Player Features and Ideas Discussion

what remote bonus.. just keep it like the others with covert ops.. dont *** it up again!

Lasorz....

True, to a point. Can you propose a use for this ship, as it is now, at which another ship wouldn't be more desirable? If so then please post it, the rest of us have been having difficulty brainstorming one. If not then post why you think you can't and offer your own thoughts on how to fix this.

Haha, this is actually something that I would like to see for a possible future missile "pirate" bs. This and a ridiculous speed bonus for the missiles (not kindergarten stuff, something along the lines of 100% missile velocity ). 8 lows and highs and like 3 mid slots, 4 tops. And also bonus on damage and malus on ROF, so that the missile actually hits from 240km away, before the next volley shoots off.

While it could work with the Nestor as you discribed and would be a cool bonus for a bs, I cannot support this for the Nestor though, I can't put a finger on it, something would just feel off.

The way I see "explo BS" is something to find and complete high-end lowsec (and some null) DEDs and escalations in timely fashion. Point is, there should be a reason to pick a BS sized hull over more nimble and harder to catch cruisers which are used for that already. Such reasons may include:

- being less dependant on refitting;
- completing stuff faster;
- something to make up for lack of scouting/scanning alt at least in terms of op safety (not a well-thought out reason perhaps, but less hassle with alts may be an edge ship may need in the eyes of someone who thinks he can fly BS relatively safe).

The problem is direct approach to achieving such design makes for one hell of an all-purpose ship (aka "pwnmobile") we all agreed in Stratios thread would be a bad idea.

That is not to mention that it may or may not happen that in the future T3s will possibly be able to be refitted in space entirely with subs, thus making them more competitive for the task at hand.

With that said, hacking bonuses on this ship do nothing to make it exploration vessel as long as the baddest and scariest ship you need to complete relevant content is covops. Althouth that itself may be changed in the future, who knoes.

You can change the subs on any t3 in space now, using either a mobile depot, carrier fitting services, or ship maintenance array.

#1 already done its 1/2 the mass of any other BS's

Sorry, lengthy post, but I will get to the point eventually.

I would like to point out that I never considered this ship a solo ship. That being said, it should have 500-600 defense tank with specific resists against rats. This is actually possible as is with 3 lowslots and a rigslot for tank (dont ask the price for that, but it is possible). So we are good on the solo side of tanking. Non solo, remote rep bonuses become less impotant.

I still find my drone rep bonus idea the most elegant for the support role, escpecially combinend with a covert jump drive but even without, making this ship useful without being OP or have wasted bonuses.

• 4 turret slots with 100% role bonus - 10% range bonus per level.
- Loosing the drone damage bonus, the ship would have the same damage potential it has now, when damage drones are used. I don't like the range as a role bonus anyway.

• 20% bonus to Armor Maintenance Bot transfer amount and drone speed per level
- Puts the rep amount with 5 large bots to 2 large reppers. Of course rep drones do not drain your cap, but this is balanced by destructibility.

• Loose the remote rep bonuses.
- If you feel this ship would benefit much from a measily 19km range, then I have to agree with some people here, that you should just upgrade the range of the module instead. 25km for large is my proposal. Make part of it a skill, as far as I am concerned, there is no Advanced Remote Repair Systems skill anyway .

This way, it is possible to choose anything between full damage and full rep output (partly without refitting) with a very nice versatility. Also it keeps the high level goals of Gallente/Amarr being a drone/laser mix intact, only in a more refreshing way.


This could already work like that. But of course as you all know I will be unhappy without a covert jumpdrive. Thus I'd like to compare my propsal with the Redeemer to find out if further balancing is needed for the Nestor not being too strong in BO fleets.

• The Redeemer has 7.5 effective turrets plus unbonused drones. The Nestor has 8 effective turrets.
• Redeemer has a tracking bonus. Nestor has a rangebonus.
• Redeemer has 4638 armor hitpoints less than the Nestor.
• The Nestor has 1 slot more 2 effective because of the resist bonus.
• The Nestor has half the scan resolution.

I think these are the relevant differences between the Nestor and Redeemer, once on grid engaging a juicy gank (bait) target. If you think there is more, feel free to call my attention to it.

The conclusion I draw from this comparison is that other than a needed HP nerf, my proposal would be rather balanced even if it would get full BO capabilites (which I am not saying it should, it is not a T2 hull afterall). My reasoning is as follows:

1.While the Nestor has 20% resists, which is about the same as an EANM, the Redeemer has a lowslot more to fit one of those.
2. The low scan resolution basicly forces the Nestor to fit one more Sensor Booster to perform. Which is a midslot preoccupied by default.
3. The short range encounters most BO fleets will find themselves in, would make a range bonus rather useless and requires a TC more by default to perform as good as the Redeemer.
4. For PVE enounters both the range bonus and the resist bonus are essential to perform well while HP can almost be neglected completely. The resist bonus could be changed to a local rep bonus instead of nerfing the armor HP. But let's be honest, who wants that? Also the armor bot bonus makes it possible to have enough rep for another Nestor or Stratios in medium or high difficulty exploration sites only in conjunction with the resist bonus.

A Black Ops battleship has the following special abilites:

• Covert Cyno
• Covert Jump Drive
• Covert Jump Portal generator
• No targeting delay after decloaking
• Mulitplied cloaked velocity by 125 per level
• Reduced cloak deactivation delay to 5 seconds

Out of these six, I solely ask for a covert jump drive (as I said earlier, with added range). Alone the 4th and 6th BO ability missing, reduces the capability of the Nestor in BO ganks rather severely.
For the WH argument, I say make skilling the jump skills only optional, and you have a "good" ship for WH too, since the rep drones are not killed (as far as I know, maybe someone can test this?) and for cap issues when shooting, each Nestor can fit 2 cap transfers.
After having the PVP balancing concerns out of the way, add to that quite a large fuel bay and the ability to bring a cruiser for your scanning buddy and you will have the perfect support ship for long term exploration.

I guess that if you're in combat and trying to refit then waiting 45 seconds for a mobile depot o deploy so you can use its refitting services is quite a long time, especially when the enemy can potentially put the depot into reinforced mode during its online time. Also a depot can only serve as a refitting point for the pilot that dropped it and I think that there are minimum distances between them so it might be a pain for everyone to drop their own.

However it seems like almost anywhere you'd really want to use it like that it'd be easier and cheaper to use a much more powerful and versatile carrier instead. So you'd mostly be looking at high sec wars and wormhole space (in particular wormhole space where your enemy is unlikely to have any blapping dreadnoughts?) Or possibly in high sec incursion fleets for convenience.

It does seem like a very, very small niche, but maybe that's because those aren't my play styles?

Not really. Its alignment time is only a couple seconds better than most battleships, and I'm pretty sure it has the same snail-like warp speed.