Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I'll begin by saying that with all the promising balancing changes and multiple iterations going on, I haven't ever been more optimistic about the future of EVE than I am now. I also haven't had this much fun making stuff disintegrate in EVE for a long time.

While the basic idea of tiericide is sound, my worry is that racial flavour is being lost. I would like to argue that without proper racial flavour, ships end up feeling like copies of a different race's ship. This no doubt will sometimes be unavoidable, but with some basic (be it bold) changes, this could be avoided.

Minmatar Racial Flavours
Defining doctrine: skirmish.
Weakness: low EHP, low-ish DPS, low sensor strength
Strength: high speed, decent agility, high scan res
Primary weaponry: projectiles (alpha)
Secondary weaponry: missiles
Primary defense: signature radius, active shield tank

Suggestion 1: reduce dependency on drones for extra dps but add a free utility high instead.
Suggestion 2: vary amount of ship types across the races. i.e. not all races get equal attack/combat/... ratios.
Suggestion 3: rebalance ammo bonuses at the same time.


Revisited Minmatar T1 Fleet
Choices for pilots to make:

1. Do I want to use projectiles or missiles?
2. Do I want to fly active shield tank or passive tank?

For the T1 lineup making one choice actually makes the second choice easier => easier for new pilots to progress.

This lineup gets dual damage bonuses, so it effectively becomes an "armor tank or dps/speed tank" lineup.

Combine with an ammo rebalance where minmatar get no tracking ammo but fall-off ammo instead. DPS from t1 navy fall-off ammo would be slightly less than current barrage damage. Barrage can receive a slight boost in turn. Keep in mind that there would no longer be drone dps, so theoretical DPS would be lower while actual DPS would probably be the same or higher depending on clever ammo choice. Keep only one flavor of t1 optimal range ammo.

The Tornado could do with a slight rebalance here as well. In fact, all tier 3 could do with some further rebalancing. My nerf of choice for the tornado would be to remove one turret without touching mass or agility.

The Tempest as the second attack battleship in the minmatar lineup would lose its drones and gain another utility high, which frees up space for an additional low slot. This leaves the tempest a bit behind in DPS again (get used to it), but provides it with another low to gain more speed, more tank or better range projection, etc.


Not much to say here. The Typhoon becomes a combat oriented "disruption" battleship like the bellicose is a combat oriented disruption cruiser. Both lose their dronebays and instead gain a utility high. Bellicose dps will take a big hit, but a high for a neut will help it in its role of frig splatter. If dps is too big of an issue, give it the racial explosive bonus.
The typhoon receives a target painter bonus instead of the currently proposed explosion velocity, loses its dronebay entirely and receives a "utility high" so the current utility high can be moved to a medium slot. Again, if dps is an issue, a way can be found to boost it, but theoretical DPS should be low-ish because speed is so powerful. This does imply that minmatar ships get a speed advantage.

Note: The Bellicose and the Typhoon should be viable in both armor and shield fleets.

The maelstrom is now a bit of an oddball ship because it actively shield tanks but uses projectiles. I don't really see this as a problem. The suggestions I made here are guidelines to help create interesting ships, no rules to be blindly followed at all times at all cost.


But wait, I love drones and I enjoy flying Minmatar!!
No problem, drones can be bolted on easily.. By removing drones as an option/requirement for the T1 minmatar lineup, it's now possible to add drones elsewhere for variation. Maybe an idea for the tech 3/tech 2 overhaul or maybe it's what makes the Republic Fleet versions better than T1...


I'll leave it to someone with proper Amarr/Caldari/Gallente knowledge to come up with their own racial flavour. :)

I tip my hat to you sir for properly going outside the box yet maintaining minmatar flavor.