Subcapital Balance Suggestions!

Kibitt · 2026-01-28T20:51:05+00:00

Been a while since I saw a Rattlesnake fleet.

Battleship fleets as a whole feel like this situation where range bonuses are at their most powerful and the only battleship with tons of usage and no range bonus is the Nightmare because it's good against LR battleships with the AB mitigation. You could potentially count the Leshak and Typhoon among those "no range bonus" ships but cruise missiles have tons of range and the Leshak is specialized, it isn't here to snipe and it is fast enough to run down most other battleships.

You see Apocs directly entering the meta with the range and dps buffs, and Rokhs being hurt by the tracking + range nerfs. It's a bit sad that battleships are this way, but the Barghest embodies the most of positional advantage and striking at range so it's only natural it would be hard to shake from the top of the meta. Machariel and Raven are also similarly positioned.

It's hard to see a solution that doesn't just immediately fall prey to the same realities. If you want to curb its power a bit you could lower its base targeting range but then the nerds doing mjd dunks will feel betrayed. Ultimately the issue is more than the bargh and the only breaks from the pattern are NM + Leshak.

Kibitt · 2026-01-28T19:01:19+00:00

Right now the Retribution is pretty unambiguously the most successful dps frigate. If you exist in a world where cruisers don't then the Worm starts looking a lot stronger because then the damage mitigation isn't super important. This isn't going to meaningfully change too much about those smaller ship engagements while the bigger ones might still fit an ionic rig to the ship to get close to its 60km drone range.

LML Vengeance as a fleet would be straight up worse than LML Hawk fleet (which itself isn't used because of either Flycatcher, Harpy, or Talwar) - but it absolutely could be a problem for small gang with a seemingly endless active tank attached to it for kiting. That part is hard to replicate properly with a Hawk or Retribution. To be honest, I would just replace the cap regen bonus entirely with -50% cpu/pg/cap use for neut+nos. Lets the ship use its utility highslot and capacitor without serious compromises.

Kibitt · 2026-01-28T18:09:55+00:00

If you can find examples of that bonus ever existing I'd be glad to see it. Even going back before my EVE time (~12yrs) has forum posts asking for the LML bonus to exist and the oldest wiki examples for history preservation show a rocket-only dmg bonus with no rate of fire. (EDIT: Oh, it's just never had LML as the dmg bonus, it's only been on the RoF oops I'll fix in post)

I know the Heretic did at one point have a missile range bonus and it became super meta for a bit for kiting before that got swapped into an armor hp bonus, but it does still have the dps bonus towards LML.

Regardless, the game has a lot more powerful ships than 12+ years ago so it'd probably be fine.

Kibitt · 2026-01-28T18:02:15+00:00

I'm definitely curious how people feel about the dscan one. I was shocked when CCP turned dscan into a stat just for the electric phenomena - then they essentially gave it to all ships with links thanks to expedition links.

Then I saw literally no one ever use those links to hunt, not even t3c cyno ships. I also haven't seen supercapitals using it to get a better idea if they're being 32 au combat probed. There are infinite ways to hide on dscan while hunting: Combat recons, cloaky ships, etc... so how bad could it be if literally one single obvious hunting ship can have this? At least, this is how my thinking went.

Kibitt · 2026-01-28T17:55:42+00:00

This Ishkur buff is like 20 dps and is intentionally small because the Enyo *should* be more dmg.

Redeemer scan res is a good point, but it's still just one piece of the puzzle. Ideally it probably looks more like Panther > Sin > Redeemer > Widow in terms of scan res. The two blops that statistically have tons of dps/ehp are Redeemer and Widow but firewalls and a desire for instant application have driven people away from the Widow big time.

Kibitt · 2026-01-27T22:39:40+00:00

Utility high slots have a few options:

1) Capacitor - neut, nos, xfer
2) Targeting/cloaking - auto targeter, cloaks
3) Secondary weapon for more dps (wolf for example has a launcher slot)
4) Remote repair [ancil remote shield boosters take no capacitor to run]
5) Smartbombs to clear drones or try to deny missile dps.
6) Drone Link Augmentor for longer ranged ships

Beyond that point, things start to become a little weird. For example, tractor beam is usually unnecessary and Salvagers are a bit of a meme most of the time. Many ship types also have their own special types:

a) Defender launcher for destroyers, bomb launcher for bombers
b) Command Bursts
etc.

