Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Currently we have no hulls orientated towards smartbombs, and frankly, smart bombs are used for only three things:

• Killing drones.
• Killing NPC frigates.
• Commiting suicide by CONCORD.

I was once in a fleet that micro-jumped eight battleships with full racks of smartbombs into an enemy blob. We got a handful of kills, but it wasn't very cost effective - we all died. We, however, did have a hilarious time.

My basic suggestion is that CCP introduce hulls with bonuses to smartbombs for those moments when we take inspiration from the tactics of certain eastern religious extremists.

Hatemail worthy example

I then started to think about how a (Smart / Heavy) Bomber would actually turn out. I shouldn't have to say that our bomber would be of little use in high sec, due to the risk of CONCORDing yourself. Likewise, a cheap (T1) ship could be flown in massive numbers into fleets, breaking alliance warfare. We, therefore, have to make bombers too expensive to field in more than moderate numbers, hence I suggest they be tech 2.

Secondly, they have to be very squishy to balance their extreme total DPS across an arbitrary number of targets. Possibly they should have some chance of surviving, in the form of a MJD or MWD bonus. I suggest these ships being destroyer or battlecruiser size, to facilitate squishy, with a bonus to fit medium or large smartbombs, respectively.

And when I say squishy, I mean that just using about five bombers in the same area will see them destroy themselves, as well as any nearby enemy. I think bombers have to be suicide bombers during fleet work for balance.

I also note that speed taking bombers may keep them alive, but will reduce their ability to kill targets as they move our of range. Possibly bombers should have limited agility, but a high base speed.

I produced the following example for demonstrative purposes only, assuming a battlecruiser version, but you can see how it would work for a destroyer.

Wtfpwn, Amarr Heavy Bomber

Hull: Oracle.

Heavy Bomber bonus
I suggest bomber skill bonuses are standard across all the bombers
20% bonus to smartbomb maximum range per level.
25% bonus to smartbomb EM damage per level. Racial damage type bonused

Amarr battlecruiser bonuss
I suggest the racial hull bonus be far more race flavour specific, but never directly effect tanking
5% bonus to capacitor recharge rate per level.
5% reduction to signature radius per level.

Role bonus
90% reduction to the power grid requirement of smartbombs.
50% reduction to the CPU requirements of smartbombs.
40-50% reduction to smartbomb capacitor requirements. For balance, bombers should be cap unstable with a full rack of bombs, no matter good a player's skills and fit are.

Stats of interest
Fitting: 7 or 8 high, 3 mid, 4 low Slot layouts prevent serious tanking
Turrets/Launchers: 4 / 4
Resists: Typical T2 resists
Shield/Amour/Hull: 1400, 2000, 1500
Speed: 250 m/s Well above average
Agility modifier: 0.6 [i] Above average, thus hard to orbit targets inside smartbomb range while speed tanked[i]
Mass: Above average
Capacitor: 3600 GJ

I finally point out that my example is illustrative only, and I trust CCP to develop a far less OP version of a smartbomb bonused ship.

Alright. Bring on the hatemail!

Not quite. Having 5 bombers make a successful run takes practice, timing, coordination, getting lined up propperly and stuff like that. This idea just needs a no skill warp in, mash f-1 through f-done. (-1 for this)

This could be used in HS/LS to effectively wonk mission boats in mission spaces and what not. (+1 for this)

You could use a stabbed mauler to smartbomb any gate in LS (-1 for too cheap of thrills)



It's totally different. Sure it would mimic the blast zone of a well executed bomb run, but the difficulty level of this idea is pretty much zero.



-1 You're asking for elite carnage with nooblike finesse. Learn to play.

I agree that smartbombs shouldn't be made into a primary weapon system, but at the same time I'd like to see them be more forgiving and usable within a fleet.

For this I would say that should a ship be made with smartbomb bonuses these should be some of the rules to follow:
-zero increase in smartbomb damage
-No bonuses to use oversized smartbombs
-No, or very little capacitor help in using smartbombs
(smartbombs are already powerful but making a ship OP with them means everyone knows what you're flying. smartbombs have to be the exception towards a hull fit, not the rule)

So what can be considered?
-Range, either through a passive ship bonus or an overheat ship bonus.
-truly 'smart' smartbombs that will either not hit, or have reduced damage on your own drones or fleet members
-Directional explosion - create an explosion towards an enemy in a cone-like pattern, allowing a diameter range rather than a radius

As for the ship types that could receive a smartbomb bonus, I agree that Destroyer and Battlecruiser sizes would be the place to put it.(especially since small and medium smartbombs are the least used)

That's kinda useless.
If you want a bomber mass they would need to be cap stable and have immense tank towards smartbombs.

Role bonus (75% reduction in smartbomb damage)
Or they'd need crazy high base resists towards whatever smartbomb you plan on using.
Cause all those tank slots on normal ships will go to tanking the smart bomb damage of your allies.

But I'd rather have a t2 solo play black ops BC for ratting and running sites with no target locking penalty so it can lock npcs fast after decloaking or be able to cloak while targeted from NPCs as long as they're not close enough to decloak me. Then when someone warps in on me I can just cloak.