Friday, April 12, 2013

EVE online: Odyssey ship polishing and Naglfar change

No this is not about new skins for your ships that will be available through that aurum thingie introduced long ago.

This is about real minor changes to T1 frigates and cruisers after the tiericide in the previous expansions and patches. For the complete story visit https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=214280 and https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=219590

The big change is the removal of the split weapon system from the Naglfar dreadnaught though.
It will lose high slots and launcher hardpoints (and corresponding cpu/powergrid reduction) whiel getting a 50% role bonus to captial projectile damage.

Building materials will also be adjusted but this might not happen at the same time as the changes to the ship stats.

Frigate and cruiser changes are really minor except for the tormentor where the changes are just as small but more just one or two stats change.
The stabber also gets a bigger upgrade, it get's an increase to falloff bonus from 7,5 to 10% per skill level and the drone bay gets restored and increased giving it the bay and bandwidth for a full flight of light drones.

On an unrelated note the remote sensor booster sees some change also while the tracking enhancer gets a nerf to it's optimal and faloff bonus.

Faction navy battlecruiser details.

A new dev blog came out with some information about the faction navy tiericide. The second half details new faction battlecruisers.

Frigate changes (https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=214283) are minor with the most important one the Republic Fleet Firetail which sees it's damage bonus increased from 20 to 25% per level.

When asked why these ships didn't get an 11th slot Fozzie replied: As before they straddle the line between Interceptors and AFs in many ways, tougher than Inties and faster then AFs. In general I'm quite confident that we can ensure that they remain worth the cost premium over T1 without needing to give them the extra slot.

Cruiser changes (https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=219607) are little more extensive.

Within themselves there is a split between the more speed oriented (Omen, Osprey, Exequror, Scythe) and more tank oriented (Augoror, Caracal, Vexor, Stabber) but considering their excellent agility and general playstyle we'll probably toss them all under the "Attack" line whenever the ship lines come up.
Navy ships are agile, aligning just a bit slower as a destroyer for the speed oriented ones. Even the slowest navy cruiser has an unskilled align time of less as 7 seconds. In comparison an unskilled Thrasher, Thorax and Rupture align at 6.21, 7.66 and 8.46 seconds respectively.

Omen Navy Issue
Changes from 5 turrets with a 7.5% RoF bonus to 4 turrets with a 10% damage bonus while changing the cap recharge to an optimal range bonus. Drone bandwidth and bay size is also doubled to 50/50.

Osprey Navy Issue
Changes from a RoF bonus to a 10% kinetic and 5% EM/Explosive/Thermal damage bonus.
It gains a utility high plus a low and mid slot. Almost every statistic receives at least a small buff.

Exequror Navy Issue
Gains a high slot and turret hardpoint to give more damage amplified by a double damage bonus.

Scythe Fleet Issue
Remains a split weapon system, it does however get a double strength damage bonus. 10% Bonus to projectile RoF and 10% bonus to missile damage. With 5 high slots and 5 launcher and turret hardpoints you won't be forced to use two weapon systems though, you get offered a choice.
Like the Osprey (and Exequror) almsot every stat receives at least a small buff. Gaining among other things 1 mid and 2 low slots.

Auguror Navy Issue
Loses 2 turret hardpoints but gains a whopping 25% damage bonus to compensate, going from 5 to 6,75 effective turrets at skill level 5.

Caracal Navy Issue
Changes a range and kinetic damage bonus for a 5% RoF bonus and a 5% heavy assault and heavy missile explosion radius. It loses its drone bay completely.

Vexor Navy Issue
Turns into a pure drone boat, exchanging the hybrid bonus for a drone velocity and tracking bonus. Its drone bay doubles in size while it's bandwidth gets upgraded to 125 Mbit.

Stabber Fleet Issue
As "the current gold standard in Navy cruisers" it sees little change but gets a small mass increase.
















Navy Battlecruisers
The Harbinger gets another mid slot, the Hurricane an utility high, the Brutix a low slot and the drake get an additional launcher hardpoint. As any navy vessel they have 50% more shield, armor and hull points and have slightly more powergrid and cpu to use the additional slot they gained.

The brutix and drake gains a little maneuverability while the drake also gets a 10 m/s speed bonus.  Sensor strength has been increased by 4 for all four ships as well compared to the regular version.

Harbinger Navy Issue
The cap bonus is gone and replaced by a tracking bonus. The drone bay has been reduced to 50m3 again though.
  • Amarr Battlecruiser skill bonuses: +10% medium energy turret damage and +7.5% to medium energy turret tracking per level
  • Slot layout: 7 H, 5 M, 6 L, 6 turrets
Hurricane Fleet Issue
Ow look, 8 high slots, two utility slots, reminds us of something?
  • Minmatar Battlecruiser skill bonuses: +5% to medium projectile damage and 5% bonus to medium projectile rate of fire per level
  • Slot layout: 8 H, 4 M, 6 L, 6 turrets, 3 launchers
Brutix Navy Issue
Gone is the PVE active rep bonus, instead we see another tracking bonus. Are we getting nervous yet about flying T1 frigate and cruiser gangs yet?
    • Gallente Battlecruiser skill bonuses: +10% to medium hybrid turret damage and 7.5% bonus to medium hybrid turret tracking per level
    • Slot layout: 7 H, 4 M, 7 L, 6 turrets 
Drake Navy Issue
Two new bonuses to replace the old ones. Gone are the shield resistances that would finally give this baby a nice buffer tank if you wanted to solo a small frigate fleet with your navy drake. Gone is also the 50% bonus to a single damage type. Instead we get better damage application with a bonus to missile explosion radius and more range with a missile velocity bonus.
    • Caldari Battlecruiser skill bonuses: +10% to heavy missile and heavy assault missile velocity and 5% bonus to explosion radius of heavy missile and heavy assault missile per level
    • Slot layout: 8 H, 6 M, 4 L, 8 launchers 
With all the bonuses to tracking or missile explosion radius we see on bigger ship classes those tech1 frigate and cruiser gangs can no longer chew up those bigger ships as easily.

