These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

Test Server Feedback

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
 

Balancing Feedback: Assault Ships

First post First post
Author
Michael Harari
Genos Occidere
HYDRA RELOADED
#221 - 2012-01-07 08:18:52 UTC
Tanya Powers wrote:
Forsaken Skipper wrote:

Lisa EF wrote:
Remove: MWD Bonus
Add: 100% Bonus to "Small" Afterburner Speed

Assault ships will be overpowered then. Current boost is nice enough (mistake in tracking bonuses is an exception).


You failed to explain why 100% bonus to afterburner speed would make AF's overpowered.
.


You are kidding, right? You wouldnt be able to track an assault frigate even with another frigate.
Merin Ryskin
Peregrine Industries
#222 - 2012-01-07 08:26:49 UTC
Tanya Powers wrote:
You failed to explain why 100% bonus to afterburner speed would make AF's overpowered.


Because an AB speed bonus takes AFs from "hard but possible to kill if they get up close against medium guns" to "completely immune to anything besides other frigates up close" and makes them immune to missiles.

And of course unless you give them 2-3km/s speed with an AB, they still die just as fast if they don't get up close, making it a black and white "always dead" vs. "always wins" that isn't fun for anyone.
Trygonus
Doomheim
#223 - 2012-01-07 09:35:11 UTC  |  Edited by: Trygonus


^Can't emphasize this enough!!!

Was really looking forward to assault frigates being tailored a bit more towards low security space too. X
Prometheus Exenthal
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#224 - 2012-01-07 10:09:57 UTC  |  Edited by: Prometheus Exenthal
Never mind how silly the idea is, but so far nobody has even put forward a suggestion that would "make them better specifically for low sec".

So far there have been suggestions of varying degrees of EWAR immunity (not low sec, just stupid), making them into little link ships or some special bonus when used with other AFs (not low sec, just ridiculous), and of course the poor dead horse that is the AB speed boost. Anyone worth their salt can see that beyond being vague and disorganized nature, they simply would not work within the current framework of EVE.

So please humour me for a moment, and explain what would make these "better for low sec", and how would these improvements be useful for the ~40% of PVP/PVE EVE players who don't live in empire space. Or perhaps how 55% of PVP players (00/wspace) won't care that they have no possible use for this mystical "low sec" specific change.

EVE is a universe, and not your tiny pocket of Heimatar. Everything you do, no matter how minor, needs to have a use elsewhere. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only change that is making people **** themselves about fittings, and the sanctity of low sec, is the MWD bonus. The 4th bonus is universal, as are the extra slots, and they can be tweaked and adjusted. But the MWD bonus is the only one that seems to have struck a collective nerve. It doesn't force people to use them, and it's beneficial to those who choose to.

Anyone who has played with the new ships will agree that the MWD changes make them significantly more usable in lawless space. And those same people will tell you that AB fit frigs still destroy MWD fit ones. Since nobody seems to want look at the AB bonus as something that would be broken outside of low-sec, tell me how people fitting microwarpdrives to AFs in low-sec is broken. I can tell you it's not, but you don't want to hear it from me since I'm the bad guy.

Low-Sec has it's problems, but casting AFs into that abyss is not how they get solved.

https://www.youtube.com/user/promsrage

DO YOUR JOBS, CCP DEVS. FIX THE GAME INSTEAD OF FKING IT

Ilik Tanikalot
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#225 - 2012-01-07 10:46:37 UTC
@ Prom
Disregarding the whole MWD-charade. The complaint regarding low-sec that was brought forward was that the change buffs AFs too much. This will limit low-sec target selection, both in terms what you are willing to fight and who's willing to fight you. Now please tell me, this is a good thing.
I think we all agree that a buff to AFs is needed, but at least the low-sec crowd partly feels should the proposed changes go through like that, that AFs become (regarded as) OP. Those changes will make AFs more viable for the solo 0.0 AF roamer, which we all know is like really every 0.0 pilot, yeah right.

