Player Features and Ideas Discussion

The current T2 battleship lineup is a mess of ships which do not fill any particular role very well, and the proposed Marauder revamp only makes them messier. Something must be done.

First, CCP should take the work that they've done on the proposed Marauders (the fancy new animations, siege-module-but-not concept, etc), ditch the MJD bonus and all pretenses of PvP usefulness, add a small damage bonus, further-reduce their mobility (make them handle more like a little capital ship than a battleship) and rename the ships "Vanguards" or something and play up the fact that they were designed specifically for destroying pirate encampments or whatever in their description. Go hog-wild and make the ultimate PvE battleship, while trading off qualities that would render them useful for PvP (mobility, buffer tank, ability to receive remote reps, etc) in exchange. Pick a specialization for this T2 hull and stick to it.

Then, having actually created a specialized T2 BS hull for PvE, take the Marauder class title, take re-skins of the formerly-tier 3 battleships, and make a class that's actually useful for PvP in hostile space. Make these ships similar to what blackops battleships are currently, but without the jump portal generators and with an obvious combat focus instead of the hodgepodge of attributes that current blops bs have:

- T1ish resists and average-to-light tanks: smaller than normal tanks for a battleship, with T1 resists to ensure that they can't be used effectively in large fleets with logi support
- Jump drive equipped, can jump to covert cynos
- CANNOT fit jump portal generators or covert cynos or take covert bridges
- 4 weapons, 75-100% damage boost from role bonus for 7-8 effective weapons
- 7 highs
- Bonuses to normal cloaking devices: -100% targeting delay after decloaking, -100% to cloak scan resolution penalty
- Takes blackops BS' current role bonus to ship velocity while cloaked
- Large drone bays regardless of available bandwidth, to allow for plenty of spare flights of drones
- Generous cargo bays (on the large side of the normal battleship range) plus fuel and ammunition bays, to allow the ship to carry enough consumables for extended use without resupplying
- Unusually high agility / speed for battleship hulls (make them handle like a battlecruiser)
- Damage output should be on the low end of the battleship damage spectrum (as blops BS are currently) in another effort to offset their mobility advantages

These ships would actually be useful as heavier dps support in hostile space, having bonuses that allow them to stay a step ahead of their opponents, ambushing targets and hiding when necessary, while trading some of the damage output and tank that you'd normally get from a T1 battleship in exchange. They should be less at home in a straight up brawl than a T1 battleship (which will hopefully keep them within their niche role as part of a blackops gang rather than presenting a viable ship for large-scale deployment), but should really excel (for a battleship, anyway) at their "Marauding" role-- lurking about in hostile space and providing the muscle to quickly snuff out a target and run off again when opportunities present themselves. They won't be as evasive or mobile as something like a nano-HAC, but will provide more staying power in exchange.

Finally, revamp Blackops battleships to actually fit into more of a support role, instead of the current arrangement where they try to be half gang support, half combat ship while excelling at neither role:

- 4 weapons, 50% role bonus to damage for 6 effective turrets
- 7-8 highslots
- Jump drive equipped
- Fit covert ops cloaks (same as recon ships-- no scan res penalty, targeting delay after decloaking)
- Battlecruiser-like hitpoints
- Battlecruiser-like agility
- Miniature SMA sized to fit maybe a cruiser + a frigate, or several frigate hulls
- Fitting service accessible by one fleet member at a time-- force this to be an out-of-combat feature by making it only active when no modules are activated on the blackops battleship
- Large cargo hold, large fuel bay (larger than Marauders), large consumables bay (ammo, paste, charges, etc... maybe code it so that anchorable bubbles will go in as well)
- Bonuses to debuffs-- web range, neut range, etc much like recon hulls, but with smaller bonuses (leave recons as the last word in providing debuff support from stand-off ranges)
- Possibly a probing bonus a la recons as well?
- Mediocre to poor damage output for a battleship (6 effective turrets, single weapon bonus, tweak powergrid output and fitting requirements of covert jump portal generator such that it's difficult to fit a full rack of top-tier large guns as well as a bunch of neuts / support items in the utility highs)

Basically the idea here is to steer blackops away from DPS-oriented fits, making them a little more fragile than they currently are and reducing their damage output, while giving them a useful role to play as a provider of logistical and combat support to their gangs. Blackops will be better for sneaking about, doing recon tasks, will be able to bridge covert ships, and will be able to provide out-of-combat refitting support to their gang, as well as being able to haul along significantly more fuel and consumables than any other covert ship short of a blockade runner. When participating in combat directly, I'd prefer to see blackops function in more of a support role than they do currently, providing debuffs to inflict on hostile ships rather than significant DPS contributions-- they should be *part* of a gang composition for operating in hostile space, not the primary component.

Such a reboot of the T2 battleship lineup would result in a useful PvE-specialized ship, a useful direct combat PvP ship specialized for use in hostile space, and a sort of gang support ship specialized for use in hostile space to compliment a marauding T2 BS / recon / bomber group.

Didn't CCP specifically say they didn't want to force the Marsuders line into 1 aspect of EvE (pvp or pve)? You are going completely against that.

If marauders have to go down the road of being mini dreadnoughts then you haven't gone far enough. I guess it comes down to some more abstract high level objectives for their rebalance