CCP Fozzie wrote:
Now for the big one. Why didn't we keep the Inquisitor as a rocket frigate so that the Khanid ships would have a tech one precursor?
This is a big issue brought up by these changes, and I want to address it in some depth. Currently the Khanid line of Amarr T2 ships uses missiles but Amarr only has one tech one missile ship, and it was almost unusable.
CCP had a choice to make when planning for the Amarr tiericide.
a) Create a whole line of T1 Amarr missile ships that have similar styles to the Khanid ships to act as a stepping stone. This would mean making the Inquisitor into a mini-Vengance, and the Maller and Prophesy into HAM ships.
b) Increase the use of drones on Amarr ships and turn drones into the full fledged secondary Amarr weapon. Create some pure droneboats in the style of the Arbitrator and Sentinel, as well as more ships that have a strong unbonused dronebay as a secondary weapon like the Armageddon.
c) Attempt to do both
The choice was made to reinforce the use of drones in Amarr ships, which meant that there would not be room for a full line of missile ships at tech one. CCP would love to expand the missile capabilities on Amarr ships in other ways, but that would be a more long-term goal.
At the time that Ytterbium's blog was released discussing the summer balancing work, this was the point the design was at. The Inquisitor and Tristan were both planned to be missile ships at that point, but neither race was planned to have further tech one missile ships in their lineup. When we made the decision to create the line of logistics frigates we also decided to scrap the missile frigates for those races. It was an easy choice for the Tristan since missiles for Gallente are so minor. It was a bigger loss for the Inquisitor for sure, as I am sure we could have created an enjoyable armor tanking rocket frig out of it. But creating the logistics frigates will open up so many more avenues for interesting tactical choices and provide a stepping stone into the chain of logistics ships (which will also include revamped tech one logistics cruisers). We made the decision to drop the rocket Inquisitor and make it the Amarr logistics frigate, as the better of two good options.
This does leave the Khanid tech two ships without tech one introductions, but we believe that the ships will still provide good options for Amarr T2 pilots. The fact that individual classes of missiles are significantly faster to train to than turrets helps this situation as well. We may be able to add more missile ships in the future, but for now we do feel that the plan of expanding Amarr drone options will result in a solid lineup of ships.
I do continue to welcome all of your opinions on the subject, as everything in an MMO like eve is always able to be changed. We're here to make the best game possible in partnership with the community, and although we may not always agree on every specific point we do welcome all your feedback.