Old time player here, I pop back in from time to time just to see how things are and it’s good to see the interesting way this game has developed.
However one of the things that disappoints me is that after all this time is that while other shiptypes have seen a lot of iteration, development and expansion Dreadnoughts have more or less had nothing much new.
As a lvl5 Cert holder in Dreadnoughts this is very hard to swallow. If we compare the Dread class to the Carrier class you can see that mastering Carriers allows you access to Carriers, Motherships(SuperCarriers), and Fleet Auxilliaries. Three related but distinct ship types with distinct styles.
Whereas Mastering dreads nets you exactly one ship and playstyle. This is particularly painful if you are a Gallente Dread pilot and your fearsome engine of destruction that you spent years to master essentially looks like a big giant turd.
I think this is a wasted opportunity for iteration and diversity in the game and I’d like to propose that CCP consider filling out the Dread ranks similar to how they’ve done with Carriers.
So while Carriers have: Carrier-Force Auxilliary-Mothership
I’d love to see them fill out Dreadnoughts with: Dreadnought-Ship of the Line-Flagship
This is pretty simple to envision how they could do it.
Ships of the Line would be more aggressive ships oriented towards fleet fighting more then structure bashing. The simplest idea would be to add one weapon mount and detract a correspondingly fair amount of toughness. This would setup a dynamic where you would have a tougher option in the existing Dreads, and a more aggressive option in the Ships of the Line. The Moros being something of a scaled up Dominix, and the Gallente Ship of the Line being a scaled up Megathron in comparison.
You could iterate on it further but I think that is a really sound starting point for a new hull. Maybe if you want to be adventurous you could offer alternative weapon types. The Caldari Ship of the Line offering a Hybrid option, and the Minmatar Ship of the Line using Capital Torps for example.
Now where it gets interesting would be Flagships. Since Motherships are hella expensive but offer some Titan Functionalities in a budget fashion, Flagships can do the same in a different way.
Now you may ask “How could we dip our toe into that design space and make a worthwhile Supercap out of a dreadnought?” I’m gonna just come out and say it, we give that sucker a Jump Bridge and the ability to mount a doomsday.
Which would justify a Supercap price tag and create both a fleet purpose and a fascinating direct damage role for Dreadnought players.
So what do you think. Add your two cents and share your comments and concerns. Frankly I think the time has come for more Dreadnought options and I don’t think it’s really terribly difficult to come up with some good ideas for what those Hulls would be like.