What a lot of people irks is that you try to sell these changes like the next best thing since sliced bread; they're not comparing the general 0.0 populace vs the general lo-sec populace in numbers, they are comparing who le shizzle actually uses AFs in their day to day playtime, aka a lot of lo-sec vs a comparatively tiny minority in 0.0. So pretty please with sugar on top, don't ruin AFs for people that actually fly them in an environment where they are common, only to make them viable in the environment you'd love to see them perform better.

So maybe less of a buff at once, but a more iterative style of buffing?

Cheers,
Ilik Tanikalot
To mare
Advanced Technology
#226 - 2012-01-07 10:56:44 UTC
Quote:
Remove: MWD Bonus

Add: 100% Bonus to "Small" Afterburner Speed



just dont add a role bonus at all
with the boost those ships are receiving they dont need it
Hirana Yoshida
Behavioral Affront
#227 - 2012-01-07 10:58:54 UTC
Prometheus Exenthal wrote:
..I'm not deaf, and I wouldn't be so against certain suggestions if they haven't be brought up prior and disproved at some point in the 4 years that AFs have slowly been draaaaggggiiiinnnnggg behind...

As far as I know my logistics concept as the 4th bonus was never aired before me and the only 'negatives' I got from it was that some people would rather have a dedicated frigate/destroyers logistics, the idea spawned 3-4 independent threads .. so there goes that "theory".
- Adding a logistics bonus (efficiency+range) to already combat capable ships not only increases diversity and fills a gap but allows the "logistics" to fight back provided they don't go full Naughty Nurse .. hell one could use them as the ultimate bait ships as all enemy frigs descend upon it to clear logi only to run into a combat fit.
- Gang link platforms on the small scale has what available? BC, CC, T3, Car/Scar/Titans are the only ones in game .. which one would you like to drag around on a cruiser-down/Frig roam?
*Gang-links will be changed either in power (unlikely) or made on-grid (logical) with appropriate tanking buffs and whatever else may be required to lessen the pain of change, since the idea of a single ship effectively doubling the power of an entire fleet/gang from anywhere in a system is, to put it mildly, untenable.
Zarak1 Kenpach1 wrote:
the most important thing I have learned from fhc is that prom is opinionated, rude and also very ignorable. do yourselves a favor and just glaze over the diarrhea he sprays indiscriminnately all over the interwebz

Unfortunately the amount of attention he is giving this indicates that it is either his idea or he has been assigned to 'answer questions' by CCP so ignoring him is not really an option .. bet he is even responsible for reporting 'progress' in thread back to Tallest so CCP will only get all the rave reviews until its too late.
Zircon Dasher wrote:
...They couldnt give the retribution a slot without everyone whining about how they didnt get one. So everybody gets +1 arbitrary slot...

Heh, would not be surprised if that was how it started, "logic" used for evil is never a pretty thing. What they should have done was add the midslot and then take a bit of CPU away from it .. forces either voluntary loss of low for fitting mod or loss of high utility if the extra mid has a high cpu mod in it (ie. tackle).
But if that was the initial reasoning, then I don't know why they ignored the Ishkurs lower slot count .. arguably one of the best AFs currently despite its slot deficit, so I reckon there was other factors at play .. namely the uniformly-null council's wish for something more fun to fly in blob-camp-land without dying every 5 seconds, balance everywhere else be damned.
Tanya Powers wrote:
You failed to explain why 100% bonus to afterburner speed would make AF's overpowered....

Abuse Eve-Search. Look for the threads on the Test Server Forum from 3 years hence when testing of that exact bonus was done on SiSi .. now if only I could remember what those threads were called, but should get you started.
Crux of it was that prior to testing start, we argued that the 75%?-AB speed bonus would widen the gap within the class to absurd levels and make AF's nigh unkillable by just about anything .. both points were proven and acknowledged by CCP after which the change was scrapped.
Prometheus Exenthal wrote:
...So please humour me for a moment...

