FearlessLittleToaster
GoonWaffe
Goonswarm Federation
47
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Posted - 2015.06.24 16:52:57 -
[1] - Quote
First off, I apologize for being late to the party as it were; I was on a field problem where access to electricity made it a good day so replying to the first thread was not an option. That being said, better late than never.
Overall I'm in favor of the changes. The power creep of fleetwarp from all the other changes that impacted it (probing improvements, warp speed changes, etc) meant that it had gotten a bit out of hand. However I'm concerned that the loss of tactical mobility on grid will have an overall negative impact on fleet combat. Since fleets are always moving this matters quite a lot.
Right now a slower fleet only has one way to re-position relative to a faster one, and that is combat probes. Even as things stand a fast cruiser doctrine can move 12+ km from the point that the slower fleet lands, though this is not enough to keep interceptors from sticking to them like hair on a gorilla. With the new changes that distance would about double, if some testing I just did is correct.
On the surface this wouldn't look like a big issue since a 2km/s cruiser fleets is still hosed in a race with a 5km/s interceptor fleet. The problem is the time it takes for the inties to close that distance, and the further 12+ km that the cruisers will move while it happens. So long as the cruisers can track and hit an MWDing interceptor it gives them quite a bit of time to shoot at the tackle while it tries to catch up. With their larger sig radius and slightly lower speed this is a particular problem for interdictors, assuming that their opponents aren't nullified T3s that don't have to care. As well, it gives the cruiser fleet that much more time to warp out after they see combat probes on D-Scan.
After these changes go into effect there will not be a viable way to put tackle on a fast moving cruiser fleet (except a comedy Succubus fleet?). Probing will simply be too slow to catch a fleet that can go much over (roughly) 1.8km/s and load Javelin M or RLMLs. Trying to use interceptors and frigates to close will just result in massive casualties on the part of the tacklers. Sure the pursuer could just bring a TON of frigates and eat the losses but why would they? Instead, given the overall very high SP and wealth of the average nullsec alliance, everyone is going to fly some variant of the 250mm rail/MWD Tengu. You are right that it won't be a Slippery Pete though; there won't be any need for all the ECCM because being probed out will be irrelevant.
All of this goes back to the fact that it is very hard to achieve any sort of tactical surprise in Eve. Hotdrops and combat probing were pretty much the only ways to do it that everyone couldn't see coming far in advance. Now its going to be just hotdrops, and those are really not all that feasible in most situations. With as much reaction time as a FC will be able to count on having after this any ship type not able to hit out to 160km will be a ticket to frustration.
To fix this problem I suggest a second change to go along with the fleetwarp nerf. Make Covops able to run a prop mod while cloaked, but make their decloak radius expand by the same percentage (or even more) as their speed is boosted. This would enable FCs to use scouts to get ahead of fleets that didn't change direction occasionally, make wrecks and debris on the battlefield meaningful, and generally make somebody who really understood how to fly their ship in space worth their weight in gold. Instead of "align to thing ---> call targets ---> see hostiles coming, laugh, punch warp" FCs would have to be constantly asking themselves "is anyone sneaking up on me right now?" |