EVE General Discussion

I'm no expert, so correct me if I am wrong. It seems to me (from my observations at least, which should be taken with a grain of salt, if not a truckload) that drone play, and subsequently, Gallente, are "in." If true (correct me if I am wrong), my question is simply, does CCP believe that this is "working as intended?" If not, is there some kind of balance tweak to be expected at some point?

Meta is changing the whole time (like in most online games). There were always races/factions that (for a time) had a bigger selection of very good ships than the others. Up until now it wasn't much of a problem cause you could easily cross-train (which most did sooner or later to get the pirate duo-faction ships).

Now we have alphas that are limited to only one race and only some classes, and its pretty clear that Gallente and Caldari give alphas access to a bigger selection of good ships than Minmatar and Amarr. And it's not only about drones, even the ships that dont use drones are really strong. Now that the race balance actually matters I could see CCP doing a small rebalance of ships alphas have access to.

To be clear - all races have good ships, and some of them are better for specific tasks than the gallente/drone counterpart. Many of them might also better suit you playstyle once you figure out what you need.

You asked to be corrected if wrong, get corrected because are wrong, and then whinge about it.

Don't ask for what you're not prepared for.

I'd have to see hard numbers before drawing any conclusions. As said previously, there is always a FOTM. The way a FOTM emerges is pretty fascinating in itself. After a balance pass, as far as anybody knows everything is perfectly balanced. Before a real FOTM is settled on, a smaller trend will show up first, everyone copying everyone else based on social factors rather than numbers. Eventually someone stumbles on a ship + fitting + tactics that together is extremely effective. It's resisted at first because people are more loyal to their social FOTM than what actually works. Then the real FOTM builds momentum as its effectiveness is proved undeniably and it's adopted into more social circles and dominates the game. The point is, even if everything really was perfectly balanced, everyone would still all fly the same stuff because "I dunno, I heard it from some other guys."

How to get yourself trolled 101 right here.

Jeez, Eve 101, never ever mention anything drone or drone related where CCP might see it.

They spent the best part of two years, balancing Gallente drone ships, the Ishtar and Dominix for examples, balancing, tweaking, adjusting, altering, changing, fiddling with and generally messing around with all things drones and drone related.

For the love of all thing holy etc, do not get CCP started again.

Thank you.

I agree that alpha clones will change the way CCP handles ship balancing, because for many players crosstraining is not possible (without a subscription).

I believe that they have said alpha clone ships will be receiving a balance pass in the near future.

A few polite, intelligent responses, and I thank you for that. But I also see the trolls are out in full force. Whether that's a chronic condition on these forums or not, I don't know, but if so, it's something I won't waste my time with. I'd recommend someone 'in charge' simply banning posting privileges from obvious trolls, but then again, if that was something they were inclined to do, they would have done it already.

By the way, some kind of miscommunication apparently. I was not asking anything about alpha clones. For the purposes of my question, forget they exist.

TIL that hardpoints and drone bay are literally the only stats that matter.

Perhaps I'm still not communicating. Sure, you can always point to some ship here or there that's better than another one. I'm talking purely 'in general' and 'meta,' nothing else.

Perhaps some background is in order. All I hear from the more veteran pilots I meet and talk to is "Gallente this, drone that, Ishtar this, Vexor that, Megathron whatever." All they ever say is "train your drone skills to max," and "train Gallente NOW." People have told me stories of null-sec fleets composed of nothing but Gallente drone boats, etc. Whenever I ask for advice on how to defeat this particular enemy, or beat such-and-such combat anomaly, I get "just drop heavy drones from Gallente drone boat. If he does this, retract and drop heavy ewar drones. If he does that, retract and drop sentries." Blah blah blah blah blah blah.

It's all I ever hear, and all I have heard, since starting this game. No exceptions really, except here, so I'm somewhat surprised to be hearing "well it depends" or "all races have good stuff" or "it doesn't matter except for clones" etc.

Don't get me wrong. If I have had the wrong picture painted for me, I want that picture corrected, and I thank you. Perhaps I keep meeting tons of people who know absolutely nothing. What I expected to hear when posting this was "yeah CCP is aware of the issue - how could they not be as everyone and their mother is" and "yes, they announced rebalancing to commence starting in X" or "no official word yet on when this issue might be tackled."

Will see what other knowledgeable posters have to say, if any chime in, and thank you for the opposing view.