So, when/if CCP finally addresses capital proliferation, AFs will once again have no niche?

I think you are trying to force AFs to be the relieve a symptom of another problem, when in fact they should be useful in their own right.

Hictors, for example, went from being dedicated captial tacklers to being useful in many settings, and this is widely regarded as a good thing. Why do you want to confine AFs into a niche that honestly shouldn't exist in the first place? I find it very strange that someone who reports to be a PvP enthusiast is of such limited imagination.

CSM folks should have an open mind AND not immediately degrade to personal attacks. I'd like you to settle a wager me and the guys have.

:shrug:

The CSM candiate who got the most votes doesn't seem to mind insulting most of the player base, or find the behavior beneath the post. Suitonia was a goon when elected, and that seems par for the course for them.

OP - Thanks for working to better the game as you have for over a decade. I love AF and totally dislike the idea of making it useful in a fight I would never get involved in. I think the idea is somewhat sound and giving newbros a way to have some fun in larger fights does have merit. To see a swarm of newbros zipping around in a large carrier fight chewing up the fighters and gimping carriers that are hictored in place would be kind of funny.

"I'm out of fighters" "Me too" "Me too" I can see why a TEST CSM would come in hard and fast to keep that from happening.

So we all know that Assault Frigates see very little use on Tranquility (outside burner missions of course). Gone are the days where Harpy fleets were the go-to junior FC and skirmish doctrine. Tactical Destroyers have taken over the previous role that Assault Frigates had. Fast Response, Low SP, Sub 50 million hulls for skirmish doctrines. Tactical Destroyers are not that much more expensive, while being easier to train into and having a lot more power for their cost. TheyGÇÖre also low mass and can go through the same small sized wormholes, and most are actually faster and more agile than Assault Frigates.
I donGÇÖt think the ideal solution here is to give Assault Frigates more power through increasing their primary stats (EHP, DPS, Fittings etc.). People are soon to forget that Harpy Fleets were the nullsec staple junior doctrine before Svipuls and RLML Caracals were added to the game. WeGÇÖve seen a lot of power creep recently and I feel like Assault Frigates are actually in a good place in regards to their power level. They could use speeding up a little, but what theyGÇÖre really lacking is a role that differentiates themselves from Tactical Destroyers or another skirmish cruiser doctrine.

All Assault Frigates have a utility high so I think it would be interesting to build up a role involving that. Command Destroyers have already taken up the mantle of providing links for a fast mobile hull. I really like the idea of turning Assault Frigates into mobile Anti-Fighter ships. WeGÇÖve seen insane capital proliferation recently and there really isnGÇÖt a sub-capital counter to Carrier groups right now, IGÇÖm really worried that there will be no role or place for subcapital doctrines in the future, especially as CCP is tinkering with T3Cs which will mostly likely see a drop in power for them. The only real counter to Carrier groups right now are other Carriers or Dread Bombs.

Some players are quick to point out that ECM is effective against stand alone carriers, but theyGÇÖve never really been in a big fight where dealing with 50+ Carriers means 150 Templar IIs on your overview, all of which have the exact same name GÇÿTemplar IIGÇÖ and move too fast to sort by range, making it next to impossible to coordinate ewar. Most ECM cruisers or frigates get 1-2 cycled by a single Carriers worth of fighters anyway so you lose them insanely fast in a real fight. The idea here would be, make Assault Frigates relevant at disrupting fighters, this in turn makes other anti-support sub-capitals relevant to kill Assault Frigates. Outside of ECM there arenGÇÖt many effective options for skirmish gangs to bring against Carriers.

Assault Frigates have great resistances, while also retaining small sig from being a frigate. This makes killing them with fighters incredibly wasteful especially when the AFs have logistics. But anti-support cruiser options tend to deal with them effectively.
Ideas;

Flak Cannon - Just a stand-alone, one module limit highslot weapon that would deal around 600~ DPS to fighters. (For Reference, a 3x DDA Nidhoggur/Thanatos does 1.8k~ DPS with 3x FSU Is and 3x DDA IIs.) So this would be the equivalent of around 1 reasonable Air Superiority fighter. Obviously make it unusable against actual ships. This would probably be the most vanilla and easiest variation to understand. Although 10mn AB AFs or overtanked pure flak AFs could become a little too good with them.

Flak Mode (terrible name) - A siege mode for AFs, that would increase DPS by 5-6x but prevent them from doing damage to real ships, fighters only. A short 30s~ cycle that has no speed penalty or RR penalty, but would maybe have a MWD/AB thrust penalty (like HIC bubble). The penalties of the mode should be based around allowing them to mitigate damage from fighters still (no speed or sig penalties, but maybe make props less effective) to make sure they get damaged by cruisers. This would be a little more complicated but easier to design around specific builds since your own ships damage and range is important, so 10mn/overtanked etc isnGÇÖt broken.

IGÇÖm not sure what CCP can accomplish on the backend, but maybe giving AFs a huge reduction to fighter DPS but also boosting their signature radius at the same time so they get dumpstered by cruiser weapons could be an alternative.

Give them a fast cycling 50km micro-jump drive.

Alphas or not, I'd still never fly them unless I had some weird desire to lose an expensive frigate.

They need a buff, I think web resistance or a speed buff would be the right direction.

How about just reducing the materials needed to make them.

If a wolf cost 9m instead of 25m now (or 33m for a Svipul)... it might get more use by just being a cheaper option for a similar role as a T3D. Right now the price doesn't match the utility.

Not really a fan of the proposed changes, but I do like the theme of frigates that are designed to fight upship.

Make AF's not suffer a capacitor penalty to fitting MWD's so that their MWD bonus is actually useful.

They are definitely too slow. I personally think they should swap speeds with Command Destroyers.

A fitting reduction to nos could also be interesting as they all have utility highs, which would allow them to run 1x nos and perma tackle and help run tank vs cruisers, without really powering up Harpy Fleets.

They are definitely too slow. I personally think they should swap speeds with Command Destroyers.

Ewar Resistance or Control Resistance effects are interesting but you need to be really careful with these bonuses as they can become broken very easily. T3Ds already have Ewar Resistance on SS mode as well so this might not necessarily make them more unique.

Defender Launcher bonuses could be a possibility with new bomb effects outlined at fanfest (RR bombs etc.)