Player Features and Ideas Discussion

This is a great idea. It adds unique utility and support to titans. Once could picture competing ship doctrines based on expecting certain titan-generated effects to be present.

Just going to throw a few ideas into the mix.

It's difficult to think of shifting dreadnoughts into an anti-ship role without them dominating the field, yet their role as siege engine seems to be endangered. Still, if they don't need to siege anymore, increase the base damage on capital weapons a bit and remove siege modules, or at least alter them so they don't do 600% damage bonus. Basically, a little more firepower than a battleship and much better tank at greatly increased cost.

I think of carriers being the centrepiece of a fleet, using their small craft to provide support while the ships themselves are doing very little. i.e. take away their remote rep bonus, add logi fighters, ewar fighters etc. Let them do just about everything with drones (fighter sized). This would also force the pilot to choose between a flight of combat fighters or support fighters, instead of triage's "all or nothing" approach, thus increasing flexibility and freedom.

Reduce fighter m3 to 50, and fighter/bombers to 100m3. Give carriers a 1000m3 drone bay, and supercarriers a 2000m3 bay. This reduces the ridiculous amount of regular drones they can carry and forces important decisions about their complement.

Reduce sensor strength on capitals to a base of 30, so subcaps have more options for countering capitals besides bringing other capitals. Might want to remove ewar immunity from supercaps for the same reason, but keep sensor strength fairly high.

Consider allowing capitals to jump to a star system in range without a cyno - just lock onto the star and appear somewhere in that system, reducing dependence on alts or corpmates for casual travel. Cynos still work if you want precise jump co-ordinates. This reduces the punishment for flying a cap, allowing more freedom to use the ship's abilities. Jump fatigue still provides a limit on how often this can be used of course. A short spoolup time would be in order for this too (just like a MJD).

Capitals in highsec? Better make sure they can't blitz incursions. Most level 4's have gates so not a huge issue there. Level 5's could be moved to highsec to give HS capital pilots something to do, but I think these would be better left for nullsec agents (the ones hired by alliances at an admin hub!) You'd definitely want to consider all of HS cyno jammed too. It could work, but there seems to be plenty of downsides (use in wars, blitzing missions etc) with few upsides (epeen... honestly can't think of anything else).

Manny's mode idea has some merit - sacrifice some abilities to gain bonuses elsewhere. Seems like the sort of thing carriers should be doing, and if dreadnoughts need more flexibility, they could get something like that too.

Oh, and I think the 'wormhole-type bonus' idea for titans could be interesting. I don't know what else you'd do with the suckers tbh.

The last thing eve needs is Highsec Level 5 mission Running Capitals.

I disagree with a chunk of Manny's modes idea mostly on the basis that the capital basically replaces the subcap in every way shape or form at that moment. Its scary to say but we need more subcaps on the field, not more capitals. Giving immunities, propulsion bonuses, range bonuses, dps bonuses to a ship that cannot be alpha'd, has partial immunity to ewar, and whose only real vulnerability is to either be swarmed by 8X the number per cap, plus neutralizers, or another capital..

Most people think Carriers and Dreads are relatively balanced where they are at, minus slowcats. Supers and Titans are in a different level.

Ultimately, the classes need to be balanced between the Battlecruiser (needs help w warp speed, and a slight review of tank and dps when compared to cruisers), Battleship (bomb survival mostly), Carrier (n+1 scaling), Dread (relatively ok), Super (too many immunities and N+1 scaling), and Titan (Purpose, N+1 scaling and tidi). Ultimately the issue is purpose, not dps numbers or warp speed.

That's why I didn't recommend it.


It depends on what the modes do. After re-reading them, I think most of his ideas are a bit OP but the concept is sound. If these modes take a minute to switch over and require even more time to switch to another mode afterward, they wound't be as flexible as the t3 destroyers, yet would provide flexibility. Still, carriers were always considered the 'swiss army knife' of eve and they're hardly underpowered atm, so bypassing the modes idea is completely reasonable.


In terms of role, I have posted in the past that supercaps cannot be balanced against smaller classes in their present form. They were designed to let a player feel like a god.

One of my ideas was to reduce the supercarrier in size and power, down to a regular carrier. Basically, let current carriers be logi and support, and have these 'assault carriers' able to use fighter bombers, 'tiericiding' them. Their role is anti-capital and to some degree anti structure, but with much less power than a supercarrier can currently bring to the field. It's really about how much power you want a single character to have, and supercarriers give them too much. Better a fleet fields 200 assault carriers than 200 supercarriers imho. Of course, a reimbursement of isk would have to be given to current owners.

Supercarrier specific:

No longer immune to EWAR, but has a special role bonus:
All electronic warfare used against the supercarrier is considered to already have two of the same effect already applied for the purposes of stacking penalties.

