Player Features and Ideas Discussion

The Gila's role bonus paints a pretty good picture about how terrible medium drones are.
The Worm gets a 300% bonus, the rattlesnake gets a 275% bonus, the gila gets a 500% bonus?!

Think it might be time to take a look at medium drones and maybe stray away from the old linear progression that drones have?

Yeah, the hefty medium drone bonus is likely to compensate for the loss of sentry drones. As far as their state of balance, I would actually venture to say that medium drones are in about as good of a state of balance as light drones are.

Once the racial drone rebalance hits I think we might actually see use of Amarr drones somewhere besides sentries, for example.

The medium drone bonus is sweet. and the number crunchers out there are saying how good the dps will be on paper. Unfortunately, paper and reality aren't the same.

When you made these changes you failed to take in to account the npc ai changes in regards to drones. Now, they will refocus their attention on the drones, then come back to you. Yes, you start out by first grabbing the npc's attention. but then the npc's decide to ignore you, focus on your drones. the fix, recall the drones. Well with sentries this was a viable solution. unfortunately with medium drones, they are 20 - 30 km away easily. especially in L3 missions.

Take em out with missiles you say? ok, my greatest range with the heavy missile on the gila will be about... 54 km. mission that have these npc's at 70, 80, 100 km away? not a viable solution.


Since you are doing a drone remake. someone suggested making light and medium sentries. this would make a viable solution. as it stands. you start out on paper, you lose a drone, pop out a spare. lose the other cause it couldnt return on time, pop out a 3rd. no drone bay is empty and you are screwed.

Sorry to say, the guristas line was not balanced with Pve in mind - All have been balanced (for want of a better word) for small to medium gang Pvp.
Look at the player history of the lead Devs, you will see why. (this is not totally a bad thing - unless all you do is Pve)

Pve application is not a consideration when it comes to ship and module balancing. We have gone through a 180 degree turn with balancing in the last few years.
Used to be for most ships you had to "do your best" to get them viable for Pvp, SP and isk were often a "I Win" combination. Now, it is the opposite, the fitting compromises are more Pve related, many ships perform well with lower SP and ship and fitting costs have not increased out of control. This means a 3 month old character who wants to Pvp can fight someone with 5 years experience and player skill will often dictate the outcome more than SP.

While many of the changes are not the way I would have gone, I have come to the realization - I own my part of eve as much as anyone else does but when it comes right down to it - CCP / Devs get the final say on how we play our little piece of TQ.

As a response to your suggestion for light and medium Sentries - Gila could have a bonus to launch 1 Sentry Drone with 50% of the Gila's Medium Drone bonus - Would give the equivalent 3 and a half Sentries, combined with Heavy Missiles you would be in a good place for most Pve situations.
For Pvp, use Medium Drones, RLML and have fun killing frigates.

PS; Before anyone says it - I know, Heavy missiles = BAD but with appropriate rigs, they do work.

Would it be problematic for the Gila to get 25 bandwidth instead of 20? It would mostly just be for fielding a full flight of Light EWAR/Combat/Salvage drones (unbonused), and you could drop the role bonus to ~450-475% ish if necessary to compensate for 2 M 1 L.

I mean, the Rattle can still field a full flight of lights, and the Worm was never really intended for that utility role.

Yea, Gila looks great. 500% bonus on top of two mediums to 12 effective.

Rattlesnake is not nearly as interesting, with 275% bonus on top of 2 heavies to 7.5 effective. That's basically exactly where it was before, only changed by the across-the-board drone nav type changes. For max skill folks, there's no real difference.

It's a faction cruiser. A mix of Caldari and Gallente. Gallente use drones, and Caldari use missiles.

I can't be the only one that thinks what amounts to the necessity of a fitting mod to the vigilant is a bit ... Harsh.

It's using blasters already which are lower power than rails and it's having to downsize them.

It's not a weird or odd fit, which is usually where mods like that are needed.

Hi no not being lazy, just keeping my head down after being massed trolled on the battleship forum, one can only stomach so much
I still do not know why the rocket bonus is quoted from the Gila, and I am still of the opinion that CCP rise will amend the postings, a little for the Gila and more so on the rattlesnake. There is a lot of cutting and pasting there, not always correctly.
His vision at fanfest for Guristas ships was explained much more clearly there, and I am looking forward to seeing them.

When can we expect to see those new Mordus legions hulls stats ?