Player Features and Ideas Discussion

If the opposition fits to not get tackled and you know they have, why don't you come up with something new?

chase them around in a Merlin or something.

Penny is primarily talking about W-Space, since she lives there. And writes a (daily updated) blog about her experiences. http://www.tigerears.org/

It seems reasonably clear that, in EVE Online, the rewards for certain activities are intended to get higher the more risk those activities entail. The level of reward also reflects the security status of the system the activity is performed in. A little reflection shows that the risk/reward structure coming from a system's security status is based on the risk of unscheduled capsuleer interaction, or PvP if you prefer. To show how this is the case consider planetary interaction, where there are richer resources under less competition in the lower security spaces, but where the only risk to reaping that reward is being caught by another capsuleer.

Before the industrial ship rebalance, a planet gooer pilot needed to make compromises: fit for survivability, or fit for capacity. Do you fit warp core stabilisers to help your ship escape an attacker, or expanded cargoholds to make fewer trips? On top of that was the choice of ship. Basic Tech 1 variants are cheap but liable to explode; you can afford to lose them, but you almost certainly will lose a few. Or a gooer could opt for the sturdier, cloakable, and inherently safer Tech 2 transports at the cost of two orders of magnitude more ISK. You're less likely to lose one, but it will sting if you do.

Now, with the introduction of the Epithal, there is no compromise to be made. Gooers have a ship with a vast bay, specific to the task and unmodifiable by fitted modules, leaving spare slots for a tank and room for four warp core stabilisers, all in a ship that is cheap enough to be disposable anyway. Carry more goo and get it home safely, in all classes of space where you should, by definition, be at risk from other capsuleers but no longer are.

I appreciate the desire to create tailored ship classes. I also appreciate that well-flown ships should be able to survive. And I am not decrying my lack of targets just because I see less explosions. My opening remarks hopefully show that planet gooers should be at risk from other pilots, precisely because they are the only risk planet gooers see for their increased reward. The design of the Epithal flouts this principle.

A simple fix, to restore the risk/reward structure that seems integral to the EVE Online, would be to reduce the number of low fitting slots on the Epithal. Strip the low fitting slots available down to two as a maximum, or perhaps just the one. After all, it probably doesn't need them anyway. The ship does what it is designed to do without any fitting, boosted now by skill training instead.

An alternative, if an extension to the meta game is preferred, is to introduce a new module, one that could even benefit more than the haulers-versus-gankers struggle I've outlined. Create a mid-slot module that acts as an infini-point against ships with warp core stabilisers fit, however many are on the ship, but does nothing against ships that have don't have any fit. Such a module would determine fitting choices for both gankers and haulers alike—as well as those faction warfare pilots frustrated by button-pushers—prompting questions and compromises for both.

Do you fit warp core stabilisers to the brim of your low slots, hoping that a ship with a standard disruptor or scrambler is waiting? Or do you gamble on someone hoping to catch you with WCS and go naked, fitting for agility? And does the attacker fit the WCS infini-pointer with a view to catching gooers, or other sneaky ships that don't intend to fight, or fit standard disruption for more standard encounters? Or fit both, relinquishing valuable utility fitting slots to ensure you catch your prey?

Of course, 'otherwise doing nothing' is not a great design for any module, so perhaps the WCS infini-pointer could act as a sub-standard webifier module if WCS are not fit, having maybe 50% the effect of the standard Tech 1 variant. This would make the module useful in conjunction with fitting a normal warp disruptor, but still not as efficient. And if the WCS infini-pointer is given the shortened range of a warp scrambler but without the ability to cut off micro warp drives then the chance of the target ship's capture is still not guaranteed, particularly when bearing in mind a non-WCS ship could be boosted in to warp sooner if webbed instead of warp-disrupted.

The WCS infini-pointer module may seem unbalanced, and may well actually be unbalanced, probably with some unintended consequences waiting to be found. It is just a first pass at an idea to keep space dangerous. But I don't think it breaks more than it fixes. Fitting both the new module and a standard scrambler isn't as good as combining a scrambler with a webifier, and not as expensive—in ISK or fitting compromise—as needing to fit two three-point faction scramblers to catch a basic Tech 1 industrial ship, which, frankly, seems perverse. Being caught by multiple ships with a spread of fitting would be no different from being caught by multiple ships with multiple points of warp disruption. And there always remains the option for a planet gooer to fit an ECM module or carry ECM drones to escape a lone ambusher. Or, you know, forget the module and just strip the Epithal of some low fitting slots.

This thread is a joke right? You need what, 200 DPS to pop an epithal inside of its align time....

You are worried about losing some of your tank to a ship with 2,380 HP and at best has a few drones for damage? Really?

For some uses, the difference between 14000m^3 and 67500 is not important.

So here is my, unsolicited, total noob perspective.

Recently it became necessary for me to fly through hi sec under threat of war. It occured to my noob addled mind that these speicalized Gallente industrials were great for the task. I don't get any benifit from expanding my cargo bay, and I have all these wonderful low slots open for stablizers and maybe a damage control. I thought I was pretty clever.

Turns out my tactic is rather well known; back to perspective though.

I put these stablizers on the ship and said, well maybe this will save me from a lazy, solo ganker. I learned, from when I attempted my ill fated Cloak/MWD run through Amamake in a Miasmos (with an undersized MWD to boot, yes, this his hilarious and I was podded, but I learned ), that campers don't fly alone. Looking again at my ship, I figured I might be safe from one lazy, unprepared pirate. Any group would probably just slam me with multiple scramblers, web me, then promptly erase me from the universe. Or they could use one of those bubble things if i was in lower sec.

This of course assuming they didn't insta lock my fat ass signature and blow me to bits before I could make good my escape.
No scram needed when I go boom.

I didn't see myself as invulnerable at all. Maybe a little crazy. I hadn't even considered taking this thing into low/null/wh space.

Anyway, I just don't see what the fuss is about. I'm sure you have all played the game longer than me, and I am certainly no ace.

These ships are far from unbalanced. In fact, they probably encourage crazy noobs like me to try things that can't be done, and then die hilariously along the way. I really hope people can't catch me, that would be great. My gut tells me this is far from the truth, however...