I’m sure there have been a dime a dozen of these things, but here is my idea wim gonna toss to the wall and see what sticks
So I’m coming at this with the following opinions that I believe are the problems with this ship class, mostly being it’s incredibly high cost for what it’s limitations are, a pve mission and site runner with some reach into WH it your brave. The ship is designed for the weekend warrior solo player, and I can accept that. How ever the problem becomes that you pretty much cap out at l4 in high sec because taking it into low sec is asking for a gank. The other big issues is that it’s primary gimic is bastion mode, which of course renders it stationary with a very long cycle time to come out of it.
These are suggestion for this ship class, with the above assumes and maintaining that the class is with out a doubt a pve ship
Change bastion to work like the cloak, it does not have a cycle and can be turned off instantly but has a cool down time that is reduced with levels in maruader
Introduce a security level flag similer to capital ships while in high and low sec, a maruader can not target an enemy player but can also not be targeted by one. This allows piolts of this ship to expand into low sec with relative safety, since the goal/role of this is for high end pve content. This however does not stop them from being the victims of more clever organized ganks in low sec or generally making their life difficult. With the potential option to have it targetable by other mauraders in low sec. The flavor text for this would be due to advanced sensor modules that interface with Concords network the ship is able to block the tracking of other capsuliers targeting interface, mauraders however get around this.
However in null and WH, it’s all open game as normal.
A second type or bastion model which only provides have the buff, but cut the penalty for being targeted by boosters such as shield boosters and cap boosters. This is to allow the ship to participate in fleet activities, allowing it to fulfil it’s role as a true high end pve content ship.
These are just a few, speghetii thrown at the wall and seeing what sticks to hopefully make a ship that’s really in a super niche bad spot better. It’s a shame to see such cool ships shackled down.
As I said with the assumption that maruader pilots are weekend warriors, and the current draw backs on bastion mode does not really encourage fleet up.
Other then , fly with fleets, or git gud, what suggestion would you have for making maruaders be useful for anything other then l4s and be able to experience more of the game?
There are as many excuses for playing solo as there are star systems.
None of them justify immunity or changes to ships.
People who play solo limit themselves to certain parts of the game that is just the way it is.
That is the way it HAS TO BE because how fair would it be to nerf the activities of 5, 10, 30 or 1000 players just so one pilot can do solo what others work as a team to accomplish.
But do you think T2 ships like the maruader which only real viable option for play are l4 missions, and wh if you were brave, is worth the cost? Considering there are many other faction battle ships or rather other ships that can perform the same actions at w much less cost?
I agree if someone wants to limit themselves to solo play, then they need to accept that limitation, this is not a case for let’s open up more for solo players, this is more for how can we make a ship in desperate need for a change to be able to do more?
Better Marauder change would be to allow them to move in Bastion.
Tackle now works through Bastion, so they can’t insti warp at the end of a Bastion cycle, so it would be balanced already.
and lose a tractor beam bonus for something more useful because mobile tractor units exist.
If you cannot imagine Marauders being used in something else - thats entirely your problem. I have flown my share of Vanguard/HQ incursion sites in a Vargur.
Another interesting suggestion I saw was giving them a bonus to bounties, the make them drop 2 wrecks instead of 1, or even the chance at blue salavage from wrecks.
Something to make them more viable as a true mission runner
The marauder is most definitely under-represented.
That said, consider where they’re used, and where they’re out-classed. They’re probably only really used in highsec, because anywhere else they’re out-classed by a similarly priced capital… something that CCP has said they want to feel strong, of course with its own weaknesses.
In terms of PVE, the weakness is that it self-tackles. It’s big enough that any bomber fleet is going to utterly murder it before anyone can respond, and expensive enough that it’s worth dropping a bomber fleet on.
So, I’d propose this.
A T2 bastion, usable only in <0.5 space, which imparts massively higher BUFFERS and signatures. Assuming you’ve got a “properly fit” ship, we’re talking 1.5 to 2 million EHP, with a signature increase to 2/3 the size of a carrier. It also removes the immobility, and ends up tackling in the same fashion as an NSA now will (you can move but you can’t warp).
