Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hyperbole. It's getting 1 additional launcher, and 2.5 more IF using thermal or kinetic missiles. Hardly a doubling of the existing 4 launchers + 7.5 heavy drones damage. And there are plenty that agree that that +3.5 launchers is balanced by the loss of light and medium drone bonusses. Thus, the Rattlesnake is changing, but it's barely getting better.

*Snip* Removed off topic part of the post. ISD Ezwal.

The Gecko changes drone balance about as much as the Gnosis changes Battlecruiser balance, unless blueprints start becoming available. They are one off toys, and with what we know at present when they are gone, they are gone. I suppose they might be fun flown out of an Eos, with maybe a couple of mediums and a light to back them up, and out of the Rattlesnake where their Omni-damage and application do well with the goofy weak 275% bonus.

It's also enjoying the stats it will have after the other drones get adjusted, so may not look quite as good in comparison when that happens. Geckos will still be impressive, but impressive toys are still just toys.

As far as damage is concerned, this has zero difference in paper DPS. It does have some other implications that leave it an overall nerf to the drone system. On the lighter hulls this was compensated by a 60% increase in drone DPS, but for some reason on the Rattlesnake they have (unwisely, IMO) chosen to leave the drone system weakened.

With drones condensed from 5 to 2, you have an increased vulnerability to disruption. Where applying ECM to drones is generally a futile gesture, it now removes a healthy chunk of DPS. Heavy and Sentry drones do not have exceptionally low sensor strength, but unlike the sensors on your ship you cannot improve this in any way. Other forms of disruption are equally problematic, for instance simply webbing and kiting the superdrones is much more effective than on standard drone ships.

It's also now more effective to simply shoot and destroy the drones. While they are individually harder to destroy, the bonus they get to HP is no where near enough to discourage someone from taking the extra few shots to kill one. If anything, it's now more efficient to kill them as you don't waste as much damage from overkill. It's a small thing, but on the battleship scale, the superdrone concept just dies by inches.

It also takes a hit in application. Since you no longer get a bonus to smaller drones, the versatility of the system suffers. The ship makes up for this in part by allowing any size launcher to benefit from that bonus, but then you lose out on damage from missiles as well, on a weapon system that cannot change scale on the fly the way drones do.

The idea is fine, and on the lighter hulls shows real promise of being downright awesome. Leaving the role bonus at 275% is just too weak on the battleship level however. Breaking even on performance while imposing the added downsides of condensing from 5 to 2 is an overall nerf.

I believe that the new RattleSnake needs more drones with a lower buff.

I would think we would see a 400% role bonus on drones first. ever so slightly less DPS, and keeps the 2 superdrone theme.

However, as the thread got turned into a cesspit of whining about just adding a slot and some fittings the Dev's have not been back in here except to delete small books worth of rant posting. I doubt we will see any changes at all at this point.

With the missile velocity bonus Torpedoes currently an excellent choice for the Rattlesnake since torpedo launchers launch faster than cruise missiles and defender missiles have less effect against them. . They also take up much less volume then cruise missiles and destroy battleships much faster then cruise missiles. Bonused light and medium drones are excellent at killing fast targets and ships that are spread far apart, especially when one wants to remain on the move.

Its a shame that the Rattlesnake is unnecessarily losing its missile velocity bonus AND bonuses to all its drones in addition to killing its glorious 400m3 drone bay. Sucks having a specialized damage bonus as well. Not what the Rattlesnake needed.

As usual epicurus completely ignores anything to do with the Super Drone concept.

The drone weapon system is, all things considered, really overpowered. It can have damage application at any size level, unlike any and every other battleship weapon platform. It can also have selectable damage, and is immune to most ewar and neuts as well.

To counterbalance this, drones have two weak points.

Some of them have a travel time, and they can be destroyed.

But the Super Drone mechanic is a huge step in mitigating one of those weaknesses with the enormous hitpoint bonus. That cannot, and must not come without a cost.

In the Rattlesnake, that cost is light and medium drone bonuses.

over all looking at the rattler due to the severe nerf to its available choics now you just put a ship that was on the scrap heap and buried it 6 feet under

My numbers showed missiles making up fully 3/5ths of the rattlesnake damage now. Hardly seems even.

Although, admittedly, that's before faction drone damage mods make an appearance.

You would be correct, *if* the bonus had followed the pattern that the lighter hulls established by giving an actual large buff to the drones.

The Rattlesnake does not do that. Killing a single superlight from the Worm is about as hard as killing the Worm itself. Killing a supermedium from the Gila is like taking out an entire flight of standard mediums. Killing a superheavy is like killing a couple of heavies, and getting the same benefit from it--- the second drone isnt putting out a whole flights' worth of damage on its own.

The Rattlesnake gets almost zero benefit from its superdrone bonus, but suffers all of its penalty.