So I'm still experimenting with the Naga, but so far it seems amazing. Sure, it doesn't do the most damage, but its range is unbeatable.
Oppositely, the DPS of the Talos is just plain crazy, but like all Gal blaster boats, you have to get dangerously close to do that DPS. The Naga, on the other hand, puts out a nice consistent stream of hurt while kiting enemies all day long.
In the event Drakes are actually changed (aka nerfed) this may be the new anchor of sniping shield BC fleets.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Untippable Scales
Anything made by humans is prone to error, and massive multi-player online games are prone to massive multi-layered errors. This is especially true when it comes to game balance.
The traditional mantra in online games has been pretty straightforward. If something is completely unbalanced to the point its simply game breaking or reduces overall enjoyment the best way to bring attention to the problem is not by complaining on some community message system, its not by crying about it in game, and its certainly not by blogging about it -its by completely abusing the unbalanced mechanic to your advantage. When everyone is utilizing only a few skills, characters, items, or whatever it is, people stop playing and bad press is generated. This in turn forces companies to spend resources on the game or lose revenue. Tip the scales overwhelmingly in one direction and you get a response.
Eve has proven to be a different beast entirely. The game has grown so big almost no one has actually experienced every part of it. This is especially true of PvP. Most Eve players rarely even leave high-sec. This translates into gaping holes in the PvP system not even being experienced by a large portion of the player base. The end result? Balance adjustments can't be forced by simple and absolute abuse of over powered mechanisms, at least not in any timely way.
What does this mean for us, the players? ABUSE AWAY! So lets take a look at broken mechanics that can work for you. DISCLAIMER: The following techniques well make people cry, questions your sexual orientation in local, and set you red.
ECM
Okay so this might seem obvious, but its always stunning to me how rare ECM pilots are, particularly good ones. ECMs can effectively remove enemy players from the fight at a 1:1 module to ship ratio. They are guaranteed versus frigates, T1 cruisers, and most Minmatar ships. If for some reason one module doesn't do the job just use 2 on a particularly important target... Like your enemy's ECM ship.
For new pilots ECM ships can be hard for one simple reason... You are despised by all enemies. You will be primaried and unless you know how to handle this you're going to die. When and how to use ECM properly and survive takes time and practice, but the payoff is.. well, game breaking -its as simple as that.
Boosters
You see a lot of tearing on the forums about how underpowered active repair is. When it comes to skirmish battles nothing could be further from the truth. A standard Large Armor Repairer does about 800 points per cycle. However fit on a Hyperion with the proper skills, rigs, and boosters this one repper does over 2000 points per cycle. Fit 2 reps and you're repairing 40% of your armor in less then 10 seconds. When the amount of enemies involved in an engagement is low this is simply unbreakable. Active repair assault frigates were good before the last patch... They are truly amazing now. What can I say here.. Bait, bait and more bait.
The skill books needed for boosters are expensive, but depending on the kind of PvP you're doing they can pay for themselves pretty fast. Once again, a totally broken mechanic.
Passive Targetting
This one is just wrong. A large part of skirmish PvP is about who has aggression and how. This is especially true in Low Sec. If you catch possible prey making a mistake and think you have the alpha to one-shot them passive targeting can get you a free kill. This is almost never used and can really surprise people.
This list goes on and on...
A lot of attention is given to how broken super caps and titans are (which they really are), or how unfair the Drake is, but in reality these are just the most obvious in a huge list of balance issues within the game. So I say to you! Abuse and abuse again! When you find something you think is totally one-sided you may be right!
Remember, there is no "unfair" in Eve. There are only winners and losers. Let the guy who cries after you blow his ship up think otherwise, not you.
The traditional mantra in online games has been pretty straightforward. If something is completely unbalanced to the point its simply game breaking or reduces overall enjoyment the best way to bring attention to the problem is not by complaining on some community message system, its not by crying about it in game, and its certainly not by blogging about it -its by completely abusing the unbalanced mechanic to your advantage. When everyone is utilizing only a few skills, characters, items, or whatever it is, people stop playing and bad press is generated. This in turn forces companies to spend resources on the game or lose revenue. Tip the scales overwhelmingly in one direction and you get a response.
Eve has proven to be a different beast entirely. The game has grown so big almost no one has actually experienced every part of it. This is especially true of PvP. Most Eve players rarely even leave high-sec. This translates into gaping holes in the PvP system not even being experienced by a large portion of the player base. The end result? Balance adjustments can't be forced by simple and absolute abuse of over powered mechanisms, at least not in any timely way.
What does this mean for us, the players? ABUSE AWAY! So lets take a look at broken mechanics that can work for you. DISCLAIMER: The following techniques well make people cry, questions your sexual orientation in local, and set you red.
