Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I like the idea for a smartbomb bonus instead of one to tractor beams.

I'd trade tractor beam bonus for a smart bomb bonus any day of the week. It could be anything from more range, to faster cycle time, to less cap use, or even a reduction in cpu requirement for the module.

With the idea of revamping the ships is to overhaul both their pve side and give them a more attractive pvp side in mind a bonus to Smartbombs applies to both. At current highslot layout will look somewhat like this :

4Weapons High Slots
1Bastion High Slot
0 to 3 Salvagers High Slot
0 to 3 Smartbomb High Slot

I'm not even taking into consideration location of wrecks or anything like that, I simply believe this gives all the ships from Golem to Paladin a fair ability to perform well in both up close and ranged combat. As Marauders state:

"Geared toward versatility and prolonged deployment in hostile environments, Marauders represent the cutting edge in today's warship technology. While especially effective at support suppression and wreckage salvaging, they possess comparatively weak sensor strength and may find themselves at increased risk of sensor jamming. Nevertheless, these thick-skinned, hard-hitting monsters are the perfect ships to take on long trips behind enemy lines." -Paladin Info

These ships are supposed to be tanky, thank you t2 resist. And have great weapons technology which means they should be able to do a great deal up close and far away, at current the range bonus but no tracking bonus favors all these ships to be looked at as though they are giant snipers boat and nothing more. To me this limits their ability to adapt horribly especially when using the module. The idea of a smartbomb bonus with a % range bonus(long enough to hit anything that can scram not using a disruptor) makes them capable close and medium range combat ships in pve&pvp while in bastion mode rather than the more limited "I need tracking enhancers and to MJD if I see something get close" problem.

As CCP Ytterbium put here they are shying away from just a pve buff, so I don't see the point in putting in another ship with scanning bonuses, the strategic cruisers and t2 frigs have them and soon to be more than likely the soe ships as well. I can see the argument that smartbombs dont mesh well with high sec and probing bonus would, this is a given. But as with many things these ships aren't isolated to high sec thats the players choice plus a battleship that can quickly scan people down in nullsec just sounds like it would **** people off who are normally scanning things down in an anathema then docking back up to get a better ship to do the ded site per say.

And as I quoted from the paladins ship info earlier : "While especially effective at support suppression and wreckage salvaging, they possess comparatively weak sensor strength and may find themselves at increased risk of sensor jamming" So I don't see how their probe strength would be better than their ships sensor strength, doesn't make much sense to me unless the sensor strength is major boosted suddenly then its an in line idea with the rest of the ship.

That's my input on making it balanced. It is reasonable to say ditch both ideas and give it a automated salvage ability in place of these ideas and the tractor bonus as it will still fit the original description. It could be as simple as once you get in range your ships salvage modules automatically lock and go. Not saying great or balanced per say but just an idea.

yeah ok ditch both ideas. as you did mention soe ships...

not sure if i support a salvage bonus as thats really pve and steps on the noctice. and you can allways use salavage drones anyways...

though i am going to hatch my idea from earlier in the thread.

a bonus to target spectrum breakers. remove the targeting penalty.

i mean a ship designed to go into mini siege mode meshes perfectly with a the TSB. and would have direct pvp/pve ramifications.

i would like to see the stasis webbifier bonus mitigated to the bastion mod. and with the idea of Scripts for the bastion mod i would do this.

for the damage script i would add the strength bonus to webs and for the range scirpt i would add range to webbs.

i would call one script the "close range script" and the other the "long range script"

bonus for close range script:
10% bonus to large turret damage and rate of fire
10% bonus to cruise/torp/rapid missile launcher damage/rate of fire
37.5% bonus to stasis webifier strength


then for the long range one:
Extends all large turret falloff and optimal by 25%
Increases all large missile max velocity by 25%
250% increase in range of stasis webs.

then without scripts:
5% bonus to large turret damage and rate of fire
5% bonus to cruise/torp/rapid missile launcher damage/rate of fire
18.75% bonus to stasis webifier strength
Extends all large turret falloff and optimal by 12.5%
Increases all large missile max velocity by 12.5%
125% increase in range of stasis webs.

i would also bring back the 30% bonus to resists but only for hull.

if ccp did this along with adding the role bonus to target spectrum breakers i think the ships would be in a really good place.

Dito. The nice thing about it is that if CCP is content with forcing the player to use a mod to make a ship even somewhat viable for anything, at least an idea like this gives the player some options. "I need to go into bastion, now there are some ways I can do this...do I need range or do I need damage" looks a lot better than CCP's current "one-trick pony" bastion mod.

Either way, I think I'm done with this whole "Marauder Rebalance" business. I've already bought a CNR and have plans to later get a Napoc, while my marauders both sit in station for now. Once November comes and goes, if marauders get shafted, then I simply take them both to a trade hub for selling. It'll be sad to see them go (esp the paladin, really love that laser beast), but no sense just hoping with crossed fingers. Having Marauders V use to feel good, now it just feels embarrassing.

well there are tradeoffs like with the rate of fire increase also increases cap usage for energy and hybrids...

plus to change scripts you have to go out of bastion mod and load the new script and then go back in... so its not instant it takes atleast one minute. furthermore you could be under lots of incoming damage and it might not be worth it to leave bastion cuss your tank would break.

mostly the TSB is not used because it means when active you loose 25% scan resolution plus friendly cannot lock you and so you cant get RR.

but that does not matter with the bastion mod because you cant get RR anyways. so they would go hand in hand.

AFAIK there is no 20 second lock break as seen with ecm. its the trade off of breaking every ships lock vrs one.

I fly a Paladin so will only comment on it,

I use T2 pulses, I have a MWD fit for maneuvering, I dont bother with a web since I used it only once in a great while, so i just let the drones take care of the frigates. What i really want for my paladin is tractor beams that are faster, a big buff to salvage cycle time, and the biggest complaint though is having to rely on drones for dps when scorch is reduced to 5km.

So with the new setup it might look like this,
-Beams for the reach after the 100km jump,
-Deploy the new tractor beam platform thing and hopefully it reaches the wrecks, otherwise your slowboating it, very slowly. . .
-salvagers in the 3 utility slots since it still doesnt have a salvager bonus
-Since there are beams on it, cruisers will get under the guns, but to far for the web, so the web is limited on its use. . . still, so more use of the drones except now its only light drones. So in sansha blockade that means that your paladin is using light drones to take out both cruisers and frigates, while your guns are useless. Could mjd, but your guns are still useless because of the ewar and now your drones are out of reach sooo. . . not effective, however
-with the bastion mod on, you could jump, deploy, snipe away. Seems effective, looking forward to it , but. . .still no use for the web so ill just keep ignoring that bonus.

I guess in the end, for me, I like it, except for the lack of salvager bonus, and need to rely on the tractor beam platform, which is alright assuming its small enough to fit in the cargo bay and still leave room for loot and salvage, and it still has the web bonus which is useless for pve, but hey, pvpers have fun. Wish there was some way to increase the DPS. . .

It will be interesting to see how this is used.

ps, 213 posts, really, does anyone read posts on pages 4 through 213?