As some of you have seen some of my previous posts, I am trying, and will continue trying to raise awareness of the huge problem of capital damage application against subcaps in an era with more and more caps. Carriers and Supercarriers mostly, due to incredible fighter damage, huge speeds with impossible tracking. But what gives these fighter boats this strength is also the Networked Sensor Array. This module makes a capital ship lock very fast and for incredible distances and can apply it’s fighters in the first few seconds after coming through a cyno or a gate. On top of that it gives great EWAR strength and with limited drawbacks. This module is used in PVP but also in PVE situations. Even if it doesn’t improve DPS it still makes the ship apply it way faster then normal.
So if we look at Capitals - Dreads / FAX / Rorquals all of them who uses their special ability module: Siege, Triage or Industrial core, they all prevent warping while active, so why NSA doesn’t do that? It has a 60 seconds cycle that can be interrupted anytime by warping.
Networked Sensor Arrays cycle should be increased and also prevent warp until the cycle is complete and disallow remote repping assistance. I understand what that means for PVE carriers and supers, but these have been used before NSA appeared.
I’m not sure exactly what effect will this have upon huge carrier fleet fights but it will surely improve fighters damage application against subcaps.
raise cycle to 120 seconds.
remove energy consumption.
restrict warp/movement while active.
cannot receive remote reps.
I understand some of you guys might think this is a HUGE NERF. but imagine this is only 1 module and has nothing to do with the ship.
This will make dmg aplication slower against subcaps, and make carriers and supers more vulnerable if they choose to use the NSA.
I think that I’m in no way surprised that this “idea” to nerf an anti-subcap platform’s ability to engage subcaps is coming from a Criumvirate pilot
Carriers are MEANT to be subcap killers, what really needs to be done is make titans and dreads useless against large amounts of them…like they used to be, (Who really thought boson was a good idea?)
I don’t think it’s pure “nerf it to death” complain. Just a legit discussion where some can agree and others disagree.
I don’t know about null sec but in low sec one of the first things vets teach us is “bigger is not better”. If you undock with a battleship pay attention to your tracking, also keep in mind the bigger the hull the longer you will have to wait before locking them. Don’t expect to catch any frigate with your battleship in a gate camp except insta-locking fits ( but there are other hulls for that).
Just feels weird that a capital ship is better at locking my frigate than a battleship, also weird than a capital ship has better range control against my frigate than a battleship, feel weird also that tracking is better with said capital than with a battleship i can speed tank.
Even weirder, said capital doesn’t even have to modify its fitting to do this : the common PVE fit already does that. Undock with a PVE fit battleship in low sec and you can count the seconds before you get your insurance.
Nobody want sub-caps to be immune to capitals. As said carriers are dedicated to be anti-sub caps. But it shouldn’t remove the “tracking food chain” progression of frigate/destroyer/cruisers/battleships and it should also imply meaninful fitting choices.
Right now we got gilas’ fleet speed tanking arty battleships. But a capital should blast a 3km/s frigate easily ?
Before those discussions were not so sharp because the counter was ECM. And ECM didn’t care about range control, tracking or anything : it just jammed you. Now that ECM is not anymore an one-fit-all solution, those questions of range control, locking time, tracking are back.
EDIT : not elite pilot here, not even a one year account, just reading, talking with vets and seeing that carriers don’t follow the rules of pvp that people taught me.
NSA were never really meant against subcaps, they are only to enable the fighter-on-fighter combat, without the NSA locking up Fighters in Tidi would be impossible for a Carrier.
Collateral damage is that it’s just a couple serverticks between a cyno going up and being pointed by a siren.
CCP tried to create additional delay in hotdrops by not being able to point while NSA is active, but that doesn’t add much…
However your solution doesn’t add any time for subcaps to run from a hotdrop either, only nerfs carriers blob vs blob combat abilitys and ratting caps. (Both deserves a nerf too tho)
What we need is a cyno nerf. A highslot mod for any subcap in the game to instant teleport unlimited capitals on you, without any counterplay, totally not broken… What i want is grid control to matter. Opening a cyno should require a subcap fleet on field. (spool up plz)
i proposed in another thread that the NSA should become a siege module and balance all of them to make them work different on each capital:
-FAXes get NSA -> Tank + 200-300% Scan Res + Sensor Strength/Logi bonuses
-Carriers get Triage back -> Tank + 200-300% ScanRes + Fighter Damage/Defense bonus(?)
-Dreads get Siege Module buffed -> Tank + 200-300% ScanRes + Weapon Damage/Tracking bonus(?)
basically Capitals can all enter on siege mode and get some bonuses to booth but are inmobile and the sensor bonuses arent as extreme as the current modules. but yeah most of the suggestion was balanced out by having their stats nerfed to follow those changes.