Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I honestly do not think so. The true strength (at least dps wise, anyway) of Carriers is that they can throw out flight after flight of Sentry drones, to project damage from a great distance while being easily replacable.

The Gecko is not as easily replaced, not by a long shot.

However, for the Rattlesnake, the Gecko is basically adding a pocket assault frigate to a Scorpion Navy Issue. That's not half bad.

We're all in agreement on this one. I haven't worked out the EHP for a Gecko, but it has to be in excess of 25k.

Just when we thought it was safe to go back into the thread...
Back under your bridge you!

For a Summer Rattlesnake, it should be 25,903 omni. Assuming I haven't borked the numbers. Versus 5,046 for an Ogre on a current Rattlesnake.

I would NEVER consider using Heavy drones on a carrier.
As the Gecko may do a little more dps than 10 fighters they may find a place but with far less Ehp compared to fighters - it will be in limited situations.

As a Heavy Drone drop in replacement, they may have merit on some battleships and especially the Ishtar. As for a replacement for Fighters on a Carrier, I'm doubtful.

Rattlesnake;
If Dps projections for the Gecko are correct;
Remove the Missile damage bonus and give it the ability to launch 2 Geckos, with a HP bonus only.
Combined with 5 launchers without a damage bonus, you'd have something noteworthy

If they took the missile bonus away and gave it two Geckos, you could also just fit a bunch of heavy neuts instead, and brawl with it in addition to long range.

It would be obscene as a battleship platform.

15k m/s? I'm getting ~4,300 m/s with three Drone Nav Computers...

I figured the Dps - without upgrades I figured Dps would be closer to 600 Dps a piece so around 1400 Dps once DDA's are added. 36k Ehp, not sure how you get that but I'll take our word for it but - 2,560 structure, 990 Armour, 1,010 shield..
15k p/s ? - after summer MWD velocity is around 2,700 m/s, not sure how you would get that to 15,000 m/s
EDIT; just saw your proposal on how to get 15k p/s - That tells me, Empire space is way too safe.
Even with super buffed heavies - sending them 110k away from you is probably not a real good idea. Heavy Drones work best at between Zero and 20k from the ship launching them, over that recall / drone control becomes a nightmare.

Consider - A Rattlesnake launches 2 Geckos with potential Dps of, say 1,600 Dps at a Navy Omen. Is the Omen pilot going to shoot at the Snake or the Gecko? My guess would be the Gecko, as it is what is going to be applying the Dps.
The Gecko is chase, drop to orbit speed and shoot, the Omen is piloted and can, vary speed, apply web and scram, switch from long range to short range ammo when needed. Plus the myriad of other possibilities for a pilot to use.
Gecko can only Fire while in orbit & within 4,000 m - Omen gets 10% p/l to optimal so can with the right fit have better range at which to engage.

Which is likely to die 1st, Gecko or N-Omen?

Geckos = Good, nice addition, new play styles. The Gecko will be very good and potentially very strong but it is not an "I WIN".
Neither should it be, managed right the Gecko will be very powerful, send it 100k away to chase down a target - keep your wallet open to replace them as they die.

I want a Rattlesnake that isn't automatically looked at as - Oh you own a Snake, where do you do your Pve.

A noble goal, but please understand that this is true of about 75% of Caldari ships. Some things do end up getting shelved except for PvP.

Now I don't think that would be the case for the Rattlesnake with the present redesign, but we shall see how the drone rebalance works things out.

Now, as to your point about a couple of bonused Geckos vs a Navy Omen.

I flew a Navy Omen for a while. I would not want one of those things after me, let alone two.

One I could handle with a web, but it wouldn't be easy. Two would be my death. I would almost certainly disengage if I had the option to do so.

I'm throwing out this revised proposal for consideration and feedback. In this revision the Rattlesnake loses a launcher and missile bonuses but gains up to 50mbit of bandwidth for an additional 1-2 heavy or sentry drones.

RATTLESNAKE

Gallente Battleship Bonus: 20% drone bandwidth per level
Caldari Battleship Bonus: 4% bonus to all shield resistances
Role Bonus: 275% bonus to heavy and sentry drone damage and hitpoints

Slot layout: 6H, 7M, 6L; 0 turrets, 4 launchers
Fittings: 10000 PWG, 710 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 12750 / 8940(-358) / 9960
Capacitor (amount / recharge / cap per second) : 5350(+38) / 1154000ms / 4.59
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 94 / .128 / 99300000 / 18.45s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50(-75)/ 175(-225)
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 75km / 100 / 7
Sensor strength: 30
Signature radius: 450(-10)