The state of supercapitals obviously isn’t great right now. A set of 3 coalitions basically rule the universe through their mass-proliferation of these incredibly overpowered ships. Supercapitals were originally conceived as something that entire alliances would need to work towards for significant amounts, but over time due to a combination of factors they’ve turned into stretch goals for players. This group-level goal is something that should still be implemented, and with the recent nerfs to resources in nullsec, this seems like a great time to do it.
Because of how many supercapitals there are in Eve we can’t simply remove them and carry on without throwing away the tens or hundreds millions of manhours of work that went into making them, and removing an important long-term goal for players. And if it’s decided to just increase the cost of these ships, it only serves to benefit the people who already acquired them for a cheaper value.
So to deal with these issues, I suggest a 2 part solution:
- Nerf the current iteration of supercapitals into the ground, while keeping the material cost to build them the same. This keeps these ships as a stretch goal for pilots, but stops them from being the overpowered mess they currently are.
- Create a new set of T2 supercapitals, requiring T2 materials and around 10x the normal minerals that the current iterations cost. These ships would be more specialized than the current iteration was before the above nerf, and serve as a new collective goals for groups.
The Titan Nerfs
The goal here is the turn the current iteration of Titans into slightly more powerful dreads without siege modules, it would however retain its command burst bonuses and EWAR resistances.
- Completely remove the bonus to plates and extenders.
- Maximum tank should be around 10 million EHP
- A 25% reduction in damage bonuses across the board.
- Doomsdays, Phenom Generators, and Jump Portal Generators can no longer be fitted.
- Reduction of Warp Core Strength to +4 per level
The Supercarrier Nerfs
The current iteration supercarriers would here be turned into a more anti-capital focused carrier. Like the old titans it would retain its bonuses to command bursts and EWAR resists.
- Nerf Fighter Tube Count to 3.
- New Squad Limits Changed to: 2 Heavy / 3 Light / 1 Support.
- Can no longer field Long Range Attack fighters. (Bye Super Ratting!)
- Can no longer fit Burst Projectors.
- Completely remove the bonus to plates and extenders.
- Maximum tank should be around 8 million EHP
- Reduction of Warp Core Strength to +2 per level
The New Command Titan
The idea behind this class is to have an absolute brick of a ship with not much offensive capabilities, but an absurd amount of tank and the ability to influence the battlefield. To give some bullet points:
- Doomsdays cannot be fitted.
- Phenom Generators and Jump Portal Generators can be fitted.
- Significant increase in Command Burst Effectiveness.
- Maximum tank should be around 100 million EHP
- Damage equivalent to about 75% of a dreadnought.
The New Combat Titan
This class of ship should be about where titans are in their current iteration.
- Phenom Generators and Jump Portal Generators cannot be fitted.
- Doomsdays can be fitted.
- Targeted Doomsdays can now max out at 3 million damage.
- Maximum tank should be around 60 million EHP
- Maximum damage should be around 30,000 DPS
The New Fleet Carrier
This is an idea that Asher floated recently, and I absolutely love it so I’m going to include it here. These ships can be docked in by fleet members, allowing the carrier to transport entire fleets vast distances. Like the Fleet Support Titan these ships are absolute bricks, but don’t have significant offensive capabilities.
- Contains a docking bay large enough to house 200 subcapital pilots.
- Significant increase in Command Burst Effectiveness.
- Maximum tank should be around 50 million EHP
- Has 3 Fighter Tubes
- Squad Limits: 3 Light / 1 Support
The New Mothership
Like the Combat Titan, this class should be somewhat on-par with its pre-nerf counterpart.
- Has 5 Fighter Tubs
- Squad Limit: 4 Heavy / 5 Light / 2 Support
- Can fit Burst Projectors
- Burst Projects get a 200% increase in AOE range.
- Maximum tank should be around 30 million EHP
All of the old ships and the new variations would retain their ability to receive FAX reps, making these ships still extremely difficult to kill, but with the overall reduction in EHP allowing dedicated enough forces to break through these reps with Alpha damage.
Overall, this turns supercapitals in their current form into something that only groups and the batshit-insanely-rich can achieve, but still respects the time and effort that went into making the supers that already exist.
Now I hear you asking, “What’s stopping this problem from repeating itself 5 years down the line?” Well to answer that let’s look at why this problem exists today. Rorquals when their were changed back in 2016 massively reduced the effort required to mine large amounts of minerals. What they didn’t do however is hugely affect the T2 market, because T2 production requires not only minerals but Moon Goo and PI Products. Even with the new Moon Mining mechanics there’s still a hard limit on how much Moon Goon you can acquire in x-time.
To see this effect (or lack-thereof) in action, take a look at the Jump Freighter market. In the past 4 years the price and availability of Jump Freighters has barely changed. This is because unlike supercapitals which just require an ass-ton of minerals and component BPCs to produce, Jump Freighters require an abundance of materials from multiple difference sources along with several layers of production to get a finished product. I believe this process can be adapted to create T2 Supercapitals, and a class of ship which takes not only money, but true effort to produce.
