Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I like that you kept sig radius reduction on Hyena, however I think -3% per level is inadequate. Compared to -15% MWD sig reduction of Talwar and interceptors -3% is kind of underwhelming to say the least.

True, Hyena's sig bonus will benefit even AB fits, but given how small it is, and that Hyena's sig bonus, despite years of service, has newer been found overpowered, I'd like you to consider increasing sig radius bonus to -4%/level, possibly even to -5%/level.

Nice, so if you want to solo you can either bring an arty rupture and only be able to volley hyenas off the field at the start of engagements and then run away, or you bring a typical solo ship is designed to do damage at unbonused point ranges and then die to every gang webbing you with a hyena from outside range you can hit back from.

Between this, the warp speed changes and the interceptor bubble immunity this expansion is a triple smack down to the idea of up engaging against bigger gangs solo. Wildly disappointing expansion tbh, seriously wtf ship can viably fight solo against a gang that has a Hyena as part of fleet comp? And now if you disengage to a celestial in your stabber for instance the bigger gang will have tackle waiting for you as soon as you land.

Ughhhh

REALLY? after how many years of absolute bitching and people wanting eaf's to be good you still didnt change the fundamental thing that makes them all SUCK? their sig radius? litterly NOTHING has changed with these ships. they will still die to ANY battleship that looks at them funny

I have to agree that these changes take EAF from worthless to incredibly OP.

Was there a Plan B for EAS revamp?

Any kind of missiles ship. Kestrel. Talwar. Corax. Load FoF missiles if you can't lock. Any kind of specialized drone boat. Launch drones. Wait for ship to aggro. These ships will have little if any tank. They can't sig tank for ****. And they aren't that fast.

Glad to see these getting some attention, but I don't think the ehp and sig radius changes are enough. Interceptors can get away with ehp like that because they're not supposed to get hit. The only plan for these ships seems to be "don't be in range". Increasing the EWAR range bonus helps them do that, but it forces them into fleet roles instead of being good for solo stuff too (except the sentinel, which looks overpowered to me as it's suggested).

Past 20-30k most frig DPS drops off entirely unless they have drones, especially since these ships have no bonuses to damage projection. Obviously they shouldn't be DPS monsters or anything, but I don't get why they're not at least close to on par with interceptors.

I'd drop the range bonus, and do some combination of the following: increase their ehp a bit more, lower their sig to around 40m, give them each (except the sentinel maybe) another high-slot and weapon hardpoint. If you really want to make them interesting, give them cloaks too.

let the space weeping of the enemy gankers begin.

The only real thing I feel needs to be changed with these is the sentinel band width reduced to 15 and drone bay reduced a bit, with the Keres getting a small drone bandwidth/bay increase.

Anyone who's solo'ing already knows there are ships they cannot fight, that if they try to fight, they will die. A punisher does not try to fight an ishkur or dramiel, as a general rule. A cruiser GTFO's or proceeds very cautiously at the sight of a condor.

All that is going to happen here are people are going to figure out which ships can and can't fight a sentinel. And most AF's are still going to laugh at these. Missile boats care very little for your tracking disruption. Sure, they're vulnerable to neuts. But an EAF's damage is so low an AF's natural 'toughness for a frig' should just be inconvenienced. 4 unbonused light drones don't really do that much damage. And for the theoretical 'capping out' they have to be neut fit in the highs, so they are it's ONLY damage. Yeah, Enyo, Retribution, and Harpy, might struggle a bit, but all 3 of those are pretty tanky AF's too. They'll just have to adjust their strategy or pick their fights. The world won't end.

While there are always exceptions to the rule, in general these ships are not going to be well suited to solo work. Too fragile in the event they do get caught, too expensive when a T1 variant can do most the job anyway, and easy to spot on D scan and avoid or counter.

Yeah, a Kitsune is gonna be interesting, but that fault is in ECM, not the ship. But just keep an eye on your D scan and avoid the fight, or have a plan to deal with it, read drones, or ECCM or neuts, or a great many options available, up to and including calling for back up. And if you're in a fleet.... well then there are options there for dealing with it too.

EAF's have been pretty much useless for a while. They're still gonna be fragile. Get a condor to go catch it and slow it down, then 1 shot it off field. They're still gonna be in a pretty niche role. They should actually be able to DO the job well enough to justify the added cost/skill now, as opposed to their current iteration where the only reason I might fly a Keres is the point range, because a Maulus does the rest the job pretty well.


To assume every sentinel is gonna be using Talismans is a bad assumption as well. And to assume Talisman's won't lend to a sense of over confidence is also a bad assumption.


But until the test server is ready to use with these builds, I'm certainly not gonna cry 'pwnmobile!' just because they're getting a much needed buff. And IF the sentinel does become a monster to deal with... well then it won't be, because either everyone will use it or no one will fight it or everyone will know how to counter it, read another EAF(Kitsune to jam, Keres to damp, Sentinel to Neut, Hyena to web).

There are some really cool potential relationships going on with these changes. Kinda sad that they're getting whined about so hard.

Claims that new EAS are overpowered are IMHO unfounded. As far as I can see they are simply variation on existing combat recon theme that sacrifices tanking for greater speed. So unless someone thinks combat recons are OP I don't see how they can reasonably maintain new EAS are OP.

Only place I can see them possibly causing problems, that could not be caused by combat recons before, are FW plexses, otherwise they don't really bring any novel or unique capability that could be more unbalancing then what we already have.

I might disagree with you specifically concerning the Sentinel. I've done a little playing on EFT with the current one, which fits just the same as the future one, but with some small changes:

[Sentinel, test]
Damage Control II
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Balmer Series Tracking Disruptor I, Optimal Range Disruption Script
Small Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 200
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
Warp Disruptor II

Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Small Unstable Power Fluctuator I
Small Diminishing Power System Drain I

Small Egress Port Maximizer I
Small Trimark Armor Pump I

Warrior II x4
Warrior II x8

Post buff stats: ~3500 EHP, cap stable with everything but the NOS running (you probably won't have something to drain if you're neuting the other guy), 80 DPS, 30km neuts neuting 108/cycle, ~2700m/s, it *should* be cap stable running at least 1 neut, the tracking disruptor and the warp disruptor without the cap booster after patch.

Basically what it comes down to is if it has turrets and is within 30km range of you, it's likely about to die a slow and horrible death. It'll have no cap to chase/kill you with, its guns won't be able to shoot anything, including your drones, and it will die as everything shuts down and your drones pick it apart.

Edit: also, since the NOS should be useless unless you're fighting 2 guys and not neuting them both, you could potentially swap the NOS for a T2 125mm Rail, or something of the sort (T2 250mm Artillery) to add about 15-20 DPS at 20km range. It's not a huge difference, but more DPS is nice. Could also make it a blaster or something and get in nice and close under their TD'd guns to add even more DPS. It's all a matter of preference.