Originally by: Sakura Nihil

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There is not a speed problem in EVE. There is a blob problem, as well as a creativity deficiency, but not a speed problem.

You're going to say "you're joking, all these nanoships out there that are invulnerable!", but I'm not. The reason a lot of people bring nanoships is because they are forced to; in the current climate of EVE, say someone is invading your space with a small gang. What do you do, if you're a spaceholding alliance?

You get a gang of your own together. But instead of matching the enemy gang, you get more ships - after all, why turn away your alliancemates who are willing to help you kill these people? Soon, you grow to twice the enemies size, then three times, until you are blobbing them without even realizing it.

Say that raiding gang is unfortunate enough to hit you all. Do the math, 20 versus 6? It won't end well for the 6, let me tell you that from experience; now, if the 6 people could be flying either high-damage battleships or nanoships, which choice would you pick? Nano, obviously; not only does it let you raid space faster, but it allows you a chance to escape if things go south.

Now, there are prices to be paid for nanoing stuff. Your damage goes downhill, you lose the ability to tank sustained damage, you're vulnerable to webbing and neuting ships; on top of that, its expensive, compare the cost of a plate Mega to a nano Vaga. The former you have insurance, a buffer tank in the range of 100-150k effective HP, and pump out a lot of DPS, the only real things that cost you money on it would be T2 or best-named guns plus trimarks. What about a Vaga? No insurance and a market price near 100m, plus 2 polycarbons, plus any implants you choose to throw in, and you only put out about 300-350 DPS with a paltry buffer tank to keep you alive in case of an "uh-oh". situation

So, do I think they're balanced? Mostly - the pilots of said ships have to be well skilled in addition to having the necessary skillpoints to pull it off, not to mention a source of cash to fund their ships. One or two mistakes and they're dead, with almost no money paid to them by insurance; the perceived lack of balance is coming from people too weak-willed to do something about these ships, to be quite honest.

The blobbers, and I look at most major alliances when I say this, would rather complain about these ships than try and defend themselves against them. These are the means that small, well-trained corporations and alliances can fight them, or at least annoy them, and they're unhappy their mass can't help them, as it does in laggy situations an fleet fights.

People want to talk about how this is ruining EVE. To CCP, if you're reading this, I argue that this is not a problem, but a symptom - its a means of dealing with the innate advantages a large territorial alliance has, by sacrificing a lot of cash and capabilities in the process. By nerfing this, it will seriously wound small-gang combat, and serve to reinforce the idea that the side with more numbers will win, something I see as detrimental to the game's health.

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