TLDR - Move the Drone Damage Amplifier from a Low to a High Slot Module (as advertised).


OBSERVATION - From my very first day of EVE, I knew I wanted to fly Drone Boat ships, even though at the time I was told the only Drones worth using were Hobgoblins, Warriors and Sentries. Fast forward a couple years, and while I love everything CCP have done to rebalance drones and make them worthwhile (beyond worthwhile in a few cases), it seems to me that Drone Boat ships can never be properly balanced so long as drones remain a secondary weapon system... and it seems to me drones will always remain a secondary weapon system so long as they aren't competing with other weapon systems for High Slots.


PROPOSAL - Move the DDA from a Low Slot Module to a High Slot Module. Why the DDA? The basic thinking here is to create a direct trade-off of DPS for DPS between Turrets and Drones. In theory a ship would gain the choice to either fit Turrets in the High slots, leaving Drones as a secondary weapon system, or trade out the Turrets for DDAs to augment the drone damage and effectively turn them into the primary weapon system. It also seems (at face value) an elegant solution that doesn't interfere with the way Drones currently operate (previous suggestions I've read, usually involved adding some variation of a Drone Bay Module to the High Slots).

Once moved to a High Slot, the sky's the limit...
* Instead of a 15% bonus (Tech 1) with stacking penalties, a DDA could drop to a consistent 10%-12% (I'm not nearly qualified to pick a correct figure) per DDA, allowing larger ships with more High slots to get better output from their Drones than smaller ships with less High slots (same way bigger ships can fit more guns).
* DDAs could become an active module, using cap like other primary weapon systems, and perhaps even be overheated for even more damage (since from what I've read, an increased rate of fire isn't possible).
* Perhaps such changes could even allow Drone Boats to add back in the module slot they are penalised for being Drone Boats.


POTENTIAL DOWNSIDES (I'm not sure which of these actually are downsides, but worth consideration...)
* Full balance pass over all Drone Bonused Ships would likely need to accompany such a change. Ideally I'd love to think this change could be mathed out without needing to adjust the ships, but that's highly unlikely - It's a simple change, but with big implications (particularly if DDA were changed to an active module).
* Ships bonused for both drones and a second weapon system could be an issue (Guristas in particular come to mind) as the DDAs competing with Turrets could be problematic.
* Carriers could be an issue, as the DDAs would now compete for space with Drone Control Units (though depending on what CCP have planned for Carriers this could be a non-issue (DCUs may go the way of the dodo).

I'm far from any kind of authority on EVE Online, so by all means, feel free to rip this to pieces or expand on the potential benefits/consequences a change like this might have on the game.