Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I am dreadfully bored so I'm gonna give you my thoughts.

I am against superdrones. It'll turn what is otherwise one hull into a minifleet and encourage drone micromanagement shenanigans over other more appealing bits of pvp. I like drones for their versatility and fragility. It's ok that they are fragile because unless you're in a frigate shooting at mediums or higher, tracking is gonna suck unless you peel tackle off target to handle drones. Or you can smartbomb, which these drones will be pretty resistant to.

If rattlesnakes got super-sentries to match the worm, fielding a lot of them or any gurista ship would essentially invalidate the 50 drone assist hardcap, at least in some ways?

don't super tough drones effectively eliminate or severely reduce a need to micromanage drones that get the npc aggro that was so deliberately added for them?

If we get rid of this super drone idea, the worm could be more interesting then this! Its caldari tech engineered to be used against caldari right? What if you gave the worm the role of countering ECM boats by making them immune to Jams(or maybe all ewar?). The ECM ship cant jam its way out of being tackled, and the worm is fairly tanky, with good damage projection due to drones and missiles. Maybe you increase the drone range and speed so they can apply pressure to far off jammers ? it suits the gallente flavor. Either way, having a worm or two in a small fleet could prevent a similar sized force with a pocket falcon alt from totally crushing you before you manage to force the falcon off field or blow it up.

Maybe you could do something similar with the gila and the Rattlesnake, making them immune, and then giving them bonuses to ECCM projection or something, so you're forced to deal with them if you want your jams to be effective.

anyway, it'd probably make them insanely popular or possibly OP, but it'd be a nice way to keep jams from being the be-all and end-all of ewar. (ps 20 seconds is too long)

maybe rather than making them just plain immune and able to project eccm, make it a large bonus to self eccm too? so they have to work a bit to be jam nearly immune, and there is still a chance of being jammed.

ok im done, resume business as usual.

Lol sorry, my rant must have come out of nowhere then.

The Vindi, Mach, RS, CNR, and Nightmare all see decent PVE usage. Dev even said that the nightmare sees a lot of use as a PVE platform and didn't want to mess that up.

Similarly though, for your amusement, as a PVEr, until I started checking out the forums more, I never guess people used these ships for PVP. Their stats, layouts, and bonuses often make them amazing for PVE, and they are so expensive that using them for anything other than bait (where you have enough reinforcements to ensure it will live. ) makes little sense to me. (maybe tournaments? )

Otherwise why someone would choose a navy domi as a brawler over a Thron, Hyperion, or Neut Domi, considering performance to cost, baffles me. Especially since so many pvpers seem obsessed with their killboards and keeping a positive balance. Losing a 500-1bn ship (depending on pirate/navy ship ) sounds like a painful loss for performance gained.

Well if nightmare and other sansha ships get AB bonus they WILL need alot more cap.

My full thoughts on the proposed Sansha changes.



While I love the idea of the bonused afterburner, it does not belong on a Sansha ship. The reasons why are that the weapon and tank type of the hull are not enhanced by the bonus in any meaningful way that another ship can’t do better. The fitting and slot lay-out is very constricting as you have balance tank, tackle, and cap. Finally it goes against the design of the ship and its faction.

Sansha ships are the vessels of a hard hitting sovereign nation, they are made to crush other empire fleets under boot, not to do hit and runs or to minimize damage. The main way I see to get Sansha ships being used is to make them what they are meant to be: main fleet combat ships. Without proper support a Sansha ship should not be able to last on the battlefield .

My main proposal is to move the 2 utility highs to a mid and a low on each ship, change the 5% damage bonus to a 7.5% damage bonus, and reduce the cargo hold on each ship by 40% to 60%. Make them dependent fleet ships.

My alternative proposal is the move 1 utility high to a low and to add an extra turret, increase shield hit point amount, and reduce the cargo hold on each ship by 40% to 60%. Make them dependent fleet ships.

Ultimately the afterburner bonus would fit better on a hull line designed to handle it and take full advantage of it, Mordu’s Legion would be an optimal choice for this as it fits their flavor more.

I'll be the first one to say I don't know how to fly or fit ships well. I just kinda bumble my way about the universe and things (usually me) explode.

But that being said, I like this idea. Afterburner bonus doesn't feel thematically right for Nation. The whole hivemind Unity business gives the feeling that their ships are designed to work together as one massive fleet. Making them stronger while having them rely on other ships seems like a better direction then speed bonus.

Okay so here is for my five cents. Firstly I am really excited about these proposed changes - well for insomuch as they relate to frigates. I am cautious and curious about the worm, but suspect it may make for an interesting change. As for the others, well, My only caveat is to make sure that the succubus has enough agility and optimal range to benefit from the ab boost, but yeah. I am ESPECIALLY relieved that the web bonuses to serpentis are not being nerfed.

Secondly what you don't go into much is the cruisers and battleships. I trust that I am jumping the gun - by a lot here - and that they will be addressed in future dev blogs. The Phanty needs much love. Much. The phanty is a brawler so much as with the succy agility is an issue. Sansha ships are fitted on what I'd like to call 'a razor's edge'. They are great but need so much cap fine-tuning that even slight changes make for a very difficult boat.

If you do at some stage look at giving the nightmare an ab bonus, please consider instead making it either an ab or mwd bonus. The reason for this is that the mare is a sniper platform. It is great in missions - slowboating with a gank tank, but if one had to drop a mid mod for an ab, it would sit with tanking issues. On the other hand the mare is nice in incursions, but for vg's you stand still (or move slow) and in hq's you need a mwd.

One general comment.


Can we please avoid the tiresome cycle of buffing something to the point of being OP, waiting to everyone stockpiles and trains for the newly OP thing and then nerfing that thing to the point of uselessness :D

You do that to a Rattle and you may as well delete it.

If you want new stuff whenever something changes, i suggest you go play WoW...

Changing around bonuses in an attemt to make balance, is hard work. just look at the number of people in this thread that have problems with masic math :P Trying to avoid OP ships and at the same time bring use to underused ships mean you ahve to take into accord not just what each and every ship can do, but what players decide they should be able to do

I will explain you in other way, so you will understand maybe like for 6 years old kid.

If I brake your leg, you will need to find job for itself not too far away from your home (in close range).
After you found job (I think it will be some job near computer where you can use own 2 hands) so after I will brake your one arm, because I think, you type on computer too fast and even 1 arm will be enough for you.
After when you will be absolutely useless, I will tell you - I will repair your broken leg a bit, so you will be rebalanced and find a job far away from own home, with one arm...
And after maybe I will brake your second arm, but you can be far away from your home and need to be happy.

So, you want to say, you will be more happy with broken legs and arms, even if I have promised you, I can turn back time and aim fully your leg and we can count it never happened?

Maybe would be better even not to brake your legs and arms and after 7 years understand it?