New New ECM Changes

Apparently, due to the public outcry, CCP has once again changed their ECM changes. From CCP Chronotis:

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The skill bonuses and other changes to the caldari recons will then look like this:

Rook:
Caldari Cruiser Skill Bonus:

• 5% Bonus to Light & Heavy Missile Velocity per level
• 10% reduction in ECM Target Jammer capacitor use per Level

Recon Ships Skill Bonus:

• 25% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per level
• 5% bonus to heavy and light missile kinetic damage per level

Attribute Changes:
+25m3 drone bay
+25mbit drone bandwidth

Falcon:
Caldari Cruiser Skill Bonus:

• 20% Bonus to ECM Target Jammer Optimal Range per level
• 5% Bonus to Medium Hybrid Optimal Range per level

Recon Ships Skill Bonus:

• 20% bonus to ECM Target Jammer strength per level
• -96% to -100% reduction in Cloaking Device CPU use per level

Attribute Changes:
+1 turret hardpoint / -1 launcher hardpoint

Scorpion:
The scorpion remains unchanged from the original suggestion for now. Whilst this change would make them less usual at long range jamming, they can still jam out to ~140km using their falloff (setup for ECM range) so whilst their role in the long range scenario is reduced, their new short range scenario is much better.

The Widow:
Forgot to mention it would be getting an increase in ECM strength bonus same as the scorpion. Will make a separate post on black ops themselves.
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I am pretty alright with these changes as laid out, although I would still like to see the Scorpion retain some kind of range bonus.

New Issues

Patch notes for Apocrypha 1.02 include the following, thankfully:

• Updated the capital ship collision mechanic to lessen bumping issues currently being experienced by some players.

Hopefully this means an actual fix, and not just a lessening effect (80km instead of 100km is still broken.)

There's also this post by CCP Chronotis dealing with ECM. It's awful.

The proposed changes are:

Summary Falcon changes

• ECM Strength Bonus increased from 20 to 25% per level
• ECM Optimal Range Bonus removed (52km optimal / 81km falloff w/ 2*SDA IIs)
• Increase in general manoeuvrability (might give agility bonus to it to replace the ECM optimal range bonus)

Summary Rook Changes

• ECM strength bonus decreased to 15% per level
• ECM Optimal Range bonus decreased to 15% per level (92km optimal / 81km falloff)
• 5% Heavy/Heavy Assault missile velocity per recon ship level added (105km range with heavy missiles at max skills)
• 25m3 drone bay / 25 mbit bandwidth added

Summary Scorpion Changes

• Removed the ECM optimal range bonus
• Increased the ECM strength bonus to 20% per level
• Added a 5% RoF bonus to cruise & siege missile launchers per level.

Cutting the (unrigged) optimal for the Falcon and Scorpion to 50km will mean they simply will not be used outside of small gangs, and even there you will probably see them being dropped for Rooks. Chronotis also proposes that the Falcon changes will make it "similar to the pilgrim in its role as a ECM brawler at shorter ranges." which ignores the fact that the Falcon does atrociously bad DPS, as compared to the Pilgrim which gets a drone damage bonus and have the unique ability to completely shut down any type of active tank. There's also the fact that Pilgrims are very seldom used now precisely because they need to get so close to their targets.

I do understand the rationale behind the change, as it brings the range on the Falcon/Rook more into line with the E-War bonused ranges of the other Recon ships, but as I said in my first posting outlining my platform, a hefty nerf to ECM is not the way to go about balancing E-War.

In all honesty I don't think that this change would horribly cripple the game, but I feel like it's another case of CCP going too far on a nerf, and not even considering buffing related options instead. They seem to be overlooking the fact that ECM is so prevalent because the other forms of E-War are so useless, as well as the fact that Caldari are the only race who get a T1 ship with E-War bonuses (Target Painting doesn't count because seriously, Target Painting.)

I'm not even going to really touch the Stealth Bomber "buff" laid out in this thread because nobody flies them and this change won't make any difference in that. In fact, I could see it being final nail in the Stealth Bomber's coffin.

Wait, Trzzbk or Mrs Trzzbk?

Due to the fact that Trzzbk is banned from EVE-O for threatening to kill Mr Rive IRL because he is very bitter over the PR- camp breaking, I have been forced to run on my "other main" Mrs Trzzbk. Rest assured I will never roleplay as the madame of an e-brothel or whatever the hell Jade does in his spare time.

So when you go to the CSM polls, remember to pull the lever for Mrs Trzzbk!

Why should I vote Trzzbk for CSM?

Well, because I know what's up in EVE. I've been playing for almost 3 years now, and 99% of that has been spent in 0.0 space. I've flown pretty much every class of ship that isn't a Dread or Supercap, and I've tried my hand at pretty much everything there is to do in the game at one point or another.