I look forward to the navy drake most of all but think I am going to start collecting all navy and faction ships. Which navy battlecruiser do you like the most? Will you fly it?

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Battleship tiericide details announced.

The first news about battleship rebalancing has come out. Just as with smaller ship sizes the old tiers will be rebalanced according to their new roles.

Battleships will be rebalanced into the roles of attack, combat and disruption battleships. Each race will get one attack and two combat battleships, except for the caldari who will keep their disruption battleship.

Just as with the attack battlecruisers the attack battleships will be faster, more agile and more aimed at damage application as their combat counterparts. Combat battleships will have more hitpoints though.

Caldari
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=223608
As a former tier 3 battleship the Rokh won't see many changes. The big news here is the shield resistance bonus on the Rokh that will be adjusted from 5% to 4% per level.
At skill level 5 that means a 20% bonus to resistances instead of 25% as it stands now. The reasoning is that resistances are one of the strongest bonuses available.

The Raven will be the Caldari attack battleship. It will lose one utility high and some hitpoints while gaining a little speed and agility. Base speed will now be 113 m/s. Powergrid will also be increased so it is easier to use torpedo's and a propulsion mod.















The raven will also lose 25 drone bandwidth putting it equal with the Rokh. So the good news is that the Rokh won't be the only battleship with 50 Mbit drone bandwidth anymore.

The Scorpion will also lose a utility high but gains a low slot in return, giving it 5 low slots.
Based on the Scorpion the disruption battslehips will get similar hitpoints to the attack battleships but won't get the increased mobility.

Minmatar
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2853138
The Maelstrom won't see any change at all. The Tempest will get some minor tweaks, like a little more (armor) hitpoints.

The Typhoon on the other hand will get a complete overhaul turning it into a missile ship like the cyclone. It will end up with 7 high slots, 6 of which are for launchers.
The projectile bonus will be replaced with a cruise and torpedo explosion velocity bonus. So the typhoon will get better damage application on something in range while the Raven does less damage but at longer range. The Typhoon will remain the fastest battleship though at 130 m/s base speed.

Gallente
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=223610
The Hyperion loses one high slot but gains one utility high because it will also lose two turrets and double its bonus. Meaning that at max rank you will go from 10 effective turrets to 9 while gaining some drone bandwidth and bay size in return.

The Megathron damage bonus will be replaced with a rate of fire bonus. It will lose it's utility high and gain a low slot. Drone bandwidth and bay size are both reduced turning it more into a dedicated gun boat.

The Dominix loses its turret bonus in favor of a drone optimal range and tracking speed bonus. It also gains about 1800 hitpoints on shield, armor and hull each.

Amarr
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=223607
The only change to the Abaddon will the reduction in resistance bonus from 5% per level down to 4% per skill level.

The Apocalypse will see the cap bonus replaced by a 7.5% tracking bonus per level and get it's drone bandwidth reduced to 50 also, joining the Rokh/Raven.

Finally, the Armageddon, as expected has been turned into a drone ship with the second bonus changed to a 10% energy neutralizer/NOS range per skill level.
It also loses a high and low while gaining a fourth mid slot. For the amarr missile lovers it gets 5 launcher slots so it can fit either missiles or turrets but won't get a bonus to either one.
Lastly it gains substantial hitpints and 250m3 drone bay size.

Overall
I wonder what changes we will see to cruise missiles and torpedos later this year. Even more so about the faction navy ship rebalancing.

The fastest caldari attack battleship wil be the Raven at 113 m/s, still slower as the Tempest with it's 120 m/s base speed. Of course the Apocalypse will probably end up the slowest ship since it will fit an armor tank instead of the shield tank of the Raven but the Raven needs to close range while the Apocalypse has a range and tracking bonus.

In comparison the fastest minmatar battleship is the Typhoon with a base speed of 130 m/s, just below the base 140 m/s of a drake or ferox.

While I like utility highs the move towards more mid/low slots is better as those slots serve a more useful purpose in general.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

CSM Elections are live

The CSM pre-elections are over with the majority of the candidates getting enough endorsements to enter the final ballot.

Ripard Teg received a total of 1417 endorsements, more as any other candiate. Hopefully this will carry through to the actual elections.

Today I browsed through some blogs to help me put together a personal voting list.

I started out with names I know best.
1. Ripard Teg
2. Trebor Daehdoow
3. Mike Azariah
4. Roc Wieler

Ater this I browsed some blogs and picked the remaining 10 candidates and their order.

5. Unforgiven Storm
6. Malcanis
7. Mangala Solaris
8. Ali Aras
9. Psychotic Monk

I included Mynna and Kesper North as they seem to be the best of the nullsec bloc candidates. Since it's unlikely they would need my votes at all I dropped them to a lower place on my list.

10. Mynna
11. Kesper North

The final three are included mostly as filling.

12. Korvin
13. Nathan Jameson
14. James Arget

After logging in and going through the procedure of arranging candidates once and casting my vote I relogged with another account and the page had remembered my voting order. So voting the same order for multiple accounts is pretty easy.

Information I failed to locate was just exactly when the voting window closes.