2 and 3.
2 doesn't necessarily have to be something as awful as a reload bonus or recoil reduction bonus, I see no reason why it couldn't be a small damage bonus. The Amarr and Minmatar assaults have solid main bonuses (although a useful secondary one would be most welcome), it's just that the suits themselves are poor compared to the other suits.

for me the answer to all our problems is to make it a racial medium suit bonus with a seperate role bonus specific to assault effectiveness.

make the racial medium suit bonus specific to the weapon type damage and range of that race which should give it overall better damage/range combination over all the other classes putting them in a stronger position. then make the assault bonus specific to a task the assault could fill. my suggestion is av/and combat logistics like RE/Scanners.

then do the same for logis. with the medium damage bonus specific to mediums suits they could roll with the assaults but with support logistics like repairs and nanos. together they compliment and protect each other while they do their roles but if not needed they can still go out and kill equally as effective

I don't really see why it was split tbh. To me, it should just be two bonuses:
1. Racial weapon bonus.
2. Regeneration bonus.

Well then I won't lie that I'm a little surprised but so far people seem to unanimously agree than 2 and 3 are the best choices.

So with that said, few thoughts on regeneration

Caldari & Minmatar:

Caldari obviously need the most shields out of all of them, but should they get Recharge Speed to get that massive HP back faster? Or Decreased Delay so they're almost always recharging? I'd probably say go with the latter but the Delay bonus also makes a lot of sense for the Minmatar

Should the Caldari get Recharge Delay bonuses? or should the Minmatar? Thoughts?

Gallente:
Bonus to armor repair is obvious, that's how they work in EVE.

Amarr:
The Amarr are kinda tricky, as they're supposed to be the armor brick tanks, without much focus on regeneration. I don't think they should mirror the armor repair like the Gallente do. So while it's not really regeneration, how do you feel about a reduction to the speed penalty of armor plates? I feel it remains true to the Amarr racial theme as well as the idea of a skirmisher role.

Well then I won't lie that I'm a little surprised but so far people seem to unanimously agree than 2 and 3 are the best choices.

So with that said, few thoughts on regeneration

Caldari & Minmatar:

Caldari obviously need the most shields out of all of them, but should they get Recharge Speed to get that massive HP back faster? Or Decreased Delay so they're almost always recharging? I'd probably say go with the latter but the Delay bonus also makes a lot of sense for the Minmatar

Should the Caldari get Recharge Delay bonuses? or should the Minmatar? Thoughts?

Gallente:
Bonus to armor repair is obvious, that's how they work in EVE.

Amarr:
The Amarr are kinda tricky, as they're supposed to be the armor brick tanks, without much focus on regeneration. I don't think they should mirror the armor repair like the Gallente do. So while it's not really regeneration, how do you feel about a reduction to the speed penalty of armor plates? I feel it remains true to the Amarr racial theme as well as the idea of a skirmisher role.

Caldari is a pain in the ass. Reduced charge time is...nice? But I fear its not enough in comparison to other bonuses.

if you cant offset a weakness, then enhance a strength. give them more optimal range lol

I assume you're referring to the magazine capacity bonus? Yeah that one is pretty sweet.

The support bonuses should really offset the biggest downside of the gun, in my opinion.

Minmatar have small magazines in regards to their fire rate, so they get the magazine bonus.

Amarr are limited by heat capacity, so decreased heat buildup makes sense.

Gallente is.....a little trickier

Caldari is a pain in the ass. Reduced charge time is...nice? But I fear its not enough in comparison to other bonuses.

Are you nuts? Drop the spool up time on the RR and that thing becomes redonkulous. Drop the charge sniper time and I will immediately skill back into the cal assault for my counter-sniping suits. I guess you could drop the lock time of swarms too... *moves away before Atiim starts drooling or sporting wood*

That bonus would be amazing and at least on par with the Amarr assault bonus, which as we all know is the current benchmark.

I also support a secondary "survivability" bonus to the Assaults too, that makes a lot of sense:
- Better armor regen for Gallente
- Reduced armor speed penalty for Amarr
- A mixed bonus for Minmatar of some kind makes sense to me, maybe better shields but not as good as caldari, a little better armor regen, but not like gallente?
- Caldari with the lower delay


Now that leaves us with the logi suits...
-

Well if people feel the charge would be useful, then we'll go with that. I mean it does make the most sense in terms of mechanics.

