Off grid boosters

Aug 23

There has been a lot of talk lately about off grid boosting being harmful etc. As usual there is a clear divide between those who have them and those who don’t (for the record I have max leadership skills (except mining links :P), all maxed command ships and T3s so I am clearly one of the haves in this discussion).

But there is a clear risk reward disparity and on top of that the dedicated command ships actually push less bonuses than a max skilled Tech 3 cruiser (and at a quicker training time). Of course a true command ship (field command ships like the Sleipnir don’t count) can run 3 links before needing command processors but a T3 can fit enough command processors for 3 or more links and be almost impossible to probe out. And of course lets not forget the totally risk free (other than friendly fleet shenanigans) boosting from a pos.

Now, the obvious answer would be to limit boosts to ships on the same grid (I.e. shows up on overview) and make the command ships tank much harder, but CCP :effort: means this isn’t likely for a while. A possibly easy change would be to block activation of command modules while inside a pos shield. I believe that “unprobeable” ships are now discoverable, but it is probably something that needs to be kept an eye on (I’m not keen on requiring implants to make this viable).

Another interesting change would be to include fleet boosters on killmails (pick a random link as the weapon and 0 damage). The intention here is to “out” the booster alts. Also intended is to make it clear when a solo kill wasn’t really solo 😉

Now I realise this would make running a command ship a good way to ninja killmails, but killboards could easily filter out boosters from scoring (if people actually give a crap about killboard scores ;))

As with most things in eve, there are many intended and unintended consequences of changes, but my gut reaction is that off grid boosting feels wrong (even though we make use of it along with many other pvp alliances). The benefit is too high for the minimal risks faced in most cases.

none

Comments

Azual

August 23rd, 2012 at 2:26 PM

Here’s a surprisingly easy solution – remove (or nerf) Command Processors.

If a t3 really could only fit 1 link rather than three, it would no longer make fleet command ships obsolete. A single-link t3 is much more useful when combat fit and on grid than off grid on an alt, and fleet command ships are pretty easy to probe anyway.

While it wouldn’t stop you having a command ship at a POS, this would shift most boosting ships to on-grid roles without requiring any real changes to game mechanics.
Tea

August 23rd, 2012 at 2:51 PM

I did consider changes to command processors such as giving some penalty to sensor strength or sig (due to module “interference” ;)) but in the end I feel it is bad to discourage use in combat fits (it is possible to make viable 2 link BC fits if you nerf the dps). The making them exclusive option appeals though.

A simple change to stop their operation inside a pos shield would work fine in combination with the command processor idea.
snaketzu

August 26th, 2012 at 9:53 PM

Let us not forget that this affects more than command ships and T3s. Any changes to POS or grid boosting will essentially kill the Rorqual as a mining booster. Nobody is going to deploy a Rorqual outside of of a POS shield, since it is a 3 billion isk capital killmail waiting to happen. Lets not forget the 1 billion isk implant in the pilot’s head, either.

My rorqual pilot trained for nearly 2 years to perfect that ship. If ccp decides they want to make me deploy it in a belt to use it I would view that as a massive betrayal to fix a problem that doesnt really exist. This is not an arena pvp game. Come prepared and expect your opponent to do the same, or stay docked.
Anonymouse

September 1st, 2012 at 4:03 AM

Just for the record, even before the buff to probes, you could still locate off-grid unprobeable T3 ships via simple triangulation and the directional scanner. Not all that difficult, with a bit of practice.

Boosting from within a POS shield is a broken game mechanic, though. If you can’t aggress a ship while it is inside of a POS shield, then that ship should also not be able to do anything to affect combat while within the shield.

With regards to the Rorqual, mining isn’t combat, so there isn’t any reason to nerf off-grid mining boosting. However, another simple fix is to buff its tank to be more on par with a ship that costs north of 3B ISK and becomes a stationary target when deployed.

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Off grid boosters

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