Player Features and Ideas Discussion

First, off chipping away at a strong ship is great way to balance things. It does not provide immediate resolution to the problem but it is a better approach to balance then big sweeping changes that break a ship. Small changes have cumulative effects, and not over nerfing and thus crippling one of the most flown ships is a good way to keep customers happy.

Yes drone boats are leaders in almost every category. A small nerf to them across the board is not unexpected, and I am a drone boat pilot. I will miss the DPS I am losing on my Worm, Gila, VNI, Rattlesnake, Dominix, and my Ishtar. But I was drawn to these ships for various reasons including they were very good dps ships with good survivability. Thankfully the Gurista ships caused me to also train missiles and those are now seeing a positive boost. Though for all practical purposes I won't be using the new missile mods on my Worm or Gila. So they take a net nerf, which for the power they had, is not game breaking.

I'd rather keep all the power of the DDA and just have my Ishtar nerfed to satisfy the masses, but once the Ishtar is fixed, people will complain even more about the other drone boats that are PvE leaders and still very strong in PvP. This proactive DDA nerf helps bring all those ships down a small amount, and hopefully will be enough so spare them any other nerf.

Honestly, I'd let the slot change pan out a bit before nerfing DDA.

I really think the slot change might be enough.

You had very misguided hopes. Removal of Sentries from any drone ship removes that ships ability for ranged combat. I don't expect to see Sentries removed from any drone ship until a replacement to them is also introduced.

+1 Rise.

-1 midslot is going to impact the dominant shield Ishtar significantly. I imagine the hamsters are also rejoicing.

just gunna take stabs at the ishtar till you figure it out huh lol
even a blind squirrel finds a nut from time to time

I think the DDA nerf is way overdue. Better late than never, though.

Calm down, dron user.

DDAs were & still are OP, considering that the base drone attributes were already competitive prior to their introduction.



Double dron bonuses everyday.

On top of a battleship weapons system on a cruiser hull with t2 resists.

Gobbi pls

Another great round of changes. DDAS have been way too strong for a long time and drone ships tend to be the strongest in every single ship class.

Tempest buff is good and probably way better then most ppl understand. its around 20% dps buff.

I would have loved a application bonus though.


edit: dont forget that DDAs had 19% drone dmg when introduced. they are simply brought back to original statsish

The DDA nerf is fair, but the slot change is not very desirable. Because now it is almost impossible to use shield tank, and this is also the same idea of Vexor Navy Issue(Only the drone bay different). You should just keep the slot location.

Beyond the obvious ENORMOUS Ishtar balance issues (ultimate ship for PvP AND PvE in most situations anyone?), the question of drone balance in general begs to be asked.

I wish there was a counter as easy as firewalling for drones, because they are sure as hell getting out of hand atm. I'm sure you're communicating damage stats between devs, and Fozzie just announced that drone boats ships are top damage for Frigates AND Pirate Frigates AND Cruisers AND Navy Cruisers AND Heavy Assault Cruisers AND Battleships.

At this stage refusing to do something substantial is not bad judgment, it is clearly turning a blind eye voluntarily.