Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Today I found this in the patch notes:



I think this is HUGE.
...and I have never read anything about this before.

Ok, it's a good idea to remove strange and undocumented features. But this one severely affects balance - especially the power of Arty fittings.
Basically anything that tries to one-hit or two-hit enemies (Thrashers, Ruptures, Tornados etc. with Atries) will have A LOT more trouble now.
Many kills will need an extra volley which - incombination with the typically long cycle times on these weapons - means a much lower efficiency in PvE. In PvP an opponent will very often get away in deep structure, because the whole deal with this type of fittings is that they surprise someone (one-hit upon undock or the like) or at least rely on an opponent completely misjudging his health bar (the final hit did way more damage than usual).

While one can discuss whether this is good or bad, ganks in Highsec should be easier/less easy and all that...
My point is: this was never announced or discussed here and it is likely to render complete tactics/doctrines completely useless (or in a much worse shape).

Were Alpha-Fittings (especially Artilleries) considered too powerful?
Will there be something to compensate?
(not talking about medium Long Range Turret Rebalance that happened for different reasons).

Please discuss.
And maybe we could get a short statement from our balancing experts at CCP?
Am I exaggerating?

To put it another way: assume that this "feature" never existed. What would your arguments for introducing it into the game be?

Now all make sense, i thought that was some kind of "Lucky Strike"!

Glad they fixed that!

I think you dont understand this change and what it fixes.
Imagine your industrial has 12k ehp(tanky enough to survive 1 tornado?), 3 of which is in structure. Then you meet this fancy Tornado that deals 11k alpha. With old mechanics your ship would be 1-shot which is wrong (12k > 11k) while removal of that obsolete "feature" fixes this issue.

Of course I do understand this change - that is why I am posting. :-D
For years now these 12k ehp industrials fell victim to Tornados or other 11k alphastrike gankers. Now, all of a sudden, they don't anymore.
Something is changed. It's getting less powerful. Thus, a nerf.
It was not announced, so it's a "stealth" nerf.
And the impact is much bigger than let's say the Nosferatu change - and we got 30+ pages of discussion on THAT.

Oh, you caught me. I just wanted to start a new career as a highsec ganker THIS WEEKEND and now I can't.
Instead I have to go to Jita and shoot the monument. -.-

Anyone who DID get the point, please X up.

even when i don't agree this is as game changing as you claim it to be, outside of ganking. (alpha fleets couldn't care less, and no one should care about pve) the effect this has on tornado ganks is pretty lame. now i know a lot of people don't like ganking, but nado ganks are expensive, they require a lot of skills, and homework. nado gankers, have to rat to maintain an acceptable sec rating (or tag it), and they have to live with 10, 20 killrights on them all the time. and siting on a congested gate with killrights while waiting for that autopiloting industrial can be nerve wrecking and will end in some botched ganks.

they are playing the highsec pirate game nicely, and by the book. not with cheapo disposable alts. seeing them go in such a way, with no discussion, and no feedback from players is pretty lame.

of all the gankers, only the nado gankers had the right to say to their victims "today i thought you two things about EVE. there's always someone watching you, and never fly what you can't afford to lose." there aren't many play styles that can have this impact on other players. and no, ganking barges is lame and doesn't even come close to this. but to the people who are into it... beware.your catalyst might be next.

even when im the king of all carebears, i would certainly side with the ganking side on this one. maybe they should re add the mechanic to blap guns, like artys, beams, and rails.

otherwise, the only way around this seems to have someone sitting on a thrasher to do the last minute blapping. or downsizing the operation to Omens/Mallers with the new Beams. you will end up needing more pilots, but 4 omens can put out 5k volleys every 2 seconds, that's something to consider.

btw OP, you might want to read this:
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=275054&find=unread

there seems to be a bug with the way they fixed this "bug" ... so there's still some hope.

less "its technically impossible that i just exploded - wtf just happened" moments. +1 for the change

I would think they should leave this mechanic in tact if the target ship is Minmatar. By the time a Minnie ship gets into structure it's only being held together by the rust and duct tape (and a prayer) anyway, one good arty jolt SHOULD knock it all apart...

It feels like you think we should be mad about a bug being fixed.