Kazuma Saruwatari
Caldari
   |
Posted - 2008.10.02 17:34:00 -
[1]
On the other side of the fence, the one that is pro-formations, I'll give you ideas and possible benefits:
*can be made so a formation is treated as one entity, thereby reducing lag
*allows for specific ships to be assigned for specific duties in the formation, like having a dedicated tanker taking the fire for the formation instead of just to himself, etc.
*locking one ship in a formation will cause you to lock the entire formation, thereby allowing effects to (at lower effectiveness of course) hit the entire formation, like ECMing the entire formation, or RR-ing the entire formation or the formation's assigned tanker, etc.
*ships in a formation will auto-lock whatever the formation's leader is locked onto, thereby reducing the need to visually or audibly tell who's primary or secondary, decreasing "player lag" response times whilst allowing them to still lock other targets, only slower than normal.
*ships automatically stay in formation around the formation leader, but allows ships in the formation to break off when desired
*ships in a squad are given priority to form formations, and since they are treated as one extended single entity, will cause less lag during fleet ops
*for CCP: More skills! Allowing specialized formation skills that affect the ships in the formation differently. For example, having a column formation speeds up travel in a straight line, whilst a line formation maximizes DPS whilst sacrificing the assigned tank's efficiency (damage bleed-through to other ships), a box formation gives the assigned tank more of a leg up, but reduces DPS, etc.
*anti-DDD! Assigned tank ships in formations can take the brunt of the DDD's damage with a special formation that basically gimps every ship for the chance of surviving a DDD without blowing away half their EHP. Sounds like a proper nerf to DDD without making it overboard? Hell yeah!
*Convoy protection. Formations can protect other formations, for example, a formation of combat ships parading on each side a column of formation-ed haulers, providing tanking support and return fire from possible attackers
*Possible idea: Giving back the BC's supposed gang mod usage back. Having a BC or a gang-support-mod-carrying ship as the backbone of the formation basically gives back the BC's gang support role back, and gives reason to actually train those command ships again other than being T2 targets.
*possible RSD boost! RSD's have the capability to "dampen" the formation electronics link of formation ships (only specialized RSD ships can do this of course, ala Falcon), thereby breaking the formation up and losing the benefits of being in formation.
Right off the top of my head, possible pro's to formations.
-
|