OK am more than a bit annoyed at this but feel I should at least try and be constructive, but its hard not to see this as the results of a CSM election which resulted in total null (not just imperium) domination.
First Up is ECM
Something has needed done about the mechanics of this for a long time, however I am not convinced this is it - this is basically another in a whole stream of badly thought out nerfs to ECM. ECM ships were already becoming very niche that will only increase - they have no appreciable tank or DPS. A nerf such as this needed to come alongside a significant buff to tank - I am not sure this will work.
Lets Talk about Interdiction Nullification
The Combat/Fleet Interceptor thing may work although I worry about it effectively killing combat interceptors and they may need some sort of more focused look at their actual roles.
Then we get to statements such as : wormholers will be unwilling collateral damage - way to go to F*** of thousands of your players. This is the very sort of change and misunderstanding of what happens I tried to say to Brisc Rubal in this post CSM 13 - WH/J space Issues/Suggestions/Ideas.
I was going to say ignoring but to be honest that is not strong enough basically deciding to shaft thousands of your players to deal will an occasional problem for a few hundred (I would guess that the Lurch Hictor mechanic gets abused in single figures if that each day) is just wrong.
Don’t get me wrong the Lurch HICtor mechanic is broken and needs fixed, However such a fix needs to not destroy a bigger part of gameplay for thousands of people (even if that gameplay is an unexpected outcome.) An easy solution would have been introducing the allegedly coming soon TM (we all know what that means - perhaps in a decade or so if CCP remembers and ever gets round to it) mass manipulation module at the same time as removing the Lurch Hictor.
Let me try and explain why Wormholers dislike this:
All wormholes have a set mass limit that varies +/-10% randomly. eg a Cap capable C5 supports 3300 +/-10% Mega Tonnes (So anywhere between 2970 and 3630 MT per Wormhole the actual amount for each wormhole is not known). Once a Wh reaches Critical mass (<10% mass left you can have between 0.00000001MT (just above zero)and 363MT remaining - you just dont know which. Holes close either by running out of time or getting more than their mass put through them, and rolling holes is used for both defence and content purposes - the whole thing about wormholes is that contect and neighbours change and can be changed.
If you have a critical hole you can either try to close it or get no content for up to the next 24hrs. To roll it you need to put mass through it but as there is no clone jumps back into wormholes if you jump out and it closes then you character is locked out of that hole. What rolling hictors do is provide a better chance of (but not zero chance) of not getting rolled out. Their very small mass with the bubbles up (around the mass of a pod) provides a lesser chance that the hole will roll when you jump out, and their ability to fit plates and a 100MN prop mod meansa they can get to over 100MT mass for coming back. Thus you can reduce the chances of stranding your character on the wrong side of a wormhole. (the consequences of which at best, if you have scanners in the hole and a reasonable K-space connection in your chain are probably at least an hour of trying to get back home, at worst days of lost gametime for that character).
Similarly rolling Hictors can be used (with a lot of effort and frustration) to roll frigate wormholes which regenerate themselves on mass and so are very difficult to roll - I think to be honest this is something CCP did not expect or want for frigate holes.
For me there are 2 issues with these HIC changes:
1. The reaffirmation that CCP and the CSM hate wormholers in general as shown by the way this was
presented. The statement :
‘Unfortunately, wormholers will be unwilling collateral damage, as they often are,’
Simply confirms this
2. The fact that they acknowledge the problem but are unwilling to either spend the time sorting out the issue now, but decide to go with an easy fix and give the same we will address a mass manipulation soon TM which we have all hear so many times before.
Force Auxiliary and Capital balance
Might have well said this is mainly a wh problem so lets kick it to the long grass again.
Triglavians and the Damavik
Never sure reducing the tank/damage low slots on an armour tanked frigate is a good thing to encourage its use. Whoever thought 2 mid slots is appropriate in any frigate should have learned by now, perhaps having 2 highs 3 mids and 3 lows would work better.