One big concern with the tiericide is making sure we don't obsolete the tech 2 ships along the way. In this case there's almost no danger of obsoleting Covops since they die rarely (so cost is not a big issue) and their cloaking gameplay is a large unique advantage.

Each of the races can fit two weapons plus probe launcher and salvager except for the Imicus which has a greater dependence on drones anyway. I still think if someone has chosen exploration then putting a few SP into scout drones is not wasted effort.

...
OP will be updated in a second, the exact changes are:

Magnate:
5% probe bonus changed to 7.5%
Role bonus removed
+1 lowslot
+1pg, +10cpu
+30 Structure HP

Heron:
5% probe bonus changed to 7.5%
Role bonus removed
+1 midslot
+1 pg, +10cpu
-10 Structure HP

Imicus:
5% probe bonus changed to 7.5%
Role bonus removed
+1 highslot
+1 pg, +10cpu
+35 Structure HP

Probe:
5% probe bonus changed to 7.5%
Role bonus removed
+1 highslot
+1 pg, +10cpu
+25 Structure HP

Imicus:
5% probe bonus changed to 7.5%
Role bonus removed
+1 highslot
+1 pg, +10cpu
+35 Structure HP

Now that the Imicus has 3 highs, I believe it's appropriate to give it the 2/2 turret/launcher setup the others have.

-Liang

Don't want it's potential dps to get too high.

I think putting Imicus with 20 bandwidth vs 15 for all other frigs may put this frig in dominating position, like Tengu comparing to other T3. Especially if whole concept of this new frigs designed for new people using distance tanking/drone dps techniques.

To keep things a bit balanced I'll love to see Magnate with 20 bandwidth and less drones bay capacity.

Yes, I understand it is for new people in game, who want to try different things and exploration is a sort of content to keep people in game, especially in the beginning of the game mechanics learning curve.

Therefore, if we look a bit ahead, developing exploration as mini-profession (it is not anymore, btw) can just go along the path like Imicus-Vexor-Helios-Ishtar or
Magnate-Arbitrator-Anathema-Pilgrim

Since both of them based on drones, I guess Magnate deserve 40 Band.

From my personal experience, quiet a number of people will switch to Gila at very early stage, once the get to cruiser hull, especially with some drone skills trained already, and with further development toward Tengu.

But those Amarr cruisers only have tops 50m3 bandwidth. You're talking about giving the frigate 4/5s of the DPS projection of the cruiser. Amarr's pattern on their drone boats is fly less, have more in reserve. the 15/45 first along those lines. Even the Amarr T3, the Legion, in it's Drone boat configuration is only 50m3 bandwidth, and 200m3 bay.

I think putting Imicus with 20 bandwidth vs 15 for all other frigs may put this frig in dominating position, like Tengu comparing to other T3. Especially if whole concept of this new frigs designed for new people using distance tanking/drone dps techniques.

To keep things a bit balanced I'll love to see Magnate with 20 bandwidth and less drones bay capacity.

Yes, I understand it is for new people in game, who want to try different things and exploration is a sort of content to keep people in game, especially in the beginning of the game mechanics learning curve.

Therefore, if we look a bit ahead, developing exploration as mini-profession (it is not anymore, btw) can just go along the path like Imicus-Vexor-Helios-Ishtar or
Magnate-Arbitrator-Anathema-Pilgrim

Since both of them based on drones, I guess Magnate deserve 40 Band.

From my personal experience, quiet a number of people will switch to Gila at very early stage, once the get to cruiser hull, especially with some drone skills trained already, and with further development toward Tengu.

I dunno, I'd say that 2 turrets/2 launchers + 3 drones > 1 turret + 4 drones.

-Liang

I don't like this setup at all. It seems too vanilla. They are all more or less mirror images of each other. There is no other racial ship that is this vanilla across the board except for the current racial mining frigates and they are being done away with. My suggestion would be to cater each race to a specific role of exploration. Maybe to follow racial sensor types

Amarr - Radar - Bonus to Code Breakers

Caldari - Gravimetric - Minor bonus to code breakers, analyzers and salvagers. (Jack of all trades and master of none)

Gallente - Magnetometric - Bonus to Analyzers

Minmattar - Ladar - Bonus to Salvagers (doesn't make perfect sense but it had to go somewhere)

Greetings,

I'm sure it must have been mentioned before (or not), but I'm slightly curious on why does the Imicus is the slowest, the one which has the highest signature radius and the one with the worst align time?

Thank you in advance!

Akriel

I don't know how it affects mobility but the Imicus also has the lowest mass. Does that mean it gets a more efficient use of propulsion mods than the others? Might explain it

We felt that they were good enough as cyno ships as is, and that capital projection isn't really an area of the game that needs a buff right now.

Since cyno lighting is such a big part of their use, the equalized cargo capacity is intended to make sure that each of them can at least keep up with the old Probe.

The avenues for these ships to become more useful to older players most likely will lie with hacking and archaeology.

I was just thinking out of the box... why ships need to sacrifice themselfes to open the Cyno? this makes no sense if you think about it... In real life it would make no sense at all.

Fozzie, I've been noticing about 1 in 10 posters mention that the issue lies with exploration content rather than exploration ships. After all, part of the purpose of re-designing these ships is making sure people have a reason to use them (i.e. that there's something fun to do with them).

Perhaps once you've finished the ship re-balancing, you might float the idea of adding to the abilities of Codebreaker/Analyzer/Salvager Modules. Instead of these being "click for loots" modules, there should be some more meaningful content behind their usage.

For instance, in the game Fallout, hacking a computer system involved what amounted to a quick game of hangman.

I'm not proposing that system exactly, but some, similar, system that lets the player's (not the character's) intelligence, skill, agility, and/or experience at hacking/salvaging/analyzing positively influence the outcome (honestly, the process of scanning itself could use more of this... very dull).

Other ideas, like adding more hackable/analyzable targets to the game and making more "sciencey" content, also sounded good (for hacking think: hacking PoS's and other players' ships; for analyzers: running an analyzer on an "Abandoned Mining Colony" could produce links to the wiki lore pages: think CCP Abraxas's project).