An update for Corvettes

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
1

ever since i started playing this game in Crucible, i felt a liking for the so called “Rookie Ships”. they were rebalanced , updated visually and even had a change in their class title. however, i think there’s still some work to do with them:

1. a new role: the term “Rookie Ship” alluded to these ships being a cheap throw away vessel that you could use to recover from a big loose. in a game where players can get a few millions and cheap frigates just from the tutorial, this isnt the case anymore. no one has to spend hours in a rookie trying to recover their PvP or PvE ship, just buy one from the market while the Corvette is left gathering dust in the hangar.

now that they have a proper title, i think the Corvette class should get a change of role. they would still be in the base of the ship tree, but they would be a multitask kind of ship. their role bonus is already close to it, just need to get a small bonus to logistics and exploration.

2. buff their stats: in order to fulfil this role of “Jack of All Trades, Master of none”, Corvettes need to be put closer in stats to Frigates. CPU, Powergrid, Capacitor and Defenses are the main focus. the rest of their stats are fine for a ship that isnt dedicated to a role, but the other 4 stats in their current version makes them hard to fit even with support skills and dont give them enough survivability.

3. riggin capabilities: Corvettes suffer from needing the same module size as Frigates despite having low stats, this means that even with such a low amount of slots, you have problems to fit the ship properly. Rigs are also a vital part of the game so adding them to Corvettes could serve for another part of the tutorial. maybe add Civilian type rigs for the players to mess around. in change, this would allow Corvettes to betterly adapt to the role people would want to use them.

TL:DR seeing the wasted potential of Corvettes, this thread proposes to buff their stats a bit, adding rigging capabilities and change their role from “single use, then throw away” to something akin to a T1 “Strategic” vessel while still being one tier under Frigates for balancing purposes.

1 Like
2

They are FREE ships. If you buff their stats, you’ll need to buff the Frigates too or they are going to be overshadowed. Or you need to take away their free ship status.

Corvettes are free and have no purpose other than being a free ship for noobies. They are already a good ship for is design.

3

Corvettes will:

  1. receive an extra to their current role bonus that gives small logistics and exploration bonuses
  2. have a small buff in defenses and fitting stats so their low amount of slots can be used properly
  3. be able to use rigs.

that’s all. they wont suddenly get Destroyer amounts of tank. Frigates will still be above them in terms of defenses and damage because they are vessels with a dedicated role to them.

Corvettes dont have a scaling bonus, just a flat low amount bonus that means you can do some stuff with them but nothing compared to what you should be able to do riding a dedicated Frigate.

i dont think how that could overshadow Frigates taking in account they have better speeds, signature radius, bonuses and tank.

4

OP makes a good point. It’s supposed to be the fallback ship. Except there’s no reason to ever fall back to one. There is no use for them outside of the very first tutorial mission. I’d rather fly my pod than a rookie ship. I don’t know if OP’s suggestions are good or not (not without charts and graphs), but it would be interesting if there were scenarios in EVE where the rookie ship is actually the correct choice of ship to fly.

What if there were different sized rookie ships? Like how the gnosis sort of already is.

5

i made a little comparing in Osmium between a Slasher and a Reaper, no modules, but full V skills:

A. in terms of tank: (Shield/Armor/Hull)

Reaper -> 219/188/188
Slasher -> 438/375/375

B. in terms of slots: (H/M/L)

Reaper -> 2/2/2
Slasher -> 4/4/2

C. Rigging:

Reaper -> none
Slasher-> 3 rigslots and 400 calibration

D. CPU and Energy:

Reaper -> 163 CPU, 30 Powergrid, 156 GJ cap
Slasher -> 175 CPU, 45 Powergrid, 300 GJ cap

im gonna leave Speed, Sensor and those other stats as it is because i think they are balanced. now lets look at the data.

damage wise, the Reaper has a 10% projectile damage bonus whereas the Slasher has a 5% one, however, the Slasher can field the one more turret. its more or less even in this case, the Reaper can also use missiles. but then you have to remember the Rigs, and the Slasher can add extra damage from that.

defense wise, the Reaper has a 15% shield boost bonus whereas the Slasher doesnt have any. but guess what, the Slasher has 4 mids, which , even in a Scram + Web setup gives still space to add a Shield Boost module with Rigs avaliable to compensate the lack of resistances. the Reaper only has 2 mids and no rigs. on top of this the Slasher has double the health.

with that setup you are obligued to go armor instead, and a brawling fit is actually doable (it leaves 1.8 Powergrid at full V tho, so im not sure if its possible in Alpha Clone). but 188 armor isnt actually much.

in terms of Electronic and Engineering, the Reaper has more than enough CPU to use modules of the same size, the brawling fit is stable enough with proper knowledge of MWDs and AARs. but everything becomes much harder when trying to make a kiting setup, using a MWD means you get sig penalty, and the Reaper has bigger signature than any of the Minmatar Frigates (48, jumps to 288 with MWD). the most logical thing would be to use an oversized AB, but that means filling the lows with 2 Powercores to be able to fit the rest of the modules.

