Player Features and Ideas Discussion

So, a thought.

Marauders are in a tough place both in PVP and in nullsec. Sure they work, and sure lots of people use them. But there's a pretty major flaw in a ship that will likely run you up a few billion, before implants. And I'll say here (before most people TLDR to the bottom) that I recognize marauders are presently viewed as PVE ships.

They can use their bastion module (the sole reason for owning a marauder over a faction BS, really) at a cost of mobility, or they can not use their bastion module at a cost of flying a ship that performs on-par with ships that cost a billion isk less.

On the premise that a marauder isn't really worth flying without bastion, what about (non-consentual) PVP. What if you're ratting in null and a scout/fleet jumps in? You're SOL. In PVP fleets kind of the same thing... range dictation wins fights.

What if marauders could activate a MJD while bastion was active? I'm not talking about scram-immunity. Or the ability to align their ships. Just activate the MJD, and 9 seconds later end up 100km forward of your current position, current cooldowns applicable.

With regards to being tackled while ratting, if they only have long points, you might have a chance to get away (time the jump to coincide with bastion cycle ending, then after jumping, hopefully warp to a safe place). With regards to pvp, they'd have very limited movement to help with range dictation... marauder sniper fleets might be an interesting comp at that point. I mean heck, a tachyon paladin with aurora can easily run 600 dps out to 250km, assuming they can target that far. I'm sure other races can do similar. Only a moron would field a fleet of marauders for pvp though, for the obvious reasons.

I guess ultimately the question becomes would the ability to MJD once every 54seconds too heavily negate the weakness that bastion is supposed to impart (mobility), or increase the ship's flexibility enough to see it get used more? Especially given that the MJD will sig-bloom the heck out of the BS.

In the end, using bastion is a false choice - a marauder not using it is doing it wrong. If you do use it, you've got no counter to a roaming fleet, and no amount of situational awareness will be sufficient to save you from getting caught, because you simply can't move. It's "a chance"... even if only a small one at that.

Thoughts?

I think they could benefit from a module that makes them a fleet pvp asset. I'd like to see something that makes both the user and the target immune to remote repair, or perhaps any remote effects.

Because it's a small chance. As you say they have obscene tanks. I-WIN buttons aren't fun for 99% of players.

So I present to you a very likely (and common-ish) scenario.

You're ratting away, and because you're a scrub you aren't watching local. All of a sudden you see a Tengu landing on grid. Uhoh.

With MJD:
You activate your MJD before the tengu even lands on you (he brought probes, just to make it even harder for you), and with LUCK, you will have enough time to get the MJD off before he can land and scram you. Now you're 100km off with guns built for slamming the crap out of things at range. Tengu has to decide whether to burn to you and tackle, light the cyno and hope that the marauder dies before it does (still isk-positive but it's always a killjoy losing a T3C), or warp off.

Without MJD:
Tengu lands, lights a cyno, and capitals (or a bomber fleet) drop-kick you right back to your medical clone location. No way to answer, no way to fight.

the fight started before the tengue entered system. you were fighting as he slipped by intel chs you were fighting when he entered local and you missed it, you were fighting when he launched probes and you didn't use d-scan. so there were plenty of answers and plenty of ways to fight

And yet if you are ratting at a time when your membership is not frequently on, you may not have any intel. "Get good" isn't an answer to that, "join a bigger corp/alliance" is.. and some people prefer small gang - not something I can fault them for.

I agree that once in-system, a bad player deserves to lose their ship (d-scan, local, etc). But with bastion cycle time, even a good player will lose their ship, unless they have good intel.

My mission alt would only ever leave bastion to warp. With the cooldown bonus to MJD, Marauders are the fastest battleships in the game. Coupling this level of maneuverability with never having to leave bastion is way OP.

Ok, and?
Shouldn't the Billion Isk T2 Battleship actually be terrifying. It's not like plenty of stuff doesn't outpace them even with the MJD use, Cruisers can outpace them even while they MJD, and that assumes the enemy doesn't have a Command Destroyer themselves to sling the interceptors or what have you.
Having to sit still might be fine for crashing a gate camp and just shooting anyone who tries to stay and fight you, but it's not interesting, it denies you all those fine attributes of positioning. And it's just not needed any more, it's a relic from before Ewar resists splitting things.

You can't pre aling in bastion btw, your ship doesn't have a facing, only a velocity, so you couldn't be at 0 and MJD because the server doesn't know which way to send you. Which makes the ability to move mandatory for this anyway.

nah bastion is like saying "lets do this"

yeah BRING THE RAIN!

you can always use a tempest if you are too scared of bastion...