Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Ok, I have some basic ideas for what I could see as decent overhauls for each (combat) capital class. Dreads and titans in particular would receive particular attention to how XL weapons would be changed.

XL weapons get their damage brought up 500%, and titans get their damage bonuses removed. All titans instead receive range bonuses to their weapon systems.

Siege and triage modules are removed from the game, and instead dreadnaughts and carriers get different modes.

-Dread Siege Mode affects instead tank and range, akin to how bastion works, and carriers get triage mode (hull bonuses on dreads as well as possibly a small dmg bonus on siege mode to bring it up to current dps lvls would be appropriate). In addition to this, they both gain an Attack mode bonus which gives a weapon sig reduction bonus for dreads and drone speed for carriers, as well as a 25% tracking increase for both. It does not have a rep bonus, though.

-Supercarriers and titans gain 'Citadel Mode' which extends their shield hp into a large starbase-style bubble around them, and become immobile. Members who are in fleet when this gets turned on do not get launched out by the shield, and those who aren't do get forcibly ejected, leading me to believe some physics may need to be tweaked to make this a reality.

All capital transfer arrays get their range extended by 250%. The current range bonuses get dropped, and the levelled bonuses for racial carriers and supercarriers becomes this:

-Archon and Aeon get a 5% bonus to the EM damage of drones per level

-Chimera and Wyvern get a 5% bonus to Kinetic damage of drones per level

-Thanatos and Nyx get their damage bonus changed to thermal, and gain a 7.5% bonus to local armor repair amount per level.

-Hel and Nidhoggur get a 5% bonus to Explosive damage of drones per level, and both gain a 7.5% bonus to local shield repair per level. The Nidhoggur gets a low moved to a mid slot, and both ships lose their remote repair bonuses.

All capital ships with ship maintenance arrays that can carry ships allow for pilots to dock in them as they would a station, albeit still having to follow the same space restrictions. This would, for example, allow 5000 capsules to dock up into a titan's ship maint array. I think it would also be fair to allow that if the ship was destroyed, the ships within it didn't get destroyed as long as they are active/logged in. There is quite a bit of room for debate on this, and I'd be happy either way.

[*] Carriers and dreadnaughts (but not supers) would be allowed in hisec. Capital sized RR and weapons would be disallowed from activation, including fighters. Subcap drones, however, would be allowed on carriers.

The only animation I want to see on the Aeon is a fusion dance that results in a complete Aeon.

Or Voltron.

Would't that just make it look like a huge floating suppository?

A.. Super Suppository?

Idk I don't do heavy industry much, so I don't know the balance elements involved in the rorq. If there are some combat-related reasons why it'd be a bad idea I suppose those might need to be looked at if it was given the green light to go into hisec.

CCP Larrikin be lurrkin

Continued from post above

Each of these Capitals should have a specific module that "deploys" them into their respective roles.

For Carriers, when deployed they can do logistics and assign fighters, when not deployed they can serve (perhaps with titans and bridges) as a ship moving/movement facilitator

For Dreads, when deployed they can mount E-war to the max, OR deliver Titan/capital Damaging shots. Weapons for attacking Titans should be different than regular guns and should offer no damage to other capitals.

For Supers, when deployed they should be able to launch and assign fighters, deploy FB's and attack painted targets. When not deployed they should serve as a secondary logistics role

For Titans, when deployed they should act as a mobile base, with docking, fitting and repair services (each of these should have a timer to avoid the new station-game) as well as a time-limited force field. When not deployed, they can activate their Doomsday weapon. In either mode they should be able to bridge.

I've enjoyed the mental exercise of coming up with ways to balance and bring Capitals and above into a strong and enjoyable place. I feel that the pheobe changes need another pass to do this.

Personally an ideal system would encourage groups to spread their might throughout a constellation. One super or a small group of caps to support the subcap-entosis pilots and the other subcaps to support the super/caps. Perhaps this isn't anywhere close to the design goals of ccp and doesn't really sound like their kind of goal anyway.

I would love to hear what goals CCP are considering to concentrate caps and supers to achieving.

If you consider how modern carriers are used the idea of assigning fighters makes a lot of sense, but sitting stationary in harbour does not (see skynet). To this end players are being sold a lie in the name of the ship class. To require the ship to be on grid the original name "mothership" makes a lot more sense.

Most of all I feel there is great opportunity in breaking down the need to pile onto one grid with all the capital and super ships possible. Returning to fighter assist and off grid doomsday weapons has potential to this end but were removed due to rapid change being made in order to balance other parts of the game. So while a whole revamp is being considered for these ships I think a return to these concepts but creating them anew with limits to keep the ships vulnerable and powerful should be considered. You should feel hunted and be trying to stay away from even being caught in these while also directing fighters and fighter bombers to do your bidding. Hiding signature in asteroids, or by turning systems offline could be considered with a revision of d-scan possibly due to the new observation outpost. Tracking where fighters return to becoming useful.

As for the titans I honestly feel like a titan should feel more like a deathstar and one shot a vulnerable station when they become destructible. Putting one on field resulting in a sure death of either the titan or the station. Other aspects could of course be considered for the titan to make it more than a very niche role. But a truly terrifying power with a true risk of it being destroyed would make these devastating ships have the awe they deserve.

How much legacy code is going to limit the balance of these ships is beyond me and perhaps Manfred is on the right course with current implementations being considered such as modes. Nevertheless I'd like to see CCP try their best to reach far with this. It's been a while since I feel they truly reached for anything amazing. Now would be a good time to do some serious prototyping with blank slates.

If I had to give them a balance pass with current mechanics and features, I'd propose that they have drastically reduced lock time to help them participate in destroying the many subcaps that will surely be vulnerable with entosis links running. Also a massive reduction in the ability to tank XL guns, letting Dreads be the force to reduce the capital / super blob and using carriers and supers as effective entosis killers with their fighters. This would also come with a reduction for Dreads to shoot subcaps, making them otherwise useless in a subcap fight. And titans... :/ well the ideas to use it as a mobile base seem quite good, but I'm not honestly sure that is what a titan pilot wants, might be wrong though.

I'd also like to state I'm in favor of using capitals and supers as better fleet movers to allow attackers to maneuver about a constellation as easily as the defenders with their jump bridges.

EDIT: reworded in the hope that the EVE Creative Director reads it:

The first part of this discussion should be: "do we want to do it?". I would suggest that, "yes, we do".

Having established that, the next question is "how?". Clearly it's not impossible, just perhaps a challenge.

Well, the first thing to do would be to understand the existing code and data flows, then build a refactoring and migration plan so that any missing underlying functionality can be added without impacting the existing game, followed by the implementation of the extra client 'states' (such as - I am now inside that other ship, so update my client accordingly).

None of this is difficult - it simply requires the will followed by the execution.

If we ask CCP for this and tell them that it will really improve the game, and then the CSM push for it - perhaps we'll get it? Wouldn't that be better than simply accepting a whitewash answer?

What about normal stacking penalty for capital RR? This mostly concerns slowcats, and wouldn't hurt typical triage support use at all.

Supercap issue mostly concerns their isk value, leading to purely risk averse usage.

I like the idea of capitals hurling wormholes across the battlefield. That could be the greatest anti-blob weapon ever.

"FC, Epsilon Wing is now in Amamake along with hostile tackle!"

"Copy that, execute order FRIENDBALL till you all escape the hostile natives and get safely back to null."


On a more sober note, I recall CCP making squeaky noises about different fleet warp formations back in the day. We should go poke them and see what's up.