Before we get into it its a Touchy Subject so i opted to use a forum alt this time:
Prelude:
What i see a lot of people say is driving a standstill in EvE is the proliferation of the supercapital and capital umbrella ( in addition to subcaps being worthless in many cap fights but that’s another factor entirely ) or the lack of reason to kick down a sandbox, again another topic.
so truthfully my idea I’ve seen posted before as a “jump drive spool up” time. Except this time i did some math and came up with an equation to calculate it. which i’m looking to critique and balance, i think these numbers are reasonable but we’ll see i’d like some other peoples input.
This formula uses the Mass of the ship and distance traveled as the two most important factors in calculation, heavier ships will take longer to spool up going further while lighter ships travelling shorter distances can jump significantly faster. ( this goes both ways with Lighter ships still jumping faster further and heavy ships still take longer even over somewhat short ranges)
The Formula is:
Mass x “Spool Factor” = Ship’s Disruption Factor [Abbreviated SDF]
SDF x Distance in LY = Ships “Jump Factor” [Abbreviated JF, which is probably a bad idea since it now shares the acronym with Jump Freighters so for the sake of simplicity i wont calculate those here]
JF / 20 = Time in Minutes until the ship is ready to Jump
(Call it calculations and Drive spool up time for Lore Purposes if you like)
Spool Factor Number used in these calculations is “0.0000000025”
I came up with this number after a few early trial and errors that resulted in 245m wait times to jump max range, obviously unacceptable this number seems to consistently give reasonable times to jump so i stuck with it.
in addition the 20 that Jump Factor is divided by is a variable of my own creation and freely changed, i don’t even know what to call it once again it just gave reasonable times. Maybe a skill where every level increases from base of 0 by 4 each level so at level 5 you get that 20 again its just a variable.
Now on to the results
Following this math i’ll display the results below:
Archon: Mass = 1,260,000,000kg
1,260,000,000 x 0.0000000025
Archon SDF = 3.15 ( This is before any Fit or Cargo which if EVE Calculates these would add to the mass )
3.15 x 7 = 22.05
Archon JF = 22.05
22.05 / 20 = 1.1025
Archon JFCT = 1.1025
Actual time in seconds = 66.15 seconds (server would round down to 66 Seconds to Jump 7LY )
This means that an Archon in space must initiate a jump and then wait 66 seconds before jumping to its cyno 7 Light years away.
This would give any fleet being attacked 66 seconds to react to a cyno going up before an archon lands on grid from max range away.
Now lets try a titan.
Avatar ( Heaviest Titan )
2,400,000,000 x 0.0000000025 = 6
Avatar SDF = 6
6 x 6 (max jump) = 36
Avatar JF = 36
36 / 20 =1.8
Avatar JFCT = 1.8
This means an avatar would take 108 Seconds to Jump its Max range of 6Ly before any fit calculated.
On the opposite side this means a fleet has almost 2 minutes to deal with a cyno before the avatar is capable of getting to grid from its max jump range.
What would this lead to? Even in small gang warfare 2 minutes can be a long time to kill a target sitting still in space. so for fleets intending to drop an avatar ( without a fit? RIP) they would require a ship with enough EHP or rep, or logi to keep that ship alive for 108 Seconds to bring in the cavalry.
On the other side of this it would also mean if you knew a hostile staging system you could in theory block them from jumping out by managing to tackle or dictor them during their drive spool up times. resetting the time waited, and consuming the fuel ( or not debate below )
This means the supercapital umbrella can be mitigated with proper planning, leading to more fun and engaging content for factions who dont have the capabilities to fight when supers are dropped, while also making it much more dangerous to commit supers to a fight you dont know your 100% going to win. As to evacuate your supers (well Naked Avatars) would still need to sit for 108 Seconds to Jump out to safety.
This jump time for the record is less for actual supercarriers as they weigh substantially less.
Now for BLOPS!
Widow 151,100,000kg
151,100,000 x 0.0000000025 = .37775
Widow SDF = .37775
.37775 x 8 = 3.022
Widow JF = 3.022
3.022 / 20 = 0.1511
Widow JFCT = 0.1511
This means the widow would only take 9.066 (rounded down to 9) seconds to Jump 8 LY
I considered this reasonable given Black ops jump primarily to covert cynos, and recons cruisers, bombers, and covert ops frigates sustain substantially less tank than say a battleship with a cyno being used to jump an avatar as such they cant afford to wait nearly 2 minutes for support. However in order to drop capital support ( FAX ) you need to light a new regular cyno and wait for them to arrive, so don’t bite off more than you can chew, or hope they don’t get support first, i know firsthand how squishy a BLOPS is.
I would also argue that these factors should apply to bridges, meaning a titan opening a bridge to bring in a support fleet has to calculate the distance its sending the support fleet, though i don’t know if that should be based on the mass of the titan or the ships its sending through. I’d argue for the 2nd option personally again its up for debate. and the math is available to see how it plays out.
Let me know what everyone thinks!
Disclaimer: I’m usually bad at math but i double checked my work, if there’s an error let me know and ill edit as necessary