Megathron:

Let me say it right out - 8 high, 5 mid, 6 low. With the Megathron moving into an attack role explicitly, we felt that it could really focus on its strengths as a flexible, fast, hybrid damage machine. The new slot layout opens options like dual propulsion with microwarp drive as well as microjump drive. It opens options to tank with shield or armor. It offers more ewar resilience or tackle. The sum of all of these examples is a ship that feels more like a tempest, less like a Hyperion. For us, this matches the intended personality of an attack ship, and we hope you agree.

We've also moved some of its damage from drones to the guns by switching the damage bonus to a rate of fire bonus (rate of fire bonus are more efficient because of the way the math works. Think about how a ship with 50% bonus to rate of fire would shoot twice as often, doing double damage. That would be the same as a 100% turret damage bonus). The result is that more of your damage can capitalize on the tracking bonus, at a small penalty to cap need.

As one of Eve's most iconic ships, we expect you to have strong opinions here. Please share them. We're very excited about this version of the ship and hope you are too!

Gallente Battleship Skill Bonuses:
+5% Large Hybrid Turret rate of fire (replaces large hybrid turret damage)
+7.5% Large Hybrid Turret tracking speed

Slot layout: 8H, 5M(+1), 6L(-1); 7 turrets , 0 launchers(-2)
Fittings: 16000 PWG(+500), 550 CPU(+25)
Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 6300(+89) / 6500(-141) / 7500
Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / cap per second) : 5800(+175) / 1087s / 5.02 (+.15)
Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / align time): 122(+7) / .117(-.0046) / 98400000 / 15.96s (-.63s)
Drones (bandwidth / bay): 100(-25) / 125
Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 72.5km / 95 / 7
Sensor strength: 21 Magnetometric Sensor Strength
Signature radius: 380(-20)

The problem here is that a Battleship will never be fast or agile enough for these changes to matter much. All it means is you're putting the Megathron into the slot of "kinda sorta fast for a BS but will pop before it ever reaches blaster range".

words

Does anyone use BS in solo\small pvp roams?

And you could do the same with a dreadnaught.

Doesn't mean it is an optimal choice. Because it isn't.

BSes can be used in nearly any role, but only truly excel in fleet warfare and PvE.

You could do even more in a Talos in a small gang. Comparable DPS, significantly higher speed, and far more flexibility. Just because it is possible to use a Megathron in that role does not mean it is the ideal ship, let alone ideal blaster platform.

I know you love the ship and it has been your gimmick for ages. A lot of us love the ship. But its specialization is not shield tanked small gang roaming.

Considering the comments, low slots are exactly as valuable as mid slots : Megathron cannot lose its low slot, it's invaluable ; Hyperion cannot lose its mid slot, it's invaluable.

I tend to analyze this as fear of change : mega pilots don't want their mega changed, and hyperion pilots don't want their hyperion changed. The only thing which would please them is a straight addition of something to make their beloved ship OP (read "have more than the others").

Hi again Gallente friends!

We've just had a meeting with the balance team to weigh all your feedback and go over our options for this ship line. We have come up with some new solutions which I think you will be happy about.

Look for an update with the new versions in the next day or two, we are going to spend some time tuning them so that we are less likely to have to make even more changes afterwards.

Thanks again for the input!

I don't really understand why people dislike the new Mega.

We would get a fast BS with 5 med slots for dual web, dual prop, ECCM, ewar, dual cap booster for neut resilience (new geddon anyone?), ....and so on. A very flexible BS, with tracking bonus, highly capable for very small gang PvP because of flexibility.

All for the cost of what? Maybe ~10k EHP?

Why so much hate? It's perfect! I really hope CCP won't drop the 5 med slots idea.

New versions of Hyperion and Megathron posted in the OP - let me know what you guys think.

You see, this is an amarr bias, or how to give a lot more value to low slot than to mid slots.

2 plates 2 eanm and a dc? Is not a solid tank?

I'd consider the Mega's drones as more utility now at this point; this thing has purity of purpose. Rush in, blow the crap out of people, get out.

