Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I will start by saying target painters have a purpose and are used by many pilots - just not by those who use Minmatar recons. For those not in the know - target painters make a ship's signature much larger. This enables others in your fleet to target it faster and hit it harder. If you are in a larger ship shooting at a smaller one - target painters can increase your chance to hit by 15-35%. Even shooting at a ship the same size as your gun's resolution will create a significant benefit. I put one on my Thrasher because a ridiculous amount of time on the old tracking guide as well as in game experience shows that I increased my small artillery chance to hit by 19%. Of course missiles of all shapes and sizes love target painters as well.

The problem with target painters, though, is that they are very situational. You get the best benefit up through the optimal range of the turret. AC and blasters don't get as much out of them as a result. Also, when targeting a larger ship the benefit is miniscule - often 1 - 2%. Lastly and with regards to the subject - ships that should get the most use out of them - Rapier and Huginn - would much rather fit another web then a target painter. A web not only makes a target easier to hit but also prevents it from going anywhere. They are rarely seen on the ships that they should be seen on.

I propose to make the target painters scripted. One script will be for target signature increase - same as now. We wouldn't want my Caldari brothers and sisters to get mad at me. Unscripted a target painter would get half the current sig bonus AND... wait for it.... 1% reduction in all shield and armour resists. That seems small at first but it has a huge effect. Resists are damage subtractors. If you have 90% resists and I hit you with a target painter and have full skills - 1.25% effect - I will lower your resists to 88.75%. 100 points of damage coming in before did 10 points of damage. Now they do 11.25. That's a 12.5% increase in damage taken. On a Minmatar ewar boat that 1.25% is increased to 1.72%. Using the same resist example you get a 17.2% increase in damage. Double is scripted. It becomes 2.5% effect non Minmatar e-war (with all skills lvl 5) and 3.44% Minmatar e-war. With the 90% resist example that is a 25% increase in damage and a 34.4% increase in damage respectively.

Now here's the thing. This effect would work best against heavily tanked ships and not so much against light, fast ships. If the resists are 75% for example-
Non-Scripted Non Minmatar e-war:
5% increase
Non-Scripted Minmatar e-war:
6.9% increase
Scripted Non Minmatar e-war:
10% increase
Scripted Minmatar e-war:
13.8% increase

If the resists are 50%:
Non-Minmatar - 2.5% - 5%
Minmatar - 3.44% - 6.88%

So signature resolution works best against small, light ships. And resist reduction works best against large, heavily tanked ships. This would give target painters more flexibility and Minmatar recons a reason to fit them. And discuss.

Remove tp bonus from rapier put in 3-5% speed pr lvl instead.