Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I just wish the Bastion Module gave the Torp Golem and AC Vargur somewhat more than ~10km of useful extra range.

I will continue to remain dissatisfied about it being considered "pretty good" because of "Kronos gets amazing range with Null".

Other than that, I'm actually quite pleased with the changes.

Thats very true but I get 82km falloff on my rubicon vargur fit that I have already run multiple very hard missions with. The range can be scripted out to get uo to 0.13 tracking (up from .08) So although the vargur is slower (and immobile in bsation) it doesn't matter because I don't have to move :)

The new Marauder class. It's a PVE ship, but with PVP capability from what I can see...Wouldn't know what to tell you if you asked me how to fly it. Have to see it in operation I guess first.

Fuel troubles me if your a mission runner with it. I hated buying cap charges and ammo for different damage types...now people want me to carry fuel too...might just fly a BS then. (Cheaper too). Trying to avoid hassles while doing missions, just one more thing to run out of.

The other thing is the skills it takes to fly it. Don't get me wrong, it's a great ship. But takes forever to train for. On top of that, it is very expensive. Any ship can be lost, but there are more cost effective alternatives then those beasts. Faction BS while the same price nearly, is way easier to train. T1 BS's might be rather sub-standard, but are like a 5th of the price, and can do the job for most missions or anoms. If your really strapped for cash can do decent sniping in a tier 3 BC. and T3 while all-in-one ships, are easy to train, yet on the costly side. The price of versatility.

I like the marauder, lots of nice work went into it. I would never PVP in something that shiney. Incursions you cannot do in it, maybe VG, but you'd be laughed out of a AS or HQ site fleet. For me, will be a ship I bring out on special occasions and parades....maybe run the odd high sec mission in it. I can't risk that kind of money out in null alone to do a scan site or anom. I would get hot-dropped to easily, and I would be shedding tears for days.

From an engineering perspective? Nice work CCP, flagship of the sub-caps! Deadly, I am sure, in the hands of a pilot who knows how to fly it! Perfectly balanced too I believe, enough, but not too much.

A comment to the same effect I made several pages back. If you fly new Marauder like you used to fly old Marauder, the bastion module is not needed.

The trick is to monetize on new bonuses, MJD for mobility and bastion for lighter tanking.

Indeed it's close to a new ship really. It's funny how in a rut some people are, unable to think outside the box and capitalize on the unique advantages the ship brings.

I have a question for CCP devs regarding the current thinking on Bastion skills. When will we be able to confirm if it will be High Energy Physics 4 (if at all)?

Honestly, if Marauders are now being balanced around Bastion, I would suggest that Bastion not use an arbitrary science skill as it's pre-req. All this does is add yet another skill to the already lengthy skill pre-reqs for Marauders. You've already added another one in the form of MJD operation, but at least that's usable in any BS class ship. It would be much better if Bastion's skill pre-req was one of the existing pre-reqs for Marauders.

If Bastion was optional I'd be ok with something like High Energy Physics, but right now it's going against the policy of "you can fly whatever you can before the rebalance". Technically yes you can undock in a Bastion-less Marauder but the entire way the rebalance has been structured has been pretty biased towards the use of Bastion.

It's just one skill and not really a big deal, but there isn't any reason at all to add yet another skill pre-req either. I mean Hull Upgrades V would probably make more sense.

Yes, like I said it's not a big deal. But if there is no reason to do it, then don't do it and add even more to the Marauder pre-req queue.

Even if "it's a couple of days" there is zero basis for any defense of this, other than just for the sake of being contrary.

The new Paladin textures are in!

Check out the test server to see them. Looks nice!

New tractor unit, and 3 versions of the mobile depot are on also

I kinda disagree with you here, with all due respect.

The Marauders are fine as they are combat-wise. But their PVE "role" seems a bit redundant now (I'm looking at you tractor bonus and unbonused salvagers).

Most can agree that they have flaws (all ships do), but in general, they are pretty well balanced and working properly. There's a lot more testing to be done here to compare how they actually stack, but out of experience so far, the new Paladin completely outclasses the TQ Paladin. The new Vargur has several advantages over the TQ Vargur (PG, more utility, better tank, smaller sig, more scan res), but is losing badly on the speed area (hello? CCP? Us Matari are known for having faster but nimbler ships, give us some speed back please) especially as Bastion is not very as projectile friendly as it is to Hybrids and Lasers (I keep hearing about how awesome the new range for the Kronos us, and the uber-range of the Paladin is too awesome).

But that's not the point of my post, I'm going to say this:

New tractor structure is ruining Marauders' main role as a marauding ship (one who attacks in search of gain or loot). Marauders should have a bonus to salvage and or tractor (a la Noctis, but not as powerful). Marauders need to be able to tractor stuff in and salvage it, or get better loot compared to non-marauding ships, otherwise, a marauder gets out-marauded by a non-marauder (haha this is getting confusing).

The idea is that marauders actually get to maraud and get better loot compared to non-marauders (better salvage or something, or better mods dropped from wrecks I guess?) I want my ship to actually be a Marauder, not just some combat ship with open high-slots, like a Bhaalgorn with better resists...I want them to actually mean and be what they are supposed to be. Marauders.

Serge, I have no problem with someone disagreeing with me, nor being showed I'm wrong. If anything, it's an opportunity to learn something new.

That said, you're not the first person arguing this new tractor structure hits Marauders where it hurts and I admit I don't get it. As far as I could check, the 40/48 km tractor range works precisely the same way on TQ and on test server. Unless you're competing in the same grid, which during mission running is rather rare occurence, you are in no way impaired by someone launching the thingy.

I dare say that uniqueness is a domain of special issue ships. Regular ones, like Marauders are, are supposed to get the job done and their bonuses are supposed to help with that. I repeat, until there is direct competition the fact that the other ship has bigger this or longer that is completely irrelevant.

Or did I miss something?