Strikovsky
3
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Posted - 2015.04.07 00:08:52 -
[1] - Quote
Situation
Supers are imbalanced to game breaking proportions. These ships can have EHP that rivals or surpasses a titan, the DPS of a dread and can be spider tanked beyond the levels of a triage carrier all while being e-war immune. Furthermore, theyGÇÖre the sole ship that can fit the remote ECM burst module. This leads to groups whose sole modus operandi is the super fleet. If CCP truly wishes to make nullsec more vibrant and allow smaller entities to take space, it must be accompanied with a nerf to supers.
Background
In order to give smaller entities a chance at nullsec either the bar must be lowered or the effectiveness of these ships must be addressed. Lowering the bar and effectively giving everyone access to nukes, while fun on paper, would not solve the problem. The height of the problem can be illustrated when S2N was disbanded in July of 2013 and lost SOV in 209 systems. This was all retaken in 3 days by N3 and their allies with 300 supers. More recently, we watched Brave get evicted from their SOV in Catch by PL. A much large alliance had no recourse against a small to moderate force of supers.
Assessment
CCP has recognized the imbalance of supers and has made numerous passes at correcting the issue. TheyGÇÖve nerfed the HP of supers, theyGÇÖve removed regular drones, and most recently theyGÇÖve nerfed jump range across the board for all capitals. Coming this summer, theyGÇÖre removing SOV grinding altogether.
CCP understands that a few select groups that hold all the ships that make inhabiting nullsec possible is not conducive with their goals for the game. Unfortunately, theyGÇÖre dancing around the issue, rather than addressing it directly.
Recommendation
ThereGÇÖs an understood balance in the game that a big ship is ineffective against smaller ships. IGÇÖve read numerous times where a battleship gets left behind in a fleet and gets torn to shreds by frigates. This theme of range of effectiveness has many forms in Eve but itGÇÖs a balance of power mechanic that gives Eve the rock-paper-scissors ecosystem we all enjoy. Supers do not adhere to this. The increased lock time of fighters and fighter bombers is another attempt at correcting this, but this does not fix the issue in fleet engagements. CCP should look into how they can best restore this balance of power so that supers are effective in their role but are not the I Win button that they are today.
For talking points one could imagine CCP removing the ability of fighter bombers to attack subcaps or a siege like module that would allow a super to deploy their fighter bombers and thus commit to the fight for an amount of time, this module would also remove remote assistance. But I really think this should be addressed by CCP and the community to decide which would be the most balanced way to address the issue.
Regardless, if CCP is truly working towards making a more vibrant nullsec community, then they must do so with a nerf to supers.
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