The logic here is that you can’t run, but you can live long enough for your friends to come help you… unless they drop like 50 bombers on you in which case anything is dead, carrier or otherwise.
In terms of technical feasibility, we can have bombs only outside of HS, so the technical implementation is already there for other modules.
I like a lot do what you have put forward here, I still think, imo, the biggest issue with the t2 BS are their price point to how much isk per hour they earn. It’s just such a risky thing to fly more so then anything else. As mentioned earlier looking at the blops, that said I accept the blop main mo is pvp, but with the mauraders it seems like their price is not worth it
Isk per hour is a bit of a red herring. For example, if isk per hour was your thing, I’m pretty sure you’d be able to get a higher iph in a blitz fit tengu, or in a mach. In any aggressive PVE, a lot the time, your travel time (both on-grid and in warp) play a significant factor.
If your goal is highsec level 4 mission running, marauders already do it well. They won’t really do any better because they’re immobile for 60 second intervals. In all honesty, I sincerely doubt CCP will ever increase the capability of the marauder in doing highsec activity. That’s their gateway to lower security space.
If your goal is to see marauder representation increased in PVE, you’re going to need to play to their use in more dangerous space, where that iph to cost ratio is much more relevant (because honestly, who the ■■■■ is going to try and gank your average marauder in HS?). If you aren’t going to lose the ship, it doesn’t really matter what it costs because once you get it, you’ve got it.
In HS, you can use basically whatever you want as long as you don’t fit it stupid. Everywhere else, you use what you can either afford to lose, or your friends can save. Which is why afk dommies are making a comeback… when they get dropped on, you just let it die and go fit another one. The cost to reward ratio for a dommie is fantastic.
Once you start increasing the cost and reward (marauders, carriers, supers, titans), you need to be able to save it. Otherwise it doesn’t matter how capable it is, it’s just not worth it because loss is inevitable.
I agree, if marauders need any tweaks for high sec, it’s very minor. That’s where I also agree with OP, and which has been suggested in a balance pass thread as well, that bastion mechanics needs to be more fluid.
When marauders first came out, they were CCP’s gift to mission runners, which shocked me at the time. There were no MTU’s, no salvage drones, and no other ship could do what they could do for mission full clears. All for the low low price of a billion isk, so worth it for the comparable efficiency at the time. Then prices jumped supposedly due to moon mining changes, of which the devs could alter building costs if they really thought the current price point was out of line. Also, some say the tractor bonus is outdated, but I find that it is a great assist to the MTU to tractor more wrecks in quicker when doing full clears.
It’s also been suggested that a new T2 battleship should be created. I don’t know if it was intentional, but for Gallente T2 cruisers, there was for awhile the premier PvE Ishtar, and the supposedly more PvP oriented Deimos. Something like that should happen with the T2 battleships, a PvE version and a PvP oriented one.
For Gallente, the Hyperion still could use a variant, as an example. Maybe give it bonuses such as 100-200% extra damage while bastioned, in addition to a massive tank, but gimp tracking. A dev did state in the past that the previous Marauder balance pass was to help bridge the gap between battleships and capitals.
But whatever the devs decide to do, please please please do not alter the PvE version such as the Kronos. For high sec, it’s pretty much perfect for its intended use as is.
synonyms: wall, rampart, fortification, parapet, stockade, palisade, barricade
a solid wall-like structure raised for defense
a strong support or protection, democratic principles that stand as a bulwark against tyranny a bulwark of freedom.
This is what needs to change Class name Tanky self tackling bulky ships good at overtanking against NPCs that never ever want to self tackle next to sieged dreadnought.
Name Marauders save for t2 ships that gonna be aggressive and…wait for it…
Maraud!.
not created to save damsel in distress for the Nth time.
100% agree. It’s been discussed that if a new class of T2 battleships were made, they should be capable of extended campaigns behind enemy lines, much like in their description IIIRC. More of a true Marauder. Kronos, Golem, Vargur, and Paladin are great, but Marauders they are not.
And +1 for the suggested name for PvE class of T2 Battleships.
