Player Features and Ideas Discussion

So i was thinking the other day looking at the LP store, and wondering what compels people to buy faction weapons over t2, other than the apparent SP reqs. Granted, it makes sense for some weapon systems like missiles where the extra firing rate is advantageous due to the range advantage its t1 and faction ammo has over t2, and projectile weapons, due to the enormous variety of giant bullets you can fire with ship mounted machine guns and howitzers.
Anyway, apart from a few outliers, there isn't a clear and present reason to make the expense of fitting multiple faction weapons over t2 weapons, and i had a few ideas i'd like to throw around for discussion to suggest ways to help change that.

Unique graphics: In addition to adding a few minor (or major) model differences to empire and pirate faction weapons to give them a more interesting look (sensor spikes on caldari and guristas weapons, shiny, flowing armor plates on amarr/khanid), another possible avenue for the art department would be to bring back legacy weapon models with updated shaders on storyline gun turrets. I was a huge fan of how they looked on frigates back in the day (especially lasers on the slicer), so it would be cool to have the option for a special class of weapons to be 'classic' flavor. Storyline missile launchers would remain the same, or receive very unique models to reflect their backround from being reverse-engineered from ancient tech.

Faction bonuses with faction ammo: Something simple like application bonuses for empire ammo married with empire weapons, and damage bonuses from pirate weapons with pirate ammo. This 'racial tech efficiency' could extend to other faction modules being used on their respective faction ships, with something simple like a cap usage bonus, or fitting efficiency.

Also, an interesting direction it could take would be to have certain minor factions, like the Khanid, Thukker, Intaki, and Ammatar have their faction weapons and modules apply integration bonuses to fitting or capacitor to each races respective t2 ship manufacturers. As an example, Khanid faction mods and weapons could receive fitting and/or capacitor reductions when fit to a t2 amarr vessel. This would provide a good niche market for their LP, which has historically suffered in value compared to empire and pirate faction LP.

Increased ammo options: In addition to making empire XL weapons and weapon ammo available from navy and FW LP stores, I'd like to see them add new and unique faction ammunition to the game that gives people another reason to pick faction over t2, with the addendum that their high level of sophistication causes faster weapon burnout. I'll list them out (with descriptions and stats because zomg lore) as follows:

-Imperial Navy Tachyon Lens: 60% EM, 40% Kin. dmg. -50% bonus to capacitor. Damage comparable to faction Gamma crystal.
Used by elite amarrian forces, these crystals are altered on the quantum level to focus photons and subatomic particles into harder packets, making an effective particle beam. This weapon has been used for centuries to pound both the faithless and the unworthy into submission.

-Republic Fleet Shredder: 25% EM, 25% therm, 25% kin., 25% exp. dmg. 20% bonus to tracking speed -50% bonus to optimal range. Damage comparable to faction EMP.
Cluster munitions are usually reserved for planet-based skirmishes, but the republic fleet's MR-74 'Shredder' cluster warhead contains multiple charge types all gathered together in the most well-crafted ordinance on the battlefield. Guaranteed to wreck moderate to severe chaos.

-Federation Navy Morphite Charge: 40% therm, 60% explosive dmg. 25% bonus to tracking speed, -50% bonus optimal range and capacitor usage. Damage comparable to faction Antimatter Charge.
Morphite-enhanced weapons have been around for a scant few years, but have taken the arms market by storm. Federation hybrid weapon technology has taken well to these changes, with Duvolle producing these specialty charges exclusively for the Federation's armed forces.

-Caldari Navy Meson Warhead: (long range missiles only): 100% kin. dmg. 25% bonus to explosion velocity and missile velocity over t1 ammo. Same damage as faction ammo.
The Caldari X-T51 Prototype missile is an extremely compact piece of equipment, designed for precision hits during a siege. Rather than relying on on-board guidance, the missile's warhead has an on-board quantum transponder that links with the ship's targeting computers, allowing for more accurate tracking and leaving room for stronger engines.

-Khanid Royal Navy Striker Warhead: (short range missiles only) 100% EM dmg. 25% bonus to explosion radius and 100% penalty to missile flight time over t1 ammo. 10% more damage than Rage ammo.
In order to keep the peace with the Empire and to flex its technological superiority, the Khanid Kingdom's engineers have fine-tuned their missile systems to deal frightening amounts of damage, taking EMP warheads to their technical limits.

-Syndicate Ghost Charge: 60% therm, 40% kin dmg. 50% bonus to optimal range, 100% bonus to capacitor use. Damage comparable to Lead Charge.
The ever-thoughtful Intaki have developed a hybrid charge that acts as a capacitor, soaking up local vacuum energy and releasing its energy to fire itself.

Thought about it a couple of times myself, but gives me a bad taste in my mouth as it would be too overpowered in many ways.

most of these ammos would leave present faction and T2 ammo's in the hanger... i mean T1 missile stats onto a missile that does 10% more damage than rage... thats the equivilent of a 25% applied damage increase...

and the mixing damage types... it would throw the balance of 90% of the ships in eve out...

its a nice idea, but no. basically making the perfect ammo for any moment...

the gecko with just kinetic and thermal allready exsists ingame... its called an
'augmented' ogre

Though I agree with the general idea - balance would be a nightmare

Though I would think, that the developers of the t2 ships would make modules that work better when tied with "their" ships.

Plus, it then increases the value of those ships which means KM seekers will have nicer stuff to blow up as well be blown up in.

With regard to the Faction Weapons, I posted a thread a few weeks back about it but the main reason people don't run Faction Weapons is that their cost is way out of proportion to their stats.. To get hold of a single 125mm small autocannon from Faction Warfare Tribal Liberation Force Loyalty Point stores would cost around 65 million ISK if you were to buy all the tags required for the trade in. This gives you a weapon equivalent to a Domination 125mm small autocannon which sells for 7 million. And even that is insane given that it has worse stats than a T2 125mm small autocannon which can be purchased for around 400,000 ISK.

Faction Weapons don't need a buff, they need a massive cost reduction/drop rate increase. There is absolutely no reason to put them on a ship over T2 weapons other than to inflate the value of your lossmail and no amount of buffs will ever make it viable to fit three or four 65 million ISK autocannons onto an Assault Frigate (unless you can Alpha Battleships with them).

It's an issue with many modules available in LP stores.

Here is the original thread I posted: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=6365782

And if we remove those silly tags from the LP stores we would finally have a viable choice.

Fair point, and as i said these are suggestions; should probably make a note that i'm not entirely serious about these and i thought they'd just sound cool. Also, i'll pull them back a bit and give them some heavier drawbacks.

eve if it wasn't op its similar to the issues with bonuses to fitting blood guns to blood ships


it reduces the players choice in what they should be fitting and thats not a good thing

During fanfest panel "Ships and modules" this year, CCP stated that they are considering allowing faction guns and launchers to use t2 ammo.

i just had the thought of navy faction exploration sites same as DEDs in some areas of space, dropping navy faction BPCs.