Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hello everyone! By now most of you know that we've been working on a Combat Battlecruiser balance pass, and we're now ready to start getting your feedback on the planned specifics! These changes are currently scheduled for our Vanguard release on September 29th.

We're giving the class in general a significant buff, with every individual ship benefiting. The centerpiece of this pass is a new role bonus that adds damage projection to each ship. The bonus helps provide a unifying element across the entire class and helps Battlecruisers deal with opponents at a variety of ranges. The turret version of the bonus applies to both optimal and falloff, which makes it applicable for a larger variety of weapons.

The class is also getting a noticeable boost to speed and agility across the board. Some ships benefit more than others, but on average the Combat and Navy BCs will move ~8.4% faster with a propulsion module running and require ~8.2% less time to align.

The ships that are weaker and/or less popular are generally receiving bigger buffs, and the more popular ships get smaller buffs (although every ship in the class gets a net buff of some kind).

When evaluating the existing states of these ships we are using a variety of factors, including subjective feedback from experienced players, our own personal experiences flying these ships on TQ, and usage metrics.

To give you a quick snapshot of the current popularity of each ship, here's some metric snapshots from the past month:

Percentage of all T1 Combat BC jumps (gate+wormhole) by ship over the past 30 days
Drake 37.4%
Myrmidon 17.4%
Hurricane 11.7%
Prophecy 7.4%
Harbinger 7.3%
Ferox 7.3%
Brutix 7.2%
Cyclone 4.3%

Percentage of all T1 Combat BC PVP damage (from ship killmails, so does not count structure damage or ships that didn't die) by ship over the past 30 days
Drake 19.5%
Brutix 19.4%
Hurricane 14.7%
Myrmidon 13.1%
Prophecy 11.9%
Ferox 7.8%
Cyclone 7.2%
Harbinger 6.5%

Percentage of all Navy Faction Combat BC jumps (gate+wormhole) by ship over the past 30 days
Drake Navy Issue 35.9%
Hurricane Fleet Issue 23.8%
Harbinger Navy Issue 21.6%
Brutix Navy Issue 18.7%

Percentage of all Navy Faction Combat BC PVP damage (from ship killmails, so does not count structure damage or ships that didn't die) by ship over the past 30 days
Brutix Navy Issue 41.4%
Hurricane Fleet Issue 33.0%
Harbinger Navy Issue 22.8%
Drake Navy Issue 2.8%

The details of our proposed changes for your feedback can be found in the next posts.

And now on to the Navy BCs. These ships have always been specialized towards improved damage application to small and fast targets. We are emphasizing this existing specalization through more tracking bonuses and spare drone flights, while also passing along the damage projection bonuses from their T1 counterparts.


Harbinger Navy Issue:
The Navy Harb is one of the strongest Navy BCs, taking advantage of plentiful midslots and excellent laser tracking. We're adding the projection bonus and mass benefits from the T1 Harb while also pushing its speed advantage even further.

Amarr Battlecruiser skill bonuses:
10% bonus to Medium Energy Turret Damage
7.5% bonus Medium Energy Turret tracking speed
Role Bonus:
25% bonus to Medium Energy Turret optimal range and falloff
Can fit Warfare Link modules
Slot layout: 7H, 5M, 6L, 6 turrets
Fittings: 1495 PWG, 410 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 4500 / 7875 (+375) / 6750
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / average cap per second): 3500 (+375) / 875s (+53) / 4 (+0.2)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 175 (+25) / 0.52 (-0.17) / 15,500,000 (+1,700,000) / 11.17s (-2.03s)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50 / 75 (+25)
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 70km (+15) / 210 / 7 (+1)
Sensor strength: 21 Radar
Signature radius: 270
Cargo capacity: 375


Drake Navy Issue:
The Navy Drake is getting a changed skill bonus, with the previous missile velocity bonus leaving to make room for the shield resistance bonus enjoyed by the T1 Drake. Extra powergrid and drones open up a lot of new options for this ship, and it's gaining some of the biggest mobility bonuses (making it the most agile of the Navy BCs).