Why don't you humour us and explain how you expect a ship balanced for null survival/viability (the ~40%) can ever be anything but broken everywhere else. It is not a question of casting them into the abyss, but preventing them from reaching god-hood .. the over-buff proposed is more damaging to overall balance and makes the intra-class differences even more pronounced.
- Vengeance with a slot for Nos/neut .. yay, more cap (has enough for Goddess sake!) or 10s shaved off a kill on a cap dependent ship.
- Retribution with tackle .. yay, now I can burn some extra cap before the neuts shut me down just as before!
- Hawk/Harpy .. damage mod, still slow and fat as nothing else. Will be in the same place that blasters occupied for years, situational in the extreme but awesome damage when applied. Will see use due to passive tanking ability.
- Enyo .. actually a good change. Web helps blasters and its brought up to Ranis level, armour buff a little overdone though.
- Ishkur .. doesn't actually need a buff, result is as expected an OP ship in the making. At least you stopped short of the drone dmg bonus.
Wolf/Jaguar .. Still almost an entire bodylength (ie. not merely head and shoulders) above the rest only now with an extra free damage mod (as if they need more damage .. sheesh!) .. yay.

But meh, I'll shut up now and let SiSi testing prove me right as it did with the AB boost idea (yes I was in the vanguard, as I said logic and common sense are powerful tools)
To mare
Advanced Technology
#228 - 2012-01-07 11:01:28 UTC
Merin Ryskin wrote:
Tanya Powers wrote:
You failed to explain why 100% bonus to afterburner speed would make AF's overpowered.


Because an AB speed bonus takes AFs from "hard but possible to kill if they get up close against medium guns" to "completely immune to anything besides other frigates up close" and makes them immune to missiles.

And of course unless you give them 2-3km/s speed with an AB, they still die just as fast if they don't get up close, making it a black and white "always dead" vs. "always wins" that isn't fun for anyone.


totally agree with this a AB bonus would make them invulnerable to medium guns and above and with they natural high tank (for a frig) they would be no match for all the others kind of frigs.

just remove the role bonus it's not needed
Tsubutai
Perkone
Caldari State
#229 - 2012-01-07 11:26:50 UTC
Hirana Yoshida wrote:

Literally everything you said there is wrong-headed speculation. You have not even the first beginnings of a clue as to how the SiSi AFs perform at present or what their strengths and weaknesses are.
Kaeda Maxwell
Stay Frosty.
A Band Apart.
#230 - 2012-01-07 11:30:53 UTC  |  Edited by: Kaeda Maxwell
Prometheus Exenthal wrote:
The 4th bonus is universal, as are the extra slots, and they can be tweaked and adjusted. But the MWD bonus is the only one that seems to have struck a collective nerve. It doesn't force people to use them, and it's beneficial to those who choose to.


And none of the sane lowsec pilots are saying you can't have it. So why do you keep hammering on that?

We're speaking out against the extra slots/armor/cpu because assault frigates don't need those. Swap the utility high on the retri for a mid and see how that goes.

Then if three months down the line we find the mwd bonus did nothing for the use of AF's in general CCP can still look at it more can't they? With AF's as they're a proposed here you'd have to be mental not to fly these in lowsec, they'd be so good there'd be no reason to fly anything else until you get to T2 cruisers/Battlecruisers (provided you even have an interest in flying those which many of us lowly lowsec pvp'ers don't). Making the PvP environment really stale because you'll be flying and fighting the same ship all the time.

That is our concern by so massively buffing them you're gonna make our little corner of the sandbox really boring and one-sided.

P.S. (off topic) I also travel through null and your 55% of PvP'ers seem largely docked up waiting for an FC to hold their hand (or busy ratting). I've been in the Pure Blind/Fade region recently and I did epic 100+ jump roams through PB/Fade/Fountain/Tribute/Cloud Ring and f-ing nobody would engage my apparently seriously under powered Jaguar, hell even my Rifter went ignored. The only places I saw people willing to fight was in null entry systems and most of those where camping a gate with bubbles and a mighty Falkan. Can you really blame frig enthusiasts for preferring Lowsec?
Svennig
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#231 - 2012-01-07 11:31:00 UTC  |  Edited by: Svennig
Help me out here: what am I missing? Even the counter proposals aren't increasing the fitting.

