Cpt Branko
The Bloody Red
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Posted - 2007.11.09 12:37:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: CCP Zulupark
Originally by: Kaylana Syi
-Assault Frigates. Please do a eve-search on Weirda's ideas and please read them.
We've already said we want to look at Assault Frigates
As a small ship pilot (mostly Rifters, but also the Minmatar AFs) these days I'll sooner fly the T1 hull due to superior cost/efficency and vastly superior ability to run away / catch people then the T2 hull. I've put in quite a bit of thought in what would make AFs worthwhile, and since you'll actually responding to this thread, I'd offer a few ideas (and rationale for them):
1) Fix their mass - currently, the mass of the average AF is more then 50% worse then the T1 base hull mass (look at Incursus vs Enyo, Rifter vs Wolf, etc...) - which not only gimps the AF's speed (currently, a tank-fit Rupture will outpace 95% of the AFs) but also makes them very slow to align/warp.
In low-sec, the real advantage of flying T1 frigs / interceptors is that it's much harder to catch you because of the agility these ships have. However, AFs can be caught much more easily and are therefore less survivable then their T1 counterparts. Now, being 'assault' ships, I don't mind them having a somewhat higher mass (and slower speed in all except the Jaguar) then their T1 hulls, but it should be a 15-20% increase from base. It would go a long, long way towards making AFs more worthwhile.
2) Fourth bonus - currently (unlike HACs) one of the bonuses is spent on HAC-level resistances, giving AFs three bonuses in addition to resists. Right now, AFs are preety underwhelming in actual combat compared to their price - they do somewhat more damage then their T1 hulls and have a better conventional tank (although, they pay the price for this with the inferior 'speed' tank, see (1)). However, currently even a mostly T1-fit cruiser brings somewhat more damage and significantly more tank and buffer (and often more utility) to the table. Having another combat-related bonus would greatly help these ships, wether it's damage or tank related.
3) Fitting. While the CPU requirements of some modules went up over time (EANMs, for example), CPU amounts of already hard to fit AFs stood the same. CPU is a very limiting factor on nearly all AFs, but some are seriously gimped - for example, the Wolf (which has the base CPU of the Rifter and an extra slot) and so on. It would really open up fitting options if a number of AFs had 5 or 10 more CPU.
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