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Quote:

I think that a basic shield extender giving somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 hp would be more realistic. At least then you have ~half the functionality of a basic plate. Enhanced extender of maybe 55-60 and complex of max 80-85. That way there is a clear distinction between tiers of module and a reasonable lower limit. Stacking penalties should be extremely severe (as has been discussed in the armor rebalancing thread) such that modules of the same tier should have significantly reduced effectiveness.

With a complex shield extender maxing out at 80-85 that keeps shields well below the buffer potential of armor. Ferroscale plates could max out around 100 hp at complex and enhanced level around 80-85 (approximately 1 tier above shield and 1 tier below regular plates) with fitting costs split between shield extender and reg plates (ie higher cpu than plates, lower than shields and ~ same pg 11-12)

The changes I'm proposing would only work, and balance, IF and only IF something significant is done to reduce the benefits of stacking buffer modules to the exclusion of all else. (significant stacking penalties and increased bonuses to auxiliary buffer mods (energizer, repper, etc.) If stacking isn't modified then changing hp amounts will only exacerbate the current balance situation. I'm hopeful, based on the development discussion in the armor balance threads, that something will be done to rectify the situation somewhat in which case there might be some further things, such as what I'm suggesting, that could diversify the fitting meta.


Author	Thread Statistics \| Show CCP posts - 4 post(s)
Driftward Subdreddit Test Alliance Please Ignore 957	Posted - 2014.05.16 15:43:00 - [1] - Quote How about stacking penalties that either decrease subsequent amounts of armor added or increase the movement penalty (1 basic plate -> -1% movement; 2 basic plates -> -3% movement) % based increases to HP wouldn't scale well at all. Let's say that complex plates would give a 35% boost to armor, that gives sentinels (base 500 armor) 175 armor increase and a scout gets (base 125) ~44 armor. Any module % that properly balances the amount a heavy gains from plates will be intrinsically unbalanced for every other class. While yes this does have the effect of making scouts un-tankable, it is directly contrary to game vision (ie specialists should be best in one category but have the ability to play other styles less well). The high variability of base HP makes % based armor modules a bad idea. Besides then you have to do the same thing with shield modules at which point nobody will use anything other than sentinels. Have you ever tried to use a 300 eHP scout? Makes me remember pre 1.8 days of scouting.... If we want to stop the main problem, which in my opinion is the stacking of the same module to the exclusion of all else, then we need to add greater benefits to the other variants as well as penalize stacking the same module. That way we get more variable and interesting loadouts with more options for playstyle. You should be able to have a viable passive rep tank just as much as active repping by logi using plates.
Driftward Subdreddit Test Alliance Please Ignore 971	Posted - 2014.05.21 20:49:00 - [2] - Quote Cross posting from a shield extender thread. Quote: I think that a basic shield extender giving somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 hp would be more realistic. At least then you have ~half the functionality of a basic plate. Enhanced extender of maybe 55-60 and complex of max 80-85. That way there is a clear distinction between tiers of module and a reasonable lower limit. Stacking penalties should be extremely severe (as has been discussed in the armor rebalancing thread) such that modules of the same tier should have significantly reduced effectiveness. With a complex shield extender maxing out at 80-85 that keeps shields well below the buffer potential of armor. Ferroscale plates could max out around 100 hp at complex and enhanced level around 80-85 (approximately 1 tier above shield and 1 tier below regular plates) with fitting costs split between shield extender and reg plates (ie higher cpu than plates, lower than shields and ~ same pg 11-12) The changes I'm proposing would only work, and balance, IF and only IF something significant is done to reduce the benefits of stacking buffer modules to the exclusion of all else. (significant stacking penalties and increased bonuses to auxiliary buffer mods (energizer, repper, etc.) If stacking isn't modified then changing hp amounts will only exacerbate the current balance situation. I'm hopeful, based on the development discussion in the armor balance threads, that something will be done to rectify the situation somewhat in which case there might be some further things, such as what I'm suggesting, that could diversify the fitting meta. Ferroscale plates are completely worthless as is (as seen by consumption). They need at minimum a reduction in fitting cost or an increase in HP, probably a bit of both.
Driftward Subdreddit Test Alliance Please Ignore 971	Posted - 2014.05.21 21:00:00 - [3] - Quote Artemis Kaiba wrote: What I think : Ferroscale plates give too much HP for no drawback. I don't like them (OP). Shields, in the other hand, give not much HP for a useless drawback (delay isn't much trouble and can be counter with regulator easily). Why shield aren't like I've heard it is on Eve : increase shield HP while making the hitbox larger ? Balancing armor and shield in a more "Eve" way would be more interesting according to me. They would both give same HP value, armor would reduce speed, shield would increase hitbox size. For the bonus question, introducing some rep modules like you did for shield (drastically increase regen while reducing total HP) could make the thing. Ferroscales are worthless (duplicating some things I've already said); consumption is at the bottom of the armor plate use pile, they cost significantly more than regular plates (fitting), and provide much lower HP buffer than regular plates and is barely competitive against shields right now (despite dramatic penalties to recharging compared to shields). Also, the energizer modules for shields they introduced months ago are also bad and why introduce a similar module for armor if the shield one isn't used frequently already. If we fix them adn then introduce something like that for shields (replacing reactives maybe) SUPER HIGH fitting costs (ie >90 cpu for complex) with a very low % increase to recharge rate. It would be great for scouts...except they can't fit enough buffer to need a higher recharge rate, and sentinels, who would benefit the most from recharge increases, don't have a high enough base to make use of the % increase.