The decision was mine and mine alone, a 50% increase in DPS is unprecedented progression of damage in the game, and makes it impossible to balance.

I decided to rip the band aid off and we don't need a full named hotfix to inject one or two remedies afterwards.

And just to iterate, based on all data and experience, the ADS is far too powerful. It is a huge force multiplier and it does everything well, it transports infantry and uplinks. decimates infantry and vehicles, intercepts RDVs and vehicle delivery, avoids swarms with ease. The only counter is a mass team shift to AV, and forges, and by then the rest of the ADS team has gone full anti-infantry. Even if you, by some off chance, take it down, the pilot ejects, runs behind a hill and calls in another one.

I see that the discussion has swayed from, "it's not OP", to "we all knew and admitted it was OP but this is too much".

We will monitor the situation, and ADS performance stats plummet below an acceptable threshold, our response will be immediate, not based on a hotfix schedule. For now, let's see what happens. Don't forget that Turret damage profiles have also changed in Delta.

What's that with max Core Grid skills?

I don't mean to be inflammatory, but would you mind explaining why the RoF and AB nerfs will make ADSs useless?

Please redo the ROF for ADS skill to at least 5% per level instead of the 3% crap you just placed without the community discussing about it. Combing the AB nerf this makes piloting the ADS pretty much worthless to use.

What ever happened to taking things slowly in baby step introductions as you guys (CCP) said you would do? I guess hypocrisy runs rife in decision making and lacking of community information engagement to controversial 'updates' will be the norm...

What makes you state that this is done on a whim, I have done my best to explain in detail and facts why we believe these changes are necessary?

Now it's, "it shouldn't be 3%, it should be 5% or even 7%". That 7% proposal never came from the pilots during the multiple Delta threads and discussions. Pretty sure, if the Delta proposal had been 5%, the ADS community would say it should be 7% or 9%. We were waiting for counter proposals and they never came, and I understand why, but that's siege mentality, that we as a community could do without.

Simply, the ADS community as a whole, refused completely to take part in the feedback discussions. No give and take.

I would much rather want veteran players come forward and admit that some things need balancing, and that they try to influence the smartest and best ways to do so instead of defending the status quo, tooth and nail.

Someone said, let's see how Delta goes, we will look at the numbers, you collect your feedback and let us know, a single ROF change can be done during any TQ downtime, any workday.

I read both of those threads when they were written, and took note of them. I was actually missing facts from those threads to influence any decision. We truly want ADS's to be a vibrant part of the battle, just not at the cost of everyone else's happiness. That's why after Delta it will be harder to pop tanks, and sometimes an ADS will have to flee and wait 26 seconds to come back. That's the long and short of it.

I assume that Assault Dropships (like the dropsuits) are supposed to have the ability to extend their engagement times with targets, so I'd say give it a clip size bonus as opposed to a RoF skill.

If need be, we could just bump up the RoF to compensate for the loss of the bonus.

me too probably. Good thing i only was starting to skill up ADS

So how are you ADS pilots going to use the 15% savings on CPU/PG for small turrets?

Actually it is. It's just such a small reduction that we won't be able to fit anything better anyway, since PRO modules are priority over the guns anyway...

And the ROF nerf has made the Incubus worthless. The Python can still kill infantry but the Incubus is just awful now. 7th rail shot overheats? Greaaaaaat!