The following changes reduced the role carriers have in Eve:
Introduction of FAXs and inability to use Triage Modules.
SHB of 1,000,000 to Faxs & Dreads.
Inability to use non Fighter/Support drones.
Carriers need a role again in Eve so I suggest the following possibilities:
Increase carrier jump range to the same as JF/Rorqual.
Allow carriers to conduit jump but maybe put a limit on the ship types and/or the max number of ships.
Allow carriers to bridge to a maximum of 50% of their jump range.
Increase the Ship Maintenance Bay from 1,000,000 2,000,000 - they are carriers aren’t they?
Increase Fleet Hangar from 10,000 to 100,000 - they are carriers aren’t they?
Add 50% Light Fighter dmg to the Networked Sensor Array
Carrier Balance
As Archons and Chimeras are used less than Thanatos’ and Nidhoggurs because they don’t have the drone damage bonus so I suggest giving the following additional bonuses:
Amarr (Archon) - 3% bonus to Fighter damage
Caldari (Chimera) - 5% bonus to Fighter damage
Gallente (Thanatos) - 3% bonus to all armor resistances
Minmatar (Nidhoggur) - 3% bonus to all shield resistances
This provides the Archon and Chimera with a drone bonus (not as high as the Thanatos/Nidhoggur) and provides the Thanatos/Nidhoggur with armor/shield resistance bonus respectively (but not as high as the Archon/Chimera).
The Archon and Chimera retain their roles as the tankiest of their defence type and the Thanatos and Nidhoggur as the better drone ships due to their overall drone bonuses, but they are all capable of being having decent EHP and DPS.
The difference between the Archon and Chimera Fighter bonus is down to the number of low slots as the Archon has 7 and therefore has more flexibility with Drone Damage Amplifiers.
I think other capitals need to be nerfed, not carriers buffed. Lessen the damage on those capital guns, but give the Titans a little more DPS bonus to compensate.
I think relegating Carriers to transportation and anti-subcap support is a cool idea. I really don’t think the carriers need those new bonuses, especially considering it doesn’t add up with the lore.
50% bonus to lights in the NSA is too far I think.
Bridging would get abused very fast. I think that should only be done, if at all, to a measly 10% of their jump range.
Conduit jumping can be done by Rorquals (Indy ships only), BLOPS (Covert Cloaking capable ships & BLOPS themselves) & Titans. A conduit jump is like a normal jump but it takes ships along with the jumping ship. There can be restrictions on the number of ships and the type of ships. I’m not sure if there can also be a restriction on range applied.
Why do you think Supers and Dreads need to be nerfed?
The NSA is far too situational and is so niche that it’s hardly used. Giving it more features would broaden its use.
Might be a good idea to make them a bit more resilient to supers. About a month back, I watched a streamer go from 100% health to 0 in a couple seconds from 3 Nyx flights of fighter bombers. Obviously the supercarriers should have won that fight, but an insta-kill seems a bit much from an attack that wasn’t a doomsday.
Capital Prevalence and the otherwise Obsolescence of Subcapitals has been a problem for some time now, and carriers don’t really have this problem. If you have any size subcap fleet, it’s super easy to just drop a couple HAW dreads with FAX support, or heck, just drop the FAXes on your blingy battleships. It won’t matter. Capital escalations are the only real way to do big fleet fights nowadays, especially over an objective.
Major headline battles should be decided by much more than simply who has the most Titans/Supers on grid, but if one side has 10 and the other has 6 in the current meta, you know pretty well which side is going to win (assuming about equal dreads and FAXes). Subcapitals can’t do much.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say regarding carriers. It’s obvious that Carriers don’t have a role in large super cap battles as they provide neither the DPS (Dreads) or utility (FAXs) of the other non-super caps. They can be effectively hit by non-HAW dreads so are far too fragile.
