Well if the domi is going to be truly thought of as the dedicated drone boat, and is loosing its hybrid bonus and dps how about enabling it to fit one or more 'Drone Control Units' that would make me happy.

Considering drones never had an issue hitting in the first place what exactly do you call the change? Below 40km a Geddon is a better ship and for sniping turret boats are just better because they can move.

This is a nerf until either:
drone range bonus is included
drone damge bonus increased
number of drones launched is increased

You really don't like the Gallente BS do you? These are major nerfs for the Domi and I can pray to God that they don't change the Navy version with this nerf also.

Actually I would like to take a minute to address drones and the new Dominix.

As it seems right now we're getting the new bonus of:
+10% Drone optimal range and Drone tracking speed (replaces large hybrid turret damage)

This MOSTLY affects Sentry drones. You can pretend it doesn't affect the other drones, but it does. It lets Mediums hit frigates better and Heavies hit cruisers harder (and more consistently in both cases). Grab a friend with a frigate and cruiser on SiSi and test the drone's performance with a Dominix equipped with dual OTLs and without. The difference isn't mind boggling but it's there, and it allows the Dominix more consistently applied DPS.

But anyway, it MOSTLY affects Sentry drones, like everyone in this thread already knows. So what's the problem with that? Well, to a certain extent, none. Sentry drones are awesome and giving them a range/tracking bonus really WOULD help set the Dominix apart from the Armageddon. I say would because BY ITSELF it isn't enough. So something needs to change.

One of the biggest problems is Drone Control Range. From a gameplay and lore perspective drone control range makes sense. But for SENTRY drones it doesn't. The idea behind Drone Control Range is that you have a limited space within which to stream information and commands to your drones. So, I ask, WHY does this apply to Sentry Drones? They're (normally) sitting right next to you the whole time. If I can lock a target 120+km out (with SeBos that will be equipped instead of OTLs with this rebalance) my beautifully optimally buffed Bouncer IIs SHOULD be able to start sniping it. And I shouldn't have to have my high slots filled with heavy CPU stealing Drone Link Augmentor IIs. There is no sense to the Drone Control Range hindering sentries in that sense. Instead, the Drone Control Range should come into effect for your distance from the drones, not (necessarily) the target. I say necessarily because in the case of Attack/Scout drones, where they will have to move TO said target, target distance stops being a non-issue and the drones shouldn't be able to comply.

I personally see no reason why, if I'm 59km from my Warden IIs, and my target is another 100km away from me, why I can't stream that targeting information to the Sentry drones and have them engage my target. I DO see why I shouldn't be able to sick a flight of 10km/s (DNC boosted) Warrior IIs on them. If there is a serious gameplay balance issue with this, please enlighten me because I personally don't see it.



So yeah, I think that change alone could really help the Dominix stand out from the Armageddon, at least as a drone sniper. This problem does nothing to solve that sentries can't move/etc. and that still needs to be addressed. In fact it all needs to be addressed in my opinion. I think that such a simple change would actually be more beneficial than a drone control range ship bonus as it leaves the Dominix's attack drones regulated to the 60km maximum, but the sentry drones become far more viable in comparison, but all drones for the ship are still getting a nice little buff.

I'm worried this will go overlooked by CCP in the vast depths of this thread, but I don't see any immediate problems with such a proposal. And yeah, CCP, drones still need an overhaul!

How about giving the domi a special ability next to the new bonuses - 99% less powergrid use for drone control units and giving it a 250 bandtidth. Also make the control unit cheaper to produce so you wouldn't turn a ship with 10 drones 5 times more expensive. This would cause the Domi pilots to give up some high slots for extra drones and leave them with one extra slot for a neut or something. I think this would be the most balanced way of giving the Domi 10 drones. Also, extra drone bay space would be nice.

Not a single Gallante BS that can fit a full rack of 8 anymore with the proposed changes. Bonus's aside, it was nice to have that as an option. In my opinion.

Would think ships would get roles, not an entire race. Dont like drones?......too bad..find another race to fly.

Catalyst, Talos...full rack. Cheap gank, and PVP ships. As I fly.

No, my point would be, that it shouldnt stop when it gets to Battleships. As these changes will make.

Some of the drone changes/ideas that you mention might work.

Thing is, they are not scheduled for Odyssey. There is no thread for them. It is much harder to do this than swapping ship bonuses around.

Unless drone mechanics is thoroughly overhauled, the new Domi comes out as comparatively underpowered, inconsistent, and generally boring ship to fly.

And I have not seen any good explanation as to what is wrong with the old Domi, except "every race gets one attack and two combat BS". Except they really don't. Caldari have a disruption BS. Amarr have a disruption/attack hybrid (new Geddon). And Gallente are getting nerfed.

Of the current subcap lineup, only two ships have a drone damage bonus instead of hybrid damage bonus. Domi will be third, Tristan is the oddball and has no damage bonus at all. Myrmidon does 2/3 of damage with Ogres, with medium drones it's 1/2. Ishtar does most of it's damage with drones, but still has hybrid damage bonus.

Gallente is blaster race, even if it has a handful of drone ships.

The fact that Creo*Dron is a T2 manufacturer pretty much proves the point you're trying to make without a long list. Haha.

Creo*Dron = Drones (Gallente only T2 specializations)
Duvolle Labs = Blasters
Roden shipyards = Useless bonuses and fittings (Oops!)

The dominix bonuses seems .. weak. The reason I say this is because of the split between the turret platform and the drone platform. Now that the damage bonus has been removed from the turret side, and the drone platform has been given a range bonus, the ship's role preference will be moved towards a sniping role. With this, the effectiveness of the turret side is mitigated even more as it doesn't have the range of the now drones, leaving the ship as a mediocre drone sniper.

Opinion: The drone damage bonus should be increased in light of the new changes, to make up for the incoherency.

A drone buff would be better than changing the Dominix, what's wrong with making sentries follow the host ship at a close orbit? They only advantage over other snipers they have is not needing ammo which doesn't make up for them being destructible and stationary. I can live in content with one of those drawbacks but with both it's too much for sentries to be viable on subcaps without massive bay

I don't like this change for the domi but that is true, and it might make the rohk obsolete because of this crazy damage projection.

You forgot the 4 DLA IIs.