Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I want to say something positive, because I certainly have not always been pleasant on this topic. These changes seem very reasonable, and I'm happy to see CCP addressing this.

I would have done things slightly differently, however.

I would have nerfed the DDA's some more, but also balanced it with enhanced drone damage bonuses to select hulls that need it. People here have made a good case for the Armageddon and a few other hulls that really didn't deserve such a harsh nerf.

Really though, I must reiterate my stance that sentry drones need to be removed from the game entirely, or rebalanced as a whole. The reason being that sentry drones enjoy almost every single advantage from every other weapon system in the game. The whole thing with advantages and disadvantages to every platform? Doesn't apply to sentries. The only downside they really have is that you can destroy them - a trait common to all drones. However, it is a meaningless assertion since if you could apply meaningful damage at that range there wouldn't be an imbalance issue in the first place. Pilots would already be knocking sentries out of the sky left and right if they could apply meaningful damage at that range. Do people destroy sentries? Yes, but feels like it is an exception rather than the rule. The only downside to a weapon platform shouldn't be a niche scenario.

I think that after this balance pass, you've already done a great thing to balance drone platforms. I would add two things. 1: Make sentries paper thin. One or two shots from a medium railgun should destroy them. Give them 500 structure HP, so no resistances, and leave it at just that. Then the whole "destroyable weapon platform" thing becomes a real problem instead of a theoretical one (regular drones are already quite destroyable since they have to move to within attacking distance of their targets). Second, make sentry drones use capacitor from the trigger ship to fire. My initial idea would be 12 cap per sentry per shot. Since they refire every four seconds, that averages out to 3 unit per second per sentry, or 15 units of cap to keep a set of sentries firing.

That makes firing sentries take more cap than medium rails, slightly less than medium beams (called heavy beams for some reason, but that's not my style, I'mma call them medium beams 'cause I'm a rebel) fitted on a Zealot, but the tradeoff is that you still get a vastly superior weapon system. Sentries still hit out farther than either weapon system and do more damage than either weapon system, are still EWAR immune, and you still have room for plenty of replacements if they get destroyed.


OR


Double sentry drone size and bandwidth to 50, and give select hulls like the Armageddon and Rattlesnake a role bonus that cuts it in half. BOOM! Much easier way to balance sentries.

(Also this may sound odd considering what I just said, but I really don't think that there should be as large a disparity in sentry optimal ranges. Maybe flatten it out a bit so all drones start between 40-60k?)

DDA change is ok imo, tempest one is kind of pointless its not damage that holds the pest back.

Ss for the ishtar as i say in every time in one of these threads I would give it the following roles:

7.5% bonus to Heavy Drone max velocity and tracking speed
10% bonus to Light Drone, Medium Drone, and Heavy Drone hitpoints and damage

20% to range of Heavy Drones and Heavy Armor Maintence bots
50% to Repair amount and HP of Armor Maintence bots

Im sure the smart people will work out all teh fun things you could do with this while not being OP.

http://community.eveonline.com/news/patch-notes/patch-notes-for-odyssey-1.1





Rebalance - rebalance happened. Best balanace in decades™.

Only the point that one, that's one, or uno, 1, one, just one, simply one, truly -=1=-, HAC was able to push over 650 DPS out to Battleship ranges for a year straight isn't mentioned.





That is a rather obvious and widely acknowledged point. Homework for you: How many drones the Zealot, Muninn, Eagle & the other HACs can field, and how much of the total damage potential of any non-drone cruiser & battlecruiser platforms is taken up by drones.

Battleships - it is a given with their high bandwidth and drone bays.

P.S. What's a Muninn.



Nice try.

Here's the original for the up-to date metrics - http://cdn1.eveonline.com/www/newssystem/media/66946/1/STEVE_7.png

Just rered changes in Odyssey, still do not understand ******** shield boost bonus for Vagabond. lol

VARIETY!

Kill variety in one aspect, introduce it in another, albeit dis-proportionally.

Them admitting that double drone bonuses were a blunder would be the best thing ever on this whole Ishtar debacle. ☜༼ຈل͜ຈ☜༽

You guys make more friends everyday.
Icons, Fleet Warps, Trasher and now this?

When do you stop calling EVE a Sandbox and call it your own personal playground for how to **** of the community and drive your paying customer away. Look at the logged in numbers you might notice something there.

Regardless of the Ishtar or an specific ship. I think reducing the DDA is NOT the correct way to fix the problem.

I don't hear about how all those Arbitrator fleets were really terror. I mean come on... Prophecies were never considered "OP" and pretty much any Amarr droneboat isn't considered to have too much DPS. Attacking drones and DDA doesn't fix the issue. The problem is not with drones or its mods. The problem is with specific platforms. You need to address each ship individually instead of trying to do it with a wide brush stroke.

This is the 3rd hit to drone users in a row from CCP nerf hammer, enough is enough. Get it right CCP.

But my link is the only chart which actually breaks weapon type vs hull down remotely precisely.

The assumptions in your chart are not safe. It assumes that each stack colour means the same thing per ship class. Which makes sense for readability but not a lot of sense when one looks deeper. Take carriers vs battleships vs dictors, for example. What the hell is that yellow they all share?

Limiting drones to a certain ship is not a fix and will create more problems than necessary. The ishtar might still be viable and a shield boat. Idk If you fly them smart enough maybe. While this does hurt it it's not enough. @ccp rise my question to you is that sentries are a BS size weapon. So why does the Ishtar have a drone bay that rivals all but 2 battleships? Only the dominix and Armageddon can match. The ability for the Ishtar to have 3 full sets of sentries is the root of the problem in my opinion. Not the fact is has damage and tracking bonuses. Cutting the drone bay in half or some other smaller percent will increase the risk when using ishtars in large fleet engagements, but will keep them as ratting and small gang pvp viable.

I like how a bunch of classes are left out on that.

There are drone boats in the T3 Cruiser, T1 BC, Command Ship, and Pirate BS classes. Some of them can even field...sentries. Evidently it's not beyond the wit of man to make a drone hull that's not completely OP. Maybe because you don't see Myrms and Rattlesnakes kiting around like butterflies, or drone Prots tracking ceptors...

Also not like there's much competition in the classes that are mentioned. Navy cruisers, T1 BS...