Let me start out by saying that this is primarily a fun thread. Nothing NEEDS to change and this is mostly just fun to think about, so don’t take it too seriously - I know I’m not.
== Renaming “Probe” ==
The “Probe” ship has one of the worst names of all the named entities in the game, especially since the term “probe” is more commonly used to refer to scanner (etc) probes, which themselves could be used on the Probe by virtue of it being an exploration ship.
In the past, CCP has renamed items before, so there is precedent for a name change. I propose the Probe ship be renamed to… Sojourner. Why? A Sojourner is someone who resides temporarily from place to place (and may imply “searching for something”), just like an explorer in EVE does, or some of the nomadic Minmatar do. It also pays homage to Sojourner Truth, an important African-American abolitionist and women’s rights advocate, which I feel plays well with the lore of the not-coincidentally dark-skinned Minmatar people and their history of enslavement under the not-coincidentally-‘Aryan’ Amarr.
I also think a better name would encourage it’s use (I think it’s fair to say it’s one of the most underutilized ships in the game relative to comparable ships). I mean… look at what happened to the Drake: I am willing to bet that the Drake would not be half as popular as it is now if it didn’t have such a ‘cool’ name. Popularity begins with marketing, and if the name sucks, it doesn’t matter how good it is, nobody is going to buy it.
In the end, I think it’s fair to say that almost any name would be better than a name as generic and ambiguous as “Probe”, esp. with more commonly used “probes” already being used.
== Renamed “Explosive” ==
I don’t think anyone is going to take seriously, but I think it’s fun to think about.
Now I’m not a physicist by any means, but when I think of a conventional explosion, I think of kinetic and thermal forces. Why, then, are explosions their own damage type? Even in other kinds of theoretical explosions, such as an “EM Explosion”, there is still a kinetic force element if not heat. The point is, just about any explosion you can conceive is comprised of existing forces (EM, T, K) rather than its own intrinsic force. Therefore, I (not-so-seriously) propose Explosive damage be renamed to something unique that, in real life, would do little damage to shields and a lot of damage to armor and could plausibly, consistent with existing lore, be utilized by the Minmatar such as… Chemical.
Think about it.
Spray harsh chemicals and whatnot onto a shield - not much is going to happen. Sure, certain things will happen at an atomic level that will have a marginal effect, but ultimately it will have little impact, just like how right now explosive damage does little to shield. Likewise, spray harsh chemicals onto armor plates and watch them erode - just like explosions already do. Of the three turret types, projectiles are the only ones that are unenergized, specialize in explosive (slash soon-to-be-chemical) damage, and are named after elements (chemical feel to it already), so I think it would make sense that, lore wise, Minmatar would compensate for the lack of energized ammunition with chemical reactions primarily specialized for anti-armor combat.
Going forward, instead of talking about EM/T/K/EX, we can talk about E/T/K/C - we just saved ourselves from typing not one but TWO extra letters. If that’s not worth fighting for then I don’t know what is!
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