Yes. This. Swarms (yes, MULTIPLE swarmers working together) are just laughed off by ADS pilots. They are pretty much entirely unkillable by swarms except in the case of terribad pilot or getting extremely unlucky. So why worry about a minor swarm buff affecting dropships? When that's exactly what we need, for swarms to have at least some effect on ADSs?

And I really don't see a need for the increased nanite count on AV nades. I already deplete a proto hive after throwing 2 nades as it is.

the gal scout is the only unscannable one

Alright.

These are mostly a good set of changes with the ideas behind them solid.
However, I have a few concerns.

Firstly, on the various grenade changes - Core locus grenades do not need a buff. They are already handheld nuclear weapons. Correct airbursting will allow you to kill any non-heavy in one grenade.

I am curious as to why you opted to increase AV grenade damage rather than just revert the grenade count change. I feel that while that was justified on the locus to reduce grenade spam (as grenades were becoming comparatively more effective killing tools with 1.8 TTK changes) there was never any need to reduce the count on either AV or flux grenades.

I do not believe contact grenades need a nerf. They're already barely used, further reductions in damage are unnecessary.



I'm a huge fan of these cloak changes. 0/2.5/5% profile dampening bonuses make barely any difference and I can't see any time that would actually have a real effect, but removing the dampening bonus cloaks give is a nice tweak. The duration change! That was unexpected, but I love it!

I've never taken the cloak to prototype, but now I have a reason to. Good work! I do have a question though - are the recharge rates changing?


The armour changes look okay. Active reps appear to be done as a % though - they're not changing from a linear HP/s are they?

Basic plates have long needed to take up more than 1 PG, that's a good change. However, complex appears to have had its requirements increased while enhanced has had a decrease. This seems odd to me - enhanced plates have always felt like the gold standard for armour plates while the complex was an overly expensive variant that I never bothered with.

Ferroscale and reactive changes are nice, as are the reps.

AR/CR changes are pretty pathetic, 2% changes won't make a single bullet of difference in the vast, vast majority of cases. I recommend having a look at the number of bullets taken to kill rather than considering it just as a %. If there's zero change in bullets to kill there is zero change in TTK, so the change is pointless. As it is, I doubt there'll be any change in bullets required to kill except on 1000+ EHP suits.

Plasma cannon changes are eh and I still won't use it for serious AV but it's nice to finally see some love for them.

I notice you've cancelled the movement of the Gallente passive rep to the Amarr suit (at least for this patch). I'd just like to say that it makes no sense to move the reps from the active tankers to the passive tankers. Instead, I recommend increasing the base armour HP on the Amarr suit. Actually, I'd recommend that across the board. I notice you've also suggested an increase in the number of slots some Amarr suits have - for the Amarr assault, that's overdue. I look forward to that change.

Changes to the large blaster dispersion = HELL YES. I greatly look forward to there being fewer instagib infantry Madrugars roaming about (or at least less effectively).

In all fairness, we are discussing completely eliminating the restocking of all grenades by nanohives, this is the moderated proposal. (We would keep them for supply depots)

In all fairness, we are discussing completely eliminating the restocking of all grenades by nanohives, this is the moderated proposal. (We would keep them for supply depots)

I mostly agree, but on the CR/AR thing, I think a 4% shift (2% nerf+2% buff) can make a difference. Look at how many people have taken up the ACR (<3) just because it was nerfed less than other rifles (8% rather than 10-15%).

Still, ideally I think AR/CR would be a 3% buff/nerf.

Changing swarms from Explosive to Hybrid is not a direction we want to take, even if it would give Calmandos an AV edge. We are more looking at granting some sort of AV bonuses to all Commandos.

[/list]

But it doesn't, that's the point. If you have a 2% change on each and neither changes the number of bullets required to kill, there is no net change.

People didn't just take up the ACR because it took half the damage nerf that some of the other weapons did. There are a whole host of reasons for choosing the ACR over the AR - better damage profile (especially important with the proficiency changes), better range, better RoF (important on the slowdown effect)...

Dear players,

we are back with most of the numbers that can be discussed. A few things are under technical evaluation but these are the stats we are proposing for Hotfix Alpha.

Here are the numbers Hotfix Alpha Numbers

Due to popular demand and community reasoning, we are making a few strategic changes.

1) We are not reducing Minmatar Commando speed at this time, it stays the same.
XXX 2) We are probably going to move the Gallente Scout repair rate over to the Amarr Scout. The "probably" is now "not"
3) We are going to change cloak dampening to be slightly above zero for Advanced and Prototype, albeit at lower rates

So, please review the list and give us feedback in this thread.

These concerns deserve special mention, as they were mentioned a lot.

• Scouts and EWAR - the intention was never to "fix" the EWAR meta with Hotfix Alpha. Just to force players to make a choice between being completely unscannable or scannable and invisible.
• Swarms as AV - We don't want to change too many things at the same time. Improving swarms to counter tanks, will affect dropships as well.
• Changing swarms from Explosive to Hybrid is not a direction we want to take, even if it would give Calmandos an AV edge. We are more looking at granting some sort of AV bonuses to all Commandos.

Again, thanks for the constructive and positive feedback,
CCP Rattati

In all fairness, we are discussing completely eliminating the restocking of all grenades by nanohives, this is the moderated proposal. (We would keep them for supply depots)

CCP, STD cloak only last for 15 seconds... Really? That's like 100 meters it lasts. Please go back to old duration. Remove the dampening because it doesn't really matter but please don't lower cloak duration.

Kind of extreme but it'd give some reason to grenades being as powerful as they are. Spammability was always a problem but not because of the sheer amount, but because Core Locus Grenades did 600 damage. They're the only grenade that will actively -kill- infantry and they do so incredibly well. I've always figured that anti-infantry grenades worked more on the aspect of shrapnel rather than high-explosives, something that dropsuits would be able to shrug off more easily.

You're talking about something that does enough damage to kill most medium frames that aren't brick tanked over a radius of 7.2 meters. Just the other day I got -eight kills- with a single grenade being tossed into a building in an ambush match. That's a lot of power to have in something that is more easily fit than most light weaponry.

Moving the reps from Gallente to Amarr?
Really?

That's just stupid lol

Amarr: Brick Armor
Gallente: Repair Armor