Player Features and Ideas Discussion

There's been some heavier-than-usual traffic about redesigning supercapitals and I've had this idea floating around for a while. There's no numbers involved yet but I wanted to get this out there sooner rather than later.

The idea is based around putting a little more risk into the sub-capital logistics game of moving people around fast. Right now any established alliance will have Titans scattered around their deployment area to reach almost anywhere in Eve in a few jumps. While deploying Titans around sounds risky, it's actually quite safe because POSs are usually easy to get.

The lack of risk involved in operating this logistical network means that it will always be used when its available. There's little to no risk involved in using it, and it provides a significant advantage to any side with it in place. On top of that it means that any opposition cannot target your logistical network easily, as Titans can jump bridge from within a POS shield.

The idea I've had, Jump Tethering, means to replace the jump bridge ability with something that puts the logistical network at some more risk when its used. A (non-dreadnaught) capital ship will able to be tethered to by sub capitals up to a certain mass-limit, and, once tethered, any jumps that capital ship makes will pull all tethered ships through with it.

Essentially this will make moving blobs around more methodical and careful, and it means that ambushes can be set up to trap other alliances logistical tools.

That would probably need to be considered, but I think the current metagame allows for these late comers due to the Titan not jumping through. The metagame would change to make latecomers not be able to join easily, but I don't see that as a particular problem to be honest.

In addition, Titans would not be the only ship to offer this. Carriers could be used to jump back and forth to tetherjump late comers if absolutely necessary, though I'd still prefer people got their act together and all left at the proper time.

I just think the titan should be forced to jump through too when the bridge expires.

And then the Asakai Scenario repeats, and you get this.
First thirty to firty-five seconds, but maybe the whole clip.

An interesting idea, I put out a version of this specific to carriers last month.

In another thread since that one, they also suggested that a carrier jumping with moored ships should have less range.
Reduced to titan equivalent with that pilot's JDC perhaps?

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=3223206#post3223206

Copied and pasted from the original thread:

EDIT: Add in specified 2,000 meter range for this mooring line, I was thinking it in my head but saw I did not spell it out.

By docking to the carrier, the game will just depict a mooring line running between the ship and the carrier.
(It doesn't need to be displayed as a space object, just listed like an effect above the capacitor the same way being webbed is, etc.)

If you move or direct your ship to leave or log out, the mooring line is released.

If the carrier jumps, your ship and you go with it.

Why does this work, when the previous problems existed in the past?
Because the mooring line actually represents a standing command to jump-bridge, just like pilots using a titan or blops bridge need to click on the graphic.
The mass of the ship is added to the carrier's, for fuel use calculation.

The mooring lines can be left in place after the jump, in the event it is a multiple jump event, or released so the individual pilots can go on their merry way.

Does this make carriers OP?
No, in fact it places them at risk. The carrier lands in the target system with the other ships, unlike the Titan or BLOPs which stay safely at the starting point / staging area.

My idea is to give the tethering ability, albeit a substantially reduced effectiveness one, to the other capitals (not the dreadnaught though) also.

Carriers and Supercarriers could do the same thing but with a lower upper bound of mass. The portal doesn't feel like something a carrier would employ.

On top of that, how do you manage the problem of the Titan calling in reinforcements to it from anywhere within its portal range? That seems like a very dangerous ability to provide a Supercapital.

Not necessarily.

Consider this:
The SMB on the carrier is set up to hold an average of 1 million m3 of ships.
What if the tethered ships, in order to be transported, had to draw off of that total?

For example, a carrier with 800,000 m3 of storage used in it's SMB, could only tether / moor 200,000 m3 of vessels maximum.

The carrier only ever carries up to 1 million m3 either way.

That is a huge balance issue, I do agree.

I would think a 1:1 ratio based off the carrier's SMB capacity seems fair.

The advantage would be one that favored group play, or at the very least multiple accounts.
Pilot plus any cargo in the ship beyond ammunition would be an advantage limited to tethering.

+in the +1.

Titan bridges, as is, involve almost no risk. I love the idea that a capital has to jump through with the fleet; makes so much more sense and forces the assault to commit.

Why not just reverse the direction of titan bridges?

Instead of clicking on the titan and ending up by the cyno, why not make them click on the cyno and end up near the titan.

This would cause a fleet to commit a titan every time they wanted to hotdrop, but would provide a significant advantage to a group using a titan for defense as it would be able to pull in fleets from all around to assist it.