Player Features and Ideas Discussion

These warp speed changes are great. The side effect of this is small gangs of fast roaming ships don't want to bring along a slow warping BC sized Command ship or a T3 cruiser to give fleet boosts. The solution we need is a smaller faster warping ship that can bring along fleet boosting links.

I want these ships to be able to use 1 link comfortably and 2 links with some fitting sacrifices. They will have more tank than an interdictor typically would as they are more likely to be primaried. Max of 2 links. Just as effective as a command ship would be for fleet bonuses on these links. It would be a very nice addition to small fast roaming fleets.



Here is a mock up of the stats one would see (Don't actually nitpick the stats and go "There is too much fitting" or whatever. It's a mock up. CCP can make everything balance well.):

Shamshir (Copied off of the Sabre stats) --

Minmatar Destroyer Bonuses:
5% bonus to Rocket and Light Missile Damage per level
4% bonus to resistances per level

[insert destroyer sized command ship class name here] Bonuses:
5% bonus to Rocket and Light Missile rate of fire per level
10% reduction in Microwarpdrive signature radius penalty per level
3% bonus to the strength of Siege Warfare and Skirmish Warfare links per level

Role bonus:
Can use 2 Warfare Link modules simultaneously.
[??]% reduction in the powergrid need of Fleet Assistance Modules
[??]% reduction in the CPU need of Fleet Assistance Modules

Slot layout: 8H, 4M, 2L; 1 turrets, 7 launchers
Fittings: 58 PWG, 230 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 750 / 650 / 625
Base shield resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 50 / 40 / 40 / 50
Base armor resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 80 / 51.25 / 25 / 10
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap/s) : 600 / 300s / 2
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 320 / 3.7 / 1285000 / 6.59s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 45km / 550 / 7
Sensor strength: 11 Ladar
Signature radius: 70


Thoughts?

That solution won't last when CCP decides to force links on grid. The idea is that these ships could survive combat. A CS with warp speed rigs and cloaky nullifed T3 with warp speed rigs really can't do that. The CS won't be able to jump in, escape a bubble and a gang on a gate, warp off and get links up at a safe. The nullified cloaky T3 can, but the boosts aren't as powerful.

These ships can survive some combat, bring quicker warping boosts without bringing a CS or a T3, would preferably be a cheaper alternative to a CS or a T3, and would also preferably take less time to train in to. Those last two points are super beneficial to smaller, less wealthy, and less SP heavy fleets.

8 sec align time is slower than the sub 5.5 or 6 seconds you will see with most destroyers and frigates. 1400m/s is slower than even an ABing destroyer, let alone an MWD destroyer or an AB/MWD frigate.(Correction: I was looking at a 10mn AB destroyer fit. Derp.) The 4.3 AU/second warp speed is still slower than any frigate, T2 frigate, Interdictor, or destroyer. It is simply slower and will drag down a fast fleet. It may not seem like much but 10+ jumps and it adds up very quickly. After 10 jumps "Fleet stop on your out gate. Let's wait around for a minute or two for the CS to get here. Not like we wanted to roam 50+ jumps anything." It is simply too slow.

As far as survivability you are ignoring the smaller signature, fast speed, and reasonable tank these ships provide. You and I both know these ships will make a jump back more often than a Warp Speed Rigged CS. Not only that they will take less damage from ships as smaller sig and faster speed both work in their favor when it comes to tracking formulas. In the hands of a good pilot it will live far longer than a fail fit Command Ship.

No one said this ship had to have the same skill requirements (all the links to V to fly) as a CS. Maybe it only needs them to 1. Maybe 3. Who knows. They are supposed to have the same strength bonus as a CS. They are essentially a smaller version of one. It would be pointless to make them a weaker booster than a CS. The way it is weaker is it can't use as many links simultaneously.

Oh my bad. I was looking at a 10mn AB fit. You are right. 1mn ABing Destroyer is much slower.

A T3 still doesn't give as good of fleet boosts as a Command ship. For min/max fleets that extra few % makes a huge difference.

As I have already show a CS is too slow. The only ship it is reasonably close to warp speed with a destroyer. You wouldn't bring a CS along to a frigate, AF roam, Interceptor, or an interdictor roam. It is far slower at warping than all of those ships.

Get your facts straight. You need all 4 types of links trained to V to train the command ship skill. Proof

Such a shame you think I am making up facts. Everything, aside from the mistake about the AB speed of a destroyer, has been completely factual. I don't want a super tanky destroyer. If I wanted that I would fly a Heretic. I want an actual Destroyer sized command ship that can provide fleet boosts to faster warping fleets. Nothing more. Nothing less.

And even linking the wiki you are STILL WRONG.
The only skill there relating to links is Warfare Link Specialist IV.
The others are all the basic leadership skills which function simply by being in a squad leader position in any ship & the only thing they have to do with links is that they are requirements for the link skills.

So, still, no. The ships are fine to do what you want with. You were talking about a destroyer roam, you are now trying to move the goalposts now that I have shown that even the command ships are good enough for what you want. Next you will be wanting them to keep up with a warp rigged interceptor.

What is the need for this Fozzie. We've just demonstrated that a T3 cruiser set up for speed is easily able to keep up with a Frigate/Destroyer fleet?
Though I guess that depends on the changes. Do we have a time line on the link changes and an idea what is going on? Given how long it takes to train perfect links, this should be advertised a long way ahead at least what the plans are.

[Tengu, Frig Gang Links]

Damage Control II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Ballistic Control System II
Co-Processor II

Experimental 10MN Microwarpdrive I
Command Processor I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II

Skirmish Warfare Link - Evasive Maneuvers II
Skirmish Warfare Link - Rapid Deployment II
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Scourge Light Missile

Medium Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer II
Medium Core Defense Field Extender II

Tengu Defensive - Warfare Processor
Tengu Offensive - Accelerated Ejection Bay
Tengu Propulsion - Gravitational Capacitor
Tengu Electronics - Dissolution Sequencer
Tengu Engineering - Capacitor Regeneration Matrix

Just randomly threw this together so it's not optimal, but it fulfills all your criteria. 3.74 align time, slow for a frig, but definitely competitive with destroyers, 1610m/s which is destroyer level speed, 5.85au/s which is faster than most frigs bar interceptors/covops, 60k EHP so it doesn't have a massive tank but it's good enough considering it's speed. All this and you can use 2 links of your choice and put out 300dps.

How about no off grid combat links?

There's not really a good reason to remove those, and plenty of reasons not to.

This sounds like an interesting concept, but it shouldn't have a bonus to the strength of the links, just be able to fit them.