Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Amarr enslave Winmatar, therefore CCP hates them.

More seriously, yeah, this is a good change.

I know, but 'tis the season of Crucible and awesome "little things" changes. Drones are little. Hopefully a little change to little things will make everyone a little happier. Edit: in other words I'm being idealistic and hopeful that CCP will finally get off their collective asses for a small rebalance, seeing as how they appear able to do far harder work (hybrids).

if it doesn't involve buffing minmatar in some way, ccp wont do it. I mean, look at the damn hybrid update, it also came with a t2 projectile ammo fix :\

Oh nice, our thread from yesterday continued and i can answer you without fear of getting spanked for further derailing the thread.
I see the inconsistency with the amarr "subcap carrier" namely the arbitrator and his t2 variants. If the Amarr build a ship that is supposed to work as a drone platform, why is it that this ship works worst with the drones it was intended to use and best with the drones of the enemy factions (Minnie/Gallente)?
I think that whole "buff Amarr drones " discussion is quite old, and for reasons that I do not know CCP refuses to do this. But if at least Amarrain ships could get a bonus for the use of Amarrian drones that would make them comparable in performance to other races`s drones, a part of the problem would be solved.

I say eliminate 4th place on all drones. Make them tie for third in damage, tracking, range, speed, HP, etc. I also would like to see the gaps be a touch more narrow.

I approve, but like other's have said, you want to nerf minmatar, which CCP won't do. They may buff the acolytes, but they will never bring down the warriors. You're more likely to just bring the hornet as the new worst drone.

A better idea, is to seperate out the fastest/strongest by making the Hornets or the Acolytes the fastest, the Warriors strongest, the Hobgoblins the tankiest, and the Hornest the most accurate (or some other attribute).

As it is, you have the tankiest and the Fastest/strongest drones, then two other crappy races.

Personally I'd love to see each ship get a bonus if they use their own racial combat drones.

As it is the acolytes get double screwed in being mediocre against everything, and also having the worst damage type to try and deal damage with. They are the only T2 drone that does less damage than a hornet I. They across the board have the worst damage numbers. Which would be fine if say they were the fastest, or had some other advantage. They however just suck on every metric

What really makes sense, is if you swap the Warrior II's damage with the Hornet 1s.

So in order of least damage, you go:

Acolyte I
Warrior I
Acolyte II
Warrior II
Hornet I
Hobgoblin I
Hornet II
Hobgoblin II

Notice the smooth, even progression.

As it is now, it goes
~
Acolyte II
Hornet I
Warrior II
Hobgoblin I
~

Where you have a random Warrior II doing more damage than a Hornet I for no real reason.

In terms of speed, you have the inverse.

As it is you have: (slowest first)

Hobgoblin I
Hornet I
Hobgoblin II
Acolyte I
Hornet II
Warrior I
Acolyte II
Warrior II

Notice that the acolyte is slower than the T2 Hornet, why? Also, you have the Warrior faster, and does more damage, how is that balanced?

If you think of it as two categories, your slow and strong, and fast and swift.

The slow and strong being the Caldari/Gallente drones, it makes sense as between the two they are both the slowest and more powerful. Each switching off in terms of speed/damage. The gallente always do more damage, but the caldari are always faster. However, when it comes to the Fast and Swift category, minmatar win everything. The minmatar drones are both faster, and do more damage, essentially leaving no reason what so ever to use acolytes. This is ignoring the huge damage type problem.

The only way it makes sense in terms of balance is factoring in tanking ability. The Acolyte tanks more damage than the Warrior, but is slower and does less damge. But this doesn't even make sense comparing it to the cal/gal drones as the Gallente drone tanks more than the caldari, but also does the most damage. Instead the acolyte is screwed over by not getting as much damage (relatively) as the gallente version should.

So...TL:DR, The acolyte at least needs to be boosted so that a Acolyte I is faster than a Hornet II (about 200m/s to 4000 should do). Likewise, the warrior II needs to have its damage nerfed to below a Hornet I to match the balance of speed & Damage /tank (down .16 to 1.40 should do).

Thus you'd have numbers as such:

By Damage
Acolyte I - 1.15
Warrior I - 1.30
Acolyte II - 1.38
Warrior II - 1.40
Hornet I - 1.45
Hobgoblin I - 1.60
Hornet II - 1.74
Hobgoblin II - 1.92

By Speed
Hobgoblin I - 2800
Hornet I - 3200
Hobgoblin II - 3360
Hornet II - 3840
Acolyte I - 4000
Warrior I - 4200
Acolyte II - 4560
Warior II - 5040

By EHP
Warior I
Acolyte I
Hornet I
Hobgoblin I
Warrior II
Acolyte II
Hornet II
Hobgoblin II


Thus if you want faster drones, but on the more tanky side, you go Acolyte. If you want Faster drones and all out DPS, go warrior. If you want tankier drones and DPS go Hobgoblins, If you want Tankier drones and speed to go to Hornets.

Oh holy necro. I thought I responded to this initially, but apparently I didn't.

Your idea also works, though what I was going for with my change was a "minimal effort" thing, as that is easier on the game balance overall.

I think people stopped responding to this because everyone is so tired of the crappy Amarr drones that they just don't care anymore.