ECM
Okay so this might seem obvious, but its always stunning to me how rare ECM pilots are, particularly good ones. ECMs can effectively remove enemy players from the fight at a 1:1 module to ship ratio. They are guaranteed versus frigates, T1 cruisers, and most Minmatar ships. If for some reason one module doesn't do the job just use 2 on a particularly important target... Like your enemy's ECM ship.
For new pilots ECM ships can be hard for one simple reason... You are despised by all enemies. You will be primaried and unless you know how to handle this you're going to die. When and how to use ECM properly and survive takes time and practice, but the payoff is.. well, game breaking -its as simple as that.
Boosters
You see a lot of tearing on the forums about how underpowered active repair is. When it comes to skirmish battles nothing could be further from the truth. A standard Large Armor Repairer does about 800 points per cycle. However fit on a Hyperion with the proper skills, rigs, and boosters this one repper does over 2000 points per cycle. Fit 2 reps and you're repairing 40% of your armor in less then 10 seconds. When the amount of enemies involved in an engagement is low this is simply unbreakable. Active repair assault frigates were good before the last patch... They are truly amazing now. What can I say here.. Bait, bait and more bait.
The skill books needed for boosters are expensive, but depending on the kind of PvP you're doing they can pay for themselves pretty fast. Once again, a totally broken mechanic.
Passive Targetting
This one is just wrong. A large part of skirmish PvP is about who has aggression and how. This is especially true in Low Sec. If you catch possible prey making a mistake and think you have the alpha to one-shot them passive targeting can get you a free kill. This is almost never used and can really surprise people.
This list goes on and on...
A lot of attention is given to how broken super caps and titans are (which they really are), or how unfair the Drake is, but in reality these are just the most obvious in a huge list of balance issues within the game. So I say to you! Abuse and abuse again! When you find something you think is totally one-sided you may be right!
Remember, there is no "unfair" in Eve. There are only winners and losers. Let the guy who cries after you blow his ship up think otherwise, not you.
Friday, February 17, 2012
That Dirty Thing Called Mining
My, my so many things to talk about....
So anyone that has read the CSM minutes, or been involved in the Eve "community" for a while knows that there has been a great deal of talk on the lack of incentives to mine anywhere but high sec, and the most insulated regions of true null. If you take a look at all the rocks floating around in Low, NPC, and true 0.0 you know this is a real fact. There are vast resources that go untouched. However, if we're going to talk about improving incentives I think we better talk about some serious game mechanics issues at the same time. One of those is mining ships.
Take a look at any T1 or T2 mining ship. They have decent armor, shields, and hull strengths but their slot load out is awful, and their CPU/PG pathetic. Even under the best circumstance how do you protect these ships? The answer right now is: You don't. There is absolutely no way -no amount of logistics that can keep these ships alive. I know this from personal experience not as a miner, but as a responder. Worse yet, they don't even have the tools to defend themselves. Its impossible to fit any kind of shield or armor tank, and fitting guns isn't do-able either.
Mining could be made the most interesting and isk producing activity in all of Eve and under the current system the only result would be mining ships exploding by the thousands. So what am I hoping for? I'd like to see groups of miners be able to fit guns, remote repair, and a heavy enough tank that they could give a disorganized group of invaders a run for their money, or least have a chance of staying alive until support can bridge in or arrive from a few systems away. Every other ship in Eve can do this. Why can't mining ships? Under the current system mining ships have such weak tanks you can bring logistics and a large defense force in and your enemies can still wipe your whole mining fleet away right in front of you.
Next time I'll take a look at some other topics around low/null sec.
So anyone that has read the CSM minutes, or been involved in the Eve "community" for a while knows that there has been a great deal of talk on the lack of incentives to mine anywhere but high sec, and the most insulated regions of true null. If you take a look at all the rocks floating around in Low, NPC, and true 0.0 you know this is a real fact. There are vast resources that go untouched. However, if we're going to talk about improving incentives I think we better talk about some serious game mechanics issues at the same time. One of those is mining ships.
Take a look at any T1 or T2 mining ship. They have decent armor, shields, and hull strengths but their slot load out is awful, and their CPU/PG pathetic. Even under the best circumstance how do you protect these ships? The answer right now is: You don't. There is absolutely no way -no amount of logistics that can keep these ships alive. I know this from personal experience not as a miner, but as a responder. Worse yet, they don't even have the tools to defend themselves. Its impossible to fit any kind of shield or armor tank, and fitting guns isn't do-able either.
