Player Features and Ideas Discussion

So there has been a lot of talk about nerfing supers because the whole apex force wrecking ball strategy is currently the only ultimate goal - get more supers.Of course this is long defined as a issue in that it creates an artificial barrier for anyone wanting to get into null, and means the race to grab experience pilots with more supers is the only way to counter a group with supers. Of course many of you have seen the ticker and can probably tell as a member of BRAVE I am used to having supers dropped on me on a regular basis.

Currently the only option, is to not fight a super blob.

here currently a way to deny capitals and so on for getting on grid. Currently there are two methods.

i) A local cyno inhibitor with limited range.
ii) System wide cyan jammer

Both of these are static objects in particular the inhibitor which dies pretty quickly when a fight kicks off, and in many systems, cyno jammers are only used in systems where high security is required such as super capital building facilites

Either way, these options do not provide an adequate counter to ‘prevent’ the wrecking ball.

But, I was chatting with a few FC’s and one (you know who you are) said, there is a way of defending against supers, which is basically - stop them from getting on grid. Which got me thinking - how can something like this, be used, that would provide an interesting gameplay element without just being some stupid module.

I needed to think of something that would provide a reasonable target, in the same way that HIC’s and Interdictors, something that is easy to identify as a priority target, but at the same time will provide an interesting gameplay mechanic.

To that, I am tentatively throwing out the Super Interdictor (SIC).

Blurb for the ship description
'Super Interdictors were created by the Empire races to address the massive arms race observed over the last few years between the larger capsuleer alliances in nullsec. The rate at which these fleets have grown is far beyond the expectations of even the most pessimistic millatery minds. Worried that in the event that somehow capsuleer forces somehow find a way to negate the massive cynosural jamming of the Empires most secure space the Super Interdictor Class Battleship was created.'

The idea is, very similar to how a HIC compares to its t1 variant, because I am not a stat person, I am basically gonna do the ship descriptions but not the actual stats. But I am thinking along the lines of the marauder stats with some improved HP, reduced weapons capability. But as I am not a stat person I have no idea how to start approaching these. So here we go!

Name: Koeus
Hull: Hyperion Class
Role: Super Interdictor
Developer: Roden Shipyards

Gallente Battleship bonuses (per skill level):
5% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret damage
10% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret falloff
Super Interdictor bonuses (per skill level):
7.5% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret tracking speed
10% reduction in Cynosural Inhibitor cycle time
Role Bonus:
• Can fit Cynosural Inhibitor modules


Name: Purgatory
Hull: Abaddon Class
Role: Super Interdictor
Developer: Vizam

SHIP BONUSES
Amarr Battleship bonuses (per skill level):
5% bonus to ship capacitor capacity
7.5% bonus to Large Energy Turret optimal range
Marauders bonuses (per skill level):
5% bonus to Large Energy Turret damage
10% reduction in Cynosural Inhibitor cycle time
Role Bonus:
• Can fit Cynosural Inhibitor modules


Name: Vanir
Hull: Malestrom Class
Role: Super Interdictor
Developer: Core Complexion Inc.

SHIP BONUSES
Minmatar Battleship bonuses (per skill level):
5% bonus to Large Projectile Turret rate of fire
10% bonus to Large Projectile Turret falloff
Marauders bonuses (per skill level):
7.5% bonus to Large Projectile Turret tracking speed
10% reduction in Cynosural Inhibitor cycle time
Role Bonus:
• Can fit Cynosural Inhibitor modules

Name: Medea
Hull: Rokh Class
Role: Super Interdictor
Developer: Kaalakiota

Gallente Battleship bonuses (per skill level):
5% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret damage
10% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret falloff
Super Interdictor bonuses (per skill level):
7.5% bonus to Large Hybrid Turret tracking speed
10% reduction in Cynosural Inhibitor cycle time
Role Bonus:
• Can fit Cynosural Inhibitor modules

So that important module! Again I am not a fitting Guru, but, this is in essence works in the same way as the HIC bubble works, except that it is not a warp disruption bubble, but a system wide cyno jammer.

The cycle time for the Cynosural Inhibitor is 120 seconds which is reduced down to approx. 70 seconds at level 5 skills. During this time the ship is immobile and cannot receive remote assistance, it can use its weapons / local reps, but is not immune to e-war (so it can be pointed).

These do not stop covert cyno’s.

Now this is something I can’t decide on with the module. It will when activated either

i) Appear in the overview as a beacon that people can immediately warp to. Which means basically when it goes up, its going to generate a fight, or
II) For me, option i seemed a bit lacking in the gameplay department. A cyno allows a fleet to jump to it, so you can be warping right to you death if you warp your fleet to it. But this, its basically a HUGE come kill me beacon, which doesn’t really give the SIC a chance. Its a battleship after all, its not a fast and nimble interdictor, or the opportunistic heavy tanking HIC. Its a battleship. So the other alternative was to bloom the signature radius of the ship say 500% (IDK, whatever takes a good scanner less than 30 seconds to scan) so you have the element of ‘Oh **** getting scanned cycle cycle cycle must GTFO’ bit and it becomes a game of cat and mouse, this for me would be a much more interesting gameplay mechanic.

Nope please try again

This is a bad idea I'm sorry

Its not meant to, its a delay maneuver to allow people to achieve their goals doesn't matte the size of a force if it shows up too late to do anything about it. But entirely stopping a forces ability to respond would also be pointless as people would go, well crap, I can't do anything about that, lets just spin our ships instead.



Again, not meant to, if a force has the foresight and planning to put these ships in place to defend a system then they deserve to keep it, its a tool to delay a rapid response of a larger force if an attacker, or in the case, of a defender manage to spot a weakness.



Good for them, they got the jump on you and deserve the timer and will probably have their own preventative measures in place.



True, but it does delay them, maybe long enough to do what you need to do to win an objective.



Anyone can go and set up a pos. Indeed, a pos may infact be harder to take on, this is just a battleship, which with t2 build costs will still be significantly expensive. You scan it down, it dies. Indeed, its overall cost is probably just as expensive as a jamming pos, but with one major distinction in that it provides flexibility of deployment to allow attackers, or defenders, defensive options in systems that they may not have them

Consider changing the Mobile Cyno Inhibitor to something that causes jumping ships to land anywhere but the standard 5,000m from the beacon.

Remove the immobility penalty of the module, and make it scripted. Without the script, it acts like a bubble, ships jumping/bridging to any beacon within the bubble get dumped into space at a random 1,000,000km[1] from the beacon[2]. Use of a script in the module allows you to lock down beacons entirely and prevent anything jumping/bridging[3] to them.

[1] Subject to balance considerations.
[2] Hard Mode: dumped ships come out of the jump pre-bumped, forcing them to pulse MWDs or align to conventient celestials.
[3] Covert Cynos excluded.

Needs an AU limitation. Can't be system wide. Unless you have a bunch overlapping.

Other than that, I'm down.