Dev Blog was really quite hazy about the some of the important bit of the Sentry Drone alterations.


With the base increase of T1 Sentries, and the 2% increase per level, will a char with say Racial Drone spec IV and all the other drone skills maxed deal equal or less damage with a set of T2 Sentries (Say Gardes) than they did previously with the same skills?[


You spelled the damage changes out quite clearly for everything else, but left the effects on T2 sentries quite hazy.

So how about giving drone assist back to pirates in lowsec?

Those lowslot omnis, will they be a passive unscripted equivalent to TEs?

What racial drone spec skill will affect Shadow bombers?

So will Omnis also affect Fighters and FiBos now?

"Fighter Bombers will need Drone Interfacing 5 and two Tech Two Drone Damage Amplifiers to slightly surpass their current damage rates"

but

"This change allows Supercarriers to deal the same damage as they currently enjoy while causing less server load"

as these two lines contradict each other are they nerfing supers or not

and if they are why would you reduce super damage they need a massive buff please fix.

Can you address the question of access to racial T2 sentries for those with Sentry Drone Interfacing trained to V. As it stands, those with that skill will lose access to existing weapons when the requirement for racial skills is implemented. Will those pilots receive the minimum level of racial skill to compensate?

CCP Fozzie: please stop avoiding the question!

Clearly this is a buff to Wyverns and a nerf to Armor Supercaps, the Nyx especially.

The Wyvern will now have the best tank as well as the best DPS due to lowslot availability.


Please clarify if this was a conscious decision, and if so, what was the rationale behind it?

I'm sure many of us would appreciate some transparency here...

CCP Fozzie -- I asked this a few pages back, I'll ask again.

Can we look forward to Drone related hardwires ? Drones are the only primary weapon system in Eve without any hardwires. Honestly I don't even need DPS hardwires [though that would be nice].. even MWD/Normal Speed, HP, etc would be awesome.

Can we look forward to more Drone Rigs ? As it stands there are a few universal for speed and such, and then the mining and sentry specific ones. Can we see either some universal damage ones, or some for Light/Medium/Heavy damage, to complement the Sentry one ?

We have the Nav Computer, that boosts MWD speed, and the Rig that boosts normal speed.. any chance we can see a Mid to boost normal speed too ? Some drones, most notably Havies, would REALLY benefit from more speed chasing targets without having to give up a Rig slot.

Lastly, Sisters of Eve are now a Drone wielding force. Shouldn't they also get some of the Drone faction mods ? (probably some laser ones too) .. It only makes sense to keep them in line with the other factions and their selection of mods that are tied to their weapon systems.

If you could address some of this I'd be most thankful.

increasing the weapon system risk

On the smaller scale did I miss a modification to drone damage based ships? If not looks like I'm getting closer to quitting eve, because my max skill Arbitrator just got it's DPS cut by over a 25%. Hammer Head IIs x5 +33% base damage increase -50% Drone Interfacing = -27%. Please tell me I am missing something or my math is wrong because last I checked anything over a 25% damage reduction is a total nerf?
On a side note I saw nothing about removing or reducing stacking penalty from Ewar and Combat Util drones leaving them still useless.

Numbers, please

Shouldn't the heavy drones orbit farther then the medium drones ? In the spreadsheet it's the same optimal for both.

Can I still control half of 0.0 with a sentry carrier blob thats all I wanna know..

In the latest summary dev blog I read about a change to the tracking/optimal to all drones ... will they now be able to apply damage to small stationary targets when in orbit? Last week when I tested on SiSi Hammers where not at all and Hobs only occasionally applying damage to a stationary Hobgoblin II ... In contrast during approach before reaching orbit they applied almost the full damage. Maybe this test was not realistic, because in a real fight the enemy drones would move ... but webbing seems counterproductive in this case.

fozzie ... are geckos going to be updated with the new drone ranges etc? .. and also will 1 gecko they still do more dps than 2 ogres like they do now ?