Player Features and Ideas Discussion

There is when you're logistically strangled and you can bring one ship that can be refitted for fifteen different roles.

and how many times you or person you know refitted T3 on field? If you want ECM boat you will rig it for ECM purpose that will benefit the small gang the most. I don't think people saying that T3C has swiss army knife capabilites acutally flying T3C, it's good in theory but unhandy on field. If you fit T3C for combat (rig it) it won't be as good as natural Ewar cruiser when you switch to Ewar. T3C cruisers have the mobility with proper subsystem but whole switching on the field seems very niche gameplay. I never see small gangs full of T3C with different roles. They usually working like brick tank fastlocking tacklers. The element of suprise is in what role T3C is fitted not the "jump jump jump oh **** hot gate, wait guys I'll go refit my tengu while you die in balls of fire..." swiss army knife. I have very small pvp experience but I know what small gangs are flying because they are hunting me.

So something like T3D?

More like removing the rig slots.

It would be easier to balance them without rigs getting in the way, but I really don't think any rig setups on strategic cruisers will be scary once subsystems are even in the ballpark of the rest of EVE.

It fixes two issues. The first being you cant make them that adaptable while you have rigs locking them into a role, the second is the rigs are a big part of what makes them overpowered.

One of the other areas that will probably see a big change should be the number of bonuses these ships get. Technically you are getting 12 bonuses on these ships which is a downright nightmare to balance so I'm also expecting subsystems to be radically different. I also expect SP loss to go in the bin too.

Nullification in itself is not a 'bad thing', the fact that there is discussion about it so far as combat is concerned is evidence that there are issues around how it is balanced out.

Nullification should come with some drawbacks considering the huge advantage that is gained.

At this year's Fanfest I noted the main reason for nullification by the Devs was mobility. I do not disagree with their view on ensuring mobility for capsuleers especially those in deeper parts of space. What I am concerned with is giving this mobility to powerful PVP ships. Providing combat ships with abilities which prevent combat is counterproductive.

Nullification for a scout ships is important as no-one is going to engage in a fight when the enemy fleet size is unknown and ceptors fulfil an important function in this regard. However making their align time below what is theoretically possible to catch is a problem. There should be no absolute safety in Eve, a ship should not be impossible to catch, if reasonable effort is made.
A solution would be to limit the ships align time to above 2 seconds, and for pilots to rely more on fitting warp core stabilisers to prevent being caught. The freedom of not being caught should come at a price, and the penalties that come with warp core stabs should prove enough. Additionally if enough fast tackle is present (enough warp core destabilisation strength) the ship can be caught.

What is more of a concern is when nullification is granted to powerful PVP ships such as T3 Cruisers, particularly when nullification is combined with cloaking, which effectively makes a powerful PVP ship that is also impossible to catch. Allowing the pilot complete freedom to engage entirely on his own terms (i.e. low risk for high rewards). This is obviously not balanced, and when a powerful combat ship is undocked, the pilot should accept a certain amount of risk.
A solution would be to make it so that a such a ship can either fit nullification or a cloak but not both. These are 2 of the most powerful abilities a ship can possess in game, and combining them onto a PVP ship is quite an imbalance. They are after all abilities aimed at escaping combat, freedom to warp and then to cloak and prevent being scanned down.
Another solution would be to increase the align time of the ship when fitting both, so that there is a fair chance at decloaking the nullified+cloaked T3 Cruiser. T3 cruisers are very powerful combat ships without nullification and covert cloak, wait and covert cyno, do they really need the extra help? (Are T3's struggling that much? They don't cost that much more than T2 Cruisers when you include their subsystems).

I do believe in the necessity for travel for capsuleers, but if mobility is an issue this should be addressed separate of combat. The issue is capsuleer mobility, not combat mobility, that's what jump bridges are for. A nullified shuttle or nullified+cloaked T3 Transport ship can fulfil this role, since a transport ship of this type would not be involved in combat as an aggressor. I do find it odd that a combat cruiser is capable of being nullified and cloaked, and yet simple means of transport lack the same.
Mobility in Eve can be improved separate of PVP combat ships, and if used together on a single PVP ship should have a counter, it is after all a combat ship, nullification and cloak are aimed at avoiding combat.

As the devs said, nullification should be kept simple to understand and use, no one likes to have rules with exceptions, and exceptions to those exceptions.
So imho it should work like it works today, but with bigger drawbacks. Especially on the align/ warpout time part. It's impossible to target while the target is cloaking and if it warp outs in 3 seconds it's also very hard to get a decloak, lock and scram in that time.
1-2 second penalty on align time would be enough to allow a capable interceptor pilot to do something.

With the changes which now generate killmails for bubbles, and hopefully a requirement to refuel/reactivate bubbles or have them decay as suggested previously in this thread, the bubble issue will hopefully no longer pose an issue for much longer. We're heading in the right direction with the bubbles.

Bubbles aside, I am astounded at the comment "cloak + nullifier T3s can be tackled normally and killed". Obviously myself and most other players in Eve seems to be doing it wrong! If you could please upload a video showing how you go about uncloaking and tackling a T3 Cruiser in less than 4 seconds off a gate "normally", please do so. I for one would love to see it, if you don't upload we'll just accept you comment as utter nonsense.

(Also I wouldn't consider a video with 20 Dramiels spread around a gate trying to uncloak the T3C as "normally", since that would be far from normal.)
I'm confident in you, I'm sure you'll be able to manage since its such a normal thing to do :D

No they can't, thats why everyone used to send bonus T3C through gates before a fleet fight. They were guaranteed to get through no matter how many people are on the gate. If you want to go hunting you should have the exact same level of risk as every other cov ops cruiser.