Originally by: CCP Fendahl

---

I can't believe that I finally finished reading close to 1000 posts

Nosferatu Changes
There still seem to be some confusion about the exact mechanics, so I'll try to clarify. Suppose you are in a ship with a capacitor capacity of 2000en and have 600en left (30%). Further suppose that you activate a Nosferatu on a ship with 350en out of 1000en left (35%). The Nosferatu can then transfer up to 5% of the targeted ships capacitor capacity (the difference between the charge percentages), i.e. up to 50en (5% of 1000en).

If you're using a Heavy Nosferatu II with a transfer amount of 120en, then the actual transfer amount is capped at the maximum 50en, leaving you with 650en (32.5%) and your opponent with 300en (30%).

If you're using a Medium Nosferatu II with a transfer amount of 36en, then the transfer amount is not limited since 36en is below the maximum allowed transfer amount. This means that you end up with 636en (31.8%) and your opponent ends up with 350en - 36en = 314en (31.4%). A second Medium Nosferatu II would then not transfer anything since you now have a higher charge level than your opponent, but it would remain active (and not auto-deactivate).

This specific mechanics was chosen for Nosferatus since it has the following desirable properties:

• Separates Nosferatus from Energy Neutralizers: Nosferatus for leeching cap, neuts for draining
• Protects ships from being insta-drained by Nosferatus
• Having a large capacitor capacity should be an advantage, not a drawback
• Keeps nos effective for leeching cap

While many of the alternative solutions address one or more of these points, the mechanics we are now testing is the only one that satisfies all of the above.

Effect on Capital Ships
The new nosferatu mechanics should not affect the tactic of using nosferatus and neutralizers to tackle capital ships. Capital ships can only jump with they have more than 70% cap left, so it is just a matter of mixing in a few neutralizers and maintaining your own cap below 70%. As 70% is significantly beyond the peak recharge this shouldn't be an issue.

Migration to Neutralizers
With the changes it is in general necessary to rely more on neutralizers than before. However then fitting requirements on neutralizers are higher than for nosferatus, so we are considering to lower the fitting requirements a bit (this might happen and it might now happen). Constructive feedback is useful as always.

Another issue is that neutralizers are generally used in combinations with nosferatus to reclaim some most of the energy spent on neutralizers. After the change, cap warfare will become harder since you now have to expend energy yourself in order to drain an opponent. Notice that ships with a bonus to energy drain amount have a significant advantage when using neutralizers since they can neutralize a lot more energy in the target ship for the energy spent.

The duration on the Neutralizers is also an important aspect. Currently the duration of neutralizers is twice that of nosferatus, which means that they hit harder but less often. There are trade offs either way whether we keep them hard hitting as now (kill cap fast) or move them closer to the frequency of nosferatus (kick 'em while they're down).

Ships Specializing in Capacitor Warfare
Ships that specialize in capacitor warfare will naturally still be supported with the change of mechanics. The blood raider ships (Bhaalgorn, Ashimmu and Cruor) will get their bonuses to Nosferatus transfer amount extended to Neutralizers as part of the general balancing changes. As noted in the dev blog, more to follow on this once the aftershock of the dev blog settles.

---