Player Features and Ideas Discussion

...This is a second time in the same racial line that this has come up, and it has not happend ( as far as I know) to any other racial line, something is afoot.

If Abaddon is losing 1% resist at least make up for it with extra low slot to be able to either tank it or add cap recharger mod or damage mod to make up for the lost tank

Same goes for the Apocalypse, removed the cap use bonus, fine, but get something instead get another low slot and remove 1 high if you feel you don't want to make it overpowered (and don't add damage bonus), or since we are making a salad of races here how about getting 6 meds, 5 lows? - and maybe then that tracking bonus will find its good reason to stay there

Armageddon is a hopeless case, people are having 3 problems with it:
- Neut range bonus
- The fact it is becoming a Dominix
- New yellow looking old-Typhoon

Either you remove the missiles and give it some little damage or ROF bonus as role bonus for lasers
Either you reduce the neuting bonus range on it
Either you completely remove the neuting range bonus on it - keep drone boat role and bonus missiles and/or turrets (with cap)
Either you remove the drone boat role form it and bonus missiles and/or turrets

OR BETTER THAN ALL OF THIS, YOU CAN JUST LEAVE THAT ARMAGEDDON ALONE AS WE KNOW IT!!!

i think large beams need a boost.

so this is what i would do:

reduce pg of beams and tachs by 25% and then reduce cap activation cost by 10% and increase optimal range by 15%

The more I think about the Apoc and it's intended role as an attack BS, the more I am falling for a 6 gun, 10% damage/level design of the ship:

Amarr Battleship skill bonus:

10% to Large Energy Turret Damage per level
7.5% to Large Energy Turret Optimal Range per level

Slot Layout: 7H, 4M, 8L; 6(-2) turrets, 2 launchers (for nostalgic value)
Fittings: 19000 PWG, 540 CPU
Defense (Shield / Armor / Hull): 6000 / 7000 / 7000
Capacitor ( Amount / Recharge Time / average recharge rate): 6400 / 1143 s / 5.6
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 113 / .119 / 97100000 / 16.02s
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 50 / 75
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 73km/ 95 / 7
Sensor strength: 20 Radar Sensor Strength
Signature radius: 380

Why the damage bonus? Because the Apocalypse is an Attack Battleship, which are designed to hit hard and good. As it stands now, all other Attack BS share the attribute of having one damage bonus and a second weapon bonus, sometimes for damage projection (Raven, Apoc), sometimes for damage application (Megathron, Typhoon) and in the case of the Tempest going for all out damage. A further common trait is that none of them has a full rack of 8 turret/missile hardpoints, typicalle sporting 6 or 7 weapons, typically featuring 1 or 2 utility highs instead (with the exception of the Mega)

The current Apoc is very odd. Neither does it have a damage bonus, but it does have to feed 8 guns. Let's take a short look on the effective guns/launchers of the attack BS (for the sake of comparability at BS V):

Megathron: 9,3
Tempest: 10
Typhoon: 8
Raven: 8
Apoc(now): 8
Apoc(proposed): 9

Pro-Tipp why missile boats might suck: 8 effective launchers will not cut it in most cases. (Indeed no Missile BS has more than 9.3 effective launchers, while gun-BS cap at 11.6 effective turrets)

The proposed version will bring the Apoc more in line with the other gunnery ships in the attack line, while still trading raw damage against damage projection, which was the traditional strength of laser boats in the last years. The Apoc will especially amplify this role, becoming somewhat like a longrange-version of the Mega2.0, with identical slot design and comparable damage, while being geared more torwards range while the Mega will be the close-range alternative.

All in all, currently the Apoc feels like a bombardement BS that wasn't informed that there are no bombardement ships, only range-inclined attack vessels.

Large Beams do need a boost, but I think with your proposal they would become too similar to railguns.
I'd like to see a special niche for them, so I would suggest (besides obviously reducing PG requirements) to massively buff their tracking instead.

Abaddon: Needs more grid. Allow full Tach fit to use less fitting mods
Apoc: Needs more capacitor regeneration - or return to the older cap bonuses instead of tracking
Geddon: Fittings maybe to tight, need to have a second look.

I missioned (solo) just fine in an Abaddon as a newbie (a long time ago) with mediocre capacitor skills and a T1 tank, and no cap boosters (too expensive). The Abaddon does not have a capacitor use bonus, and it was and is considered the best Amarr T1 battleship for PvE. I don't understand all the concern about new players of a sudden being unable to use any of the Amarr battleships for missioning and general PvE, especially since the new Apoc will have a stronger capacitor than the Abaddon.

Sure, the Apocalypse's cap use bonus is nice for the week or two it takes to skill up all the cap skills to IV or V. But this is a long-term game, and there's no sense at all in building a ship hull around the premise that a player will use it for a little while and then go on to something better. The whole tierecide is supposed to move us away from ships designed around progression.

As well, the tracking bonus will free up slots in PvE that would otherwise be dedicated to tracking computers or enhancers, and which can be filled with cap mods.

As far as Tachyons go, two things to note:

First, Tachyons are oversized long-range guns. They're not supposed to be easy to fit. We see the same philosophy with Neutron blasters -- they tend to require fitting mods/rigs to fit properly. Some factions get oversized guns in a specific category; some do not. I'm fairly sure that 1400mm artillery is not an oversized gun platform, and so should be usable without fitting mods. If that is not the case, and 1400mm artillery is supposed to be an oversized platform, then 1400mm artillery fitting requirements should be increased to be in line with Tachyons.

Second, the Apocalypse will never be as good a sniper as an Oracle. Its align time is too high, its velocity is too low, and its signature radius is too high to be able to get out before getting probed down. Its cachet is damage projection with Scorch.