with such low stats, and complicated fitting the Reaper isnt too convincing even with the free bonuses. what i would suggest in this case is to up the defenses an extra 50 or even 100 points. maybe change powergrid to 35 to ease fitting options.

i would even argue that upping the amount of slots would be good too, 3/3/3 would allow to use the Shield boost bonus or do proper fittings with the ship, the third high could be used for utility and thus evade stepping in Frigate territory in terms of damage… (there’s still place for a split damage doctrine with a missile launcher but that one is unbonused so, i dont think it would make it OP either way)…

6

You still not get it, right? The ship is Free, if you buff even a little, it will overshadow the T1 frigs, as you pointed, they are pretty close together. And is not meant to have proper fitting like Kitting or Brawling.

The stats are not what will it make it OP, is the fact to be FREE what is going to give him the OP status.

7

even if the ship is free you still have to pay for the modules. and if you can pay for T2/Faction in a starter ship then you can easily pay for a frigate that will be able to do the job with better stats, easier fitting and probably more chances to survive.

the stat adjustments are just so the ship can be actually competitive PvE and PvP wise. right now the fitting, slot layout and lack of rigging potential make it just hangar decoration.

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Well, was not designed to be competitive in PvE and PvP… And as you said, if you have the ISK for the modules, you have the isk for better ships.

Again, if it is competitive in PvE and PvP, for the fact that is free, is going to be OP

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Their role is “you’re boned, no isk, no ships, no assets”.

So you hop into one, fly your backside out to a belt and chew on rocks for a little while. Or shoot at belt rats. Once you have the isk, you upgrade.

Either way, it already serves its purpose. Why does it need to be stronger, to fulfill this purpose?

10

Honestly I think the corvette should remain a throwaway ship. You’re right, it takes no effort to afford a frigate and the specialized roles for T1 frigates make them much, much more effective ships. I guess I don’t mind changes to corvettes, but I think the viewpoint that they need to be useful is completely wrong.

11

As much as I am for progression, this one does reach a bit far.

The only feasible change I could see to corvettes is to actually mutlitool them.

Example, Corvette has say, 3 modes that can only be changed while docked.

Combat Mode, Mining Mode and Courier Mode.

Combat mode gives say, a 5% bonus to weapon damage, nothing else.

Mining mode “re-configures” the cargo hold into a 300m3 (random number) ore hold.

Courier mode disables weapons and reduces cargo hold to 5m3 for improved Ini-stabs (turns it into a shuttle but not as fast or good)

Idk, for being a free ship, it should suck, but maybe it could less of a “this thing sucks” and maybe a bit more of a “at least you can try to get back on your feet now”.

12

Never balance on cost
-CCP

So what if the corvettes are free? You can get a full stable of T1 frigs for basically free anyway with the tutorials. If you’re really that broke, go talk to a career agent, they’ll get you started over way more quickly than just a corvette will. It already fails in that role, which means it has no role whatsoever that it succeeds in.

If I had to choose a role for a corvette, I’d maybe make it an armored shuttle. A little slower align/warp than a normal shuttle, but a little faster than a heavy frig. Low DPS but decent buffer. It should be something people go “hmm, that actually might be the best ship to use in the situation I am in” but maybe not be the always-use ship.

edit: @Naoki_Skulltulla that’s actually a pretty good idea. It already doesn’t have rig slots, so a single rig slot with corvette exclusive rigs sound like a pretty good idea.

1 Like
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I wish they weren’t so ugly.

I’d rather them go back to being rookie ships and use the term Corvette for a fast BC sized interceptor or something. Like a large high speed luxury yacht with an actual cargo hold or offensive/defensive stats.

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Which is a bad and wholly incorrect application of the term. Regarding warships, a corvette IS below a frigate in terms of size and capacity. In other words, there is no need to touch them. They already sit below frigates as they’re supposed to. They arent meant to sit alongside them.

Beyond the “early days” of players, rookie ships are used in one of two scenarios: cynoships and the “why not do it” facemelting fleets of polarized velators and such. Those velators are terrifying by the way.

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Are they no longer usable as cynos?

16

Remember the good old days with all the items having a base price tag on them? It was awesome for everyone.

17

Then dreadnought should be we weaker and smaller than a battleship.
But it’s not because dreadnought sounds cool so it was used for a higher class.

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Doesn’t even take 100,000isk to put a frig together. Come on now.

19

I’m not against balancing corvettes, maybe making them warp faster. But the idea is that you buy a real ship from a player and feed the market.

Want a jack of all trades? Buy a t1 exploration ship.

In the arsehole of no where and want a blanket for your pod so you aren’t as easy to gank? Get a free corvette from any station.

Thats their role. Instant free ship no matter where you are.

20

while i would like that there exist some corvets for racing purpose only i accept that this is a wish coming from an mindset that is not compatible with eve.