Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Spreadsheet for computing new sentry ranges with Omni II: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvCLlTV8bSxNdGYtUDdvUFpaYzF4cW5waXFiNXpUSUE&usp=sharing


It's set for an Ishtar. Just make a copy and update columns B, C, and D on rows 6, 14, 22, 30, etc. with your values from EFT, pyfa, etc..

Long story short, with three Omni IIs, my Ishtar's Gardes go from 72km+12k to 58km+23km. The other sentries stay at 100km+ optimal. *sniffle*


edit: Updated with pre-nerf numbers, and added unbonused, and Dominix sentries. It's a new link, the old one is now deleted.

Nice spreadsheet

Ironically the changes make using 4 or more omnis more viable than previously as you can avoid stacking penalties by doing stuff like Garde with 3 range scripted and one tracking scripted omni.

What would make these changes a bit more manageable is the ability to group the omni so you only need one click, not 3 or 4, to change scripts for the full set/rack. I suppose in PvE you could get around this by having a mobile depot launched and having saved configurations such as 3*range/1*track , 2*range/2*track , 1*range/3*track and load the relevant configuration on the fly as the rats get closer.

This change will kill more than a few drone ships, in more than a few situations.
I don't think people realize how much of an impact it will have on optimal range, especially when they start stacking them.
(though that spreadsheet is going to open a few eyes).

I am thinking of dumping my Fed Navy Omni's which are looking at a quadruple nerf, based on the deafening silence to my question about whether the Fed Navy Omni's get 18/36 stats, or the Fed Navy TC stats of 16/32, or maybe even just stuck with the T2 stats of 15/30.

Taking a module from 30% optimal to 16% optimal, 32% falloff, with cap issues, plus a loss of simultaneous tracking performance (which btw, now involve a 10 second change timer) is a massive, massive nerf.

Only someone who absolutely hates PvE would dream up such punitive changes.
And such a person should never, ever, be placed in a position where they can do so much damage to so many, particularly when they clearly enjoy doing so.

This might be the ultimate solution. Either tracking OR range bonus. Not both.

I don't comment much in these threads but as a frequent user of drones for wormhole PVE I feel the need to speak up. The changes to the Omni's are clearly addressing OP issues brought about by the ship bonuses of the Domi and Ishtar. With the inherent and previously stated shortcomings of sentry drones, these changes will make anything but an Ishtar or Domi essentially useless for PVE and in most applications, PVP as well. CCP, please address the issues currently present in those 2 hulls rather than kill all the other drone boats. I speak specifically to the Rattlesnake which won't be worth flying if these changes go live as-is and the Rattler isn't rebalanced with Domi/Ishtar hull bonuses. This change in Omni's appears to be a very broad and crude way to handle the issue of assisted sentry drone fleets. I sincerely hope that we are allowed real input to the final change once this goes live on Sisi and some actual testing can prove how bad this is.

I'd say the days of the long range Dominix sniper boat using Gardes is over, which is a shame because to get that range and DPS you had to fill the highs with Drone Link Augmentors, the mids with Omnidirectional Tracking Links, and the lows with Drone Damage Amplifiers, all at the expense of tank and mobility..........you also have to train up some very time intensive drone skills!

This fitting was a choice, but a fun choice that came with serious drawbacks i.e. thin tank and standing still next to the sentries taking incoming DPS.............which seems sort of balanced to me?

Anyway, the long range, low tank choice won't be available now, which makes the PVE use of the Dominix more restricted and less fun

Ok so there's better tracking to hit frigates up close, but hey, thats what Hobgoblins are for, and as for extra falloff, who cares about that? It takes 4 Drone Damage Amplifiers to get the DPS to take down battleships at a decent rate anyway! so hitting targets into falloff at drastically reduced DPS has limited appeal in PVE.

Overheating Omnidirectional Tracking Links?...well nice to have the option, but people don't tend to do that in PVE missions and anomalies, strictly PVP only when its win at all costs, including damaging your modules to the point of destruction.

The Dominix and Ishtar will be less capable in PVE now, and I'd say the other drone boats are pretty much screwed losing that range.

It seems peculiar that these ships were deemed balanced when they were given these bonuses / stats and now they're considered not balanced? what, because more people are using them?

Perhaps CCP should just publish stats of current ship usage so people can train for a less popular one, knowing that it won't get nerfed in the next release. LOL

I feel sorry for newer players who don't have skill points spread across different ships and weapon systems, when the ship / weapons that they've just put several months worth of skill points into becomes less effective and they find themselves back where they were three months ago capability wise.

I look forward to testing this on Singularity when its released. and I'll post what I find if it differs from my current assumptions.

TL DR;

Dominix / Ishtar nerfed for PVE due to being popular in PVP
Overheating for PVP and a bit more falloff offered as a crumb of comfort.
Drone boat usage reduces, ship usage stats become more evenly spread suggesting balance
Game is less fun as all ships are the same.

Test for you. Vexor Navy with 2 omni, one optimal one tracking.

Use to do good damage at 55k with garde's

Now you have to be within 30k and the tracking still isn't as good, anything farther out is heavy misses. I haven't done extensive testing on tracking on closer targets.

That is totally unacceptable.

So you are mad that you cant do 664 DPS(2 DDAs) @ 45km +12km falloff in a cruiser any more? Name any other cruiser that can do that kind of DPS at that range.

I've uploaded a new spreadsheet with unbonused sentries and added pre-nerf Omnis for reference: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvCLlTV8bSxNdGYtUDdvUFpaYzF4cW5waXFiNXpUSUE&usp=sharing

It's not the end of the world for unbonused sentries.

I'm willing to own up to some bias here, but were not talking about just being destructible, but also being locked in position, thus meaning that if the cruiser hull uses it's mobility it can't take it's DPS with it, which every other cruiser can do.