Add a Triage Bastion module, very similar to a triage module on a fax. No fuel, same as current bastion module. Able to rep through remote support impedance
Add marauder hulls with logistics bonuses
Why it would be interesting:
They’d be able to rep dreads/faxes/other marauders, making them a reasonable strategic choice instead of a fax or dread (said cap using its CHE in time could get repped up), yet be less useful than a fax where raw output is concerned.
Their grid mobility while outside of bastion means they can place themselves in a position of relative safety against capital assets (being out of range of cap guns while in bastion and protected from fighters by escort)
It means faxes and dreads are no longer automatically dead when they siege (proper use of a CHE in a cap fight means these could easily save your fax/dread).
Marauder subcap fleets could be a thing
Their drawbacks:
Bombs/bombers. God. Obviously, you need an escort unless you want to get your face murdered.
Bastion. It remains a double-edged sword, though far less so (which is good).
They’re still just battleships. Used incorrectly, they’ll get murdered by caps and subcaps alike.
So how does
Killing Marauders->Killing FAXs->Everything else
is different from
Killing FAX->Everything else
?? Other than adding another must chew tru layer to massive fleet fights.
RR impedance exists because the sheer POWER a FAX have in means of remote repping in Triage.
This worked very well when the LARGE fleet fights included 200 pilots tops. This changed overtime to 2000 pilots and the mechanic didnt change so much with it. This idea unfortunately is not the solution to the problem in hand that FAXs are nothing more but just a layer that must be removed before you kill anything else.
There’s no way to escape that cycle. It is always the case in every MMO on the planet that if you can’t break the heals/logistics/repairs/whatevers that you have to kill those first. Or at an absolute minimum put pressure on them so they can’t keep up. The idea isn’t to “break” that cycle, but to diversify fleet compositions.
The difference is that the marauders can position themselves on grid in a safe place. They can rep each other. Like anything else, they aren’t appropriate in every fight. Nor should they be.
You’re very right. A fax with a resistance buffer tank being repped by another fax would be retarded. But a fax being repped by battleships, especially ones that can be killed by subcaps, is much easier to counter. You can neut out battleships quickly, you can bomb them, ■■■■, you can get an arty fleet and volley them.
Ultimately faxes are no longer the default/only choice for a cap fight. Subs become a valuable addition, assuming they’re protected. You basically need to protect them with more subs (a single bomber wing would decimate these for example).
The meta right now is supers, titans, and faxes. You get your dreads ready to blap the DCs. I believe that the meta can be broken with this (and that is a good thing imo). Once you add triage marauders, you gain access to a wide variety of subcap support options that are more optimal than “more faxes”.
It bridges the gap between subs and caps in new ways. Caps should always need to be supported by subs. By adding worthwhile choices, you increase fleet diversity.
The difference is volleying a cap is substantially harder than volleying a battleship. In dread bombs it would be an interesting concern for the dropped defense to have to choose between the people rapping the sieged dreads or the dreads.