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.
Well, considering they just got a buff, I’d imagine that CCP will want to see what happens. However, I’d be surprised if the buff changes much. As you’ve pointed out, I think the problem is in how they select targets. IDK. It’s disappointing . I love new toys, but I’m sticking with a wait and see approach for these things. Of course, they might be more viable for the abyss now that they’ve had a buff. Unfortunately, a cursory search failed to find anything about people using them post patch.
CCP never pretended that EDENCOM would be anything other than the most conceivably-niche ships that could possibly be introduced into the game. Several threads have been posted about making them more general purpose, but they were never intended to be useful solo at all whatsoever or even in most PVE/PVP fleets. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that players need to stop demanding of them what they never promised to provide in the first place.
The relevant questions are:
should the niche be expanded while retaining its core identity and mode of operation? (ie. Without turning EDENCOM into Not-EDENCOM)
should the performance be improved within its niche? This is what CCP just did, and it was a rather generous buff pass considering the potential EDENCOM ships bring in cases where it shines.
@Famout_Highwind your thread is not the first and will not be the last when it comes to rebalancing/repurposing EDENCOM ships, but ideas like this really should be posted in the Player Features & Ideas forum category for peer review instead of being pitched to Assembly Hall where CSM members might not give it the time of day without prior community consensus. I advise you to change the forum category - you can do so by clicking the edit title button (you don’t actually have to change the title, but the button allows you to change category).
Thanks for the advice which forum to put it in, was admittedly at a loss what place fit best. As for the ship itself, I meant a little less balance, and more just… a desire to use it? Right now taking on a low level mission just to see the guns fire is the only sane option.
As for Niche, lots of ships fall into that category and I don’t mind it, just would be nice to see what that niche is here. Just removing the ability to hit other players in HS (with the rebound) alone would make it a fun thing to bring in fleets or certain events. Doesn’t sound like we disagree on that though, and I do agree the buffs given sound rather nice, but don’t really fix any of the mechanics that I brought up.
This is a fleet vs fleet PVP ship for use in LS/NS (against clustered players + fighter squadrons fielded by carriers), possibly also for use in high end fleet PVE in LS/NS. Compared to the alternatives, it is categorically useless in all other contexts.
Except it isn’t. Because the DPS is subpar so you can do just as good by target splitting and actually focus down targets because you can control the 5 targets you split your wing onto.
And in NS you have actual bombs as well for when you really need to spread damage across a blob.
Well now, that’s interesting! Admittedly a little rich for my blood, slightly proves the point though that if you solve the “suspect” problem it could be a fun PVE ship (in this case by doing something entirely solo.) Still at least gives it a place to fly.
