Rynnik
Agony Unleashed
Agony Empire
32
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Posted - 2012.11.30 17:50:00 -
[1] - Quote
The plex ship restriction changes are definitely controversial. Keep a close eye on them hardworking CCP folks!
I think for balance related purposes T2 bundles better with navy and pirate faction then T1 does with navy or pirate faction. Having vanilla T1 be the highest 'ship type' for any relative size makes sense if the goal is to promote FW as a low tech battleground for new players and vets both to engage in. As soon as you allow faction ships in you are best to allow the respective T2 in as well, in my opinion.
This could potentially cause a problem in FW novice plexes right now with the balance of pirate, navy, and T1 frigs. Cruors supported by armour logi frigs, AB boosted drams of running away, Hookbill spam - we will have to see how it plays out but I see no reason in that environment not to include the poor combat inties, AFs, and EAFs. Or better yet ban all faction frigs (including navy) out of this size and leave it as a novice plex which highlights all the rebalance completed and ongoing for T1 frigs and let them become their own small PvP microclimate. Just my opinion, but I think this size as announced could end up dominated by epeen warriors and become the least oriented towards novices at all, and with the lowest proportion of actual good fights.
Since interdictors only really provide utility instead of straight combat improvement over most of their T1 varients and there are no faction versions to muddy the balance waters; FW small plexes are looking like they are in a really nice place right now. The AF vs Dessie vs Sabre vs Pirate frigs sounds like fun.
The announced medium plex is a bit more problematic again. If you are going to allow SFIs and Cynabals you need to allow the HACs and recons in my opinion. But like many people are already saying this doesn't allow much room for the T1 cruisers, despite not seeing the rebalance in action yet. I still think this will be less of an issue then the novice size presents, but it will still be worth keeping a close close eye on.
Anyways, great work overall and this is big step in the correct direction, but I hope whoever is responsible for it keeps an extremely close eye and a mouse hand hovering over the 'change ship restrictions' button. A lot of the problematic indicators here are only really problems for the 'frig' and 'cruiser' sized plexes because those are the only ones with robust faction lines for the hull sizes (since BS don't apply) . The novice/medium plex balance issue could crop up in the other sizes if you do add in dessie and other faction hulls in the future. |