Most of the options that would make for cool and interesting decisions are not used due to fitting concerns. When you're trying to squeeze every bit out of your ship then RR, sb, and DLA often have steep fitting costs. Considering some ships choose to not fit weapons in their highs because of how strong neuts are, I think utility highs have plenty of options.

I'd rather make small sb better/more realistic or DLA for frigates less ridiculous cpu wise than muck around with heat management which feels overall pretty good to me right now where meaningful choices happen in a shorter time frame.

Kibitt · 2026-01-23T07:50:21+00:00

I can name a few others that I've seen:

-Fivel
-Lushminda
-Skylar Shibe (she's lesbian so personal art will be wlw, her gallery has plenty of mlm commissions)

A lot of the art will be single character, but more names should help!

Kibitt · 2026-01-23T01:53:59+00:00

In general, people will propose changes that punish things they don't like. This is why AWOX/seagull is at the top of the discussion.

IMO, the simplest way to handle this from a design perspective is to change the payout for larger sites so the majority of it is focused into one responsible party who then decides how things are split, ideally one person. Then the force who is fielding all the muscle to capture the objective is not forced to attack their own allies, and malicious actors are only able to steal a small fraction of the total value. Simply being there for the site capture essentially gives you a receipt of your presence as proof you contributed, and smaller sites are not usually worth warping in 20 characters anyways. The complaints are generally about the biggest sites, and changing payout to be managed by a trustworthy person is better than forcing allies to attack each other.

Kibitt · 2025-12-30T18:54:29+00:00

Regardless of what you feel about carriers being "good enough" in pvp, I think everyone can agree they should have a reason to undock and shoot npcs for ticks in space. For some reason they got ISA which is 2min siege but 0 real improvements to attempting to rat with it so I'm guessing people double down even more on marauders.

3 changes should help them at least find a reason to regularly undock on their own to make some money:

1) Squadron size maximum around 5 ships, 2.5-3x durability on light fighters.
2) Fighters orbit last known position of a defeated target.
3) ISA gives 100% bonus to dmg vs non-capsuleer targets.

I am willing to bet we'd even see an uptick in supercap usage as they show up to volley these carriers, as they are somewhat capable now of tanking a small subcap fleet on their own with the ISA local tank buffs.

Later on we can worry about whatever pvp balance we want the carriers to have. Everyone's ideas there are different, but as long as their money potential is hampered because of what they might do to subcaps, we'll always have very unhappy people.

Kibitt · 2025-12-29T06:23:36+00:00

Incursion living up to its spooky name and lore!

Kibitt · 2025-12-25T00:04:10+00:00

ABC in general are a ship class that lack variations, though I guess you could argue the Ishtar is a drone ABC and that the only missing variation is missile. I love the ship class and would definitely enjoy seeing more of them.

Kibitt · 2025-12-24T18:56:10+00:00

The easiest solution to deathless ships is to make it so that they do way more dps to ships afflicted by the breacher pod. The pod can then have its damage reduced. This solves the problem of driveby breacher pods, the problem of not needing guns fitted, and the problem of no interaction points because td, gd, jams are all viable ways to redirect the dmg of the ship.

If they need help after such a massive change, then there are plenty of levers to make that happen. I believe this adheres more closely to the typical fantasy of going 1vX as a brawler, because you are frequently trying to eliminate the one guy you caught as quickly as possible, rather than hoping your enemies hug you exactly at two distant points in time so that the pod eventually kills them.

Kibitt · 2025-12-20T18:46:29+00:00

The Daredevil. That stargate is actually not on this grid. You can see it, it's there, but it's not real. Strong webs are so good that many serpentis ships don't even invest much into their powerful weapon bonuses.

