In Theory
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Posted - 2008.01.12 01:17:00 -
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Perhaps listing the major problems Amarr have, then desribing/discussing solutions would be more productive than "Amarr have issues, boost plx, /signed"
Personally, I see the main problems as;
1.Lasers, in general, are poor weapons.
--->Too much cap use
--->Weak damage type, no variance
--->Weak range
--->weak tracking
--->harsh powergrid reqs.
2.Amarr ships are lacking capacitor and powergrid.
--->Beyond frigate set-ups, it becomes very tough to fit Amarr ships- usually because of lack of cpu.
--->Cap use is extreme, between lasers (main issue), speed modules, and armor repair mods- Amarr burn through cap too fast.
3.Nothing really "special" about Amarr ships/specialization.
--->Minmatar have 'speed', Caldari have awesome 'cap-less' shield tanking/missiles, Gallente are great with Drones and (for lack of better word) are pvp pwnmobiles.
--->If Amarr are supposed to be a great cap race, then we need better cap- if we are supposed to be the heaviest tanks, boost our armor/resists more...
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My biggest concern is lasers. While Lasers are definitely not the perfect weapon for warfare, they are by far weaker than even projectile weapons (buddy of mine is running Minnie, projectiles aren't perfect, but they're leagues ahead of lasers).
Major problem is cap use, not only do Amarr ships waste a racial bonus by having to reduce the capacitor use (no other race would even bother with lasers as is, so why should we lose a bonus to make them barely useable?
I admit that, being mostly ammo-free (high-end crystals burn out), laser cap use is NEEDED to retain balance... but watching my capacitor run down from only using my lasers and no other module activated is rather disappointing... A ship should be able to sustain laser fire without other modules using cap- but then when you activate repairers and MWDs, etc. your cap will burn out faster...
I can't say what a reasonable period of time would be for our cap to last running lasers-- but a 30% reduction is cap req. for all energy turrets would prolly sort it out. This would also mean removing the cap reduction bonus on Amarr ships and replacing it with a damage or RoF bonus instead.
Secondly, lasers need to be doing Thermal damage as a priority over EM... don't know how many of you understand that physics of focused energy, but lasers as they are should be doing primary thermal damage, with EM as the secondary component, with some crystals increasing EM damage at the expense of thermal... Thermal is the actual laser component, EM being the electromagnetic field that contains the pulse/beam as it is fired.
Basically reversing the current damage types as they are now. This would all but eliminate the narrow list of viable targets for Amarr.
--->A friend of mine (who also plays Amarr), mentioned that explosive could also be a possible crystal type- but I don't know how a laser would explode.
It's probably for balance sake to maintain current range and tracking limitations on lasers, but I still feel that tracking on lasers should regularily outclass projectile weapons, if not also hybrids... as lasers are focused light/energy- and no solid projectile to lose accuracy, the only limitation on tracking would be turret movement- but without the extra mass of ammunition (thus less burden of the mechanism), shouldn't a laser turret move faster?
And finally, the powergrid reqs. are harsh to make the more powerful turrets harder to fit- for balance and all, but it's impossible to fit 8 small beams on a Coercer along with repairer and afterburner, without resorting to powergrid mods.
This goes along with Amarr ship issues... either lower energy turret powergrid req. or increase ship powergrid (and Omen cpu).
If lasers are fixed, then most Amarr worries are solved... we'll still burn cap and be mid-range ships in a long/close range world, but the root of the problem is solved.
Amarr ships still need a bit of love though.
Just my thoughts...
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Well, that should've worked... |