Player Features and Ideas Discussion

No, alpha is not something you trade against reload time. CYCLE time is long to keep high alpha from translating into insane DPS. Alpha is about taking targets off the field in single volleys if coordinated correctly while per your own numbers an NM fleet needs double the numbers to do the same for any particular target. This principle doesn't necessarily translate to all incursions, but then the ships shouldn't be balanced purely around that.

Alpha philosophy and arties has always been more punch but longer reload ,this has been translated as a mean to remove target in one hit by fleet doctrine but in pratice it doesnt exist any bs or higher who is able to warp out in less than 6.67s .
So no sir u wont need twice as much ships to kill a ships u ll need two volley that u can fire in less time than mach need to reload giving u a better effiency on the field.
And thats why alpha doctrine isnt anymore really used :(

Actually no, the point of volley fighting is to deny repair/RR any time to become a factor. The reason it's become less relied on as a specific strategy is that fleet sized that have any need to use that strategy have grown to the size that every weapon is an alpha weapon, thus marginalizing alpha weapons to a sweet spot of sorts. with similar DPS it steps on the toes of other weapons.

But still that doesn't explain why an alpha based, falloff dependent weapon should perform better or even similarly to a more DPS/optimal focused weapons system at long range.

I fly both. Before, I rarely had reason to use the NM. Now, there will be times I'll pull the NM out of the hangar, and times I'll pull the Mach out. I don't see the changes as that imbalanced, especially as no one used the NM for anything outside of PVE. It's been a shame, really.

Does anyone else have a problem with the gallente bonus on the rattle snake, are the gallente now masters of missile tech. I hate this blurring of racial lines in eve.

Some of us like the lore to be respected. Plus it looks like bad balance as only two drones, we all know why though.

Which means it is a knee jerk reaction or we took 10 steps in the right direction and still have 3 miles to cover. Either way the RS still does not measure up to the other pirate BSs in use or price. When that price reaches 800+ mill I will start to consider it as "Measuring up" to the other pirate BSs.

I hate to break this to you, but beam lasers have exactly the same problem. You have to resort to navy/pirate/T2 ships to use beams on a BS hull. The fitting costs for Tachyons are just too high for them to be viable on standard battleships.

Honestly, they really need to address the fitting issue of railguns vs. artillery and beam lasers, and the progression of standard -> navy -> pirate. Right now, it's ridiculous. The balance is completely screwed up, from the T1 ones up to the navy and pirate ones. Take the Megathron in comparison to the Apoc and Tempest, which are the other two attack battleships with turrets. The Megathron can fit two plates, MWD, and a full rack of 425s with no fitting mods. That leaves it with a potential 8-slot tank. You fit a magstab to more than make up for the lost gun, and you still have a 7-slot tank. Meanwhile, the Apoc needs two fitting mods on 7 low slots to fit Tachyons, while the Tempest needs one fitting mod on 6 low slots to fit artillery, leaving them both with 5-slot tanks. This makes the Megathron vastly superior to its counterparts at basically everything to the point where the Apoc and Tempest are just jokes, as it has two extra fitting slots.

Now, go up to navy ships. The TFI and Navy Apoc get increased fittings. Because of the extra PG and CPU, the Navy Apoc only needs one fitting mod to use Tachyons, and the TFI doesn't need any fitting mods. They both also get +1 low slot, so they both essentially get +2 fitting slots from the upgrade and can fit 7-slot tanks. The Navy Mega gets.....a utility high and 50mbit worth of drones. It still has a 7-slot tank. It also got increased fittings, but has no real way to use them. A regular Megathron has 2000 PG left over after fitting rails, two plates, injector, and MWD. The Navy Mega has absolutely no way to use the extra fittings it's been given. So we go from T1 ships where the Megathron is absurdly overpowered to navy ships where they're relatively balanced.

Now, lets go up to the pirate ships. The Nightmare gets yet another fitting slot added, and because it has even more generous fitting stats on 4 turrets, it needs no fitting mods at all for Tachyons. It's now at +3 effective fitting slots over its T1 laser-using counterpart because it doesn't need the two extra RCUs that the Apoc does and it has one extra low/med slot. The Mach actually LOSES a slot compared to the TFI because it needs an RCU again.

Basically, long range weapon balance on battleships is really messed up and needs a complete overhaul.

Less every time someone mentions it…

you beg to differ:

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How is the Mach much different from other's hulls in the minmatar lines that cant fit 1400s without fitting modules / implants? If you want to argue that 1400s use too much powergrid, it should be in a thread about large artillery.

If you just to get your grid solely through implants that's up to you.

Performance of tachs agains rails? They do 15% more damage, but have 10% less optimal and 20% less falloff. Go down one ammo type with your railguns and you have the same range and damage as the lasers but without the cap use and fitting cost.