Blue Ryth
Lasciate Ogne Speranza
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Posted - 2007.08.01 02:15:00 -
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The Nos patch is simply too radical to work. Even from a theoretical point of view (I know it is sci-fi, but the 'sci' is short for 'science'), what sort of module would only be able to limit the targets capacitor to the percentage of the aggressor? I mean seriously, it doesn't make sense. Not to mention, couldn't we just have nerfed the drain drastically (in essence upping the transfer percentage/efficiency) making all the modules simply less effective?
In this new setup, I don't see the patch doing much but promoting blob tactics. The Nos has not really been nerfed at all, but open to a different style of use. A passive/active tanked ship could sacrifice its capacitor to completely eliminate a target's if only they had backup. Suicide purpose ships are already a common tactic, and I'd fear this would be a new one.
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The Khanid topic is just depressing. The backstory is changing because the Kahnid ships lack direction!? For crying out loud, we could come up with something better. Maybe the ships were re-imagined for a better purpose. Suppose the shield technology was kept and instead of missiles went to projectiles? At least we're still using turrets and in the gunnery skill set.
But missiles, of all things, are almost completely unused by Amarr pilots. The "if you don't like the change, fly different ships" argument is old. What if we took your Ravens and gave them bonuses to strip mining? Much like the Nos change, its just too arbitrary and radical.
Besides, if nothing else, shouldn't there be an absolutely exuberant amount of warning involved with a change like this? We're talking about an entire branch of T2 ships completely changing its premise. Let's quit with the "Khanid ships were useless" junk because if they were all that bad, you wouldn't ever see them in space. And all that training into guns... we need a lot of time to get our skill tree switched over to the missile branch.
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These changes are so radical that I don't think anyone can reliably predict the balance issues, which is part of the problem. Instead of fixing the problems in front of us, we just opened up Pandora's box. Now we've got entirely new ships with an entirely rethought energy vamp system. All I know, is I'm sure we won't get this right the first time and we are definitely taking a step back away from a balanced game.
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