Mining could be made the most interesting and isk producing activity in all of Eve and under the current system the only result would be mining ships exploding by the thousands. So what am I hoping for? I'd like to see groups of miners be able to fit guns, remote repair, and a heavy enough tank that they could give a disorganized group of invaders a run for their money, or least have a chance of staying alive until support can bridge in or arrive from a few systems away. Every other ship in Eve can do this. Why can't mining ships? Under the current system mining ships have such weak tanks you can bring logistics and a large defense force in and your enemies can still wipe your whole mining fleet away right in front of you.
Next time I'll take a look at some other topics around low/null sec.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Confidence and Experience
A bit of nostalgia, along with an experience in Eve today got me thinking...
Today my corp attempted to engage another corporation. We brought 3 Abbadons, and 3 Domnix. They had 2 Abbadon Navy Issue, a Mega, a Machariel, a Drake, 2 Guardians, an Oneiros, and a Chimera... They would not engage... Why?
Recently I was also looking back to some of my funnest days in Eve with the alliance Cry Havoc. This was the best alliance I have ever been in and probably will ever be in during my time with Eve. Cry Havoc had a very serious work ethic and high expectations of their pilots. At the same time everyone was friendly and easy to be around. CH did some crazy things in their time. It was common place for us to engage 50 enemy pilots with half their numbers... and win. We would take on our even numbers plus multiple carriers and multiple supers and win -really crazy fun times. Ultimately no one would engage CH without utterly overwhelming numbers. Why?
In Eve, I think 99% of all players will not get in a fight unless they see a clear and usually obvious path to victory. When any group of players can prove to their enemies that through experience, skill, and success what would normally seem like an obvious win may actually not be so, those enemies react in the only way they know how: To never ever fight you unless they can be absolutely certain of a win. And for most players that absolute certainty lies solely in massive numbers advantages.
What ultimately killed CH was the release of Super Carriers and Titan changes which made it clear CCP (for a time, at least) wholeheartedly embraced the idea that massive numbers and massive ships should dominate in all scenarios. With the game growing worse and worse, and no end in sight all of the leadership, and many of the original core membership simply stopped playing Eve -and who could blame them?
Well, luckily times have changed. CCP seems to be acting like they pulled their head out of their proverbial ass and things are much better then they been in a long time. While some parts of the game are still completely and utterly broken, it is possible through ingenuity, planning, practice, and most importantly perseverance to simply outplay opponents and win in situations that seem impossible.
So I guess the point of all this is: If you take the time to practice, learn the engagement scenarios, and understand the risks you can do some crazy things. I hope more high and low sec dwellers get a little less risk and loss averse, and go through the tough learning curve required to improve their PvP game. There really is a whole other world waiting for you right through that gate.
Today my corp attempted to engage another corporation. We brought 3 Abbadons, and 3 Domnix. They had 2 Abbadon Navy Issue, a Mega, a Machariel, a Drake, 2 Guardians, an Oneiros, and a Chimera... They would not engage... Why?
Recently I was also looking back to some of my funnest days in Eve with the alliance Cry Havoc. This was the best alliance I have ever been in and probably will ever be in during my time with Eve. Cry Havoc had a very serious work ethic and high expectations of their pilots. At the same time everyone was friendly and easy to be around. CH did some crazy things in their time. It was common place for us to engage 50 enemy pilots with half their numbers... and win. We would take on our even numbers plus multiple carriers and multiple supers and win -really crazy fun times. Ultimately no one would engage CH without utterly overwhelming numbers. Why?
In Eve, I think 99% of all players will not get in a fight unless they see a clear and usually obvious path to victory. When any group of players can prove to their enemies that through experience, skill, and success what would normally seem like an obvious win may actually not be so, those enemies react in the only way they know how: To never ever fight you unless they can be absolutely certain of a win. And for most players that absolute certainty lies solely in massive numbers advantages.
What ultimately killed CH was the release of Super Carriers and Titan changes which made it clear CCP (for a time, at least) wholeheartedly embraced the idea that massive numbers and massive ships should dominate in all scenarios. With the game growing worse and worse, and no end in sight all of the leadership, and many of the original core membership simply stopped playing Eve -and who could blame them?
Well, luckily times have changed. CCP seems to be acting like they pulled their head out of their proverbial ass and things are much better then they been in a long time. While some parts of the game are still completely and utterly broken, it is possible through ingenuity, planning, practice, and most importantly perseverance to simply outplay opponents and win in situations that seem impossible.
So I guess the point of all this is: If you take the time to practice, learn the engagement scenarios, and understand the risks you can do some crazy things. I hope more high and low sec dwellers get a little less risk and loss averse, and go through the tough learning curve required to improve their PvP game. There really is a whole other world waiting for you right through that gate.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)