Bring back old Moa

[Damar_Rocarion]

For those who do not remember, years ago Moa was a bit different ship than today. It had a slot layout of 6/4/4 along with bonuses to shield resistance (5%) and optimal range (10%) to hybrid turrets. It had option for 5 guns with last slot left open for launcher/utility*

Even it’s description still says this:

In contrast to its nemesis the Thorax, the Moa is most effective at long range where its railguns can rain death upon foes.

Many years ago, Moa got a damage bonus and reduced shield resistance. It’s slot layout was also changed to current 5/5/4. Essentially it became a thorax copy. Before the changes, Moa could still excel as blaster boat thanks to it’s generous range bonus that it received.

However, in current state Thorax has immediate DPS advantage by being able to pack 5 medium drones while Moa is forced to fit 3 damage mods if it wants to achieve parity and even then it does less dps (This is with both packing ion blasters with CN antimatter ammo).

Moa also suffers from having much weaker base speed, 190m/s compared to 240m/s with thorax.

For sake of ship variation and to make Moa in line with it’s T2 counterpart the Eagle, which still has old Moa bonuses (though reduced shield resistance). This would help make Moa bit distinct from Thorax while five blasters would still enable decent DPS but with more range application. More speed would also not hurt…

Based on Zkill, Thorax is much more popular in use than Moa so this would at least work as a test if Moa would increase in popularity.

Alternatively, you could make the old Moa available in selected Caldari LP stores. Just rename it with some other flightless bird like “Ostrich” and put into description:

"Ostrich is the old variant of Moa cruiser, relying more on long range weaponry than current fleet version used by Caldari navy. Having been produced in large quantities, Caldari megacorporations offer their old stock of ships to loyal capsuleers and wealthy individuals for a suitable price".

Naturally it would be awesome if “Ostrich” would have the old Moa hull graphic (though probably needs some graphic updates for guns, etc.)

*In early years of Eve, this was 4/2 with option for 2 launchers when ships like Merlin still had mixed weapon systems in use.

[Shad_Kkep]

Even though I’d very much love to see this implemented and I think it would be proper (other then adding separate ship, with no other empire having +1), Moa is a Caladari ship. You can not propose improvements for Caldari ships, or anything Caldari, only nerfs.

[Daichi_Yamato]

Nope.

Moa tends to fit higher calibre weapons than the thorax because the latter is very tight on fittings. As such it does indeed get more range and dps from it’s turrets. Add on the 3rd mag stab and the moa easily matches the thorax for dps, in fact it’s the thorax that needs it’s drones to match the Moa. (check out a moa with void).

On top of that the ehp of a moa is higher than a thorax on account of it being a combat cruiser and having a resist bonus.

The damage bonus is much more useful than an optimal bonus because the optimal bonus isn’t much use for blasters. And it can be mitigated by swapping ammo on rail guns.

Before the change the moa was ■■■■ and barely used. After the change it became a doctrine ship.

[Bronson_Hughes]

@Daichi_Yamato

The damage bonus is much more useful than an optimal bonus because the optimal bonus isn’t much use for blasters. And it can be mitigated by swapping ammo on rail guns.

Bonuses to optimal (or falloff for lasers) very heavily favor the long range variants (Rails, Arty, Beams) of turrets over the short range variants (Blasters, ACs, Pulses). The attribute in question just factors so little into the short range variant that any bonus is of questionable benefit.

A damage bonus Moa makes a good rail platform and a good blaster platform. A damage bonus means you can just load longer range ammo and still do good damage. However, while an optimal bonus Moa makes a different kind of good rail platform (one that can more easily hit out to longer ranges, but not necessarily for as much damage), it makes a lousy blaster platform because that optimal bonus is largely wasted.

While the old optimal range bonus Moa kinda felt more in line with Caldari railgun philosophy, when it comes to actual gameplay the damage bonus Moa is far more useful. Gameplay trumps lore every time, so the damage bonus Moa wins.