Armour is not everything in life. Sometimes, ECCM save your life more than a 1600mm plate. Sometimes, a web allow you to kill your target instead of being killed by it. Sometimes, a cap booster allow you to fire your guns instead of sitting defenseless. Sometimes, a MJD allow you to escape instead of dying to the blob. Sometimes, EWAR ruin the day of your ennemy in a lot more reliable way than pure firepower.

And soon, TC will be better than TE...

Oh come on, you know you want to fit the thing with 3 magstabs, 2 TE, 2 nanofibres and a DC and just wreck someone's face with it

then you get rid of utility high (and yes people do USE them, who doesn't use it?!?!) and another 110ish DPS from drones.

Which brings me back to my original point, what did it need 1k extra power grid for?

Extreme gank is way too extreme as Megathron already annihilate anything within range. People will always find ways to abuse dps in a way that doesn't make the game any better. And trust me you can get a sweet tank out of the Mega with 8 lowslots and still hurt people with ease...

The Hyperion shouldn't have to lose its eighth hi-slot. Look at the model. Having eight turrets is literally modelled into it. I'm OK with having the Megathron losing some drone capability and losing its launcher slots but you can't take away the Hyperion's eighth turret. It'll look wonky as hell.

The rate of fire bonus on the Megathron still needs to be addressed, as it causes a lot of issues.

Most of the Gallente changes make no sense

Giving the mega an extra mid is handy for that eccm, but as previously stated dual booster active setups will still fail because acitve armour reps are ****. (AAR's are even worse imo)

The hyper has now been made even worse - losing a mid means those realy fielded active setups wont have enough cap. why not get rid of the active bonus.... it makes no sense... ahhh!

I dont understand why the Gallente are the only race not to have an 8 gun platform thats any good for 'ship o the line' doctrines.

The newest iteration of the Mega makes it a nice fleet boat now maybe, but it lacks for solo/small gang stuff. Lost a lot flexibility. Unfortunately the Mega is the fast BS of the line at the same time.

So we have an attack BS without much flexibility and a combat BS with alot of flexibility. This seems a bit strange for me since speed is an important factor for small scale skirmish warfare. The Mega should keep its flexibility (med slots + tool slot).

its great that domis a drone boat now... but now can you work on making it less ugly so it looks more like something that was made to launch drones... something sexy like the algos

the potato look is outdated since it no longer has weapon bonuses it needs to have its appearance altered to match its primary weapon system not to mention its so ugly that it makes caldari ships look pretty in comparison (moa)

Why not keep the mega is it is? the utility high slot was fun and helped make the ship versatile and diffrent from the other mega's out there. All the ship really needed is the change in damage bonus.

You keep saying this, but my imagination fails me- what utility are you referring to?

I regard a heavy neut/nos, smart bomb, repper or probe launcher (for us wormholios) are highly usable things that extend it's role beyond just tank and spank (neither of which the new Mega does really well, btw).

Not that much variety in mods that go in lows, or?

I didn't mean spider gangs, but a heavy RR can keep a smaller ship like tackle alive. Heavy neut will help breaking tanks. And the token probe launcher is nice to have on battleship since it's the most likely ship to end up on a wrong side of a hole.

Anyway, as you should notice- the extra low merely brings the tank or dps back to it's current levels. You gain nothing compared to current Mega, since it has better base stats to start with. Agility is irrelevant on a BS, you are slow no matter what you do. TEs will get nerfed so a midslot would be more valuable for tracking, same goes to ECCM.

All in all, this extra low slot just fix issues with base stats, but guess that was Rise's idea, to limit the Mega's usability.

Just throwing this one out there..

8 Turret Mega, Tracking and Falloff bonus.
Highslots come from the lows, cause really 4 is the minimum for mids on the BS in my book, I'd generally rather see 5.


Gives it a little range, a little dps, and keeps it good against faster ships like BC's and Cruisers..

That said I don't fly the Mega a whole lot..