Currently Blops are operating without any real counter or risk. They get a target, jump, kill it then cloak till they can jump out. They need a post jump timer of at least 15m and should be then be semi-probable even when cloaked during that 15min. But the hit drops you say somewhere within 50km of them when you land.
This way they have some small risk of being cuaght.
So whenever a blops drops, you just combat probe their location from a few angles to reduce that 50km to 5km and then send a heavy interdictor to cover the area until you’ve found them for free kills?
Sounds too easy to me, to be honest.
While I agree that blops need balancing, I’m thinking of another balance. Blops can be fought, especially when you are able to bait them. They are however a bit strong in combat, and one of them in particular: the Redeemer.
There is a big discrepancy between both the damage of Redeemers versus the other blops, and the usage versus the other blops.
Looking at the amount of kills Redeemers are involved in versus other blops it’s a massive difference, for example the last 90 days:
And many blops kills look like this:
I feel like if the dps of Redeemers is toned down a little it will nerf most blops groups.
I’d love to see a bit more variation besides deemers, deemers and more deemers.
no because blops move fast cloaked so even if you can get their rough area the chances of killing them all or even one will still be incredibly difficult especially if they scatter after the initial drop. But they would need to actually use their stealth movement to counter the new mechanics to enable their escape. My idea is to kinda create a kinda sub hunting mechanic. Obviously if they all sit in a single spot then they will all die easy yes.
Also the only reason redeemers are the go to blops is because there is currently no need to use the others. The mechanic does not encourage anything but bringing the fastest applied dps. nerfing redeemers wont do anything to the issue of them having no real counter play. It will just make the others more used. The idea is that yes more of them die in future because that would be balanced to the current normal.
Blops seem good but with room for improvement. A ship being good at its role is not a bad thing. The problem is they work in all of low and null sec.
how is that a problem? CCP will balance based on risk/reward traditionally. atm there is very little risk in BLOPB drops and large reward. My position is that they need to introduce risk in the form of counter play mechanics. Forcing BlopsB to stay in the area they dropped in and be vulnerable to being decloaked and killed if they are not well piloted.
A new sensor probe that can detect cloaked ships in a rough area combined with improvements to existing decloak mechanics would create a cat and mouse sub hunt style of gameplay. Where a claoked blopsB would need to be paying attention and have to actively pilot movements to avoid being found.
This would increase the risk of using them while giving victims a chance at revenge.
Your original post wanted to nerf blops which is boring.
And if ships do their job well, that’s a good thing. The counterplay is that they can’t be used everywhere in null or low. For example you could introduce proper cloaking and or cyno jammers. Either via sov hub or a deployable.
I dont see a reason not to explore anti cyno and anti cloaking modules/ships. A new line of EW..
Balance wise BlackOPs to normal Combat Battleships should be like Recons to HACs. More Utility/EWAR, a lot less raw firepower and tank.
They pay for their ability to jump and bridge with a part of their combat strength.
Also their jumprange is waaaaay too high and the jumps way too fast. All cyno warfare should be set back to the status when it was originally implemented.
