i do not like is that once again you remove an advantage to the solo players by making the navy and faction ships absolutly useless to pvp next to the t1 ones.
A T1 caracal tank more, tackle better, have more speed, more CPU than a navy caracal....its just one from all the others.

Pimp was a way to give an extra boost to your solo ship against blobs (because lets say it, eve is all about blobs nowaday).

I'd like to see some serious thinking about the navy and faction.

Otherwise, thank you for all the efforts you do to make the game better for PVP.

if you up the brutix to 10% bonus for amor reps per level and made it include external incomming armor RR that would fix the scale problem with armor tanking all together...

now you can fit plates without waisting a bonus.

secondly get rid of the tanking bonus on the myrn reduce to only 4 high slots and give us a 6th mid slot (its a shield tanked ship anyways) and give us a bonus to 7.5% to drone optimal range and tracking per level

this will make the myrm a mean green sentry machine...

also to help medium rails please please please increase the rof of them... doing this would help make up for thier lackluster dps...

also while you are at it rebalance hybrid tech I ammo to ad divercity... (like they did for projectile ammo years ago)

thanks in advance

Fuk

@Fozzie: Still wondering why you are going drone boat for the Prophecy instead of sticking to the resist/damage formula that has worked wonders for its smaller brethren. Being a brick should be an option not a requirement which I am sad to say is what a 7 slot drone boat with resists will be .. simple no real (read: viable) options beyond bricking.

I keep hearing those SP numbers thrown around, but doing the training multiplier x 256k for all skills (using EveMon) only yields 15M and change .. are there some secret skills I am not aware of or do people include peripheral skills?

15 for leadership not sure were they are gtting 25m

Multiple characters, all mindlinks, etc.

-Liang

Ed: I'm trying to point out how much I have invested in leadership, and it would be wrong to simply say the max of one of my characters.

a bit off topic but has there been talk of treating the battleship skill like the BC skill?