Migkado
Amarr
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Posted - 2007.02.16 07:50:00 -
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Edited by: Migkado on 16/02/2007 08:06:32 Edited by: Migkado on 16/02/2007 07:49:03 After reading Tux's Blog, I found myself troubled by a few things:
I agree that at the higher end of possible speeds, several Nano-setups have become overall too fast. My main concern is exactly how far any incoming changes to ship's speeds would go.
There is a limit to how slow something can go and still have the ability to "speed tank" and effectively control the range of the engagement. Given that the possibilities of 3 nerfs to speed-setup ships were mentioned, I fear the implementation of several complementary nerfs would put any ships attempting to use their speed as a battlefield tactic at too great a disadvantage. That lead me to think:
What exactly is the point of the Minmatar speed advantage?
Honestly, the whole concept of a race's ships as a whole having speed as a racial theme is flawed in Eve. Webifier modules greatly reduce the speed of any ship <10km, in a game whose mechanics require ships to fight under 20-24km (inside of scramble range) or at distant, sniping ranges (outside of scramble range and generally safe from incoming tacklers attempting to get into range).
With the minor speed advantage most Minmatar ships have over their equivalents from other races, most engagements in ships larger than frigates have the Minmatar ship too close to the opposing ship's effective range, or either too far away from the 20k web scramble range. There is no real mid-range combat option in Eve, fights generally happen inside scrambling range, or far out from it.
So, with a relatively small speed advantage Minmatar ships have over their equivalent race's shipclasses, the speed is mostly inconsequential and does not compensate for the lesser tanking ability and lesser DPS Minmatar have. When the speed advantage is great enough to actually let the Minmatar's supposed racial advantage actually work for once, it becomes too powerful and requires a nerf. Speed as the overall Minmatar ship feature simply does not work, aside from the Vagabond, Typhoon and Stabber (all ships which typically can go far faster than most other ships of similar size and are capable of crawling out of 10km once hit by a single webifier).
I hope the speed nerf does not make speed-tanking unfeasible for ships such as the Typhoon and Vagabond (which was pretty much the Minmatar's main selling point before Kali). Tux's blog makes it sounds as if he would prefer all ships that are in combat to be <10km apart and simply blasting away at each other until one pops.
Quote: When going into a fight we want people to commit to a fight. That means when you go into a fight you are risking your ship or ships, not just warping in on anything and if you can't handle it you just warp off.
This worries me. Do the acceptable tactics of Eve = slowness or inability to dictate range in and out of scramble range? I hope this was directed more at the great agility of nanoships (brought about by Kali's change to Inertial Stabs) rather than speed in general. There should be the option to choose to be mobile enough for hit-and-run style combat, otherwise it's just a matter of whom brings the biggest blob to the fight.
The proposals for MWD in the blog, aside from the "Make its cap consumption dependant on velocity" one, are simply terrible. Even the velocity/cap consumption option would seem to have an inadvertent nerf effect on interceptors, ships which are meant to be fast.
The general consensus is that the pre-kali speed/agility levels were acceptable. Not much complaining happened about speed-setups, except for the Vagabond, a ship whose claim to fame was its great survivability and being the only HAC which was truly unique and fufilled a different role than BS's. A massive speed nerf is not needed, but only to return things back closer to pre-Kali levels. Honestly, I fear a knee-jerk nerf brought about by a massive overreaction from the incredible speeds attained by Snake-implanted, faction equipped BSs.
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