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In that scenario if the Omen would decide to stick around he would probably lose - although unless he gets scrammed he would have enough velocity advantage to have a possibility of sticking around long enough to see if he can chew through one of these. In EVE numbers can often be used to trump smaller numbers in higher quality fits. Yes, "fair" 1vs1 rarely happens, but for the free-to-play player to perceive situation as "fair enough" to stick around while he/she decides if he is willing to spend money on the game there must be light in the end of the tunnel. There must be some kind of theoretical possibility, at minimum, to be "as good" as the paying customer in the thing which the F2P player is interested in. Cruisers are not particularly good example in that regard ofc as cruiser specific areas in EVE are practically non-existent. Unlike frigates which have all these nice little locked sandboxes where cruisers and above can not go.

I would like to remind one of the phrases which was uttered a while ago when supercapitals got nerfed/changed. It went something like this: "if your best counter is to bring just more of the same thing this thing is unbalanced". If only way for the Alphas to "win" is to outnumber the opposition then I honestly do not understand why would any genuinely fresh player play Alpha any more than 1-2 months at max. Alpha alts of Omegas are going to be there anyway as any sub that runs out will drop into Alpha state by default.

Perhaps one way to square this circle would be a rethink of meta turrets and launchers. At the moment, as you have so articulately elucidated, T2 are strictly better in every stat except fitting (and cap use for many turrets). I think it would be may more interesting if meta weapons were comparable - or even superior - to T2 in their specialist stat (eg: range, tracking, RoF, etc), but with the T2 variant being no worse than second best at anything. This would obviously leave T2 as a preferrable general alternative, but would make the meta weapons viable for specific builds - and therefore Alpha-compatible fits also.

Secondarily, a rework of faction weapon costs is LONG overdue. They are ludicroucly overpriced because the LP store cost of these items seemingly takes no account of the fact that you need 3-8 weapons per fit, unlike most other items which you need only one of. A straight up change to the LP store BPCs giving 5 runs would go a long way to making faction weapons an actual viable choice, and this again would make things better for Alphas.

Perhaps one way to square this circle would be a rethink of meta turrets and launchers. At the moment, as you have so articulately elucidated, T2 are strictly better in every stat except fitting (and cap use for many turrets). I think it would be may more interesting if meta weapons were comparable - or even superior - to T2 in their specialist stat (eg: range, tracking, RoF, etc), but with the T2 variant being no worse than second best at anything. This would obviously leave T2 as a preferrable general alternative, but would make the meta weapons viable for specific builds - and therefore Alpha-compatible fits also.

Secondarily, a rework of faction weapon costs is LONG overdue. They are ludicroucly overpriced because the LP store cost of these items seemingly takes no account of the fact that you need 3-8 weapons per fit, unlike most other items which you need only one of. A straight up change to the LP store BPCs giving 5 runs would go a long way to making faction weapons an actual viable choice, and this again would make things better for Alphas.