Player Features and Ideas Discussion

If this is the case, you are past it with the ASB modules. Unless all ships are made equally capable of sheild and armor tanking, making it a choice of style over substance, then the 2 styles need to be equivalent. Making shields capable of being both cap free and massive repair and leaving armor in the cold isn't balanced unless you want to make the HP bonus of plates equal to what an ASB puts out during one full load of charges. Then you can swap that repair bonus on Gallente ships for a similar %HP bonus to give parity on the % resist of Amarr hulls. Even at that, you would need to have the plates auto-repair themselves after a minute to make up for the ASB's ability to reload. That would actually make a pretty cool plate... One that gives its HP bonus and can be loaded with paste, activated for one cycle and fully refreshes at the end of that cycle, in need of reload.

I honestly think making the Ancillary modules repairers in their own right is the wrong way to go. You disrupt less in the balance of current tanking by making them boost regular booster/repairers. You gain flexability by making them a sort of amplifier because then the boost scales with current modules, you can better control the burst tank timeframe, better manage fuel cost, and you allow for logical use of an emergency ancillary system rather than forcing us to replace our current tank with the new one.

If the issue the ASB is supposed to address is lack of mids for tackle and ewar, then address that. Give extra mids, or better yet give us better tactical weapons to cover those needs, like missles that disable warp drives for a set time (reducable by skills), scriptable targeting computers (highslot version?) that add ewar/tackle effects to turret fire to simulate direct fire on propulsion or sensors, improve ewar drones to usability, move most projected ewar to high slots (mids were supposed to be close or local effects) or other things to relieve pressure on midslots, rather than dirupting the balance of tanking.

This is a great point. They made a mistake. SO UNMAKE IT. There is this unstated premise in every CCP post here about the ASB / AAR that the mistakes made with the ASB can't be undone. It's your game. Change it. People told you neut immunity was a problem when the module came out. Now you admit neut immunity is a problem, and you say you're not going to go down that road with the AAR. Fine. No problem. Good move. Achievement Unlocked: Learn From Your Mistakes.

So when are you going to fix the problem you created by making the mistake in the first place?

I do not think cap free ASBs are a total mistake. it is all but impossible to fit any kind of a cap booster on to Shield ships. Armor gets enough mids for prop full tackle and a cap booster on most ships. I think the main disparity comes into play when you realize that armor ships under heavy neut pressure basicly are completely shut down. They cannot shoot they cannot tank and they cannot move. While most shield ships can still tank and shoot under heavy neuts. These days neuts are less of a problem since the 1 cookie cutter ship that everybody has been flying no longer has the ability to fit 2 neuts(Hurricane). We should see less neuts overall in space so it should limit the perceived weakness some. CCP should look into lowering the fitting requirements of nos and maybe cap batteries right now they are challenging to fit to most ships.

Wiv

Maeltstome, I think you have misinterpreted Fozzie's statement. I think he was making an oblique and grudging admission that they understand that ASBs have presented a problem. In light of that I think your verbal dressing down is misapplied and inappropriate in itself. I do not see an intended insult in what Fozzie posted.

Now you may get more hackles and decide to dismiss me as a Fozzie fanboy. But I agree with you that ASBs (as well as the continuing existence of op BC passive shield regen) have created a problem for cap warfare in small scale engagements. As another poster has requested, we hope they will review the nos mechanics. Neuting can shut off resist modules but yes if the hp regenerating modules and mechanics of ASBs and passive shield regen can be set up to out tank a hefty incoming dps without any worry what so ever about cap there is a still a problem.

As for being a Fozzie fanboy I was elated to see the long overdue HM nerf. I was mostly pleased with the work Fozzie, Ytterbium, and the team have done with frigates and cruisers. However, I would not call myself an uncritical responder to their work. They have left some missile and mid slot blessed frigates with an advantage through the use of TDs that neuter turrets but still can't affect missiles. At that level missiles remain without a counter, while there is a single module that can counter turrets quite well without needing any ship bonuses. Also, the BC changes and these new active armor additions leave me unconvinced that shield BCs (drakes, feroxes, and cyclones) won't still be preferable, and that the Gallente active armor rep bonuses have any utility, still. And I've said so in some possibly dickish posts, although I try not to be. But I think accusing Fozzie of insulting players and suggesting he quit his job is over the top.

Best.

The reasons given above are why I don't consider the brutix to be ideal for an active tank. It doesn't have the mids or PG to do triple rep. You have to drop the guns down from ions to electrons to fit a third repairer and drop a rig to fit an ancillary current router to fit another cap booster on. Then, you don't have a mid for a web to hold targets to close range so you must go down to null ammo on electrons to reach further out. Even if the target stays close the target may have too much transversal to hit without a web.

I think it would perform better as a plater with a different defensive bonus, or even a second offensive bonus similar to the megathron.

So you're still going ahead with yet more skillbooks for armor tankers to be effective as well as two gimped Gallente BCs??

This armor changes should've been done before the ship rebalance started, it looks like it's back to square one.

The capacitor batteries at the medium level actually slide in pretty nicely compared to cap boosters. Is there any chance of further buffing to make them worthwhile?

I kinda like that it works best with the smaller charges. It creates an interesting market dynamic, since you almost never want to down-scale what you load in a cap booster mod.