Catherine Laartii
Dominion Fleet Group Templis CALSF
459
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Posted - 2015.01.09 17:33:08 -
[1] - Quote
Ok, so since this is finally a sticky and not a taboo subject, let's talk balance.
As many have pointed out either here or in other threads, cloaks provide a great benefit (which is being invisible) with some decent drawbacks (which are hindering targeting ability and immobility during cloak). I'd like to say from a mechanical standpoint it works, but it also has its problems.
Cloaks on non-covops boats are generally used in lowsec to hide from unwanted attention, whether it be in an fw complex or in a hastily made safe or off gate. For anywhere else, more common tactics exist like using mwd/cloak trick, or simply cloaking up somewhere while you get up to do something in IRL for a bit. From a tactical perspective, they are primarily a defensive technology.
So with that in mind, what can be done to rebalance them to be more useful?
A start I think would be to get rid of the mobility penalty when normal cloaks are active, and set it up so keeping it active requires a certain amount of capacitor to use. I'd also like to see prop mods and potentially things like active hardeners available for use on the t2 and covops cloaks, except there would be an activation delay for them of the same length as the normal targeting delay. Things like local tank mods and an afterburner (not mwd) could be used while cloaked on the t2 improved cloak, while the simpler and easy to fit t1 cloak would function as current except without the speed penalty. T2 and covops would have significantly more capacitor usage, and the covops skill (not the ship skills) would help reduce capacitor usage on covops cloaks.
This would give them a very useful tactical ability while still having them be relatively balanced, since if they're targeted they still wouldn't be able to cloak. Giving you the ability to go back into the shadows and lick your wounds after a fight would be very nice, and the fitting cost of the t2 would limit its usage to cruiser or larger sized ships. I could see it becoming somewhat problematic with bombers, but since they don't active tank and mobility is an advantage they'll hold against their targets regardless of whether they can move a little faster while cloaked, I don't see it becoming a serious balance issue. |