Player Features and Ideas Discussion

i'm too lazy to math it myself; can anyone calculate the dps of a sentry ishtar after the damage mod buff?

1.19^3 = 1,685
1.23^3 = 1,86

that's a lot more than 4%, but it's also without stacking penalties

tyvm

http://themittani.com/media/new-tempest-and-gallente-destroyer-renders

For a ship that is designed to zip around the battlefield, the new Minmatar Destroyer looks an awfully lot like a barge. Assuming the above link is accurate. If it had some external engin mounts like on the Horder the ship would look a lot better and be more convincing in its role.

The other ones look very cool.

A time for change in the old standard of drone ships regarding gallente vs amarr, the concept of gallente having better bandwidth than amarr is outdated in the respect ships have a hard limit of 5 drones now, this causes the increased bandwidth of gallente ships mostly unused due to larger drones not sitting well vs smaller targets. The increased bandwidth translates to higher damage potential, this can be achieved by the hull, both have the same bandwidth, amarr has bigger, drone bay 3,sets and the 10% damage and HP bonus, gallente will have a smaller drone bay, 2 sets, but gains better damage from the hull, 15% damage and HP. This separates the ships in the same manner as the bandwidth differences, while not forcing unused bandwidth on the gallente hull.

+1

I did some quick calculations on the Caracal with rapid lights (tech 2), and before ship bonus the 5 RLML spewed 1.8 missiles per second, while the new destroyers 7 LML (tech 2) spewed 1.74. Put in bonuses and the RLML Caracal will have more tank, similar speed and damage that is not resist specific, while having a 25% greater rate of fire at level 5 skills. The destroyer has the explosion velocity bonus, and that will make it better against zippy targets, but otherwise it will get beat up by the Caracal. I will be flying a Caracal post patch over this. Rockets look to be where this boat could really outshine a Caracal. The HAM Caracal won't be able to hit frigs for as much applied damage as the new dessie will most likely.

What about the new stabber? Again not much reason to pick these up with cruisers like that for a small bump up in skill and isk.

I'm of the mind that we should get these on a test server and kick the tires. The Gallente Destroyer looks good to me. I understand that others don't agree but the thing will put out 400-500 DPS without too much thought effort. It has utility and tank. potential. The medium drones? Use them or don't. A destroyer fights frigates AND other destroyers and mediums would be very effective against the latter. A 65m^3 drone bay is pretty unheard of for a small ship. It will go to waste alot as a destroyer's tank won't last 2+ flights of drones. The drone damage bonus is the first of it's kind for small ships too. I'd want to see it in action on a test server before declaring it insufficient.

The Minmatar Destroyer will be more survivable then most frigates on the battlefield with it's peculiar bonus. 150m signature with no boosts or implants. The Caldari Destroyer can be either a mean rocket, MSE, web and scramble boat or a long range sniper with e-war potential.

The Amarr boat I believe needs at least one, if not two highs moved to a low to create maximum tank potential. It's the one I have the most doubts about.

T he honest, the caldari boat looks like it should be a gallente boat. Too many curved edges.

And yes, the minmatar boat looks like crap.

The design might work for an indy ship or miner, but not a combat ship.

I'm not seeing the caldari one as gallente looking. Renders I've seen don't make it look very curved. It looks more like a naga with a center structure and some more typical caldari design flare. I'm not sure what could be considered gallente looking about it.

Minmatar is fine... If you zoom out far enough

I didn't have the luxury of playing when drones could be controlled more than 5 at a time, but seeing the "15 drone death machine" got me thinking:

I wonder if awarding Gallente ships with the ability to control more than 5 drones would be worthwhile to give Gallente drone ships some much needed flavor and love? Hear me out, and these bonuses would only apply to the strict drone boats (Tristan, New Dessie, Vexor, Myrm, and Domi):

Start with ability to control 5 at the frig level, and gradually increase this as you move up the ship ranks until you get to 10 at the BS level--Tristan has five. New Dessie has seven, Vexor would have six, Myrm eight and Domi would have 10.

For balancing concerns, the bandwidth would remain the same, so the Domi could choose up to 10 mixed wing drones or just five heavies.

The increased drone control could come in the form of (for the new destroyer, for example) "Role Bonus: +2 drone control," etc., with each ship getting the requisite bonus to add up to its allotted drone control. I'm pretty sure with server and gameplay upgrades (time dilation) in addition to the fact that these changes would only affect very specific ships, the increased load on the server wouldn't be game-breaking. Besides, we're just talking about a handful of Gallente (the drone race's) ships. Amarr drone boats (and all others, except maybe Gurista, since they're obviously true drone boats, too) would retain their max 5 drone control, because they're already compensated with a larger drone bay or are not "true" drone boats (BSs with 125m3 bandwidth for example).

Why do this? Gallente drone boats need more to separate them than +10%/level to be compelling. Generic 10%/level bonuses are very bland and don't really differentiate the ships very much. Now, they're all very much like "one sausage, different lengths." Remove the weapon bonuses if balance is a concern, but I think it's fairly balanced with 10 weak (read:easy to kill) drones or 5 strong ones, and the interesting gameplay choices Dev's (and us as players) are fond of come in with "Do I want to fly a dedicated drone boat over a Gunboat today?" Or "Which drones do I take? Should I use 10 medium drones? Two sentries, five mediums and 3 lights?" Etc.

I agree that drones need an overhaul altogether, and I think this is a very interesting and creative way to get Gallente drone ships back on people's "want-to-fly" lists in both PvP and PvE. I'd love to hear the community's (and Dev's) thoughts on this.

Of course any feedback is appreciated!