So I posted this in a different thread, but the more I think about it, the more I like it.
Combat cepters don’t really have anything right now. A few people will fly them, but it’s a terribly small niche. I feel like more would get flown, if they were given weapon bonuses that mirrored SS fighters.
A roaming gang can thus bring a tackle cepter to catch things, and a combat cepter or two to help rapidly defang carriers. They’re fast enough that they’re compatible with pretty much any gang, and in being able to rapidly defang a carrier at low risk to themselves, are useful to any gang that happens across a carrier.
Give them a special warp scrambler, something with like 20km range that only works on fighters. Make their weapons shred fighters, but be mediocre against frigates and worthless against anything larger (exactly like an SS fighter is now). Their sig is already so small that a carrier won’t apply worth ■■■■ to it.
Perhaps instead of buffing interceptors, there could be a new class of destroyer. Specialized “picket ships” that had the equivalent of flak guns and missiles. Amarr and Caldari would have missile bonuses that dealt extra damage to fighters. Perhaps a missile module that fired crazy fast, high range, but very low damage. Gallente and Minmatar would have flak guns. Flak guns would have good tracking, good range, and high area of a effect damage but would do poorly against singular targets.
This new destroyer line would presumably be good against carriers as they would obliterate fighters and have a low enough sig that they could dodge most ships bigger than cruisers.
Just throwing his idea out there. Besides, destroyers need a little love.
I’m not sure that destroyers need love. T1 destroyers are retardedly effective for roams… you can bring a fleet of thrashers out, for example, and if you find even just something boring like a rattlesnake, your fleet is isk positive 50x over. T2 destroyers see a lot of use, as to T3Ds.
In a different thread the subject was discussed (the one I briefly mention in the OP) and although I still like the idea, there are definite concerns that need to be addressed.
What I get from it, is that “combat cepters” would be able to tackle subcaps much like tackle cepters, thus filling their interceptor role, but be exceptionally effective against fighters, thus giving them a “combat” function.
There are concerns about the niche being “too small”, and there are concerns about their relevance when pitted against another carrier with SSF. I do believe that they’d fit, but whether their slice of the niche is sufficient to give combat cepters a reason to exist is certainly and compellingly debatable. There were very good points made against the idea in the other thread.