Major rebalance of capital ships coming to EVE Online in Dominion expansion
by James Egan 
Sep 16th 2009 at 10:00AM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, PvP
There are few things in EVE Online which provoke more outrage among the playerbase than capital ship nerfs. These multi-billion ISK behemoths aren't just an investment in terms of currency -- being able to pilot a capital ship effectively is a time investment as well, given EVE's real time skill training system. The writing's been on the wall for a long time though. Considering the sheer numbers of capital ships being fielded in the game, some changes might just be a good thing for EVE Online.
EVE developer CCP Abathur's dev blog "Dominion - The Capital Battlefield" frames the current state of capital ship warfare with a look at how dreadnaughts and carriers entered the game, and how over time their significance was eclipsed by supercarriers like motherships and titans. The big announcements are the changes being made to the various classes of capital ships in EVE, and Abathur walks us through the boosts and nerfs that will soon affect the game's numerous capital ship pilots in the Dominion expansion.
- Titans: The comments made by CCP Games at PAX were accurate. Titan doomsday blasts will no longer be area of effect attacks. Rather they'll focus on a single target, resulting in instant annihilation for most sub-capital ships (possibly capital ships too). The titans themselves will have a hit point increase ensuring they can remain on the battlefield longer. There's no word yet on the cooldown between doomsday shots. Update: The rate of fire on doomsday blasts is currently 5 minutes. Firing the weapon immobilizes a titan for 30 seconds. In addition, the jump drive cannot be used for 5 minutes.
- Motherships: These ships will no longer be called "motherships" and will instead be called "supercarriers". They will lose the ability to fit triage modules and clone vat bays as well as the ability to fit an additional warfare link per level. Supercarriers will receive a hitpoint increase and a new type of weapon: fighter bombers.
- Fighter bombers: These new fighter drones will be used to destroy capital ships. Only supercarriers can deploy these torpedo launching drones, hopefully providing more incentive for mothership, er, supercarrier pilots to actually bring their ships into battle.
- Carriers: These ships aren't being changed as a class in Dominion, but CCP still has changes in mind for the future. In the short term, the duration and fuel consumption of triage modules have been halved.
- Fighter bays: Similar to the specialized bays for fuel and other storage recently added to the game, Dominion will bring bays for fighters and the new fighter bombers. Abathur states this is a way to better organize your drones and balances the number of drones a carrier or supercarrier can bring to a fight.
- Dreadnaughts: The changes announced recently about EVE moving away from a game where player owned space stations are key to territorial control and shifting more towards infrastructure and planetary control might have worried some dreadnaught pilots. Their roles will remain unchanged in Dominion, and they'll continue to be the POS bashing, anti-capital ships they've always been. If you're a Moros pilot though, you'll likely be upset to learn that you'll only get your drone damage bonus while in siege mode.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tiberon said on 10:32AM 9-16-2009
A note: in a later post on the comments thread, Abathur said that the new Titan superweapon would have a refire of five minutes.
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Tyranor said on 1:11PM 9-16-2009
Full Quote:
Originally by: ElvenLord
Can we get a bit more specific explanation on new DD pls.
Does it affect just the target you locked or even ships around it?
The Dominion super weapons will only affect the ship they target. Subsequent iterations on the super weapon concept may involve multiple targets and different effects as well.
Originally by: ElvenLord
Will be able to kill a single capital?
Yes.
Quote:
Whats the rof on it (still 1 per hour)?
The current RoF on the super weapons is five minutes. This is because we plan to let everyone do a lot of testing on SiSi over the next several weeks. We will continue to balance based upon the results of public testing and feedback. Firing the weapon has the current effects:
Immobility for 30 seconds.
Jump drive non-operational for five minutes.
Originally by: ElvenLord
Cause tbh, I don’t think that you can make those bonuses that high to make it worth to warp a 60bil ship into 150 dreads just to kill one, let alone into a support fleet and get tackled in less then 15 sec.
Anyone that cowboys a titan into 150 dreads probably shouldn't be in a Titan anyway. These ships, along with the Supercarriers, are not intended to be solo pwnmobiles. With proper support, however, they will force your opponents to make some hard choices about who or what they are calling primary.
Originally by: Many People
My poor Moros!!
Yeah... well... *nerf bat*
That being said, I'll take another look at their comparative damage output in the next few weeks.
Originally by: Sybilla Prior
What they don't seem to be doing is making sub-capital ships more usefull in big fleet-fights. Why is that?
I would think removing the big button on Titans that makes sub-capitals go boom might help here.
Originally by: Van Krakien
this new titan super weapon is just as bad as the doomsday.....Instead of being able to kill a battleship that cost 100m now you lose your carrier or dreadnaught which will run up a few billion.....good thinking ccp......
