Ships & Modules

The description for Tech II ships that come from Roden Shipyards is as follows:

"Unlike most Gallente ship manufacturers, Roden Shipyards tends to favor missiles over drones and their ships are generally faster than other Gallente ships in their class. They generally have a substantial amount of hull modification options but limited electronic systems..." There are a few variations of this touting the increased armor amount or the like.

Unlike their Khanid brethren, my gripe is that the Roden ships are split down the middle when it comes to the available launcher hardpoints on each of their respective hulls.

Let's take a look at them.

Enyo
1 Launcher Hardpoint
4 Turret Hardpoints
5 m3 drone bay

Ares
1 Launcher Hardpoint
2 Turret Hardpoints
0 m3 drone bay

Eris
4 Launcher Hardpoints
5 Turret Hardpoints
5 m3 drone bay

Phobos
5 Turret Hardpoints
0 m3 drone bay

Oneiros
2 Turret Hardpoints
50 m3 drone bay

Lachesis
3 Turret Hardpoints
3 Launcher Hardpoints
0 m3 drone bay

Granted, the argument could be that these are specialized ships and the need for a uniform high slot weapons configuration is frivolous. For example, when would you be fitting 2 launchers to an Oneiros instead of Remote Armor Reps? I digress. My point is that the ships remain true to their description when it comes to the other aspects of the hull's capabilities (increased armor, fast, low sensor strength in comparison with Duvolle and Creodron ships, small if not non-existent drone bay). Why not make the rest of the hull in line with the manufacturer's doctrine.

Are we supposed to fly these ships like the Cyclones of yesteryear? This bring up the questionable effectiveness of the synergy between Rails and Missile Launchers. I do, however, believe that a Blaster and Rocket/HAM compilation is relatively effective. There is also little motivation for the Gallente capsuleer to cross train into missiles if they do not see a return on their investment of time and skill points. Is losing a drone bay and gaining 1-2 launcher hardpoints worth it?

CCP, take a look at the Roden ships as you rebalance Tech II hulls and make them effective according to their roles and developer doctrine. You did it with the Khanid ships a while back, so I don't doubt that you can do it for the Roden iterations as well. With the lack of viable kiting setups in the Gallente ship repertoire, you can give them an option with the tech II hulls.

TL;DR - Give Roden ships moar missile launchers.

Don't put missiles on my gallente ships.
If i wanted to use missiles i would have skilled caldari.

Don't dare to put missiles on the enyo or the phobos.

Don't homogenize the Amarr and Gallente even more.

That's a worthless argument if I've ever seen one. I'll admit, I love flying the Enyo, and the Phobos seems fine as well, but neither fit the developer description. Now, if both ships fielded the opportunity to fit either turrets or launchers, that would make more sense. Ships like the Lachesis see bonuses to missile rate of fire and yet still only have 3 launchers out of 5 hardpoints. Roden would then be an option of versatility rather than indecision.

This game rewards those who cross train. Take a look at the pirate faction ships, and the Khanid as well. If you are relegating yourself to Gallente=blasters only (God knows that rails are sub-optimal in combat) and its faults, then good luck to you.

Not only that, but giving a few Gallente Tech II hulls more launcher hardpoints does not homogenize them with the Amarr/Khanid, who specialize in short-ranged missile combat.

All true Gallente buy from CreoDron™

Yes indeed, Roden hulls, and to some other tech2 manufacturers don't make much sense.

We have some high-level plans on how we could potentially fix them once we are done with tech1 hulls. One option could consist in consolidating the Gallente Tech2 manufacturers as:

• Duvolle: specialization on hybrid turrets
• Creodron: specialization on drones (which means fixing the Eos and Sin for instance)
• Roden: specialization on missiles

Obviously, that's to be taken with a grain of salt, as this is no way set in stone and there are still obstacles along the way. For example:

• Is shuffling some tech2 Gallente hulls to use missiles really such a good idea?
• Do missiles even matter on Roden hulls with a very specific role? (Oneiros, Eris, Lachesis)
• Can a missile-based Gallente tech2 line even exist without overstepping on other missile lines? (Caldari, Minmatar, Khanid)

We'll get more opportunities to discuss that with the player base when we actually move to tech2 hull rebalancing.

The only other t2 armor missile line is Khanid, and they're only short range. So make Roden long range missiles? After fixing them first, of course.

Lachesis has guns, so why not hmls with range to match that ewar?

And I can see Eris with rockets, or light missiles (which can use a buff, btw). Atm, there's the Sabre, there's the other 2, then there's the Eris at the end. That should change.

Well the Lachesis would benefit from missiles as their projection and damage is better than rails or blasters.
Eris has missiles already it should really be a blaster ship i would have thought.
And besides you would have to explain why they have a stealth bomber with missiles without roden shipyards. :P

I think if they did make Roden truly missile focused, there'd have to be a trade with Duvolle somewhere.

ie. Enyo for Nemesis.

Well the alternative solution is to play more into missile types, unfortunately there only seems to be 3 of them. FOFs which nobody wants to use, the Smart Missiles and Dumb Missiles.

If I could develop it i would make fire and forget missiles that have similar function to the bomb in that they have to be forward launched and only acquire hostile targets in a cone in front of the ship. Make them decent long burn chase missiles or short burn high damage bombarding missiles and would fit better with the high speed nature of the ships.

The manufacturers need looking at in Total, The Caldari and Minmatar are fine.

The Amarr ones [especially Carthum and Viziam] are almost impossible to tell appart as they all specialize in armour and besides khanid lasers with the only thing to set them apart being the colour of the ship.

With the Gallente its just Rodens lack of an identity.
the ship is supposed to be bad at electronics yet they give it all the electronic ships [which I understand seeing as all the blaster boats are covered by Duvolle and all the drones boats go to Creodron]

Roden needs to have its description changed to it dealing with electronics, it would solve alot of issues.
I wouldnt go as far as having them completely specialise in missiles as it would just make them a clone of the Khanid.

As far as the Enyo is concerned: While I LOVE my red enyo; the ship should really just be reskinned to be a Duvolle ship, its basically the blaster assault frigate and should thus be a Duvolle ship.

In turn the Nemesis should be Roden, not Duvolle. I mean REALLY the one ship that fits perfectly with Roden and you gave it to Duvolle?!

Basically: Change Rodens description to being GOOD at electronics as opposed to bad and reskin both the Enyo and the Nemesis to swap manufacturers and it would solve most of the problems in my eyes.