Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I expect this will be the long thread

Hello again! This thread will cover the overhaul to Omnidirectional Tracking Links that we are planning for Rubicon 1.1 in conjunction with the Overheating Iterations.

I advise reading the Heat Iterations post before this one.

TL:DR is that we are making Omnidirectional Tracking Links work like Tracking Computers. They will become active modules that can be scripted and overheated, and their bonuses will be as strong as equivalent Tracking Computers.

The fact that this decreases the overall power of Omnis (especially for gaining optimal range) is intended.

Sentry drones are obviously one of the more discussed weapon systems in the EVE community right now. This is not the only change we will ever make to drone mechanics, but it is a change we believe will improve the game balance.
Sentries are a weapon system with strong upsides and strong downsides, which is one of the best things about them from a design perspective. We do not want to homogenize them with other weapon systems. The downsides of Sentries, foremost of which are immobility and destructibility, require the weapon system to have strong upsides as compensation. However we believe that the best primary method to balance the upsides of Sentry Drones is through the drones themselves, rather than by giving them access to a weapon upgrade that is so clearly superior to competing modules.

The results of this change for Omni balance are that pilots will now need to choose between having excellent range bonuses and excellent tracking bonuses. Like Tracking Computers Omnis will now provide stronger bonuses to tracking than to range.
Omnis will now provide a bonus to falloff instead of just optimal range, for the first time increasing the utility of sentry falloff in people's value judgements.

The Omnis will keep their same fitting requirements (a bit higher than TCs), will have a 10s duration, and will enjoy significantly lower cap use (4 cap per activation) compared to Tracking Computers. They will use exactly the same scripts as Tracking Computers and Remote Tracking Computers.

We believe that with these changes Sentry Drones will still be very viable and popular weapon systems, and that the results will be a better set of choices for players to make when fitting and flying.
As I said above, these are not the only changes that we will ever make to Sentry Drones, so to assume that this means we won't be willing to touch them again sometime in the future would be a mistake.

These changes will be live on SISI very soon for your testing, and we as always thank you in advance for your constructive and useful feedback.

Thanks!

Yes

Glad to see some attention is being paid to the incongruent parts of drone damage application. Thanks for the update.

DBRB - 1

Grath - 0

But they have to pick range or tracking, not both. Granted, range will be the no-brainer nine times out of ten because sentries already track better than guns at almost any given range, but that's a separate issue.

The problem I see is. Gardes + Dominix + 3 Omni with track scripts will track even more.

They are going to be insanely effective at murdering small stuff.


I think BOTH bonuses of the module should be 15-20% when scripted. 30% will be too much for tracking and will tip the balance TOO MUCH in favor of dominix forces.

After carefully choosing I have selected a youtube appropriate for this thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIbEj1CIpuU

exact values plz :)

Funny thing is that sentry drones don't actually even need to omnidirectionals to shoot to what is generally considered max range for most carrier fleets for example. They have 105km drone control range and T2 bouncer has 60+42km range without a single omnidirectional. So if scripted tracking value is better than what the current omnis have, what this change seems to end up being is a buff to non-sniping drone doctrines because now they can increase tracking if they want. And the tracking is already pretty insane.

which really begs the question as Fozzie nerfed all the base stats in preparation of the heat changes. (see capital turrets)

maybe tracking and range bonuses for drones boats should be nerfed as well to balance out with those new changes?