The difference is that instead of ruining the day of a couple hundred people (potentially worth X billions of Battleships and HACs) with the push of a single button, you are ruining the day of one person.
Originally by: Emeline Cabernet
Can you assign fighter bombers to other ships like regular fighters?
Good question! No.
Tyranor said on 1:24PM 9-16-2009
Also, a couple more posts :
http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1179554&page=8#231
http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1179554&page=9#244
James Egan said on 2:25PM 9-16-2009
Thanks Tiberon and Tyranor, I've updated the post with the doomsday drawbacks as they stand presently.
Tyranor said on 10:34AM 9-16-2009
Good article, but I was wondering if we could get a bit more analysis on what this might mean for a future of the game instead of just para-phrasing the dev blogs? It's a nice read, but for EVE player who actually keep up with the dev blogs it would be nice to have a bit more analysis. Or even for laymen just to understand what all this actually means.
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Malachi said on 10:45AM 9-16-2009
And I second Tyranor on that one. Still, it's good to have the all headlines in one place.
Dirame said on 3:57PM 9-16-2009
I think that's Nyphur's job if my observations are correct.
James Egan said on 4:17PM 9-16-2009
@ Dirame
That's more or less correct. I generally cover the news and handle interviews while Brendan's EVE Evolved column goes more in-depth into different facets of the game each Sunday.
Malachi said on 10:44AM 9-16-2009
Mommie, I don't feel so good.
While titans certainly needed some balance tweaks and motherships needed a purpose, I see some of the changes as unecessary or outright silly. Others, while understandable, are quite arbitrary and dumb down the game quite a bit more - fighter bays, for instance...
Oh, well, let's see how thes changes play out in the long run.
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Kronos said on 10:49AM 9-16-2009
I disagree with you on the idea that adding fighter bays is dumbing down the game.
It just makes things easier for players to manage, it balances the game and it makes sense too. It won't take less 'skill' or thought to pilot a carrier successfully after the implementation of these bays.
Malachi said on 11:02AM 9-16-2009
But it's yet another change that gimps your options on how to use a ship. While I wholeheartedly support balancing stuff (and limiting the use of carriers as jump-capable transport ships), being able to field multiple waves of any sort of drones was something paramount to carriers.
On a sidenote, the Moros' nerf is unecessary. No, I don't fly gallente.
Kronos said on 11:43AM 9-16-2009
Yeah you're right about that, just wouldn't call it dumbing it down. Of course there is room for improvement but thats a good thing as if there wasn't, the devs would have nothing to do and get lazy hehe
deadlock said on 11:26AM 9-16-2009
"but gain the ability to fit an additional warfare link per level"
An error there: they have the ability to fit an additional warfare link per level and will loose that ability with the patch. suck for me that spent a year training leadership and putting more than 16 million skillpoints into it. now either the ms or that year is worthless to me. I will have to think a bit about what is is going to be.
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DrewIW said on 11:34AM 9-16-2009
Use those leadership skills to fly a Fleet Command ship, you'll find you're very much in demand.
James Egan said on 2:28PM 9-16-2009
Right you are, deadlock. Correction made.
chriskovo said on 12:23PM 9-16-2009
Stuff in this game always sounds cool but when i tried it i couldnt get into it. Then again i only got up to a battlecrusier not one of the big boys in the game. Seems werid though carriers didnt have bays for fighters to begin with though. Can you change aramaments on the fighters on the go to counter different ships? Are their CAGs for each ship?
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DrewIW said on 2:57PM 9-16-2009
@Chriskovo
Right now carriers have a single dronebay that is used to carry normal drones, as well as Fighters. The drone bays are large enough the most carriers use multiple types of fighters, as well as all sizes of combat drones, sentry drones, and ECM drones.
Mr.Woodstock said on 12:45AM 9-17-2009
"...from a game where player owned space stations are key..."
Dear massively ... you are reffering to player owned starbases, not stations. A player owned station is another thing. The standard POS (player owned starbase) is what is key to sov mechanics, not the actual stations that players dock in. So please do not reffer to POS's as stations, you are confusing your readers that are new to EvE. I have seen this in other articles as well.
A nice day.
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Mr.Woodstock said on 12:44AM 9-17-2009
"...from a game where player owned space stations are key..."
Dear massively, the in-game item you are reffering to is not a player owned station, you are reffering to a player owned starbase. A player owned station has nothing to do with sov mechanics,it is an outpost, the "sov maker" is the standard POS (Player Owned Starbase). Please stop reffering to POS's as stations because you are confusing the new eve players.
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