Ships & Modules

Personally Id like to see AFs getting some really new - perhaps the ability to jump to a cyno. They are class as 'assault' ships and having that kind of ranged manoeuvring could be an interesting capability on a small ship class.

Admittedly there are some problems with that as a concept - it might encourage heavier blobing but it might also be a foil to black op SB drops?

C.

Compared to the new designed destroyers, AF are going to have a hard time. Why not make the 4th bonus a tank bonus to reduce their sig or improve their resists? Some AF already have tanking bonuses but some Command ships have double tank bonuses so there is precedent.

I don't think the oversized weapons is a great idea but they could have a bomb launcher fitting bonus. Give the bomb launcher another ship to be fitted on and the AF a bonus weapon that would be fun to play with in hordes ;)

Way I figure it, we now have the 'glass CANNON' in the Tier 3 BCs. I don't want a 'glass little bit smaller than a cannon' ship. Destroyers are kinda sorta that. Instead of bigger guns, they get more guns. Same(ish) result.

Gimme that 4th bonus and a true T2 dessie other than the dictor and I'll be a happy pod pilot.

You have a ship that is supposed to work in scram range and at the same time active tank. Theoretically. Immunity to nuets would be nice. Of course I just woke up so this might not be a great idea by the time I get to work....

To be honest while yes they could do a ton of damage adding the 4th bonus to some they could always make it something that cancels out the others benefit like an optimal and a falloff bonus. It would only really be good for one set of the weapons loaded on it and so would kinda only be applying 3 bonus still. Would I love a Jaguar with a fall off bonus? Yes. Would it be powerful? Yeah I think it would. Would that optimal bonus be doing anything for me on my AC Jaguar? Not really. Still 3 bonuses and with the other weaker ships getting a truly cumulative bonus like damage or greater tanking allowing all 4 to apply at once would help to balance them out.

I want that AB bonus.

Or give them better chances of "evasion" whenever under fire.


Or here is fun gag.
It is called assault frigate but you can't fit a group of assault missile launchers on it without PG screaming. Hmm

I realise you've been out of the game for a long time, but the Hawk and Harpy are both very solid, and the Enyo's nowhere near as bad as people make out. TBH, in terms of intra-class balance, the AFs are in a pretty good place (with the obvious exception of the Retribution); the problem is that they're collectively kind of lackluster when compared to other ship classes.

Honestly the AB bonus just makes sense.....give them the speed to catch a nano'd BC without the dig bloom and it becomes an entirely new ball game.

Yeah give both to retribution.

But they could get 4th bonus to AB, sure but I remember there was issue with 10mn AB/MWD fitted on them and achieving crazy speed in tests.

Or just 5% or 10% to base speed per level, fits with assault part.

The problem with Assault Ships is that if you are not careful then they will make other classes obsolete. E.g:

• if you add DPS, then you don't need Destroyer any more and they will be by far overpowered. They already have enough DPS.
• if you add Speed, e.g. with an Afterburner bonus then you will render Faction Frigates obsolete.
• if you add Agility, then you will also make Tech 1 Frigates and Faction Frigates more or less onbsolete.

As you see, you have to think out of the box to improve Assault Ships without making them overpowered. They simply need something unique.

If you can agree with me that Assault Ships are meant for fleet operations especially as DPS and tackling support against ships larger then their size then you should also be able to agree with me that a Web Imunity Bonus would be very useful for assault ships. Let's say Web Imunity of 15% per Assault Ship Level. This would significantly improve Assault Ships with Afterburner for anti-blob and under-gun warefare without obsoleting other ship classes. They would be still stoppable with Neutralizers (which at least can be countered a bit with NOS and Cap Booster Charges) and Drones or Smart Bombs, but they will be much less vulnerable and therefore more durable since they will be still able to do some speed tanking even when webbed to hell.