What am I supposed to put in the new lowslot of the harpy with only +10 CPU?
What am I supposed to put in the new midslot of the hawk with only +10 CPU?
Korg Tronix
Mole Station Nursery
#232 - 2012-01-07 11:35:20 UTC
Svennig wrote:
Help me out here: what am I missing? Even the counter proposals aren't increasing the fitting.

What am I supposed to put in the new lowslot of the harpy with only +10 CPU?
What am I supposed to put in the new midslot of the hawk with only +10 CPU?


10 cpu is enough for the meta 4 tracking enhancer for the Harpy

Evil: If I were creating the world I wouldn't mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, Day One! [zaps one of his minions accidentally, minion screams]

Tsubutai
Perkone
Caldari State
#233 - 2012-01-07 11:40:56 UTC
Svennig wrote:
Help me out here: what am I missing? Even the counter proposals aren't increasing the fitting.

What am I supposed to put in the new lowslot of the harpy with only +10 CPU?
What am I supposed to put in the new midslot of the hawk with only +10 CPU?

You see, when ships are changed, you should be able to just take your existing fittings and throw new mods on without having to make any changes anywhere else or rethink things. Right?

Re: the hawk, you can do a good dual web/MSE buffer setup with 240 dps that can be applied to more or less anything in scram range without issue, you can do an MSE/small shield booster setup with full tackle and a nos, or you can do a medium shield booster with a cap injector, all without issue.
Destructor1792
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#234 - 2012-01-07 11:47:26 UTC
Just a quick one from moi.

Only tried the Wolf out so no idea on the others. Will I recommend these to other pilots for PvP? Only if you're not the one going in for the primary tackle.

Issues so far:

Fitting - struggled with cpu>pg. More often found I had a low slot left which ended with "whatever" slapped in. Majority of fits ended up with a spare high (utility slot)

Versus other ships (going in for the tackle & buffer tank to attempt to last more than 30secs!) -
  • Arties meant I could keep at range but DPS was hit & miss depending on the target & how often I had to use the MWD to dictate range. And due to being "at range", meant I was taking alot more damage than if I was using AC's (see below)
  • Not a fit I'd recommend to any solo budding PvP'ers as you'll either run out of ammo or be Dead as the target has enough time to call in backup Lol. Viable though for a lone Gank if your Fleet is sat waiting a jump out. More than one target & you'll liable to melt before your Fleet has a chance to get in to help

  • AC's were able to to lay out a more steady DPS pattern but due to the range, if the target had a 10km point, MWD shut down, Neuted, webbed, DEAD. Again, not one I'd recommend to others unless you know your targets fit before hand.

  • Now on targets that had already been tackled (and primed), no issues. But then again, that's the same with pretty much most ships Twisted


    Personally, I'd rather stick with a 'ceptor. Cheaper, easier & more fun to fly. The AF will end up like it has for years - rolled out for a "LOL" roam & then thrown back into the corner to collect dust.

    Not fired a shot in anger since 2011.... Trigger finger is starting to get somewhat itchy.......

    Zagdul
    Federal Navy Academy
    Gallente Federation
    #235 - 2012-01-07 12:02:49 UTC
    Prometheus Exenthal wrote:
    For those who have no idea about weapon tracking and such, an AF in scramble range is extremely difficult to hit.
    This is without an afterburner. The whole purpose of the MWD bonus was so that AFs could move around the battlefield without being blapped out of the sky.

    As Merin states above, an AB bonus would either be too strong or too weak, there is no middle ground.

    As far as I'm concerned with the MWD bonus, the AFs are working exactly as I had intended them to.
    They are quick, damaging, and tankable, while not immune to incoming damage.

    Yes, but cap dependent AF's like the Enyo are useless with an MWD.

    Dual Pane idea: Click!

