Player Features and Ideas Discussion

This

Um... Why are they reducing one of the best functions of the worm? The ship can function as frigate support fielding 2 light missile launchers and a full flight of armor or shield rep drones. Your natural caldari resist means you can save tank slots for support and be a useful ship. Plus you can drop a flight of light drones to aid in dps.

The new worm... You take a great support ship and turn it into a glorified frig brawler. You take a ship that could snipe with a lone bouncer, then switch to warriors for close and gimp it. This isn't a balance, it's an attempt to render a ship absolutely useless save for brawling. Why, just to find a new niche for a ship that was already a versatile drone bunny?

Sorry, I think the worm needs major revision. In the least, the bonuses should aid the worm as a drone support ship. Give a bonus to repping and ewar drones instead of just damage. Hell, this could even give gurista a special niche as the only race where ewar drones are good. 2 bonus webbing drones could actually slow a target and not face a stacking penalty that renders the 4th and 5th drones useless.

So sorry, the worm rebalance is the worst thoughtout idea. I have loved all the rebalance work so far, but this just feels like the indy nerf where you were all tired, focused on a limited function, and did not realize the alternative uses of a ship. Instead, you create a nerf in the guise of a boost that renders a niche ship to a piece of junk. Spread the bonus to ewar and logi drones and then there may be some hope. Otherwise, why ever fly a worm when a tristan can do better for cheaper?

mm.. im still not convinced by the bonus it seems it could be a little OP .. will the gila be bonused for heavies or medium drones??

I think these changes look good. My only reservation is the afterburner theme for Sansha ships. In my experience, nobody uses afterburners outside of PvE.

I don't usually fly pirate frigates. The two that are effective - Dramiel and DD, tend to be kiters which is not my play style. They also tend to make people run more then fight in FW. I have to say though that the Succubus and Cruor look very interesting. I know that the Worm got a nice DPS an fitting grid boost- but it really looks like you are running out of ideas for drone ships and I find myself rolling my eyes.

apparently :math: is hard

Sansha: Sounds cool

Blood Raiders: Sounds good. Proposed wording: "Nosferatus drain capacitor from targets with less capacitor than you"

Guristas: Sounds interesting, although Im not entirely sure if 2 highly bonused drones is better than 5 moderately bonused drones. It makes it easier for people who want to kill them, but have low locked targets or w/e. That said, the worm seems pretty OP atm, with 8 equivalent drones, a tank bonus, another 100 dps in rocks AND a large speed boost relative to now. That puts it at 316 dps, unheated, while having a big tank (for a frigate)

Serp: I disagree on the web strength bonus. 1 90% web is equal to 5 normal webs. 2 90% webs is unmatched by any number of normal webs. Simply put, the bonus description (50% stronger) is NOT what the bonus does at all (between 5 and infinity times stronger). I would nerf the web strength to 75%, and then give the line a set of application bonuses (tracking and falloff for all of them). We had a massive thread on there discussing 90% web bonuses. Simply put, 90% webs allow you to hit a maximally sig tanked interceptor with large guns, even assuming perfect piloting from the interceptor. Its a broken bonus.

The dd could also use more lock range.

Angel: Yeah, they are fine.

I like the sansha pass. I am on the fence about the cruor pass. It seems a bit odd to just invite an older mechanic to use on those ships. It does make some interesting ideas for a fit though....(triple/dual rep with 2 nos?). I like the web range on the blood raiders though. I guess the guristas changes are ok, but I don't fly them at all.

Also I think the curor and succubus really dont need fitting nerfs.

OMG finally! So excited!

I must admit that I cannot comment at this time on specific stats b/c I haven't patched in the new stats to eft.

However, I will comment on the general direction for these ships:

Sansha:
Props for using afterburners as a theme for this race, I like the unique idea. Honestly, I'm not sure where the Phant and Succ need to go and I don't have any revolutionary ideas. Be sure to give them an agility buff and tracking buff to make use of those ABs.

Blood:
I practically drooled when I read what you had in store. IMO the bhaal is the most powerful ship in the game for <10 man combat. Giving it the "old neuts" would make it even more... awesome! As for how this will affect the ash, I actually like the ash in it's current state. It's not as underpowered as you think. However this ship too will benefit from the "old neuts" as I often ask my augs to cap transfer the ash because making it stable with sufficient tank is impossible. Simply adding the "old neuts" to the current ash will be a sufficient buff because you won't need the remote cap. Any1 else that thinks it would need any more is blind. The webbing bonus switching to range? heh, you know how 90% webs break dread combat on the small scale. For this class I don't think it would harm them much. Making the switch to range bonus is a good move.

Guristas:
I kinda scratched my head at this one. Many people think Guristas ships should jam, but we all know how much you hate ECM. Idk y reducing the number of drones but giving them effectively the same effectiveness would change things much, unless you want to stealth nerf all drone hp so that the gruistas drones would be more resilient to smartbombs. Damage type change is pretty uninteresting.

Serp:
This class is fine as it is. You saw how hard it was to try to change them. I foresee large community backlash if you do, but sometimes things need to be changed so dread blapping is not so broken.

Angel:
People think the cyna needs a nerf. I disagree because any joe can take an 800 plate thorax with a nano in the low and slingshot the crap out of it. What I'm saying is that it does not need a nerf because you balanced other things around it. Honestly, the cyna isn't "worth it" to me anymore because of this, but maybe I'm not seeing something. The dram and the mach: They are good where they are for the same reason. The frig overhaul and Marauder rebalance really put these ships near the same level, and i feel comfortable with where they are now.