+10 warp core strength per level of racial carrier.

Wyvern +8 sensor strength. +4% bonus per level to the strength of Siege Warfare and Information Warfare links. The +1 link per level bonus remains.
Nyx +3 sensor strength. +4% bonus per level to the strength of Armored Warfare and Skirmish Warfare links. The +1 link per level bonus remains.
Aeon: -3 sensor strength. +4% bonus per level to the strength of Armored Warfare and Information Warfare links. The +1 link per level bonus remains.
Hel -8 sensor strength. +4% bonus per level to the strength of Siege Warfare and Skirmish Warfare links. The +1 link per level bonus remains.


Instead of the current Remote ECM Burst, all supercarriers would have access to racial Remote EWAR Burst modules. These modules would only be able to be fitted to their corresponding supercarrier (the Amarr Remote EWAR Burst module could only be fitted to the Aeon), and they would all have a default mode, and a scripted mode. The default mode is a very long range, but less effective type of EWAR, and the scripted mode is a shorter range, stronger EWAR. The base cooldown is 5 minutes, and have an effect radius of 15km. Only 1 module of this type per ship. Cap or fuel use could be required to activate for balance reasons.

All the numbers are just placeholders. Range, effect radius, cooldown, strength of effect, duration, etc. would probably all need tweaking.

Amarr: Remote Tracking Disruption Burst (150km range) - Generates behind an AoE 'cloud.' Any objects with a tracking attribute within the cloud have their tracking speed penalized. Cloud lasts 20 seconds. The tracking disruption would be the same as a level V Curse with a tracking speed scripted Remote Tracking Disruptor II. As soon as the cloud disapates or the affectee leaves the area of effect, the penalties end. Multiple clouds and/or single target modules generating the same effect have stacking penalties.

Amarr: Remote Capacitor Neutralizer Burst (75km range) - AoE ranged burst that neutralizes cap in the blast area. Costs 70% of the Aeon's current capacitor to fire, and neutralizes 25% + 5%/level (so 50% at V) of the capacitor energy used. Ships hit by the blast which are equiped with Cap Batteries will partially reflect the drain back to the Aeon.

Math example (pilot has skill at IV):
Aeon's attack cap = 29,531.25 (70% of 93,750 = 65,625 * (.25 + .20 from skill) = 29,531.25)
Ships in the AoE have a total of 200,000 cap
The blast reduces the cap of the ships in the area of effect to 170,468.75 cap (200,000 - 29,531.25 = 170,468.75)
170,468.75 out of 200,000 = 85.234375% so all ships in the AoE lose 14.765625% of their current capacitor
One of the targets hit, an Archon with a cap battery and full cap (81,094) when hit loses not 11,974.0359375, but 10,477.2814453125 with 1,496.7544921875 (12.5% reflected) being bounced back and drained from the Aeon leaving the attacking Aeon at 26,537.74 cap.


Caldari: Remote ECM Lock Breaking Burst (150km range) - An AoE ranged burst that breaks locks, but does NOT keep them jammed. The effect is similar to the ECM Burst module. Rediculously high omni jamming strength of 500. Cooldown reduced by 30s per level of skill.

Caldari: Remote ECM Jamming Burst (75km range) - Generates a high strength AoE ranged burst that breaks target locks and and jams out the victims. Omni jamming strength of 200 + 5%/level.


Gallente: Remote Sensor Dampening Burst (150km range) - Generates an AoE 'cloud' that reduces the targeting range of any object in its area of effect with a locking range attribute. Dampening strength the same as a level V Lachesis with a targeting range scripted Remote Sensor Dampener II. +5% bonus / level of Gallente EWAR Burst. Cloud lasts 30 seconds. As soon as the cloud disapates or the affectee leaves the area of effect, the penalties end. Multiple clouds and/or single target modules generating the same effect have stacking penalties.

Gallente: Remote Warp Scrambling Burst (75km range) - Generates an AoE 'cloud' that puts the effect of a warp scrambler: no MWD or MJD, etc., on any ship (including fighters/fighter bombers) in its area of effect. -1 warp drive strength per level. Cloud lasts 10s + 1s/level. As soon as the cloud disapates or the affectee leaves the area of effect, the penalties end.


Minmatar: Remote Target Painting Burst (150km range) - Generates an AoE 'cloud' that gives a +100% (+10%/level) signature bloom to any object with a sig radius attribute in its area of effect. 30s duration. As soon as the cloud disapates or the affectee leaves the area of effect, the penalties end. Multiple clouds and/or single target modules generating the same effect have stacking penalties.

