New Hulls: rounding out navy faction hulls, pirate hulls

I think the ABCs should be the upgrades instead of getting an upgrade, but if we really want to push thin into T2 territory, we could make them FC ships. Large weapons and fleet boosting bonuses, the role bonus could be something like 2% armor (Amarr and Gallente) or shield (Caldari and Minmatar) HP bonus per fleet members, if the pilot is the fleet commander. Wing commanders may get the same bonus after wing members, and squad commanders after squad members.

I have a ā€œuniqueā€ idea for battlecruisers that could be command ships or something similar. Letā€™s call those command ships for now and give them very stiff tanks and link abilities like +3% link strength and even give them nice damage bonuses, so that they can dish out some damage - except for a Caldari missile one, which should really suck at doing damage.

Now come to think of it- oh waitā€¦

Well first of all, as much as Iā€™d like new faction ships, itā€™s not really good game design to add new things just to add new things, so first you need to determine what role(s) the new ships fill. With that in mind, Iā€™d actually say itā€™s the smaller classes in more need of additional ships.

Just having new models is the least compelling reason to spend dev time when you consider that hits multiple dev teams due to the need for new ship models as well.

I would also agree itā€™s long past time we get faction destroyers and BCs. They are glaring holes in the ship lineup and a holdover from a decade ago when those classes were sub-classes rather than baked in progression, and thereā€™s plenty of room for interesting ships and roles. Iā€™m not sure if the presence of T3Ds diminishes the need for faction DDs, though. Iā€™d actually prefer if both classes rolled out at the same time.

I do think a more glaring omission is with which factions have ships, though. Currently Gallente skills combine with others to let you fly a LOT of ships, while the other races are less represented. Having Gallente skills trains opens up the possibility for 5 factions when combined with something else, the other three races only open 3 possibilities each, but the worse omission is the fact that there are no ships that use a combination of Caldari and Minmatar skills.

Iā€™d fill that gap before adding any other faction ships, but at the same time as adding faction DDs and BCs, Iā€™d also try and add a couple more factions so each pairing has two.

A couple Devs at Vegas mention The Seven as a potential minor faction that could slot in as a Caldari-Minmatar faction. Equilibrium of Mankind would slot well as a second Amarr-Caldari faction, and I think it might also be possible to create Ammatar ships to use Amarr and Minmatar skills. I admit, that leaves two more spots that I havenā€™t though of anything for (a second Caldari-Minmatar faction and a second Amarr-Gallente faction).

I do love new ship models, though one factor is dev time. Creating new models takes a long time, and the art team has their hands full with updating old assets. They are probably far too busy at the moment.

Personally, Iā€™d be happy to see more faction ships that are just recolors of existing ships just to have more faction ships.

I do strongly believe the regular doomsday is powerful enough and we do not need a faction doomsday weapon.

DD also means destroyer

I think the faction upgrade on a BC could lose the fleet boosting ability, to replace it with better tank or weapon bonuses, making it fully combat oriented.

Also, there is actually a hole in the battleship line that could be filled, even if it seems a bit redundant to me.
Currently we have a battleship with a lot of ā€œweapon1ā€ bonuses, one with ā€œweapon2ā€ bonuses, and one with weaker ā€œweapon1ā€ bonus, with added tank bonus instead.
All factions pretty much line up like this except the Scorpion which shouldnā€™t really be in the battleship line as it it an E-war ship so why is it there seriously CCP do you even know the meaning of consistency because this is really getting ridiculous and if you really want to make everything random then why are you trying to force ships to take roles at all and where is my frigate with fighter support I mean COME ON!

Okay first there are faction upgrades to the BCs

Now on to your absolutely asinine claim that the scorpion doesnā€™t make sense and is random. This is only the case if you are so stupid you think itā€™s intended to be fit with standard ECM modules. This however is not the case and will usually end with you having a more expensive loss mail than necessary. The scorpions bonuses are for the burst module the same as the widow. So no it is not random it has its place and intended use. It is also extremely powerful when used properly. The fact that you think the scorpion bonused to use a module intended primarily for battleship class hulls should not be in the battleship line simply shows your lack of understanding on the topic. The scorpion and widow are not even the only E- war bonuses battleships. You also have battleships bonuses for webs points/ screams and if you count them energy neutralizers

Can I bring my Drake? What would you think about a Drake Navy Issue? It would totally new, have like 8 missile launcher slots, so no links but massive damage, a missiles application bonus maybe and total damage freedom.

A Brutix Navy Issue you say? I donā€™t know about that but it could have a massive overflow of cpu and hull hp and if you fit like 6 bulkheads, you could end up with a massive 250k ehp boat but that would be so op.

One downside of some Amarr ships are probably the mid slots, so if I imagine a Navy Harbinger, maybe that one can have 5 mid slots and some massive armor tank - booyah!!

Oh wait, we already have those.

1 Like

I was focusing on the T1 line of battleships, the pirate factions are doing what they want anyways.
Every other T1 battleship has a weapon bonus with or without a tank bonus. The scorpion has neither. It also has very few high slots compared to the other battleships, even the Dominix has more high slots, and itā€™s a drone boat. I wouldnā€™t mind this so much if the Scorpion and the Navy Scorpion would be switched, so the navy version has this specialized e-war ability, but then where are the similar ships from the other 3 main factions?
The navy frigates are interesting, one is upgraded to be unique, the other is upgraded to be a close range, solo e-war brawler. But the other classes are justā€¦ kind of there. Sure, you get better damage application, tank and more fitting space but thatā€™s about it. The most interesting are the logi cruisers, as they basically get a role reversal with the upgrade.

This would be inconsistent both now do to the navy seeming to favor high power close range e-war rather than weaker long ranged e-war and with the amarrian cap warfare geddon. The scorpion and Armageddon are not only consistent in that the calimarry are similarly distinct from the gal/minm with these ships,; but far more important than constancy they are necessary and fill a role in providing platforms for battleship sized variants of ecm/energy neutralizers. The scorpion may be inconsistent with the other battleships not having a damage bonus sure. It is however constant with the much more important balance of limiting dps potential of ECM vessels. Even then it gets well over 500dps something many have actually argued too high considering itā€™s ecm nature.

Ultimately consistency should always come second to variety and balanced and only come before needless complexity.

See, that is why I proposed that the Scorpion gets another turret or missiles mount (not slot). That way you can either fit 5 un-bonused launchers or turrets.

it has plenty of dps for what it does. groups of these are obnoxious as is

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.