Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Flak weaponry
I see a lot of complaints that big ships in this game does not have any kind of point defense or small guns, as it should be in reality (omg, its EVE!).

So, I propose the idea for AoE weaponry that creates a continues bubble of damage, its like you aim your flak cannons to some point in space and they shoot at it to create a deterrence to fighters, drones, bombs and even frigates. It would be a great addition to fight those sentry drones from afar. (we know that this can be done just like on videos of new DDs)

Damage done by this modules has to be applied over time during the whole cycle, not sure about cycle times but 10-15 sec should be OK with 30-60 sec cooldown. Also, small objects with small signature should receive less damage, so MWD frigates and drones can be damaged. Damage from this weapons has to be a bit random to show untargeted nature of the module and to bring some probability for fighters and bombs to pass undamaged.
Also, this modules need to have minimum range limit so that they do not obsolete smartbombs.
Only 1 module per ship (it represents a whole array of flak guns anyway)

I believe there should be 2 different variations for this module:
BS module – takes high slot, 5-10 km sphere wide, 7-10 km minimum range and 30-40 max range, 10 sec cycle.
Primary targets – small and medium drones, sentry drones, bombs, poorly protected frigates. Role – anti-bomb and anti-drone defense, deterrence of MWD frigates.

Cap module – takes high slot, 10-12 km sphere wide, 10-15 km minimum range and 50-60 max range.
Primary targets – Heavy drones, fighters, bombers, frigates. Role –anti-fighter defense, deterrence of MWD frigates.

What this module can bring to EVE:
1.With changes to Carriers and fighter-squads, avoiding flak blobs and micromanaging fighters should need much more skill.
2.This will bring challenges to interceptors when they will think twice if they want to fly through that flak or move around.
3. This will also help battleship blobs with bombing runs, so fast pilots will be able to create flak wall.
4. Bombers will need to change their bombing vector next time as enemy will know where to set flak wall.
5. So needed buff (and not OP) to BSs to fight small targets. BS gang will become a little bit more viable.

all stats are just placeholders to give a general idea.

Did you actually read it? Flak has quite large minimum range, so it will not help against anything that is orbiting you, so you need a smartbomb for it.

The idea of Flak is to give Smartbomb-like damage on distance and over time.
Please use your imagination.

this is op

-1

Want small guns to protect your BS against stuff the normal guns can't track? Be in a fleet with people in frigates and destroyers that can provide them; as others have said smartbombs already exist and drones are also an option.

edit: In reality there are no battleships left in active service anywhere in the world, they're either scrap or museums; no battleship hulls have been laid since 1946, the last battleship in service, the USS Missouri, was decommissioned in 1992.

In reality battleships used to travel in the company of smaller support ships like frigates, destroyers and cruisers; for pretty much the same reasons that an aircraft carrier does today.

So please do tell us more about battleships having CIWS and point defence systems in reality OP.

Flak cannons are already incoming for Citadels as anti-frigate weaponry.

A long time ago there was splash damage torps and it did more harm than good. A long time ago but not as long ago there was mines and the result was the same.

Edit: Also the old doomsday was basically this.

I think I like where this is going! That brought me to another idea that could benefit some of us if not all of us.

My idea would be a kind of new ship, that you could take with you and would fight with you and would extend the corp mate idea even better.
This ship would not be like any other ship in EVE and for the lack of a better term, I call it friend ship.

Modern Fleets suffered from the same situation, that's why most navies do not field large ships any more. Smaller more capable multi-purpose ships are used because the goliaths of the seas are just too expensive, to make, crew and maintain. So EVE's mechanics are something of a throwback to WWII style of thinking. Even then, the big ships were just AA and bombardment plaforms, they rarely went up against each other.

So, drones, fighters, and smartbombs already deal with the big vs. small issue, but the real point is, small ships just don't have the fittings to deal enough dps to a larger ship to really hurt it.

A few YouTube videos exist of carrier and titan kills with small ships trying to do the job and failing... thousands of them. The big ships just have too much tank to be worried about the flies, so I wouldn't see the need to start.

I think what you might really be asking for is something like a multi-mount. A single tile of gun configurations that lets a capital ship mount a battery of smaller guns to deal with the little stuff. That's fine but it would be inefficient use of the slot. I don't really see capital ships as being solo ships or for anything other than fleet/stationary engagements.

What they need to have is fittable drone bays and fighter bays. Then you could get some interesting mixes involved, but I think there are multi-fits in the T3 ships as it is, so nothing new there.

You'd be surprised, a well flown and fitted frigate can make mincemeat of a battleship, especially a PvE fitted one.

Instead of flack guns an actual point defense system would be a much better idea. Basically the same as current smart bombs but don't damage your own fighters or fleet mates. Also I know they added a point defense system as a citadel mod but it's really just a big smartbomb and damages everything .