And while I understand the mindset of Minmatar being the appropriate hybrid tank, typically they're more focused on that shield regen, so I went with them being shield tanked.




As for Logistics, it's off topic but I'll toss my basic thoughts in here and see what you guys think.

I like the idea of specialized into certain gear. I don't like that you only really get one. I'd suggest a secondary bonus of either equal or slightly lesser value than the Logi suit that has that as it's main bonus. For Example

Caldari Logi
Primary: Nanohives
Secondary: Active Scanners

Gallente Logi
Primary: Active Scanner
Secondary: Repair Tool

Minmatar Logi
Primary: Repair Tool
Secondary: Uplinks

Amarr Logi:
Primary: Uplinks
Secondary: Nanohives

Logi suits are never off topic!

Not a bad idea, but I've always liked the idea of a defensive bonus, too. The inherent reps of old were great, unfortunately they got abused by killer bees.

If doing it your way, personally I'd like to see a secondary generic bonus to ALL equipment instead of just one more. To me it makes more sense that logi suits would be designed that way.

Just spitballing, maybe set it up so that at level 5 of, for example, the Amarr logi, you get the current bonus to uplinks plus the equivalent of level 2 of all the other logi suits?

I kinda comes down to how should the suit play..

Should it have a short delay so nearly constantly recharging at a slow rate, much like armor repair? Or should it be a suit that needs to avoid damage for longer, but once that recharge starts, they're going to have full nearly instantly?



Eh I'd like to avoid that, I try to avoid inconsistencies between variants as much as possible. Besides, most encounters happen within the optimal of weapons with a shorter range, giving the RR more range in most situations isn't going to help all that much, whereas the other 3 bonuses tend to benefit those weapons over a wider range of situations.

Are you nuts? Drop the spool up time on the RR and that thing becomes redonkulous. Drop the charge sniper time and I will immediately skill back into the cal assault for my counter-sniping suits. I guess you could drop the lock time of swarms too... *moves away before Atiim starts drooling or sporting wood*

That bonus would be amazing and at least on par with the Amarr assault bonus, which as we all know is the current benchmark.

I also support a secondary "survivability" bonus to the Assaults too, that makes a lot of sense:
- Better armor regen for Gallente
- Reduced armor speed penalty for Amarr
- A mixed bonus for Minmatar of some kind makes sense to me, maybe better shields but not as good as caldari, a little better armor regen, but not like gallente?
- Caldari with the lower delay


Now that leaves us with the logi suits...
-

I'm just working on another conceptual design for Dust and I'm at a bit of a crossroads on reworking Assaults, and I thought I'd ask you guys for some feedback to keep my train of thought rolling.

Assuming you could only pick 2 of these 3 Racial Bonuses, which would you pick for the Assault Class?

1. Bonus Damage for Racial Weapon (eg. +% Damage to Gallente Weapons/Lvl of Gallente Assault)

2. Bonus to Racial Weapon Support Attribute (eg. +% Reduction to Heat Buildup in Amarr Weapons/Lvl of Amarr Assault)

3. Bonus to Rapid HP Regeneration (eg. +% Shield Rechargers/Lvl of Minmatar Assault)

The support bonuses should really offset the biggest downside of the gun, in my opinion.......Gallente is.....a little trickier

Seeing as the racial bonuses have never reflected for any of the hybrid weapons I chose, it's worthless.

I've tried ALL versions of the rail rifle and assault rifles with the Gallente assault suits with no effect to my stats when fitting these items. Proficiency (fitting) has no reduction on my PG usage either. It never has over the past two updates and hotfixes. The bonuses dont allow that one PG or CPU point to squeeze in a complex module over an enhanced item. I dont know if it's a glitch or maybe the bonuses only apply to faction weapons as those have to be purchased with loyalty points of which I have none.

Well, you do realize that the Rail Rifle is a Hybrid-Rail weapon, Gallente Assault only affects Hybrid-Blaster. You would need to use Caldari Assault to get the Hybrid-Rail bonuses. Also be aware that when viewing the stats of the weapon in the fitting screen (such as accuracy) will not reflect skills, but will work with the actual performance of the weapon.

As for the lack of reduced fitting cost, I do believe that is a known glitch.