If I were on the CSM I would focus mainly on proposed changes to 0.0 for two reasons: it needs the most work and it is what really draws people to EVE. The promise of taking space and carving out a place you can call your own while simultaneously blowing people up. However, a lot of the same things that will help 0.0 will help everybody playing EVE: useful ship roles, less lag, more sensible POS mechanics, etc.

Here are a few of the specific issues that I have:

• Capital Physics is at the front of everybody's mind right now. I assume (and hope) this will have been fixed by the time elections happen, but the current situation is obviously a joke and must be rectified.
  
• As always, Assault Frigates are still by and large useless. They're relegated to gimmick ships for rich people to fuck around in, and maybe it's just the GoonFleet in me, but I like to see Frigates out there doing useful things. They should at least get a clearly defined role. If they're meant for PvE give them some kind of tanking bonuses aside from the resistances, etc.
• Every Race should get a Sniping Battleship. I would propose it be the Megathron for Gallente and either the Maelstrom or Tempest for Minmatar. I'd like to see the Mega lose the Tracking and Tempest lose the ROF bonuses in favor of 10% optimal. You can already see that T2 sniping fleets are going very, very hard towards being pretty much only Apocs and Rokhs, and as CCP constantly says, that's boring and boring is the enemy of good gaming. At the very least the Tempest needs something, which brings me to...
• Minmatar Battleships need a very serious looking over. I'm not a Minmatar BS pilot, but there's a reason for that. The Typhoon is probably alright, although I think it should be given a little more focus in terms of weapons and slots and whatnot. The Tempest and Maelstrom need serious reconsidering though. If the Tempest got an Optimal bonus, I'd like to see the Maelstrom get a little bit of a mass reduction or speed increase to make it a more viable AC boat, bringing it more in line with the Hyperion. If the Maelstrom got an Optimal bonus in lieu of the Shield Boost bonus, I think it would greatly help the Minmatar BS selection with just that one simple change.
• POS Setup is a useless time sink that is unreasonably stupid. There is a whole plethora of logistics related stuff to bring up, but this is one that affects potentially everybody. There's no reason that you shouldn't let one person anchor/online one module each, or at least let a POS handle anchoring one mod and online another at the same time.
• Minmatar and Gallente Recon Ships is one I almost forgot because I gave up on them after the speed nerf. They really need something. I'd like to see a role bonus for the Minmatar ones that made them webbing death machines again, and I'd like to see the Arazu/Lachesis dampening bonuses turned up so that ECM isn't the only form of EW being used (which is what the ECM nerf was explicitly looking to do away with.) NOTE: I would not push for nor accept another ECM nerf as a solution to this problem.
  
• The Eos needs another look too. Right now, given the drone bandwidth it has, the Drone Bay size bonus is pointless. I'd like to see it turned into a heavy drone boat again, at the expense of turrets. This would bring it more in line with the other Gallente T2 ships, which are split between Turret-based and Drone-based.
  
• A fresh look at the Bounty system. I read somewhere the idea that CONCORD could sell "Bounty Hunter Licenses" which would allow people to shoot those with bounties even in hi-sec. I think this is a fantastic idea, and the system for administering them could be borrowed from the way wardecs work.
  
• The Capital Skill Path is a tricky one because I understand the reasoning behind it. However, I'd like to see some of the filler skills (ASC I'm looking at you) changed so that there is a reason to have it at something other than I or V. It's not something I've thought deeply about, but I'm training 2 characters into Carriers (and possibly a third into Dreads) and it just pisses me off how many skills I need to get to V that offer no use until they're at that level.
• Sov 4 Bonuses should make something more of an actual capital. The least offensive idea that I've heard (which I actually really like) is upping the cap on Jump Bridges in the system to 3 or 4 instead of leaving it at 2 like every other system.

And I also have some little piddling issues that I'm sure some other people share with me:

• Asteroid hit detection is totally screwed. The bounding box for asteroids is enormous, much bigger than the actual model and it makes navigating asteroid fields almost impossible without running into an invisible wall and bouncing around until you find the magical path back out.
• The Zealot should be red. Seriously, imagine that, it would be awesome.

Most of these issues aren't huge and sweeping in scope and I don't really think any are super-groundbreaking, but that leads me to my next point: I'm very good at taking input, filtering out the chaff and building on good ideas. EVE has an enormous playerbase and obviously not everybody will want to be on the CSM. That doesn't mean they don't have a fantastic idea that will revolutionize the way we play the game. If I were on the CSM I would look at as much of the player input as I could and help to develop good ideas and give them the time and energy they require.

That's it for now I guess.