I fly interceptor a lot and also die a lot in them. One thing that compensate the sacrifice a interceptor pilot sometimes do to tackle a ship for your mates to kill and die in the process is that sometimes we survive and the loot is yours to take.

Why can't I have my already small cargo space untouched so I can take my reward for catching that Tengu and hold it up to structure until someone put a second scrambler on him so I can get out, don't we interceptor pilots deserve to get a piece of the loot also?

Why did you nerf the cargo space?

Looking forward to the changes.

One small point that I'd like to raise a question for is the lockrange: 22.5km is relatively short.

I was hoping to see 27.5km to be the lowest and the other 32.5km instead of 22.5/27.5.


All in all, this is really interesting.

What if, instead of making the nullification a high slot module, we remove the ability for a ceptor to fit cynos altogether? This would, in theory, make it less of a Hotdrop-o-clock-win-button and more of a tactical asset to scouting and tackling. Honestly, with interceptors balanced as they are for Rubicon now, there will no longer be any form of protection against capital hotdrops. Covops ships still need to negotiate bubbled camps and T3s are expensive enough to make them a less than ideal option for a traditionally suicidal roll.

This is a ship with a relatively low skill barrier, relatively low cost, immunity to any form of blockade, incredible speed and manuverability, and the ability to drop a fleet anywhere without any way to stop it. While that sounds like a helluva lot of fun to fly, I agree that it needs a bit of tweaking before it can be introduced without massive imbalancing. The reduced cargo capacity will do little to circumvent this, as anyone looking to light a non-covert cyno is already almost certain to be destroyed, so a cyno-ceptor wouldn't think twice about gimping their fit with cargo extenders.

I dunno, this idea could be completely ridiculous for some reason I'm not noticing. What do others think?

these stats are calculated at all 5 skills?

in which case damn that IS short

Why did you nerf the cargo space?

Because otherwise everyone would be using them as disposable cyno ships or for carrying items of medium value through nullsec due to the bubble immunity. An interceptor won't be caught except by the most specialised remote sebo gatecamp after rubicon. Interceptors are not haulers!

Interceptors won't even be caught by those. The excellent agility/warp speed Rubicon changes means that you go into warp as you visually break cloak. The only thing that can slow them down are drag bubbles or 'dictors, which the nullification change breaks.

People will use them as disposable cynos and haulers, just as the main use of nullified cloaky tech 3's has been hauling valuable cargo for years.

Interceptors will be haulers, and cyno ships, and uncatchable small gang roaming doctrines. There is no way to kill them unless they make a mistake in choosing an engagement or if they fall asleep on a gate somewhere. That is not "balance."

Instalock canes will do the exact same thing they do to bombers to these interceptors, just FYI.

What if, instead of making the nullification a high slot module, we remove the ability for a ceptor to fit cynos altogether? This would, in theory, make it less of a Hotdrop-o-clock-win-button and more of a tactical asset to scouting and tackling. Honestly, with interceptors balanced as they are for Rubicon now, there will no longer be any form of protection against capital hotdrops. Covops ships still need to negotiate bubbled camps and T3s are expensive enough to make them a less than ideal option for a traditionally suicidal roll.

This is a ship with a relatively low skill barrier, relatively low cost, immunity to any form of blockade, incredible speed and manuverability, and the ability to drop a fleet anywhere without any way to stop it. While that sounds like a helluva lot of fun to fly, I agree that it needs a bit of tweaking before it can be introduced without massive imbalancing. The reduced cargo capacity will do little to circumvent this, as anyone looking to light a non-covert cyno is already almost certain to be destroyed, so a cyno-ceptor wouldn't think twice about gimping their fit with cargo extenders.

I dunno, this idea could be completely ridiculous for some reason I'm not noticing. What do others think?

Instalock canes will do the exact same thing they do to bombers to these interceptors, just FYI.

Interceptors won't even be caught by those. The excellent agility/warp speed Rubicon changes means that you go into warp as you visually break cloak. The only thing that can slow them down are drag bubbles or 'dictors, which the nullification change breaks.

People will use them as disposable cynos and haulers, just as the main use of nullified cloaky tech 3's has been hauling valuable cargo for years.

Interceptors will be haulers, and cyno ships, and uncatchable small gang roaming doctrines. There is no way to kill them unless they make a mistake in choosing an engagement or if they fall asleep on a gate somewhere. That is not "balance."

You only say this because you have no experience flying Interceptors. On a large number of targets Ceptor pilots need to burn in for a scram to get a kill. That leaves them exposed to neuts and webs.

