Player Features and Ideas Discussion

+1

Bombers and combat probing have needed fixing for a long time; personally I don't think this fix is optimal for either, but I'm grateful it's at least addressing the issue somewhat.

Bombing has been OP for such a long time, particularly with the ability to fleet warp wings...the outcome of which has been to dramatically shift and obsolete a large number of ship and fleet types. I think other changes would have been better for bombers but this is manageable at least as an interim measure.

The bigger item and which has been equally dramatic over the years is combat probing and fleet warp to zero. With the exception of *unprobable* setups, skirmish and sniping tactics have become marginalised. It's just far too easy to fleet warp a blob onto an enemy gang and use sheer weight of numbers.

Options to innovate, use skill, environment factors and tactics have been supplemented by just driving to get more people in fleet and outnumber the opponent. If this change reverses that trend, which I believe it does in part (again, somewhat inelegantly) then there will be a huge positive impact with more fleet types being flown, more strategies employed and ultimately more PVP which is good for everyone.

On the negative side;

* It feels like there are issues for WH occupants which need looking into (no opinion here, I skimmed those parts)

* Not sure why fleet-warp-to-bm's is a bad idea. if BM's can be made instantly then yes it's a loophole/workaround to removing fleet-warp-to-probe-results. There are a lot of potential mitigants which could support keeping bm's fleet warpable including delays to bm creation, visual cues/indicators that a bm is being made in space, options to reveal bm's in space etc. Perhaps this can be explored to consider the utility value of bm's which wouldn't impact on the primary drivers for this change

* Not sure why missions or anoms are a big deal here which needs addressing?

Overall, I'm happy with the negatives given the big potential upswing here.

At least we can be satisfied the Ishtar is getting nerfed for a 3rd time \o/

Ps. Not sure if excluding squad warps from this change is meaningful. You only need 2-3 competent people to achieve the same end result in bombing and 2-25 competent people to achieve the same result in blob warping. This would just be a nuisance implementation which achieves nothing in my view.

So fit for warp speed then.

To paraphrase the US Marines, "Semper Gumby" (Always Flexible)
3,800 raw EHP
3,581 m/s
8.1 AU/s

[Prospect, Baltec's Cloaky Probe "Interceptor"]
Damage Control II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

5MN Microwarpdrive II
Faint Epsilon Warp Scrambler I
Faint Warp Disruptor I

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Expanded Probe Launcher II, Core Scanner Probe I
[empty high slot]

Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Small Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I

So the bombing mechanic is a problem and the change is to fleet warping? WTF! Why not reduce the resistance of bombs so any 2nd bomb destroys the first, removing the ability to annihilate fleets with bombs, because that would be a bombing change to fix a bombing problem...

As for combat probes, it appears that the problem is they scan ships down too fast. So, make the probe results for a ship have an inherent error, so you can't guarantee landing on the target and need to use a ship at the location to confirm the accuracy or is a combat scanning fix to combat scanning too hard. Hell, make it so you only get a 100% 'accurate' result if you are on grid if combat probing ships is that big an issue.

Both of these are just random ideas I came up with 10 seconds ago, neither of which change the entire fleet warping game mechanics.

Dear CCP, understand and fix the cause, not the symptom.

Not sure the change will kill anything out right, however I think it's going to burn FCs out. It will hurt large fleets too. I see the reasoning, but these big changes along with sov changes. I hope this all turns out how you want it to CCP. Plz don't kill the game. Players adapt but forcing too much adaptation could see more and more leave. I am worried.

Warping the fleet to a player still means the fleet warps as fast as the slowest ship.

My Nemesis cries.
And I feel quite lonely in WH now :(

Anyone can adapt to changes. I bet you can adapt to your hand being chopped off. Which does not put chopping off your hand on your to-do list. Probably. I'm not quite sure.

This change does not solve any problems. It does not hit bombing as a concept. It does not hit combat probing as a concept. It only hits the poor guy who will be strapped to a probing tengu and be sitting on a perch and watching anime while his fleetmates are fighting. It is not fun. I've been there (dedicated links+probing), and it was fun the first 2 weeks and then it was "oh I've probed down some offgrid links. Again. Now back to the book".

So use a warp speed rigged cov-ops or interceptor.

You need better scouts. If I tell my scout to make rolling safes, and he says, "Ugh, fine if I have to", I will leave his ass to die at the next gate camp (and I might help them kill him).

The FC runs the fleet, the members carry out tasks issued by the FC. If the members are incapable or unwilling to carry out those tasks, replace them. It's just that simple.

The days of the FC basically doing everything but clicking "Jump" and pushing "F1" need to die with a furious vengenace in the firey pits of hades.

Go watch the Eve is real trailer again and ask yourself where the hero interceptors are these days?