CCP Atropos
   |
Posted - 2008.01.25 17:16:00 -
[3]
 Originally by: Janu Hull
Originally by: CCP Atropos
They were never meant to be a common ship. The cost and trouble of building them and the fact that you can't dock with them was meant to make them more of a corporate level project, not something that caters towards solo play.
This is one of the reasons I personally hound the Game Designers into making battleship and below class combat more appealing to the masses. 
TBH, I'd prefer a solo-capable, sub-capital carrier class (something akin to how the Dominix used to be). Four or five high slots, minimal weapon hardpoints with carrier style drone bonuses with massive drone bays (relative to the scale of the class)
Right now you've given us the Nimitz class, there's nothing that really covers the Invincible/Iwo Jima level of carrier support.
Just to be 100% clear, I'm not asking for Chimeras and their counterparts to be altered to become solo play boats. I would like a Raven-level Chimera-style ship to play around with.
Ah, and there in lies where I would like to see combat being.
Note, this is only my opinion on the matter and by no means an indication of what may or may not be coming. With the ass covering out of the way, I'd love for 95% of combat to take place at Battleship and below classes.
Unfortunately people come into the game and always want bigger and better ships. At present most people run out of resources/time at the Carrier point, since the drawbacks start becoming quite harsh beyond that (inability to dock/etc). Unfortunately, Carriers were never meant to be the mainstay ships of the fleet.
I would be over the moon if we could balance things so that peoples first choice for a ship to take into combat didn't involve a cynosaural field fitted to call in the inevitable back up, and it's something I'm constantly debating with the Game Designers.
People inevitably want a solo-pwn-mobile but it is never going to happen. There will always be a drawback to whatever ship you're flying, and if one ship or, as is the case at present, class of ships becomes too powerful in the niches they fills then we have to balance it, since it's not inline with our vision for the game. Presently Carriers and to a lesser degree, their big brothers, Motherships, are this pwn-mobile, solo or otherwise. Sure they have drawbacks, but as can be seen by the simple fact that they're becoming common, and yearned for, something needs to be done.
To address this, there has been an immense amount of internal discussion about where we want them to go, contrasted with what the player base is using them for presently. It's not an easy decision to change them, and as can be seen from the post that was made a few months ago, by CCP Zulupark, about proposed changes, the player base vehemently disagrees to any changes to the status quo, whether it's actually in the best interests of game balance or not.
We won't change them on a whim, but we are constantly analysing their usage and implementation as well as their accessibility to players currently on TQ.
|