Caldari Battlecruiser skill bonuses:
4% bonus to all Shield Resistances (Was missile velocity)
5% bonus to Heavy Missile and Heavy Assault Missile explosion radius
Role Bonus:
25% bonus to missile velocity
Can fit Warfare Link modules
Slot layout: 8H, 6M, 4L, 8 Launchers
Fittings: 950 (+50) PWG, 550 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 8250 (+375) / 4875 / 5625
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / average cap per second): 2500 / 625s (-32.9) / 4 (+0.2)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 180 (+30) / 0.53 (-0.11) / 13,500,000 (+171,000) / 9.92s (-1.91s)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50 (+25) / 75 (+50)
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 70km (+10) / 195 / 8
Sensor strength: 23 Gravimetric
Signature radius: 295
Cargo capacity: 450


Brutix Navy Issue:
The already-strong Navy Brutix doesn't need as much help as many other ships in the class, but it will benefit greatly from the projection role bonus, increased hull HP and improved mobility.

Gallente Battlecruiser skill bonuses:
10% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret damage
7.5% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret tracking speed
Role Bonus:
25% bonus to Medium Hybrid Turret optimal range and falloff
Can fit Warfare Link modules
Slot layout: 7H, 4M, 7L, 6 turrets
Fittings: 1235 PWG, 455 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 5250 / 6750 / 7500 (+375)
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / average cap per second): 3100 (+100) / 775s (-14) / 4 (+0.2)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 165 (+10) / 0.63 (-0.074) / 11,800,000 (-75,000) / 10.31s (-1.28s)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50 / 75 (+25)
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 65km (+10) / 200 / 7
Sensor strength: 22 Magnetometric
Signature radius: 305
Cargo capacity: 475


Hurricane Fleet Issue:
The Fleet Cane is getting a new set of skill bonuses, the previous double damage bonus replaced with 10% damage and 10% tracking per level. With the addition of extra PG, extra drones, and extra mobility, this ship is receiving some of the most significant buffs of the whole balance pass.

Minmatar Battlecruiser skill bonuses:
10% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret damage (Was 5%)
10% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret tracking speed (Was projectile rate of fire)
Role Bonus:
25% bonus to Medium Projectile Turret optimal range and falloff
Can fit Warfare Link modules
Slot layout: 8H, 4M, 6L, 6 turrets, 3 Launchers
Fittings: 1380 (+30) PWG, 420 CPU
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 6750 (+375) / 6750 / 5250
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / average cap per second): 2300 (+50) / 575s (-17) / 4 (+0.2)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 185 (+20) / 0.61 (-0.094) / 12,800,000 (+300,000) / 10.82s (-1.38s)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50 (+20) / 50 (+20)
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 65km (+15) / 220 / 6
Sensor strength: 20 Ladar
Signature radius: 250
Cargo capacity: 425

First!

(Obviously, I can't see the changes yet, but based on the general overview...I'm optimistic.)

EDIT: I'm excited. These seem like excellent changes that are pretty well in-line with a lot of the player feedback I've been hearing. CBCs now have their own niche (long range cruiser-caliber fire) without stepping on the toes of ABCs or cruisers. Combined with their recent warp speed buff, and I imagine you'll see a lot more use out of these puppies.

Well done!


Side note: I really like the choice of drone speed vs drone range for the drone boats. We have enough sentry platforms as is, and this will allow the CBC drone boats to apply damage at range without using sentries.

return of the drakefleet... awesome

Forget Drakefleet. Welcome FeroxFleet.

EDIT: Not only FeroxFleet...but symetrically-placed turret FeroxFleet! WAHOO!

Very good changes. I look forward to these.

Not a particularly impressive PVP ship for sure. However enough players enjoy using it for PVE to make it quite popular relative to other ships in its cost range (those guys will probably be quite happy about the resists).

THANK YOU BASED GOD FOZZIE

LOOOOOOVE THE CHANGES

BATTLECRUISERS ARE BACK BBY

This flat 12.5% drone velocity bonus on the Proph and Myrm is a little strange in my opinion. Was there any consideration made to it being something like 10% speed, 10% tracking? I have concerns that increasing the drone speed without increasing tracking as well will cause the drones to miss more often against small targets, and against heavier targets the drone speed bonus is hardly worth considering.

I know sentry drone tracking is something that you are pretty wary about giving out after the Domi and Ishtar but I hardly think a small flat bonus would break these two ships in the sentry role.