Maken Tosch
DUST University
Ivy League
5869
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Posted - 2013.12.12 19:18:00 -
[1] - Quote
CCP has made no mention of a possible tieracide. Only players who made such requests in the feedback section of the forums.
But let's assume for a moment that a tieracide is in the works or is at least on the backlog of development for the next 5 years, there is a likelihood that CCP will base the tieracide on what they did in Eve Online.
Take a look at Eve Online as the primary example of a tieracide done correctly. But just like Dust, Eve didn't have tieracide until way after it release. There were many ships that started off as being stepping stones towards better ships rather than having unique advantages for their tier. Mining Barges and Exhumers come to mind. But mining ships were not the only ones with this problem. Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, Battlecruisers, Battleships, etc. almost all had similar problems. But for the sake of clarity in this discussion we'll focus on the mining ships for now.
About midway or so through Eve Online's evolution since its official release back in 2003, mining barges and exhumers were regarded (and still are) as the most effective mining vessels in the game. The mining barges are the tech 1 variants while the exhumers are the tech 2 variants of the mining barges. These were the ships that used strip mining modules rather than standard mining lasers for maximum yield.
Mining Barges (Tech 1)
Procurer = 1 strip miner; small cargo hold; weak defense
Retriever = 2 strip miners; medium cargo hold; medium defense
Covetor = 3 strip miners; large cargo hold; high defense
Exhumers (Tech 2)
Skiff = 1 strip miner; small cargo; weak defense; bonus reduction at chance of damage cloud forming when mercoxit mining
Mackinaw = 2 strip miners; medium cargo; medium defense; bonus to yield of ice mining
Hulk = 3 strip miners; largo cargo; high defense; bonus to yield of strip miners in general
For the Mining Barge class, the Procurer is a tier 1 ship due to needing to train up only level 1 on mining barge skill book. The Retriever requires only level 2 of that same book therefore its is tier 2 and the Covetor requires level 3 and therefore it is a tier 3 ship.
For the Exhumer Class, you first need to complete training up Mining Barge skill book to level 5 plus a few support skill books like Archeology. Then you needed to train up the Exhumer skill book to start using the following: Skiff = Level 1; Mackinaw = Level 2; and Hulk = Level 3.
As you can see, the level of the skill needed determines the tier of the ship. If a ship requires only a level 2 skill, then that ship is a tier 2 ship. NOTE: The difference between tech and tier is that tech is determined by whether or not that ship is an extension of similar ship in the same class while tier is the level of the skill book needed for that ship
In the case of the mining ships, we can now see that the Mackinaw is the tier 2 ship of the Exhumer class and is the Tech 2 variant of the Retriever since they look the same but the Tech 2 variant has special bonuses that the Tech 1 variant doesn't have. The Mackinaw is the extension of the Retriever.
But here you can see the problem. If you're a dedicated mining player you're not going to keep the Retriever once you trained up to use the Covetor. And once you trained up to use the Hulk, you're not going to keep the Mackinaw around if you're not the kind of player who mines only ice. The use and utility of the ship wanes as you skill up to the higher tier ship. Essentially they have become nothing more than stepping stones and the bonuses given to the Exhumers don't seem enough of an incentive to keep them.
This has been the case for a long time up until about 2 years ago when CCP decided to introduce Tieracide... but with a bit of a twist.
The following changes were made:
Mining Barges:
https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Item_Database:Ships:Mining_Barges:Mining_Barges
Exhumers:
https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Item_Database:Ships:Mining_Barges:Exhumers
As you can see, all six ships are still somewhat stepping stones to the next tier but their utility and practicality has been overhauled to make them much more useful to you even if you skilled up to the next tier. The tier 1 ships have become tanked up mini-miners that you can use for low-sec mining and maybe a few lulzy battles but have a tiny cargo hold. The tier 2 ships have become jet cans with an engine due to their massive cargo size. And the tier 3 ships have become mining yield monsters but with limits to cargo size and total EHP.
This overhaul can be applied to dropsuits as well. Imagine a Scout G-1, Scout G/1-Series, and Scout Gk.0 still being tiered suits but each having unique abilities that the other tiers doesn't have. This way, if you train up to the Scout Gk.0 you'll still find the Scout G-1 and G/1-Series useful due to their overall design just like how a mining player might train up to the Hulk but might still use the Skiff if he needs maximum tank for low-sec mining.
OK, CCP. When are knives finally going to be improved?
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