Player Features and Ideas Discussion

In most of the recent null-sec conflicts, Stealth bombers have become an increasingly strong tool, capable of eliminating entire fleets with little to no true counters. However, I don't think the ship itself is the problem, most stealth bombers will evaporate under any kind of return fire, it's the bomb launcher on these ships that is their true power. It is my opinion, that the solution to this problem should come in the form of player interaction with the offending bombs, rather than a overall nerf of the stealth bomber ship class.

The solution is right in front of us,as the humble Defender Missile. Currently, Defender Missiles are considered so worthless, that they are worth a fraction of the materials used to create them. Why? It is because they are limited by a clunky system that sabotages their effectiveness. It is my proposal to change the use of these missiles from their current purpose of attempting to block missiles to blocking bombs. To do this, I propose a two part system:

Fleet Area Defense System I:

Limited to Interdictor Class Ships

Limits ship to manually targeting bombs only when activated

Adds Substantial Scan Resolution to aid targetting Bombs

Active Module requiring low cap use

Uses significant amount of PG/CPU to effect fitting

Utilizes Defender Missiles 4 as prerequisite

Defender Missile:

Four types with select-able damage

5000m/s Missile Velocity

7s Flight time

40 Damage per Missile

Addressing first the Fleet Area Defense System (FADS), it would be limited to Interdictor class ships to balance the mitigation these new missiles would effect on incoming bombs. By tying a counter to bombers to a relativly equal level of skill points and isk, Bombers would become more balanced efficiency wise. As far as the module goes, it would operate as an activator for the defender missiles, allowing the player to fire against incoming bombs within a reasonable period of time.

Next, the Missiles themselves, would be in the neighborhood of 3-4 missiles per bomb reaching the target in a short period of time. Price wise, these new missile would replace the pre-existing Defenders at around 150K in material price, with the current defender missiles reverted to their base materials to prevent a massive profit run.

I look forward to getting responses, criticisms are welcome.

ISBoxer isn't going anywhere soon as far as I can tell, and removing it would not reduce the massive player bomber fleets currently active. Also, the small number of bombs launched by the ISBoxer would be more highly effected by this, as it would be easier to counter smaller concentrations of bombs

I'm not saying that I support ISBoxer, I just don't see CCP removing it anytime soon. To clarify, an ISBoxer is traditionally not the size of a normal fleet, which is what I meant when I said this would effect the smaller groups of ISBoxers. Regarding your point that the dictors would only be immediately removed from field, dictors already can be sniped off the field, this simply gives them another purpose. Additionally, this is not a perfect counter to bombs, so some will get through yes, but it does serve the purpose of mitigating the successive bomb waves. Every bomb used to get over the dictors is one less than would already hit the fleet.

yes go watch videos for WOW concerning EVE.. As we watch EVE ISboxers do way better work daily all day every day. Let us not compare the lower class player of WOW to the better citizens of EVE.

This is not a new kind of ship and the (FADS) is an active module meaning that you can swap between normal missiles to the defenders when you encounter a solution needing them. Also, this would be limited to interdictors who already have a place in the current meta, just giving them another choice in fitting.

( ̲̅:̲̅:̲̅:̲̅[̲̅ ̲̅]̲̅:̲̅:̲̅:̲̅ ) Apply directly to the butthurt.

To the op, kind of like the idea. An interception missile (you don't usually intercept dumb bombs), though maybe a type of gun (like 800mm autocannon) that launches suicide guided drones using T1 drones would be more useful against the bomber.

lol.... We should get rid of the blob counters... says the person with the largest blob...

Seriously, this game needs MORE AOE to keep blobs in check not less!

Entire fleets? Are they really that strong? I thought they only did a few hundred damage.
Also, smartbombs are a nice counter. Smartbomb interceptor, approach the bomb(s) and destroy 1m (?) in a couple of clicks. Or just SB battleships. Also, what about FOF interceptors? Same as the SB concept, burn towards the bombs and activate.