TL;DR: Edencom ships are unsafe to use in PVE fleets, and should either be buffed for PVP, or made safe for PVE.
So with a lot of content grind done, the recent price drops have gotten me into picking up the Edencom ships. I wanted to bring one for the Edencom fleet (sub optimal yes, but more about fun then anything) but a quick google showed me that anyone marked as a suspect is a valid target for the RNG attack. I quickly confirmed with the Edencom fleet FC’s that this meant the ships themselves are banned due to suspect baiting.
Someone else then mentioned that AOE weapons are unsafe for HS, which got me thinking. The Edencom ships don’t really fit in any place yet, not even for general fun. While risk is always a constant factor in EVE, the fairly low/unreliable DPS for the rather high price of the ships is already a strike, add in that just using for fun is now a bad idea since RNG can cause you to get into a accidental fight? Well that’s just a mess.
Thoughts for fixing,
1: Go full smart bomb, and have it target anything not in a fleet. Make it fully unsafe for HS, but buff it up a bit. The RNG is still an issue, but might actually see a few fleets of these just cause some fun havoc.
2: Have it only bounce along targeted objects. This sounds the most fun, but I suspect might be a bit overpowered.
3: Just have a target player toggle on the module. I suspect this might make it more useful in PVP as well to be able to single out just the drones or just the capsule pilots as primary target.
None of this gets rid of the normal act of suspect baiting, just reduces RNG being the decider. After all no other ship in HS has to hold fire just because someone might try to bait them, and right now the Edencom class of ships are in a strange void that causes more trouble then they are worth.