    CCP Please Implement

    Tawa Suyo
    C.O.D.E
    #236 - 2012-01-07 12:15:12 UTC  |  Edited by: Tawa Suyo
    Thank you forums for eating my post. Again...

    Kaeda Maxwell wrote:
    And none of the sane lowsec pilots are saying you can't have it. So why do you keep hammering on that?


    Because the less sane ones keep asking for an AB bonus (heh, no) or just not wanting a role bonus (so... just fit an ab and ignore it).

    But thank you for providing a rational lowsec perspective.


    Kaeda Maxwell wrote:
    We're speaking out against the extra slots/armor/cpu because assault frigates don't need those. Swap the utility high on the retri for a mid and see how that goes.

    Then if three months down the line we find the mwd bonus did nothing for the use of AF's in general CCP can still look at it more can't they? With AF's as they're a proposed here you'd have to be mental not to fly these in lowsec, they'd be so good there'd be no reason to fly anything else until you get to T2 cruisers/Battlecruisers (provided you even have an interest in flying those which many of us lowly lowsec pvp'ers don't). Making the PvP environment really stale because you'll be flying and fighting the same ship all the time.

    That is our concern by so massively buffing them you're gonna make our little corner of the sandbox really boring and one-sided.


    But honestly currently frigate specialist pvp in lowsec is mostly AFs with the addition of the slicer/daredevil/dramiel/hookbill/ranis.

    Of those, all the none AFs will still do just fine by exploiting the dps/speed/range advantage that they already do. The only one that will become largely obsoleted is the Hookbill since the hawk will now do the same thing but with better tank/dps at the cost of speed. But then that's already true of the Firetail vs the Jag, the only advantage the Firetail has is its velocity (which is why you tend not to see them a huge amount).

    On the other hand, the AFs have been balanced across the line up. Currently lowsec AFs are mostly Jag/Ishkur/Vengeance with the occaisional Wolf and rarely a Hawk/Harpy. With these changes you will see all 8 being flown. There's a reason the current top tier AFs have been buffed a lot less than the those at the bottom of the heap.

    Cruors also become a lot more viable now with the increase in cap dependent AFs being flown.

    Overall that's an increase in the number of ships you're going to see in lowsec, hardly stagnation. While I can see that their may be a current perception problem with 'OMG it's an AF! Need an AF to beat it!' that will fade as they start to die and people adapt. (And frankly, in the mean time I think that people who think like this will just fly AFs themselves before going back to faction/pirate/interceptors).

    They are still very killable I assure you. Both by the none AF frigs that people already fly and the destroyers that can still chew them up horribly (trust me on this. Damn thrashers).



    Kaeda Maxwell wrote:
    P.S. (off topic) I also travel through null and your 55% of PvP'ers seem largely docked up waiting for an FC to hold their hand (or busy ratting). I've been in the Pure Blind/Fade region recently and I did epic 100+ jump roams through PB/Fade/Fountain/Tribute/Cloud Ring and f-ing nobody would engage my apparently seriously under powered Jaguar, hell even my Rifter went ignored. The only places I saw people willing to fight was in null entry systems and most of those where camping a gate with bubbles and a mighty Falkan. Can you really blame frig enthusiasts for preferring Lowsec?


    Give me a shout next time I'm on TQ and we'll chat, but it's kind of a difference of style/targets in null. There's less 'honourable 1v1 combat' and more fighting solo vs gangs, although you do still get those 1v1 fights at times (especially in certain areas). But this is why the ships of choice differ between lowsec and nullsec solo frigate pilots in part.

    But then it also helps to know the hotspots, I could go through khanid/amarr lowsec for 100j and claim that there's nothing for a solo frig pilot in lowsec, or I could go to Amamake and get a fight in 20 seconds (whether I'd get blobbed/falcon'd/cheesed with links+implants is another matter ;)
    Mesasone
    Vegas Corp.
    #237 - 2012-01-07 12:18:28 UTC
    It would be useful to the discussion if people would post full fits exemplifying what they think should be a viable fit on these ships instead of saying "well these two or three modules fit", or an even more generic "I had trouble fitting this ship".
    Hirana Yoshida
    Behavioral Affront
    #238 - 2012-01-07 12:39:27 UTC
    Tsubutai wrote:
    Literally everything you said there is wrong-headed speculation. You have not even the first beginnings of a clue as to how the SiSi AFs perform at present or what their strengths and weaknesses are.

