Player Features and Ideas Discussion

While reading the forum in the Warfare and Tactics Session - People were discussing the recent change to recons and their additional ability to be Unscannable. Something I full heartedly agree with giving at least a chance.

The main counter to these type of tactics as most people would know is to use Probes - as they would still be able to determine where or when a Combat Recon is closing in.

The one issue with this is that currently most Scanning ships either only fulfill the role as scanner or are interlinked with the civilian profession of Exploration. This means that dedicated pilots may not always be able to engage directly in combat if scanning down another player.

I would propose that we create a ship that focuses solely on Combat Probe scanning - With a ship line from frigate to Cruiser. These ships would not compete solely as front line brawlers but would still provide decent direct combat support. These would be focused on providing tactical book marks during encounters with large fleets or for hunting down / engaging other gangs on the smaller level.

This would encourage newer players as well as older players to take up combat scanning without feeling like they have been left out of the fight - or that it is required to have an alt to scan for them.

They would contain the following:

• Combat Probe Bonuses (Role Bonus)
• Combat Probe Fitting Bonus (Plus Utility High)
• Competent but not overly powerful Combat bonuses, either focusing on higher agility or tank. (Warp in and hard tackle).

Hope to hear everyone's opinion on this - whether you feel it is a silly idea of a good idea but in need of tweaking.

o7

As you said, we do already have frigates whose role it is to probe for stuff. That they are usually fit for exploration is a user error problem if you are expecting to nab a ship with them when so equipped, so I don't think we need an entirely new set of frigates at least.

Modifying them so they have a bit of staying power on the field, however, might not be a bad idea. I'd love to see covops have some ability to fight rather than having almost nothing in the way of offense and then explode if someone looks at you the wrong way.


As far as cruisers go, Recon ships ARE more or less the extension of the covops line, so they could be useful for the role.
That said, having looked at the stratios, I would LOVE to have a T1 version of that, regular empire made T1 exploration cruisers, designed to probe, but have some combat capabilities for both PvE and PvP, though I have no idea how a T2 version would go.

Non-faction price tag on them, I suppose

Unfortunately a plated Proteus is way to slow and clumsy to be usable on roams, and like all cruisers, it's subpar for tackling.

Do actually hope the combat bonuses on Cov Ops exploration frigs are either taken to a serious level or taken out all together and replaced with something more useful. The joke has been going on for long enough...

Would swap the 5% Hybrid damage for a reduction to probe launcher CPU anyday.
Or the 10% thermal damage to a single drone.
Lel. Especially when it doesn't show on the fitting screen...

It should.
Combat probing should have been common and not the opposite - niche and frequently irrelevant. Its why we get nonsense like D-SCAN immune CLASS of ships.
If Combat probing was common, D-SCAN could have been removed, and we'd be past the huge discontinuity that is created by deep-space warps, justifying in warp pursuit to finish targets off and alleviating the need for warp tackle modules and stabs.
Removal of gates wouldn't have been so severe either.

Combat probing should have been the standard for locating other people in space and the preprocessor to conflict.

Would have been a much simple system with far more possibilities.