Originally by: Tiphia Astrius

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I actually really like this idea in some form. I do agree with the notions proposed by objectors about preserving the sandbox aspect, but it really bugs me that fielding a fleet composed of a single race's ships is not currently recommended.

I'm sure something could be worked out that gave just enough of a nudge to get some people to do it. I'd rather see some homogeneous fleets than none at all (barring the likes of CVA).

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Originally by: Helios Hyperion

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grudges aside. Zamol is only trying to make sure that the interests of the Sand-box are protected. I support the idea of making a nice incentive for single race fleets as i feel, the same as some of you do, that there is something inherently good about it. however, a compromise must be made of course.

just don't let the option of a mixed fleet become less effective by such a margin that it would cease to be a realistic choice... because that would truly kill the sandbox.

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Originally by: Demus DaVet

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Edited by: Demus DaVet on 06/08/2008 16:23:15
I also thought of this while working on the cross-training and small corps arguments.

I don't know if it would be feasible to do with the current game code, but what if the 'faction fleet bonus' was applied only to T1 ships in the fleet ?

Benefits from this:
1. You can easily give a roleplaying reason for this (ie T2 ships are essentially hacked versions of T1 blueprints so built-in "fleet coordination bonus" does not work)

2. T1 ships are easily produced by everyone with very few skills. It's easy for any corp to acquire BPOs of every race's T1 ship and built custom fleets to use for fleet ops. Hurray, this way maybe we can actually achieve some level of realism for corp ops instead of "bring your own ship to die in for the glory or your corp". Modules will still be an issue though.

3. T1 ships are generally weak when compared to T2 counterparts, thus making them less "exploitable" when receiving the "faction fleet bonus", and in an ideal situation maybe a T1 bonused fleet could be countered by a similar sized T2 mixed fleet.

4. No need to introduce T3 ships and modules (and go through a new hell of whining, nerfing and rebalancing), thus rendering all current ships obsolete since everyone will want to fly a shiny new T3 ship, "faction fleet bonus" would render T1 ships the new T3, hopefully without them being overpowered.

5. Crosstraining requirements will be reduced to a minimum since you can skill up all ship types of a race up (if your corp chooses a different race's fleet than your own) to IV in what ? 2 weeks ? T2 weapon systems and modules will take more than that, true, however it's just as easy to use T1 named items in most cases.

6. With playtesting and balancing you could achieve even more freedom and sandbox mode gameplay, giving players the chance to go in their T1 boosted fleets against T2 mixed fleets. One could actually argue that it would only add to gameplay and not take anything from it, just more choices.

7. T1 ships might become more of just a stepping stone before you get into their T2 counterparts. A lot of work has gone apparently in creating those ships, it's a pity for them to be just noob-ships and poor man's choice. Battleships of course a totally different class but hey, I am pretty sure a solution can be found about them.

8. I can't wait to actually fly a Bellicose again ! (yes, I was silly enough to purchase one when I was grinding lvl2 missions)

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