Additionally T2 Pulse Lasers, T2 Autos, and RLMLs can project high damage out to heated point range with good tracking. Many frigates are fast enough to burn for a scram. Rapier, Curses, or Geddons on the field provide formidable obstacles as well.

Also Rubicon didn't change time to enter warp. It changed the time between entering warp and attaining max speed. With standard interceptor fits you'll still have 3-5 server ticks to lock the Ceptor before it gets into warp.

Wasn't talking about during a fight. During a fight, you can kill interceptors incredibly easy. I think you're having a reading comprehension issue there. During a decent sized fight, yeah, kill them all day. Nullification does nothing to aid interceptors during fights.

The problem with nullification on interceptors isn't about a 20v20 fight, or even a 10v10 fight, or whatever other number you can dream up. It's an issue of travel. You don't have 3-5 server ticks to lock a 'ceptor before it gets into warp... fit for travel, they will not be able to be pointed, webbed or even locked while traveling.

More the issue is the number of fights this will reduce when smart small gang FC's go "Well, I could take out a 7 man gang of X ships for a fun roam, be completely overtaken by a 30 man home defense blob since I can no longer defensively bubble to run away... or... I could just take out seven crusaders, not be able to be tackled unless I want to be tackled and be immune to bubbles so I can chase ratters with impunity."

A small gang FC that doesn't choose the latter is simply not using his brain. Easymode, imbalanced, and pointless. Interceptors gain no tangible benefit from having nullification other than being able to warp through anchored bubbles on gates. A simpler solution would be to restrict being able to anchor bubbles on gates to 40km.

[Crow, Rubicon]
Damage Control II
Small Ancillary Armor Repairer, Nanite Repair Paste
Ballistic Control System II

J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
1MN Afterburner II
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I
Fleeting Propulsion Inhibitor I

Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket
Rocket Launcher II, Scourge Rage Rocket

Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I
Small Auxiliary Nano Pump I




All hail the CROW, new king of FW!

50% less cargo and 50% more lock range plz :O

Must admit, we're going to see interceptors with cynos and cargo expanders appearing on capital loss mails so sort of like them close to the 100M3 mark (250 LO needs 100M3).

However if something has to go to get that lock range, I vote cargo bay area :O

And what prevents you from lighting a cyno in an interceptor and then titan bridging a more capable cyno ship onto the interceptor so that you then can bridge in whatever the hell you want?

Wild suggestion appears: what if most of any inty's cargohold is to be replaced with ammo bay like the one on Hoarder (you can store ammo, cap boosters, scripts and nano paste there AFAIK, so no loss for interceptor's direct usage).

Should solve any kind of inty cyno or inty hauling issues unless CCP specifically wants inties to be cyno/small hauling capable.

Also, make sure that the ship can automatically take charges from ammo bay to feed its mods unless current code already allows this (I'm not aware if it's only possible with regular cargohold or not).

only problem i'd have with this is a 65m^3 mobile small warp disruptor is pretty standard cargo for inties, wouldn't want that going away

Wild suggestion appears: what if most of any inty's cargohold is to be replaced with ammo bay like the one on Hoarder (you can store ammo, cap boosters, scripts and nano paste there AFAIK, so no loss for interceptor's direct usage).

Should solve any kind of inty cyno or inty hauling issues unless CCP specifically wants inties to be cyno/small hauling capable.

Also, make sure that the ship can automatically take charges from ammo bay to feed its mods unless current code already allows this (I'm not aware if it's only possible with regular cargohold or not).

The lock range is still an issue, as others have said, but I can accept that a fleet interceptor will be able to benefit from another pilot tagging them with a Remote Sensor Booster to help mitigate that issue. Combat inties (which is and always will be an oxymoron IMO) are probably going to default fit scrams anyhow, so lock range isn't so big a deal to them.

For example:

Current:
Stiletto with L5 lock range skill, full squad bonuses (+10% lock range) and a non-scripted RSBII = 48.3km
Stiletto with L5 lock range skill, full squad bonuses (+10% lock range) and a range scripted RSBII = 62.22km

Proposed new:
Stiletto with L5 lock range skill, full squad bonuses (+10% lock range) and a non-scripted RSBII = 53.13km
Stiletto with L5 lock range skill, full squad bonuses (+10% lock range) and a range scripted RSBII = 68.442km

In short: TEAMWORK. Abuse your fleet mates. Not everyone needs a tackle mod.

only problem i'd have with this is a 65m^3 mobile small warp disruptor is pretty standard cargo for inties, wouldn't want that going away