Player Features and Ideas Discussion

In a clear demonstration of how tricky the EVE ship balancing structure is, the interceptor bubble immunity and the recent introduction of tactical destroyers have pushed the assault frigate class to the brink of complete uselessness. Their MWD role bonus counts for nothing now, and they have no niche role, which - in the complicated system that involves so many ships of similar performance - is the only way to make all ships more or less worthwhile.

So, I believe some advanced brainstorming on ideas to make this ship class viable again would be welcome and timely. I hope to see suggestions based on reasoning, i.e. what would give AFs a unique role and encourage pilots to pick them over other ships, while also not dissuading people from bringing other ships - for their own unique roles - to fleets?

I will contribute with my own ideas in a subsequent post in this thread.

P.S. I searched for recent threads on assault frigs but the only one that's still open for replies was exclusively on their comparison to HACs, while this thread I hope will serve a broader discussion.

Would a blanket reduction in sig radius (in addition to their MWD penalty reduction) help? This would work well with the new logi frigates in being very hard to hit and would only compound when using a MWD as there is even more reduction in sig size.

One thing AF need is a cap buff/overhaul. Is that all they need? Probably not, but lets see what happens after t3d rebalance and how it settles.

This is not a viable or constructive answer. Now, it might be fair to say that T3D's should never have been introduced, but removing them now would do more harm than good.

Giving Assault Ships some form of mild afterburner bonus or web resistance are possibilities that have been thrown out before. Both these solutions probably require CCP to fix the oversized AB cancer (which would also fix T3D's and T3C's).

Another suggestion would be giving them mild forms of electronic warfare resistance. This, making sensor dampeners, ECM, webs, weapon disruption, and neutralizing 15-25% less effective against Assault Frigates might go a long way towards giving them a viable role.

Yeah FLEXIBLE T2 ships

and SPECIALIZED T3 ships...

This is the exact opposite of what was proposed by CCP.

I think it is clear that Assault Frigates need a Specialization as they are T2.
+ I think a cool idea would allow them to run MWDs even while scrammed, would be niche and powerful
+ Immunity to Stasis Webifiers would be amazing.
+ A 50% E-War Resistance (like the balanced capitals are getting)

I think it is clear that T3Ds are Flexible and that was the intent of the T3 design.

Stitch, you know better than I do, since I never fly Assault Frigates. I have owned many of them, but every time I think I might want one, I end up flying an Interdictor or Interceptor instead. I do not usually join Harpy fleets (and those have been replaced with Svipul fleets anyway). For the small 0.0 gangs in which I usually participate these days, the specialties of the Interdictor and the Interceptor are just too powerful to ignore.

Edit - Out of curiosity, I just checked my stats for my small ship specialist pilot. She has Assault Ships trained to V. She has never lost an Assault Frigate or killed anything with one, but she has lost 59 Interdictors and 17 Interceptors. I'd say that is a decent reflection on the state of Assault Frigates in small gang 0.0 PVP.

I do think they need a specialization, but one that is not just a straight buff to existing stats. In other words, I would rather see neutralizers or webs be slightly less effective against them, than give them more cap recharge or base speed or whatever. It does not need to be that over the top.

Or, if you did give them a larger bonus to electronic warfare resistance, separate it by racial specialties. So, just as Amarr ships have a high base resistance to Minmatar damage types, the Amarr Assault Frigates could get an electronic warfare resistance to Minmatar electronic warfare. And vice versa. Or something like that.

With that said, if you have one race resistances to webs and another resistances to neutralizers, that would pretty much automatically make those the two best races for Assault Frigates, since those two modules are very common and nearly universal.

So, what I might do is as follows:

All Assault Frigates get e-war resistance to webs and neutralizers. I am a Marine, not a mathematician, so I would say no more than 10-25%, depending on how you do the math, and how it balances out. Then for each race, give them a niche:

Amarr - target painters are 10-25% less effective.
Minmatar - weapon disruption is 10-25% less effective.
Caldari - sensor dampeners are 10-25% less effective.
Gallente - ECM is 10-25% less effective.

Could be interesting... Just spitballing to see what sticks.

Make a small weapon that works well against Teddies (T3Ds), then make sure only AFs can equip them. Balance it so that the two types are roughly evenly matched.

Keep pouting about how AFs are no good, and just don't fly them. I'll keep using my cheap T2 pocket destroyers thank you very much.

Seriously, there's nothing wrong with AFs. Tactical destroyers are a little OP and so they are kind of beating everything except RLML ships because RLMLs are OP, which leads to tactical destroyers and RLML cruisers online, and that is not a healthy environment for AFs.

AFs are fine. OP stuff isn't fine.

There's a few needing fitting help.

Which made me wonder, what would happen if we gave them extra slots and fitting...You know, like the opposite of drone hulls -1 slot, give them some extras. Give them the space for more toys and the fitting to use them or a bonus to fitting things to stop mega tanks or not, mega tanked frigs are awesome.

I never agreed with the MWD sig reduction bonus and argued for them to have a bonus to AB velocity instead. However, CCP obviously didn't agree and thus, these things are what they are.

That said AF's are fine. They can take on other frigates and cruisers (depending on the fit) but they are countered by destroyer, as intended.