Player Features and Ideas Discussion

All the issues brought up in this thread by this "balance" are exactly why you have to hit the tracking formula.

You simply cannot keep tweaking damage because at some point, you paint yourself into a corner.





You can't continue down this road. Please just enhance the tracking formula to create balance within gun classes by varying the ranges they excel.

It's so simple:

Create a % modifier on all guns that affects Sig Resolution at range. Create higher modifiers for Artilleries and Pulse.

Create medium modifiers for Autocannons and Beams.

Create Low modifiers for blasters and Rails.

This way, you create zones of engagement where everything performs better than others. Rails now have tracking modified advantages at longer ranges and you can change range ammo to help also account for this. But nerf their tracking in close due to this modifier being built in for range engagements only.

Autocannons get a medium Modifier because they have falloff already affect them at range. This also means you can return them to pre TE nerf ranges so that they get more range, but bigger drop offs. I see pulses and beam balance in that pulses have higher tracking, beams have higher range potential, but both excel in mid ranges. Ultimately it's a tradeoff of which side is needed more. Beams might actually get a slightly higher advantage in modified tracking due to sig after 50km in this area so that pulses can't dominate the field always.

Make pulses and artilleries have high modifiers so that pulses don't have huge advantages at range over any other weapon system and Artlleries still thump, but struggle at any range to actually project their damage with diminished tracking abilities due to the sig mod.

It's the best option for balance for guns because it creates zones of variation where everything excels and damage is no longer a factor so much as tactics are. It also creates a need for the return of a variety of ships rather than uniform fleet concepts.

Then all you have to do is fix drones and Sentry carriers and wham.... weapon balance. No more stat tweaking, and more options for ship diversity.

JUST think, this opens up the door so that HACs can actually excel somewhere that ABCs cannot.

I can't completely agree with you because the dps potential with hybrids in fall off is clearly the best while increasing optimal would make them beams alike and wouldn't change much for blaster pilots the simple fact they are in scram web range to do any interesting dmg except large blasters being at the right spot.

plenty have said since the last hybrid rebalance that the damage on medium rails needed looking at again, all can say is about bloody time :)

Bomber defense for larger fleets, mainly.

I think that's the point and the difference between a gallente hybrid boat and a Caldari one. The gallente boat is designed to be strapped with blasters hence falloff and tracking bonuses while the Caldari boats are designed for rails and hence get optimal bonuses

Dear CCP Rise,

being rather noob Gallente pilot i can speak only about Rails

1) they are not of any use when fast enemy ships are closer than 15-18 km
what distances they would be useful after reballancing ?

2) +15% ROF for me means -15% capacitor recharge rate, am i corrrect?
this would result in using Vexors as pure dorone boats with no guns
Myrmidons may use projectiles. What do you think about cap stable PVE Vexor?
How do i fit rails to Vexor ? Requirements to learn Capacitor skills and Controlled Bursts
to 5 and plug in +5 Control Bursts slot 10 implnat are somewhat tough for newb, aren't they ?
So what about newbie PVE Vexor's pilots, any ideas, please?

( i realize that with your "ALL 5" you do not think about noobs, this is why i'd like to remind you about the difficulties new players may experience with lack of capacitor for "upgraded" railguns )

Thanks

Some null entities like Hydra BL and actually many other gangs use arty Cyna gangs and have an impressive success rate, most used are of course Cynabals but also Munins supported by anti tackle SFIs and they can mess up pretty much larger gang groups quite easily.

Of course the specific ships bonus helps those arties work like a charm and when you have enough numbers (20/25 ships including 1/2 logi scout bbler and anti tackle like SFI) those do really nasty things and are very hard to catch if the FC is as good has some Hydra dudes (always awesome to fight them, always learning stuff) -Elo Knight is not Hydra member but he's a dam good FC at this kind of stuff even if I haven't crossed his road doing this for a while.

Edit: actually after the proliferation of sniping ABCs these groups are less and less seen all over the place but when they do it always finishes with lots of blood and dead corpses all over the place.

The deimos is quite clearly NOT designed to be strapped with blasters.. Its pretty awful at it.

Not that its amazing at rails, like trouser said, its fittings can't accommodate armor tanking and rails. Also its slow.. Bringing us back to the Why the **** is the Vaga so fast compared to the deimos thing.

The major problem of this weapon system came with little changes, not game ones but players choices.

The proliferation of HM Drakes and after Tengus fleets only put on the spotlight what was going wrong with HM's: the ridiculous flight time and explosion radius.

Thing is that not only those were nerf at reasonable numbers but on top their dps got nerf which results in even less applied DPS than paper numbers.
DPS loss+explo radius nerf brought an even higher nerf when the dps numbers at that time were acceptable considering the loss due to missile mechanic changes.

Since then we've seen T1 cruisers and BC's changes hit, ship bonus changes and now turrets changes and I'm pretty sure HM's will be the most uninteresting weapon system to use if used at all and this not because HAM's became too strong but only because HM's got a higher nerf then they needed.

I don't want to see again 100MN AB Tengus shooting HMs at stupid ranges, hell implement a stupid variable in 100MN ABs "can't be fit on T3's" but HM's need right now a little 3% dmg increase imho but after turrets rebalance it will be around 20%.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT8VqVcLDqc



Astarte, Brutix, Celestis?
That's interesting setup...



Missiles are fine. Well, defenders need some work.