Well, you’re one up on me - I have no idea what to do. Other than it seems odd to allow Alphas to have access to a fully-skilled ship with no prerequisites.
Maybe just restrict Alphas as follows:
• No more access to Concord, Edencom, Pirate Faction or SoCT ships
Some of these may be redundant, but I only see Triglavian ships specifically excluded. CCP can still give out the free SoCT ships, they can still be sold - just that Alphas will no longer have access to them.
Why not simply leaving everything as it is? Asking for a friend. I don’t see the current “problem” with alphas that you try to “fix” here.
Does your friend use SoCT ships? (or any of the ships on the suggested “ban”) list?
Sure. But there is no “problem” when Alphas use them. With all their skills limitation they are somewhat okay. The “problem” with SoCT ships only appears once they get used by Omega Veterans.
So what’s your alternate suggestion? SoCT ships are only usable by Alphas and given out to Alphas for free instead? I’m not entirely sure there’s an issue, either. I originally suggested giving Alphas a buff and this is where the direction went instead…
Leave Alphas alone. If anything nerf them so they can use only T1/Meta equipment and ships but no T2 or Faction item or ship. They can participate and try every content with that, but not progress beyond a certain point. It gives them a clear motivation to upgrade to Omega because they would see huge benefits in every field of gameplay, from the smallest frig to the biggest battleship.
Independent from that:
Nerf SoCT ships by giving them 1 less fittingslot than the weakest racial ship of their class.
Means:
Sunesis gets 11 Slots. 3x high, 4x med, 4x low. (Coercer has 13, Dragoon has 12)
Gnosis gets 15 slots. 5x high, 5x med, 5x low. (Harbinger has 17, Prophecy as 16)
Praxis gets 17 slots. 5x high, 6x med, 6x low. (Armageddon has 18, Apocalypse has 19)
To compensate, increase their base HP, base cap and base resistances and give the Praxis the Role Boni for Plates and Extenders. This allows newbies to live longer in an engagement and be easier held-up by RR in a fight, so they can experience and learn better. If they have big tank but low offensive potential, they won’t get primaried often so they can at least try to keep up with whats happening on grid, try to follow commands or focus on the battle.
Right now it is the opposite, the SoCT ships have a significant weaker buffer tank but quite some EWAR meds and offensive potential - and thus are good primary targets to remove quickly from the field. Especially hurting noobs who will miss most of the fight then. Switch that thing completely around, so they have less impact on the fight, but more time to experience what is happening and learning from it.
As a result it will always be benefitial for a full skilled veteran to chose a racial ship over a SoCT ship because it will be clearly better in both Offensive and Ewar/Application or ActiveTanking Potential. The only field where SoCT ships will be equal would be pure passive buffer tanking when completely focused on that, at the cost of DPS/Ewar/Application.
I’m giving you a like because I appreciate that this is quite a different proposal. So Alphas can still use the (modified) SoCT ships - but not any T2/T3 hulls/weapons. Correct?
Sure thats their main purpose. To give new players a ship to participate in any content, no matter if it requires small, med or large ships/weapons without needing the ship-skill SP. But there is no need to have them an incredibly good performance with them. They should join the action, survive and learn. And go Omega if they like it to use the good toys.
Followup question: Do Omegas continue to get the SoCT ships for free so they can continue to print ISK from them every year?
Or (alternate idea) - they’re given out to Alphas based on the amount of skill points they’ve accrued? And then they can receive the ISK from them by seeding the market or retaining for their own use.
Player is Player. You can’t really offer Alphas some SoCT ships during an event, but don’t give them to Omegas. Tbh, the occasional Gnosis or Praxis an Omega Player gets every now and then is absolute peanuts. I don’t know who anyone should be able to “print ISK” with them.
So, it will probably always like “Event day xyz: Alphas get a Sunesis, Omegas get a Gnosis”. Or “Alphas get a Gnosis, Omegas get a Praxis”. Whats the problem with that? The 200 million once a year absolutely don’t matter.
Straw manning, a tactic used by people who want to avoid actually, and seriously, discussing a subject. Trying their hardest to change the subject.
I like @Syzygium’s suggesting of rebalancing the SoCT ships and excluding Alphas from any/all Faction/T2/T3 weapons and hulls. This includes Abyssal modules.
There are several different issues here.
The problem with SOCT ships, from a balancing pov, is that they have an abundance slots of all types, are too agile and they get drone bonuses. If you fix that then they stop being too good regardless of alpha or omega. Removing a mid and low slot, removing the drone bonus and making their agility on par with comparable normal ships would solve this.
Alpha having access to advanced ships which they shouldn’t. Removing alpha Access to SOCT and pirate faction means they can do stuff fine, but for players looking for a “long term” solution they’d need to be omega.
Including Concord and Edencom as well (in case those weren’t already restricted). I think the key aspect is also removing access to Faction/T2 modules and hulls.
Edencom and Triglav are already Omega only. Personally I don’t see real issues with the T2 modules they have access to now, perhaps losing access to T2 medium would make sense but I don’t think it’s a real issue.
Might be ok without access to Faction hulls and Faction modules, ie: no more Gilas, Alligators and Rattlesnakes.
I agree, thats why I would remove slots from them.
I don’t agree, because that enables newbros to keep up with a fleet and not slowing them down, even while not having their navigation- and module skills maxed. It also takes into account that newbros often have a longer reaction time to Dscan or OnGrid appearances. I don’t see the problem with their good agility if at the same time they aren’t extremly fast (which they aren’t, so no extreme-nano-kiting possible) or extremely powerful (which they wouldn’t be after nerfing their slotlayout and cutting some offensive boni).
totally okay for me, since it is only fair to treat all weapon systems equally here. A player who started with focusing on drone usage should get treated the same as one who started with lasers.
I’d agree to tone down the drone bonus a bit (from 50% damage to 40% damage), because I would also limit all the weapon boni to 20% instead of 25%, so it is always better to use a racial ship that usually gets +5% or even +7.5% per level.
“newbros” in normal ships would then also “fall behind”. If we’re even “allowing” SOCT ships to exist in abundance (which I’m personally not a fan of) they should be an option, not a better go-to. They should be workable for players with low SP but stop being worth it or viable for players with decent SP.
Getting a fancy weapon bonus for “free” (skill wise) AND get drone bonuses is just too much imo. Besides, drone ships are already low SP friendly compared to other types of ships, so they don’t need the help.
I’ve maxed one Alpha. Started another. I just don’t play enough to commit to a 30 day sub though. Life is too unpredictable. But I think there’s plenty of content for Alpha.
What you need to do is think.
When people want some game mechanic or metric altered…one has to always ask what’s in it for them. I mean, all the faux altruism and ‘think of the poor noobs’ so often masks the ulterior motive. The player wants a change because the existing system affects THEIR profit margin or THEIR playstyle…noobs be damned.
Think about it. Do these people really give a damn that a 100m ISK Gnosis may be marginally better than a 140m ISK Harbinger ? What’s the problem if people simply go for the 100m ISK Gnosis instead ? How does it make anyone’s playstyle worse ? How does it impact those ‘pooooor noobs’ that so much care is professed about ?
People, and have you ever noticed how it is mainly industrialists and not combatants, always rattle on as if they cared about noobs and the average player…while they rip off noobs and the average player with exorbitant ship and module prices.
And there you have the REAL reason these people ‘care’. The Epeens of this world can’t rip people off as much with a Gnosis as they can with a Harbinger. Noobs are just a convenient diversion.