Test Server Feedback

A new version has been deployed, which changed following:

• Electronic Hardening Charge should be fixed now
• The charges have a different temporary icon - but these are still placeholder (points for recognizing the icons)!
• Bug: Only one Command Burst can be fitted to a ship

Yeah, docking at Citadels is currently not stopping the boosts, which will probably be changed. I'll add it to the known issues list.

Agree with the above, showing the % increase is absolutely critical. - it's nice to see the icon and know someone gave you buffs, but not knowing how much of an increase they gave you forces players to try and figure it out through trial and error on their own.

And the same goes for the person using the burst....would be great if the module had a tool tip that told us how much % the module will apply...in the same way our guns show range/dps when we hover the mouse over them.

so much this

I don't have the best of skills yet. And I was specifically testing a combat battlecruiser, not an orca or rorqual, since I can't imagine anyone but people with very large defense support fleets ever making a multi-billion isk ship a sitting duck in a defenseless shooting gallery. So this may just be caused by those things, and if so then my comments might be moot, but:

When I tested out the mining boosts, it said that only a single module of that type could be activated at a time, and the mining boost reduced my cycle time from 165 seconds to 140 seconds. That is 17%. And with only a single boost of that type ever being allowed, that is a maximum of 17%. With a 17% boost, just to brake even requires a mining fleet of atleast 8 people (7 miners and the booster), all mining within 50 km. I don't think that I have ever been in any place that had 8 miners within 50km the entire time I have been playing Eve. And that is just to break even, not to make any gain. Any fewer miners and you would get more ore by having the booster account man a mining barge instead. With the cost of the boosting ships, and the fact that it is impossible for them to flee from an interdiction bubble, if these numbers hold, then mining boosts will basically be relegated to only very large mining groups, or in places where interdiction bubbles are not allowed (HS?), and everyone else will for all intent and purpose now lose their mining boost and have to mine without it. For instance, one of my alt accounts has been training to fly an orca for mining boosting, and I was about to buy an orca, but changed my mind after the test, and decided that I would probably just have to go without mining boosts.

Is it really CCP's intent to relegate mining boosts to only the largest alliance's, or to HS? Or to try to persuade people to group up into the largest alliances, or move into HS?

If not then:

- They need to allow the boost to come from a ship that people can afford to lose. We count mining barges costing 25-30 mil isk, as being expendable and throw away. But it would take a huge amount of time mining to pay for a 750-800 mil isk orca or a multi-billion isk Rorqual, so those will never be able to be considered expendable or throw away.

- Or they need to give the more costly ships the ability to ignore interdiction bubbles and somehow be able to escape.

- Or perhaps allow a mining barge to use a single mining boost in place of one of its strip miners, which would reduce the minimum mining fleet to only 4 miners within 50 km with an expendable boosting ship. 4 miners with an expendable boosting ship is doable, but 8 miners with a non-expendable boosting ship as a sitting duck is not.

Of course this is just my first impressions. Your mileage may vary.

ok I was on the test secer testing the new mine boost I can get the same boost off grid at the pos as I can now?

I stated in my explanation that I was specifically testing the BC class mining command ship (a "combat battlecruiser" to be precise), so obviously yes I knew that it was going to exist, and my numbers are specifically relevant to it, and no other ships, as also stated in my results.

And the purpose of a test is to test, and to give our results, which is exactly what I did. And I included my test criteria in case it had an impact on my tests. As you stated in your followup, "nor are the skills applying atm" so according to you my "poor skills" shouldn't have affected the test, so I don't understand why you would reference them in a negative manor.

Meka Illat, please explain your statement. You said "off grid at the pos". The new mining boosts can't be gotten at the POS, only in the mining (asteroid) belt. So I don't understand your statement. Please also state what boosting ship you were testing with, and what boosts you were using. I would like to understand your test result, since it seems different than mine.

I was wondering if now that the booster can warp while the fleet still has links applied if we could get one that increases warp speed. Not by a % just a flat number so it scales better with larger ships. It doesn't need to be all that strong +1 au max level would probably get it to be used and bring more BBs into gangs.

how is sitting in a belt running links any more tedious than sitting in a pos running links?

It was stated in the first thread about command bursting that the user can apply the effects to themselves while not even in a fleet at all. So yes, a fleet of one would work as well. It's independent of fleet structure (no need for SC, WC, or FC position or re-assigning the booster for squad/wing/fleet any longer) and indeed indepedent of the fleet itself if you're truly solo in a boosting ship.