Player Features and Ideas Discussion

A refreshing boost effect applied to every player on grid is absolutely the obvious solution to bringing links on grid. Once every minute, apply a 1 minute boost effect to all fleetmates on grid. call it "Synchronizing fleet battle computers" for the lore purists out there... data that optimizes operation based on current battle conditions. Done. Probably costs less cpu time than a flight of drones since the game has already calculated distance information for everyone (helloo overview).

That it hasnt been done yet probably means that somewhere in CCP, there's a vaguely defined "perfect solution" that will blow everyone's mind with it's uberness so why waste time with anything else. Thus perfection becomes the enemy of the good.

For example, a fully ideal solution would not only bring links on grid, but also make them not passive click and forget. Change the gameplay such that the booster has to make decisions and tradeoffs based on what's going on (not just at fitting/undock time).

Think about a remote reactive armor hardener style mod replacing the flat resist bonus, but the booster has to perhaps manually adjust the resist split (via scripts). Same for repper cap vs cycle time. Maybe reduce the bonuses overall but increase their overheat potential, so a skilled PLAYER boosting your fleet can make the difference with the right call at the right time.

Gameplay that turns links into something smart and active (like logistics) is the big win here. I hope that's where the dev delay actually is.

I would like to see something a bit more bonkers, at least to the way the average EVE player sees things...

I would rework the targeting system so that you can designate and maintain targets as friend or foe. This would not be a weapons lock, but use lock slots to maintain them as objects of interest, which can be locked but don't need to be.

Then you let links affect all friendly objects without a need to lock. Other modules would require a lock, such as logistics. It still limits boosting to sensor range, which could be set with a seperate stat from lock range.

It also opens the field to true smart munitions. Weapons that can hit without need to lock, like FF missiles and drones could be prioritized based on objects of interest. Turret systems that independently fire could be introduced.

Ships intended for fleet support could be given more slots to track objects of interest than weapon locks.

How patently false.

Command ships are about as expensive as battleships. T1 Battlecruisers are down right cheap. Training time is equal to all, and call of those ships have utility highs intended for the links.

On grid links would level the playing field. If anything it would favor medium gang engagements with enough members to specialize a few roles, where something like a Damnation is significantly hard enough to kill it becomes an unattractive target. In any large engagements links ships would be primaries off the field in seconds.

there was a decent nerf all ready, to the links and the t3's ... now you can prob them links are weeker etc etc.



so leave em alone or get a boosting alt Yo, stop kiling pro solo pvp with army of alt's ....

I love when people equate links with solo play.

That is exactly one of the problems. Its not solo, duh, because link ship in space. Until you can put some sort of deployable in space with links on it, this isn't anything to do with solo play. Off grid link alt is pretty much just pay to win. This is bad.

My thoughts on bringing boosters on grid are to make boosters reliant on targeting a ship and activating the booster module.

I will elaborate.

To begin with let us say that each level of a particular warfare link skill allows you to activate boosts on one more ship. So if you are squad booster, you will need the full level 5 skill in whatever boosts you are applying to spread your boosts to up to 5 ships in the squad. This means that the booster will have to decide which ships need priority on boosts or will have to fit multiple booster modules of the same type to cover everyone in the squad (a squad consisting of up to 10 squad members).

So, how do we manage boosts?

First of all as I mentioned boosts become on grid by requiring the booster to target lock the ship they want to apply boosts to. Then we need the devs to do a little tinkering with the how the module functions on our UI as I see it like this. You take your cursor over the booster module icon and instantly a column slides upwards out of it with up to 5 buttons which can be used by themselves to manage boosts and you activate each button as normal on whatever target you want. Alternatively you can just click the module icon normally to have the module activate on whatever targets you have locked up or if you have more than 5 targets locked, a random spread of those targets.

This can lead to some interesting situations. ECM and sensor dampening can be used to take out boosters by literally stopping them from applying their boosts to their targeted fleet mates. Maybe it could be worked that a booster who is not paying attention accidentally applies boosts to the enemy with hilarious results I am sure.

And it definitely brings boosters on grid.