    Almost as constructive and worth reading as proms blind dismissals of anything that goes against his wishes. Testing an obviously OP change does not make it less OP so applying logic to my experience flying most of the AFs over the years is more than enough .. it was not coincidence that I mentioned the AB boost and that we shot it down before testing even started .. some things are just so out of whack that they should be discarded outright.

    Adding slots + bonuses puts AFs on par with highest tier cruisers when it comes to tanking and applied damage, less weapons range but comparatively insane mobility. It is already perfectly possible to take out most 'generic' cruiser fits in AFs, a change of this magnitude pushes them so far that even fits specifically tailed to counter them will struggle.

    Don't know who had the idea to give them the role of slow, tanky combat interceptors and then adding slots/bonuses to meet that role, and I honestly don't care. If you want that role filled then add an AB or tank bonus to the inties.
    What I do know is that I have only really been wrong once the past several years, and that was by underestimating the synergy between the AC and TE changes which kicked off the Winmatar FoTY .. I knew it was going to be good just didn't expect it to be godly.

    Once more before for posterity: One cannot balance something to be viable/survivable on the large scale without breaking it on all other scales.
    seller1122
    Perimeter Trade and Distribution Inc
    #239 - 2012-01-07 12:50:27 UTC
    Hirana Yoshida wrote:
    Tsubutai wrote:
    Literally everything you said there is wrong-headed speculation. You have not even the first beginnings of a clue as to how the SiSi AFs perform at present or what their strengths and weaknesses are.

    Almost as constructive and worth reading as proms blind dismissals of anything that goes against his wishes. Testing an obviously OP change does not make it less OP so applying logic to my experience flying most of the AFs over the years is more than enough .. it was not coincidence that I mentioned the AB boost and that we shot it down before testing even started .. some things are just so out of whack that they should be discarded outright.

    Adding slots + bonuses puts AFs on par with highest tier cruisers when it comes to tanking and applied damage, less weapons range but comparatively insane mobility. It is already perfectly possible to take out most 'generic' cruiser fits in AFs, a change of this magnitude pushes them so far that even fits specifically tailed to counter them will struggle.

    Don't know who had the idea to give them the role of slow, tanky combat interceptors and then adding slots/bonuses to meet that role, and I honestly don't care. If you want that role filled then add an AB or tank bonus to the inties.
    What I do know is that I have only really been wrong once the past several years, and that was by underestimating the synergy between the AC and TE changes which kicked off the Winmatar FoTY .. I knew it was going to be good just didn't expect it to be godly.

    Once more before for posterity: One cannot balance something to be viable/survivable on the large scale without breaking it on all other scales.


    I have to admit I'm impressed. Alot of people just think "my opinion is right and that is all that matters" but it takes some balls to literally say it out loud.
    Takeshi Yamato
    Ministry of War
    Amarr Empire
    #240 - 2012-01-07 13:03:13 UTC  |  Edited by: Takeshi Yamato
    I disagree that these new AFs are too strong.

    I wanted to see how good the new AFs are against a larger ship, so I asked a friendly Jaguar pilot to make a fit designed to fight a cruiser. He went with an afterburner, nos and even a tracking disruptor (and of course capless weapons). I picked the Maller because it has no drone bay, is weak compared to the more popular cruisers such as the Rupture or Thorax, and because lasers don't track as well as blasters or autocannons.

    Maller

    5x Focused Medium Pulse II (cruiser sized weapons FYI), small neut
    AB, web, scram
    1600mm plate, 3x HS, DCU, Adaptive Nano Plating
    no rigs

    The outcome? Jaguar went boom when I had about 1/3 armor left.