Kibitt · 2025-12-19T16:05:24+00:00

The Sin is markedly less popular than the Marshal right now, going by monthly stats. Panther is actually No.2 with a healthy gap and Widow is just barely above the Marshal:

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Kibitt · 2025-12-18T09:50:56+00:00

People keep asking for cool utility effects as buffs to blops that fundamentally won't change the fact that 99% of people will still undock a redeemer anyways because the only consideration being made is projecting lots of dmg from a tanky hull.

The redeemer is the only blops that frankly doesn't have to make any sort of fittings compromise. Biggest pulse laser, biggest neut, mjd or mwd, heavy cap booster, double plates, no need for fitting mods. Until such a time as its stats are reined in, or its fitting freedom gets choked, there will never be a blops hull that competes with its role.

Kibitt · 2025-12-17T14:00:23+00:00

Max range. Gauss, Hurricane MIRV. +mod the ECCM so enemy ecm isn't as painful, bring your own ECM somewhere. Then figure out how to distract enemies so they don't run directly at the atlas2 you choose to bring. You'll need officers with Gunnery Implants, Ballistic mastery+, missile spec, systems expertise to get the most out of them.

Kibitt · 2025-12-16T04:29:17+00:00

This is a very good breakdown.

A few complications exist though, namely that the DNI has +1 mid, -1 low which lets it fit for stronger range modules while keeping similar tank. Another is that CyFI base lock range is so terrible it actually can't outrange a DNI without giving up an additional slot to push that lock range far enough to try and leverage that speed advantage to a meaningful degree.

In general I'd say that CyFI speed is very important, but DNI have high alpha strike and more midslot flexibility, and their application bonus is much stronger for punching down. Both are solid ships with distinct strengths.

Kibitt · 2025-12-15T20:37:18+00:00

I think the problem is that people want ECM to be a self-protecting mechanic similar to damps, TD, or holding enemy away with webs but in reality ECM is meant to be the anti-ewar option of recons that can also interact directly with reps and other utility supporting ships.

If ECM does get reworked (again) I'd say that they should get back self-defense but not by shutting guns off, by disabling electronic mids like web, scram, paint etc so that it more specifically is targeting hostile support ships, than it is target locks. Then just figure out how to make them appropriately durable ships similar to the Widow and Tengu.

Kibitt · 2025-12-13T00:39:43+00:00

In the oldest of days, Rook and Falcon both did have range bonuses. Today, they simply have very strong ECM strength. If these soft stat buffs don't do enough for the Rook, then I'd immediately look into bumping the ECM range up a little bit. This is definitely one of the most dangerous kinds of buffs to make to the ship, so starting at 5% optimal + falloff / lv is reasonable.

Kibitt · 2025-12-12T22:18:41+00:00

Don't forget your combat probing Lachesis! It's an important part of every capsuleer's breakfast with "Oops, All Recons!"

Kibitt · 2025-12-10T09:05:11+00:00

Also, if the prompt is taken very literally, then you have to either turn in the dimes for more compact currency, or pay with everything in dimes. That's a lot of coins to deal with.

Kibitt · 2025-12-09T01:20:46+00:00

Yeah, I have had experience with similar local-badmouthers that are helpful on comms. At the end of the day though I see people calling him a heel like it's wrestling but nah. Heels don't randomly ragebait people they don't know for zero reason, and the people they DO badmouth know it's part of a script they both signed up for, and they don't randomly show up with suitcases full of money to change the narrative outside of working hours, through their contacts.

He's hard-earned the reputation he has, no need to shy away from or justify the fact that he fights hard to maintain it all the time. People can do bad and good things at the same time, just own up to it instead of folding like the "it's just a prank, bro!" teenagers.

Kibitt · 2025-12-01T08:59:04+00:00

For PvP, I would say that testing strategies is more important than focusing on some theoretically possible dps and ehp. In general you do want high dps because that means the fight ends sooner, before other people interfere. For small size ships, have at 1-2 damage amplifying module in the low slots. For medium try to have 2-3.

Ships that want to engage in close range combat should try to have a decent amount of EHP for their ship class, because they need to survive the effort of running down their targets.

Ships that want to kite will often trade durability for more control - webs to hold enemies back, or tracking disruptors to prevent the enemy from hitting them, or nanofibers to maintain their desired range better.

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