Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Don't be too harsh. I haven't really thought this through in depth and have just thrown out the idea as it came to me...

Why do large and capital class ships have no point defense or similar options?

Look at any modern carrier or battleship in real life. They all have at least some ability to defend themselves from smaller ships, planes and incoming missiles etc.

So what about a rig that gave some form of close or medium range defense against either smaller fast flying vessels or incoming projectiles etc? Just to add another level of defense to what we already have and give those larger vessels at least a chance to hold off or slow down the damage one or two small ships can do to it. Ships that could otherwise nibble it to death in safety. Could also be an option for the likes of poor sitting duck hulks. Would be a cpu based rig so it would fit well there. Could it's effectiveness be altered by the amount of cpu free and not a set amount?

As one idea, something like rapid firing point defense lasers to take out a portion of incoming projectiles before they even hit the shields. The effectiveness of the defense determined by the skill trained, the rig type, the size of the incoming projectiles and the number of them / second.

Because it's not Eve gameplay. Eve doesn't try to be realistic.

Stopped reading there. EVE balance is dictated by gameplay, not realism.

They're called smartbombs.

Guys, he said not to be harsh!

Although I must agree that game balance is more important than realism (a funny word when thinking about internet spaceships 20,000+ years in the future or something), the concepts are not mutually exclusive. Given the choice between a balanced game with bonkers ideas (smartbombs, lol) and a balanced game with a nod to realism, I definitely choose the latter. CCP has gone so far as to make videos showing capitals with anti-ship point defence (Dominion trailer), and I think that would be a good addition to the game at some later point.

Flesh out your idea, OP. Intercepting incoming ordinance with such a system is a no-no as it could only realistically affect missiles and projectiles. Given that it must be anti-ship and purely for defensive purposes, how would this be different from Smartbombs now? Would they be exclusive to capital ships? What drawbacks might this system have? How do you prevent exploitative use of such a system?

Well none of the replies were too harsh ;P

As I said, I was just typing it out as the idea's flowed. You might have noticed I talked of anti ship OR anti projectile etc.

In both cases I was never considering it to be a fully effective defense. Possibly enough for a battleship or larger to hold back or block most of the shots from one well fitted frigate or two while still being overwhelmed by more.

the game seems so black and white with no real ability for a larger ship to do much against a smaller ship without the larger ship no longer being able to do what larger ships do... be effective against other large ships. That's where the thought of it being some sort of rig came along. An addition to the ship that could never be an all powerful anti ship or anti ordinance device... but rather a supplement making the vessel at least a little more versatile without interfering with, or having the ability to interfere with the ships main intended role.

After my post I wondered how if it was point defense, it could intercept some laser fire. All i could think of was some sort of projectile fire that dispersed something to absorb the energy before it hit the shields.

Remember, i never thought of any of these things being a complete block to any incoming fire. Maybe if on a small scale but easily overwhelmed if in significant quantity or size.

I forgot about drones so yeah, only idea left is pure point defense (anti incoming fire)... although if targeting is blocked, the point defense i assume would still operate as it'd be independent of the main systems and only be blocking some of the incoming fire. Moot points anyway I guess considering the responses.

We do have a defence against small ships its called out support fleet combine that with the smartbomb and heavy nute you should be using and 10 warrior-orge T2s which you should have with carrier 5 before jumping in one and you have at least a fighting chance against a few ships.

And if there is any more than a "few" ships your support isnt doing a very good job so accept your fate quietly