Ships & Modules

I realize i'm rambling a bit now

There's another morale to that story above worth pointing out with clarity instead of just hinting about it.

I mentioned boosters and implants.

It's worth noting that in the ongoing discussion about those as well. Boosters may or may not push magnitudes on their own. With the investment of implants and drugs they definately do though. To me however, that is also quite balanced and show exemplarily how various approaches interact in the game.

How you can gain advantages and close gaps. Some people would argue that certain modules, bonuses or effects are imbalanced in themselves. I don't subscribe to that, looking at the mechanics and balance. The problems most people refer to tend to appear first when there's stacking upon those advantages.


Finally, it also help define the issue with Tier 3 BC.

Look at how the Talos adapt into all those relations in the other post, but also give up nothing when put into areas where the other compensate.

That can also be exemplified by setting up what i would call a "core setup". Setup the ship with common modules that most specific setups would share (mwd, damage mods, basic buffer) and leave specialty slots open. You will likely have a 3-6 slots free. Then compare the performance of the ship as it stands, and look at what happens when you begin to fill those slots with modules. If it's nano, how much speed does it gain? If it's tracking, how much reach does it gain? If it's other turrets, how much does it compensate (this is a bit of a trick question, as it has a role bonus, but still) and so forth.

When you do that you can clearly see how the class break logic. It's competent doing most of the things it excel at, and relating to other ships, while leaving some of both it's lows, mids and rigs open . Other classes don't do that, they may have strengths and weaknesses that are more or less pronounced or popular to exploit, but as with BS, you are always faced with compensating when you want to adapt.


The typical "larger perspective" addition.

Tier 3 BC are the poster-child of the new generation developers' design trends. Instead of adressing real issues with cost-effect, they have undertaken a massive and slow complete redesign project that cause imbalance as it's done in parts, affect different groups in the community differently at each turn and that i fear will not achieve as complete an actual balance that the old game had. They don't pay enough homage to the quality of the old core designers and are cheered on by parts of the community that just want to see change, for better or worse. That's such a shame, goalpost-shifting allocation of design resources and overcomplication instead of dealing with the real isolated problems and prioritizing impactful design, and low-effort tweaks.

The game design term "power creep" have become a popular title to throw around lately. It should be noted though, that prior to Crucible it didn't really exist in EVE. Yet what they do now, keeps ripple up with every minor expansion. All the new Tech I rephase are causing obscurity in some way, and more work to be done on other ships down the line. Looking at frigates today, it makes you wonder why they recently adressed assault frigs, in the same way that Crucible makes you wonder why they adressed Gallente redesign in the face of the new BC. The pace of it too, do not make looking to the future very exciting for those who enjoy techy options. The tech two complaint threads are already popping up here on Ships & Modules. It makes you wonder about this past year of promises for flying in space.

It makes you wonder if they've forgotten how higher Tech used to be the magnitude piercer that enabled off-scale interaction, just as much as faction items, boosters, drugs or implants .

To end this with going back on topic, Battleships class-class though, are quite balanced i'd say - at least for now.