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Why can not we make different mechanics for large and small groups pvp?
Why small pvp formation have to die?

With apologies to CASMA (more about that below) my initial reaction to these changes is very positive. Last night a Fed Navy Comet came into my system so I undocked a Comet of my own while looking forward to some 1v1 action. As I was calculating a warp-in however a Tengu entered system. I sighed and docked up, not wanting to fight against a boosted opponent. Turns out the Tengu was just a coincidental neutral but by then it was too late. With on-grid command burts, at least I would have known exactly when or when not the opponent was receiving boosts. It wouldn't preclude the opponent's booster warping in after getting a scram and deploying the Command Burst, but that's at least a little bit more tolerable.

As a close-range brawler I also like the nerf this deals to bs kiting comps. The booster would need to be at least as fast as the kiting ships in order to continue to provide boosts, and it would also require the kiting ships to stick together to remain in range of the effect.

Additionally, as somebody who trained some leadership skills mostly to pass boosts other fleetmates were providing, I suppose I could extract those skills and sell the Injectors for ISK - but I would much prefer to reallocate those SP elsewhere in my character, without having to deal with the Injectors providing much less than 500k SP for my character. CCP, please consider a skill refund with the deployment of these changes.

Finally, for CASMA - I do not know how you operate as despite being in CCG I am only peripherally aware of you guys. But CCG does make use of Orca and Rorqual boosts a lot in our nullsec home, so these changes will effect us as well. I have no idea what the miners in CCG will do about the mining boosts changes, but you guys are totally welcome to come down and join us where at least you'll have some sort of PvP backup for protection. (But AFK mining, of course, is not really an option and we cannot help with that.) The ice and roids are quite valuable and should be more than enough compensation for the inevitable ship losses. Getting on some nice killmails in the meantime is another perk of nullsec mining.

(Pardon if a dupe - got a "we were ganked" message first posting.)

I agree why cant things like this just be baked into the hull? Its like the bastion mod on maroders why fit a mod when it should just be part of the ship.

Is there truly a reason for the bursts giving a weapons timer?

I'm just thinking about hit and run situations where short warps would leave a booster stuck and unable to escape from hostiles with his group.

~Ash

That's actually a really good point. Although it'll at least require active piloting by the boost pilot.

That's a surprisingly reasonable outlook for the Comments thread of a Dev Blog.

OK, this is just bad. You're creating a viable form of counter-play by putting links on-grid. Good. But you're not making neutral bursts gain a suspect timer? That's bad.

In Highsec, in a wardec situation, the hostiles can use a neutral link alt to boost them, leaving the only counter-play against this a suicide gank against that link alt while under fire from the hostiles.

In Lowsec, if you have a neutral giving you boosts and you attack them, you're now under fire from gate and station guns even though the booster is essentially committing an act of aggression against you by boosting those attacking you.

Neutral boosters need to receive a suspect timer.

From the devblog:



What's the counter play in highsec?

So far, it seems this change means no counter play to combat based boosts used by wardeccers or station gamers, but greater risk to mining links, which will be more susceptible to ganks.

I have no problem with greater risk for the mining links, but where's the counter play to the use of combat links in highsec?

I have no problem with the boost changes. But not refunding SP for skills that no longer perform the same function is a mistake. Anyone and everyone who has ever been in a position to FC a fleet or even small gang trains those skills even though they are fairly sp intensive because even without any kind of links or boosts in system you have benefits to gain for your fleet by doing so. After these changes you will have nothing to gain from them unless you are flying a specific fleet role in a very limited set of ships. The explanation of "similar purpose" goes out the window when the requirements to get benefit from the skills becomes so narrow. CCP has no reason not to refund SP for these fundamentally reworked skills other than an intent to squeeze $ out of potentially 1000's of pilots for skill extractors.

Finally, finally! This will be a very good change for the health of the game. Although I think some details need to be tweaked.

- The boost duration of 60-130s is too long IMO, would like to see it more in the 30-60s range.

- Will neutral boosters receive a suspect flag if interfering with wars and limited engagements in highsec (same as logis)?