Player Features and Ideas Discussion

As I said


I believe its hard to really say whether the bonuses are too powerful or not in its current state.

If both fleets have them then they should cancel each other out. Though if on-grid the ship could be target by a fleet and push off field or neuted out so it cannot provide the bonuses. Then the fleet with their bonuses intact has an advantage because of their tactics to remove the opposing boosts.

I'm not so sure...
The primary link mechanics are very much the 2% game, and the final result of a single link is effectively a one module gain (an EANM for example) and although they are ubiquitous in certain playstyles (and even deemed necessary by many of the exponents of those playstyles) the dynamic isn't too far off as long as there is an active player behind them.
The nearly unprobable, nullified, cloaky command ship which sits AFK at a safespot, or worse in a POS Bubble, is problematic but if they can be made more vulnerable, vulnerable enough that they need a real player at the keyboard behind them then I would expect to see people fitting and flying them differently.
Real Players don't tend to enjoy sitting at safes, watching D-Scan while their mates are having a fight - if they're at the keyboard anyway then they might as well fit a tank and weapons and join in - it's probably safer to hang around the logis anyway and it reduces the risk of the command ship having to warp right at the moment that their boosts are key to victory.

Warfare links, when you have to choose one, or even two or three, could be likened to intelligence - if you know that your opponents are going to be fielding entirely Amarr turret ships and lasers then you shove on more EM resists to gain an advantage; links turn that effect into a game system, if you're prepared to field them then the advantage should be tangible - the trouble comes when there's no need to choose which links you want to use because you've loaded all of them onto the ship.

Sounds like a cop-out to me, numbers don't lie and neither does the feeling of having been shafted by named module T1 ship performing like a faction fit pirate hull
These are the numbers as they look when links a fielded by commandship with spec 4 (ie. not max skilled + T1 links) and implant:
Note: I will intentionally leave information links out because they are situational and kind of naff.
Armour/Shield: -20.7% cap consumption for all repair, local and remote.
Armour/Shield: +20.7% resists across the board.
Armour/Shield: -20.7% cycle time for all repair, local and remote.
Roughly (a bit shaky on the math) a 50% increase in active tank, ever wonder why logistics is sometimes considered OP? This is a big part of it.
Skirmish - Evasive: -20.7% signature of all ships.
Skirmish - Interdiction: +31% to all non-bubble tackle.
Skirmish - Deployment: +20.7% to speed increase from propulsion mods.
Probably the primary reason for this whole debate as the complete fight control offered by these trump any other links except in massive blob fights .. signature decrease alone is worth as much (or more) tank wise as two of the shield/armour bonuses combined. Cost/benefit of using these is tallied in billions with only a handful of pilots under its wing .. all T1 pew critical mods function as if of the faction variety.

You ready for it, the reason why it is incredibly easy to say that they ARE too powerful in their current state?
--*> All the above numbers/bonuses are applied fleet wide, that is up to ~250 people all getting the on paper 'reasonable' bonuses at no cost to themselves and with no need to anything other than promise to shoot the primary (ignore the fact that some people can't even manage that for now).

The correct analogy would be an extra ship bonus as they do not stack with fitted modules. But otherwise, yes it is 'merely' part of the min/maxing part of the game .. we are all guilty of bringing the bling to gain an advantage, but that bling costs us ISK, fittings and a target on our back when it becomes known (not necessarily a bad thing ) whereas link bonuses are universally applied requiring nothing from us at all.

Links need a complete rethink. On-grid demand/requirement is a band-aid at best, a big solid one granted, but a band-aid nonetheless.

One alternative to nerfing the links themselves is to nerf the "specialist" skills. At present these offer a 400% bonus to link performance, so reduce the "100% re level after 2" craziness to "10% per level." Or boost links, make them targeted active modules, then have the Specialist skills add one to the maximum number of links you can fit. Thus a command ship with 8 high slots can fit four of each type of link that the hull gets a bonus for. But then it has no weaponry.

My opinion today is that the "smart bomb" style of buffing is a decent way to allow moderate bonuses from links while still allowing the command ship to fit offensive weaponry. Or perhaps the command ship could be a battle-cruiser sized logistics boat.

I don't care about how strong the links are. They can be as powerful as they are right now, no problem.

But the next time I encounter some "lonely frig" doing 1on1 fights in FW space WITH TITAN LINKS!!! I'll have to vomit.

I just think that boosting should involve some sort of risk. Having off-grid boosts gives you a massive advantage, with no additional risks for you. That is the problem.
Just leave them as they are, just make them on-grid only.

I smell really borked and dysfunctional shield nano fleets while armor blobs flourish with brick damnations boosting them.
CCP should remove in POS boosts nerf OGB to 75% not remove OGBs completely, unless if there's a way to fit ganglinks to nano omens stabbers slicers and so on without making it derp.

In the current system I simply don't see how this could work without being terribly broken for all non blob warfare and not making nodes keel over when you boost 500 man blobs.

And if everyone has them, noone has them. Then we're right back to who brought the most bling.

Sort of except eve as a whole is less fun. Instead of getting in a ship and roaming around you will need to log in all your extra accounts get them to their safe spots etc. Eve pvp becomes more a of an expensive hassle than a fun game.

Fixed that for you.