So, most folks aren't aware of this, but there is a cross-penalty between SDAs and DDAs: since DDAs objectively offer more of a bonus, a decent droneboat aiming for maximum DPS will throw at least 2-4 of those on.

That's like a DPS loanshark coming up to a sentry pilot, beating the stuffing out of them with a nerfbat, and then saying, "Well, look at all these tactical advantages you've had - guess what? You ALREADY paid for them before (what with having less DPS than heavies), but now you're going to have to pay for them - AGAIN - BY LOSING EVEN MORE DPS!"

1. You have 375 dronebay and another 2 sets in cargohold. Trying to eat through 10+ drones is a waste of time unless have spare bomberwings.
2. so? That makes their tracking better and if someone made it to a place where he can apply dps and you do not you can just abandon and relaunch.
3. If I know nothing then what is the less than nothing you know called?

4. Droneinterface is bad, yes. Welcome to eve. But in exchange you get a weapon that fires when you go afk or are jammed.
5. People have been running sleepersite with drones for ages. You just need to learn how to control AI aggression for PvE. Doesn-¦t matter in PvP at all.
6. All that explosive damage from lasers is really a problem.
7. true, I guess that is on the list for fixing. Like we are getting faction DDAs now.

Maybe you can not compare them 1-1, but overall drones have massive advantages over turrets esp and very little drawbacks.

The no fittingrequirements is just so strong. Turretships need to downgrade their guns often enough to fit a decent tank while droneboats can fit 3 tankmodules or fill the highslots up on neuts etc.

It's not a huge nerf by any stretch of the imagination, and it comes on the heels of numerous drone buffs that made them silly effective against everything. This change simply puts them back in a more sane place, both in terms of damage output and damage application.

No, it's not, for the simple reason that that never actually happened. Heavies were always awful and sentries were always better GÇö the introduction of rat AI did not change this. If you were using heavies before Level1 AI, you were doing it wrong. Oh, and if you lost tons of drones after the AI introduction, you were also doing it wrong.

Oh, they have to train a whole lot more than that to get each racial variation of their size category.

I guess this argument would fly much better if we had a subcap ship with 1100+ paper dps with just drones.

... In practice, damage with T2 Gardes and Bouncers will be going down a bit (but with Bouncers gaining a lot of tracking and Gardes gaining a fair amount of falloff) while damage with T2 Curators and Wardens goes up a bit.

The opportunities for confusion about the crimewarch implications of actions (the pilot who assisted the drones would lose sec status and get gate guns without any direct action on their part) means this is not something we plan to change.

Drone assist will continue to be a mechanic that is somewhat limited in empire space, along with other mechanics such as bombs and bubbles.

Be aware of the side effect this is going to have on new players wanting to fly the Algos. To reach its full potential you will need to train both light and medium drones. This previously was done with one skill but now will require two. Same thing goes for the Vexor. In both cases you will need to train for three weapon system to fully use the ship. This is not new player friendly.

Actually, it is. Drones will have more damage by default thanks do Interfacing nerf, meaning a new player will be able to push out more damage with lower overall skill. It'll still take time to skill up to full potential, but it won't be crippling like it is today.

Sounds pretty good to me. I wish you guys used this rebalance as a time to adjust fighter size (and carrier drone bay size to match), so that carriers cannot carry as many extra drones. Make them 600m3 if you are worried about subcaps being able to carry them, or better yet, make them 300m3.

This all looks good. Is there any chance of you guys looking at the drone UI. Some buttons on the HUD that would launch, recall, engage etc drones would be awesome.

Wyvern already had the best tank available, now it will also have most DPS (at the expense of least tank).

Boost Amarr!

I'm sure its must have been mentioned else where in the thread but i do not believe this cause caldari or amarr drones to be used more.

The issue is the gall are best for dps and the mintar are best for speed, there is never really a situation where you'd need to go for a mid-ground solution.

Ideally you would want to make the ammar drones identical to the mintar ones but using em instead of explosive and you would want to be make the caldari ones identical to the gall except kinetic. That way you would have a true choice of damage types to be dealing based upon your situation.