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Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 5 post(s) |
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CCP Delegate Zero
C C P C C P Alliance
201
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Posted - 2015.05.20 20:46:24 -
[1] - Quote
As part of the ongoing module tiericide efforts we are making some consolidation and balance changes to armor plates and shield extenders.
In general the principles being followed are as for module tiericide as a whole:
Goals of Module Tiericide
- Reduce unnecessary complexity
- Provide meaningful options within the module set
Specifically the pattern of changes for both armor plates and shield extenders aims to:
- Remove the clearly superfluous '50mm' and micro' size categories.
- Consolidate 'Named' modules from meta levels 1-4 into two variants within meta level 1 - a 'compact' variant and a 'restrained' variant.
- Maintain the general positioning and power level of Tech II variants in the families.
- Place 'Storyline' variants in a place that is somewhere between the 'compact' and Tech II variants in terms of relevant stats.
- Significantly enhance the appeal of 'Faction' variants with substantial relative easing of fitting and increases in bonuses, while maintaining relatively low penalties.
- Establish diversity within the 'Faction' variants by adjusting stats in broadly in line with thematic notes as far as available tuning allows.
The case for removing the 50mm plates and micro extenders respectively was fairly clear. It also seemed reasonable to double up the HP bonus of small shield extenders to open up more use cases for them compared with medium extenders. The case of plate size groupings is more complicated due to the greater number of options that exist. There is an argument that 100mm plates remain something of an oddity but for this pass we have decided to eliminate the obviously subpar options represented by 50mm and micro modules and see how matters develop.
Change Sheets
Rather than blast a series of densely packed numbers at you in text form, the changes can be viewed in the following sheets:
Armor Plates Module Tiericide
Shield Extender Module Tiericide
Consequences of Consolidation Changes
Some merging of modules will take place as a result of these changes.
All existing 50mm plates will be changed into a special 'Storyline' 100mm plate designed to be very low fitting, low bonus, low penalty. The same will hold true of Micro shield extenders, as they will merge into a Small extender following a similar stat profile.
In terms of 'Named' modules, the 'Reinforced Nanofiber Plates' range will merge into the 'Crystalline Carbonide Restrained Plates'. Likewise, the 'Reinforced Titanium Plates' will merge into the 'Rolled Tungsten Compact Plates'.
With shield extenders this process is mirrored by the merger of 'Subordinate Screen Stabilizers' into 'F-S9 Regolith Compact Shield Extenders', and the merger of 'Supplemental Barrier Emitters' into 'Azeotropic Restrained Shield Extenders'.
Aspects of naming have necessarily changed to reflect the changes, with the balance of flavor and information in naming conventions that has been settled on with previous sets of module tiericide changes.
As a reminder the meta module signifiers used for these changes are:
- Compact: lower fitting requirements
- Restrained: lower penalties on use
The sources of modules will remain the same in terms of loot drops, LP stores and so on.
Release Plan
These changes are planned for the June 2nd release and are currently available to play around with on the Singularity test server.
Please let us have your feedback or questions regarding these planned changes.
CCP Delegate Zero | Game Designer | @CCPDelegateZero
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CCP Delegate Zero
C C P C C P Alliance
209
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Posted - 2015.05.21 11:50:53 -
[2] - Quote
Omnathious Deninard wrote:So, what will happen to the 50mm reinforced steel plate BPOs and the micro shield extender BPOs?
Good question, the plan is to update the 50mm blueprints to 100mm plate prints. As these are BPOs they will be updated to the equivalent 100mm variants.
There are no micro shield extender blueprints with the exception of the existing storyline module print and that will shift to its new 100mm incarnation.
On the concerns raised about plates, primarily on tech II plates, we will take another look. This will likely involve a change to the respective balance of tech II and storyline plates.
We'll also take another look at the balance within the faction meta groups in light of feedback.
A general point on module tiericide as an aside: one of the main points of the exercise as a whole is to get the large range of modules in the game into a more coherent state that will actually facilitate balancing more frequently as needed in the future.
CCP Delegate Zero | Game Designer | @CCPDelegateZero
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CCP Delegate Zero
C C P C C P Alliance
212
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Posted - 2015.05.22 17:02:11 -
[3] - Quote
The stats sheets have been updated with some changes we will make in light of feedback.
Change Sheets - Updated 22-05-15
Armor Plates Module Tiericide
Shield Extender Module Tiericide
In summary, on reflection the Tech II armor plates have had their HP values maintained as at current TQ numbers; the Storyline plates have been adjusted a group to have low fitting requirements but with less HP bonus than in the original proposed changes; the Syndicate faction plates have had a significant powergrid requirement cut in order to further differentiate them and hopefully make them an attractive option for some uses.
Minor adjustment to Storyline shield extenders to emphasize the lower fitting aspect of the modules is also included.
Hopefully this addresses the bulk of the concerns. We've listened to all the feedback but don't necessarily agree with all of it. I want to also note that these changes are taking place as part of the module tiericide effort and don't represent the last word in balance of these module groups.
CCP Delegate Zero | Game Designer | @CCPDelegateZero
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CCP Delegate Zero
C C P C C P Alliance
219
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Posted - 2015.05.22 18:27:46 -
[4] - Quote
Valterra Craven wrote: It seems like a lot of the feedback here was "this was a start, but why not just redo these groups as a whole the first time sense you are expending effort on them now?"
Are these efforts PURELY teiricide just to cut down on the amount of "fluff" we have just so you can go back at a future time and redo everything again? If so, isn' that kinda a lot of effort duplicated?
Those are fair points to make but the main effort in this exercise is the rebalance around the principles we are using to inform module tiericide combined with some of the implications of module tiericide, such as where modules and blueprints are removed.
A more radical approach could be contemplated, for sure, and we briefly chatted about it but it is actually a significant bit of extra design time and effort to decide what of various radical options should be taken and to then design around them.
The great benefit of module tiericide is that it is establishing a more coherent framework that should make big changes easier to contemplate and implement.
Overall, it's a priority call where the allocated time is being focused on a relatively straightforward rebalance and some tidying up rather than on a more radical shift.
It's also I would say useful sometimes to see how changes work out knowing that we have the flexibility to revisit and perhaps do more due to the way we now release features. I would anticipate some revisiting once we've done the basic sweep through modules in the current effort.
CCP Delegate Zero | Game Designer | @CCPDelegateZero
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CCP Delegate Zero
C C P C C P Alliance
227
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Posted - 2015.05.26 13:16:28 -
[5] - Quote
Mike theBuilder wrote: When your saying "merge", are we to expect that say the Nanofiber Plates will become what is currently the Meta 3 Module (Crystaline Carbonide Plate), and this combined item gets its name changed, stats adjusted and becomes a Meta 1 Item (it keeps its old TypeID and so on), or those two old modules combined become a new module that will have a new ID, and the balanced stats.
The former case - modules variants that are removed will be turned into remaining variants.
CCP Delegate Zero | Game Designer | @CCPDelegateZero
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