Minmatar: Remote Stasis Webifier Burst (75km range) - Generates an AoE 'cloud' that reduces the speed of any object with a velocity attribute in its area of effect. 60% velocity penalty. 20s duration +3s/level. As soon as the cloud disapates or the affectee leaves the area of effect, the penalties end. Multiple clouds and/or single target modules generating the same effect have stacking penalties.




Dreadnoughts

Dreads are largely in a good place IMO, however I'd like to see something like this added to them:

New Role Bonus: The reflect effect of capacitor batteries is doubled.

+1 or +2 warp core strength per level of racial dread.

Also, maybe give the Rev a little something to help it fill a niche that the other dreads do not?

hey guys, im not a cap pilot. im just reading and commenting on this thread from the perspective as an outsider....

first, what if all carriers had to anchor themselves before launching fighters? second, what if there was a way for carriers to launch remote attacks using their fighters? either by selecting targets for D-scan or by somehow being given targets remotely?

then make carriers unable to provide or receive remote reps or support while anchored. if they want to provide reps they would need to recall their fighters and unanchor before doing so. so either use fighters or logistics but not both at same time.

Rather than modes that can be cycled at will, how about additional forms of siege/triage. These can be fitted to provide different effects while running; and while still burning the same fuel. They can be limited to fitted at a time like cloaking devices.

Carriers would receive their normal triage and an offensive variant that boosts sensor strength, scan res and drone performance. at the cost of losing all bonuses to logi.

Dreads could receive a capital sized warp disrupter, similar to a heavy interdictors but only applies the focused effects. This would let them tie down super caps on their own. This module would take one of the high slots on a dread, forcing them to choose between firepower and utility.

Would love if carriers got a few small turret /launcher slots so it could have a minimum of defense against subcapitals.
Also the weapon hardpoints don't need to be bonused but they could be nice to have like a extra space in the fitting screen for them?
Also a immunity against light interdictor bubbles since the ship is way way big and interdictor is very small so feels wrong that such a small ship should be able to hold down a capital..

Unfortunately I am still far from being a cap pilot myself, due to the fighting in catch I have seen a lot of combat against capitals and would like to through my 2 cents in.

I really like the idea of removing ewar immunity from Super carriers. Give them natural bonus' like has been suggest with higher warp core strength, and the like so it's hard to ewar them into oblivion but still possible. This would make it possible to dismantle spider tanking both at the cap and super capital level. I don't think this would be too horrible because I imagine it would take a significant sized ewar gang to make it work and the gangs themselves are vulnerable to subcap aggression so there is a counter for it., and would encourage more varied fleet compositions.

I do think titans need some love and I think the biggest issue with deploying them and super carriers is the cost. Though it would cause some strife I think if super capitals (both titans and Super Carriers) costs were brought more in line with the other classes cost progression they would see a lot more use because their loss would not be so absolutely crippling. The current jump from a few billion for capitals to 60 billion and above for supercaps is staggering. 30 Billion would still be a massive cost, but would lower the bar significantly for entry to the brotherhood of Super capital ships. I know they were meant to be rare sights, but at this point in eve's life the landscape has shifted and proliferation has happened and in order to play with the big boys you need big toys. I don't mind this requirement for escalation, it makes sense, but the cost scaling doesn't make as much sense anymore with the new emphasis on getting more alliances into nullsec.


I really hope CCP takes a good long look at capitals and capital warefare because there are two things that set Eve apart from other space games, the size of the engagements (IE number of combatants) and capital ships. People will point to the community, to the economy, but those two things will grow around Eve's competition so I don't see them as the defining features of the actual game. The two things this game does that no other space game does is massive battles between subcapital and capital ships the likes of which people only saw in movies before. The changes coming to Sov will encourage smaller scale combat and the nerfs that have already come to capitals and their shrinking niche roles is a bit disheartening for an Eve child born from B5R.

I've always liked the idea of the combination space battleship/carrier from various science fiction universes. Ships from Babylon 5 or BSG were able to launch fighter wings and also mount heavy weaponry. I figured this was possible with the removal of gravity limitations confining terrestrial-bound ship designs - especially carriers, which need a flat top for launching and retrieval of aircraft.

Someone mentioned earlier in this thread the idea of dreadnaughts being DPS and carriers providing logi. The models would probably have to be updated, but I'm picturing dreadnaughts bringing the pain with big guns and fighter/bomber bays, and hordes of fighter sized logi drones launched from carriers repping the fleet.

I'm also thinking the carriers should get a bonus to the number of fighters they can launch, not drones in general. i.e. 5 drones max, but can still launch max number of fighters. Blobs of slowcats just seems so.... static, compared to the more energetic space battles we see in fiction. Anything that brings eve more towards that sort of dynamic gameplay gets my vote.