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yes, it steps on inties' toes a bit, altho they will still be faster. it is, however, kinda hard to add something "new" to the game, considering the multitude of roles we already have filled in. The major issue of AF's was and will always be that they don't have a defined role.
no, they aren't "designed to tackle bigger ships at ultra-short ranges", they were designed around the concept of being frigates that could dish damage and soak it too. a "frigate-sized frigate predator" of sorts, or frigate-sized heavy bruiser if you wish to call it like so. Issue was that when they were released, cruisers sorta did this role quite well already, for a fraction of the cost. and to complicate stuff even more, they were released with 1 less bonus than any other tier2 hulls that existed before.

then HACs came out and some of them were much better at the roles AFs were supposed to fill in, and to add insult to injury, CCP introduced the disposable frigate swatters known as "destroyers", which, altho they were only made non-sucky in Crucible, they were much more cost effective than AF's, and the thrasher in specific, could go toe-to-toe with even AF's and win in the end.


so yeah, before even starting to add bonuses and role bonuses and all that, what AF's need is an actual role, something that is very hard considering that the only thing the frigate lineup lacks in terms of roles atm is a gas harvesting frigate, and the AF role of being the "bruiser" is already occupied with the newly boosted destroyers or any other T1 cruiser..

Nice job on being a uselss ****. CCP are changing AF's, we just want them to change it for the better. ABs on AFs are how is should be, giving them a bonus to AB speed without making it into a ceptor would be the right way to do it. Also compairing 3 years ago to now its completely fucktarded.

Why do they get a role bonus at all? All we were asking for was the 4th bonus and something doen about the Retri's mids.

I don't like the AB idea since that steps on the toes of AB interceptors. But I blame the MWD nerf too for problems like that.

No role bonus to AFs at all sounds fine to me.

Oh? What has changed since then? Projectiles were and faction frigs were buffed changed and that is it .. you would have been right if the speed rebalance (QR, the only thing which could have influenced it) had happened in between, but since it came before you are quite wrong.

AB boost broke not only the AF class but every damn class sans capitals .. won't even bother testing it if such a thing was tried in addition to extra slots. Old AB idea was broken, since nothing relevant has changed it is pretty damn safe to say that it is still broken.

Still don't see how any sort of combat related bonus can be added to AFs without breaking them in relation to cruiser down, widening performance gap within the class or making them cruiser-light that still have no place except for ***** and giggles.

- Give half of them Shield/Armour RR efficiency (20%/lvl and Small RR = Medium RR performance) and range bonuses (150%/lvl yields 40km with small RR, more than enough for frigate, light cruiser skirmishing).
- Give other half either a combat bonus or gang-link fitting bonus.
Purpose and synergy without breaking anything ..

As a pilot who mostly flies EAFS, meh. The base signature radius on them is so huge this wouldn't even make a difference unless fighting BS sized weapons. They're the same size as destroyers, base (https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=31271&find=unread) and, none of them work that well (solo) with a MWD fit.

A base signature radius bonus based on EAF skill would be more useful, by far.

The fact that these threads keep popping up simply means that the player base in uneducated.
In 2009 CCP did a 15%/level speed bonus to afterburners (75%). This was far too fast and resulted in broken tracking and damage applications to the ships. The idea was shot down with aplomb.

AFs on TQ currently suffer from severe field immobility when fit with ABs, and the extreme side-effects of MWD bloom when fit accordingly.

AFs (which are meant to counter T1 cruisers) currently do roughly 1km/s with an afterburner, and that is too slow.
The speed is too slow to effectively catch their prey, but if they do catch their prey (via warp-in) they are essentially immune to Cruiser+ sized weapons and enjoy the free kill. Increasing their ability to catch prey with afterburners only exasperates the tracking problem even more, but also reduces the effectiveness of missiles. The same is true for those who want a bone-headed idea such as web-immunity.

True, the MWD bonus doesn't benefit everyone of you in your padded empire cell.
However, the MWD bonus still has the most potential to solve the mobility issue, and the slots/bonuses make them combat nemesis to T1 Cruisers. Nobody is forcing you to use the MWD bonus (similar to interceptor pilots).

This has been discussed to death when it was first brought into light in 2009, and the dead horse has been sufficiently beaten in the Official thread @ the top of the forum.

AB speed is bad.
EWAR immunity/resistance is bad.
RR bonuses are bad.

They aren't tackle ships, as 3 classes for said ships already exist, one of which is *heavy* tackle.
Interceptors, Interdictors, & Heavy Interdictors.

The middle ground would be somewhere around 1400m/s (ship depending), which is a 50% speed bonus:
- barely faster than a cruiser (1600 thorax is 1200m/s, 1800 overloaded)
- still insanely overpowered if said ships actually get the tackle or combat missile boats

AFs are like Miniature HACs.
HACs are geared to go toe to toe with the T1 ships over them, Battlecruisers.
By relation AFs are geared to go toe to toe with T1 cruisers.

heavy combat ship standings:
T1 Frigate < AFs ~= T1 Cruisers
T1 Cruisers < HACs ~= T1 Battlecruisers
T1 Battlecruisers < Command Ships ~= T1 Battleships

That's how the game would live up when the AFs go through.

:facepalm:
I swear this is like talking to bricks.

If the AFs job was to combat frigates, they wouldn't need a boost.
If you feel they're going to replace Interceptors, please enlighten the class on how that will occur

That wouldn't really solve the problem of them getting instantly blapped as soon as they try to move around said battlefield.