Bombs are expensive. Learning to use them is even more so. This is a suggestion to help new bomber pilots master the techniques.
Utilizing the anchoring feature of the MTU or Mobile Depot, would it be possible to fit Bomb Launchers with a cheaper, reusable ‘dummy’ bomb that would behave as a normal one would, save for at ‘detonation’, it would lock in place and emit a sphere of the blast?
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So a dummy bomb that basically does like 1 damage?
Or even 0 damage. Have it freeze in position so you can see where it would have gone off. If that’s not possible, a reduced-payload (and cheaper) bomb could also be an option for newly-minted bomber pilots.
Can’t they see by the explosion where it would’ve gone off? What about a large paint/dye effect?
I was thinking it could reutilize the bubble file.
Maybe they could make a firework (and/or snowball) bomb (maybe even multiple types) that deals zero damage and explodes into a visual (and sound) effect upon reaching its endpoint (like all fireworks).
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I’m not sure if dummy bombs are a good addition.
While learning how to bomb I didn’t have to launch a bomb every time.
Most of the effort into learning how to launch bombs from a squad is about preparing bookmarks, warping formations, knowing how to align at less than full speed, practicing how to position yourself that you can instantly warp away after launching which requires a warpable object or bookmark right behind the bomb area, practicing timing on seeing enemies warp to the gate, knowing bomb ranges and radius.
Only for the last couple of things it would make sense to launch a bomb, but you don’t have to: with tactical overlay on you can hover your bomb launcher to see the bomb radius much clearer without launching it.
Bomb launching practice is good to get to know how many ships you can hurt with your bomb, but you wouldn’t know if and how many you hit for how much if you don’t practice in a live situation against a real fleet.
Bomb launching practice is also good to get to know that you can hurt or destroy your own bomber if you fly on too long, especialoy with MWD on. However with dummy bombs new bomber pilots may learn wrong methods that could kill their ship using real bombs.
Bombs aren’t cheap, but they’re not expensive either. Pay a few million ISK to fire a couple of bombs as practice and the players in your fleet will have had enough practice to proceed to real targets.
I’m not sure if CCP should create whole new types of bombs (and blueprints) just so people can save 5 million ISK in their EVE career.
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Maybe you shouldn’t be flying ships where you think the ammo is expensive?
Goes back to the First Rule, never undock anything you can’t afford to lose.
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Yeah, see, this isn’t about me personally, but about newbros and learning fleets.
But you had a snarky comment on eveonline.com, so, +1 for you! Good job.
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I +1 the idea of the “Civilian Bomb Launcher”.
In terms of saving newbros, I like the idea of a civilian bomb launcher that could be fit on any ship. As it would deal no damage, that wouldn’t break any meta, and wouldn’t only save the bomb costs, but also the hull and SP cost. This would let folks interested in the concept try it out without the investment.
Realistically this probably isn’t worth dev time, but is an interesting concept all the same