Surgical Strike Update Follow-up

[CCP_Rise]

Hello capuleers!

Yesterday we posted a news item covering the Surgical Strike update coming on April 15th. Today, we would like to address feedback and layout plans for follow-up shortly after the release.

Battleship Scan Resolution increase

Many of you have asked for this increase to be passed along to tech II Battleships (Marauders and Black Ops) and we are pleased to say that we agree and will be extending this buff to those classes as well.

Structure Guided Bombs

These were missed in the 20% reduction to bomb damage and will be adjusted to receive the same change as normal bombs.

Capital Cap Booster limitation

We discovered issues with the implementation of this change and will be shifting approach slightly. Rather than limiting capital cap boosters to one per group, we will be adding a new limitation for FAX only which limits number of cap boosters fit to 1 per ship. This will include all cap booster sizes.

Suicide Ganking and the Void buff

This topic is more complicated to untangle but it is certainly not our intention to make suicide ganking easier or cheaper. While divorcing damage increases from suicide ganking is not simple, we are planning to increase freighter hp while we do some investigation on the current state of high sec ganks. Depending on results from those investigations we will look at further changes if necessary.

PVE and the resist change

Many of you are concerned about high end PVE viability under the resist module nerf. This was one of our biggest hesitations around this change as well so we will be watching closely. Our expectation is that in almost all situations some fitting adjustments will be needed and completion speeds may go down slightly if damage or speed has to be sacrificed. If situations arise where specific content becomes prohibitively difficult we will make adjustments to that content to bring it back in line.

When will this happen?

Due to the Easter holiday our release candidate is locked in for the 15th, meaning all of these changes will come in a deployment shortly afterwards. We are expecting sometime between the 16th and the 21st and will let you know as soon as the date is locked in.

Thanks for all your feedback, it’s exciting to see so much enthusiasm for deep balance work and big meta shifts.

Fly safe o/

[Sen_Isu]

Glad to see communication like this addressing some concerns. Keep it up.

One thing: while you mention that you will be addressing freighter ganking, what about other ships which the damage buff + resistance nerf will also affect heavily, such as DSTs?

[safira_jomita]

@CCP_Rise

we are planning to increase freighter hp

Looks like some people cheered too soon xD

[Hun_Tra]

Nice to see a follow up so quick. Good stuff.

[Cephei_Kells]

is this post a late april fools joke?

this is the first time youve listened to player concerns over an update and acted before the deployment in literally years.

[Scoots_Choco]

Inb4 all the afk miners start pouring screaming, “it’s not fair that only frieghters get a HP buff!! I WANT TO AFK IN SAFETY!! BUFF MY RETRIEVER’S HP TOO!!”.

[James_Baboli]

High end PVE predictions:

Incursions: Completion speed will increase in HQs and VGs due to DPS increases. 15% more damage from almost every ship is a very significant absolute number on those 9m EHP towers in HQs.
Assaults will continue to be the redheaded stepchild because of site mechanics and spawn locations. Far far more viable in LS/NS due to better balance of player hulls to targets.
Now, I’m predicting that the basic battleships with t2 tank, even after fitting changes, will die at a MUCH higher rate than current, but that the elite/shiny fits will continue to function largely unchanged on the DPS ships.

Logi got it in the teeth.

Abyssals: Say hello to even more requirements for absolutely perfectly optimized fits for the exact filament type one is running.

[LeVa_MagloN]

Absolutely lovely to see you have clearly understood absolutely nothing of what the problems are.

Instead of fixing the problems you are opting for the sledgehammer method. Demolish everything and then see what you can rebuild.

Kudos. You are all a bunch of geniuses.

[James_Baboli]

IF any barge/exhumer gets a buff, it needs to be only the skiff and procurer. Because increasing the reward of those who actively choose tank over isk/hr gives far more purpose to them.

[Lucia_Denniard]

We discovered issues with the implementation of this change and will be shifting approach slightly. Rather than limiting capital cap boosters to one per group, we will be adding a new limitation for FAX only which
limits number of cap boosters fit to 1 per ship. This will include all cap booster sizes.

This will make faxes completely nonviable in wormholes and smaller fights where neuts are on grid, is this intentional? could you consider lowering their tank in stead or something rather than making them so vulnerable to neuts?

And since these are so hard to balance, would you consider splitting faxes into a capital fax and a supercapital fax? Probably with a signature-based reduction on the rep amount for super reps.

[Loroseco_Kross]

@CCP_Rise

We discovered issues with the implementation of this change and will be shifting approach slightly. Rather than limiting capital cap boosters to one per group, we will be adding a new limitation for FAX only which limits number of cap boosters fit to 1 per ship. This will include all cap booster sizes.

Does this mean that caps besides FAX can fit multiple capital capacitor boosters? The wording here is ambiguous.

[Artanis_Talander]

rip solo triage in wormholes, sad to see such a high skill ceiling gameplay style get patched out of the game by the devs

[sabastyian]

You still miss a fundamental issue of the marauder and black ops classes already having lower than average resist across the board and the struggle to get near t1 battleship ehp, this change has given them such a low amount of ehp its laughable. As several people have pointed out, fax are now entirely gutted outside of cap battery shield blob fits which have the pwrg spare to accommodate such a change, with the continuous heavy handed nerfs it is now time for you to bring back combat refitting into the game and allow triage to preform as they used to rather than disappear altogether.

[LeVa_MagloN]

Welcome to EVE. Are you new here?

[Cephei_Kells]

be a shame if they let triage combat refit again right

[Artanis_Talander]

please, the ceiling must go down, not up

[Lukas_Koennel]

@CCP_Rise

Capital Cap Booster limitation

We discovered issues with the implementation of this change and will be shifting approach slightly. Rather than limiting capital cap boosters to one per group, we will be adding a new limitation for FAX only which limits number of cap boosters fit to 1 per ship. This will include all cap booster sizes.

That will just kill any active tanked triage use…

[LeVa_MagloN]

That is completely not a problem. Start flying frigates. Tank doesn’t matter there.

CCP has already thought of everything.

[N0VABomb]

Jumping a fax to a cyno is literal suicide now. Brilliant change CCP.

[QuakeGod]

It doesn’t matter how much you increase the EHP of freighters, they are still going to get ganked every single day. Most freighter ganks that I see on Zkill aren’t even tanked, they are fit for max cargo while carrying 137 billion ISK worth of crap. Most freighter pilots deserve to be ganked for flying stupid…