Victor Moody Stahl
Amarr Templars
Amarr Empire
109
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Posted - 2014.11.13 00:38:00 -
[1] - Quote
I was about to say something that we could instead just choke the CPU/PG on the APEX line to keep it from being a free protosuit chassis, but my idea is slightly more in depth than "APEX whatever" fittings equal "STD whatever" fittings.
Rather, the APEX suits should be prefitted, and have sufficient CPU/PG so that you can fit them with mostly STD/MLT mods, and if you really juggle things around, you might squeeze on one or two ADV/Enhanced level items- like say, fitting an Assault Forge to one of the APEX sentinels, but then having to use a fitting mod or maybe juggle a few things around.
Ideally, they should be easy to fit out with a mix of STD and MLT modules; I'll use the Quafe Assault A-I and the APEX Opus Asasult for my example:
The Quafe Assault A-I has 1 high, 3 lows, and one each of light weapon, sidearm, grenade, and equipment. Referencing the Hotfix Charlie notes, it has 33 PG and 164 CPU. The APEX Opus Assault adds 2 highs and 2 lows; being able to mix MLT and STD mods requires that the APEX version must have more fitting space.
But it doesn't need much, perhaps somewhere between the ADV and STD level suits of the equivalent type. It's also the case that some suits should get a better increase- logis, for example, gain significant slot increases and often have increases in equipment slot numbers as well.
Using the MinLogi as my example (since it's the one that's been released), the Logi M-I has a 2/2/3 high/low/equip layout, with a light weapon and grenade slot. The APEX variant naturally has an additional equipment slot, and two more each of high and low slots.
The fitting space available to the Logi M-I will not be sufficient to properly fill all of the slots with a mix of MLT/STD mods. This is perhaps even more apparent with Gallente and Caldari Logis, since they gain significant slot count benefit going from STD to PRO level.
But I think that having a PRO-level slot layout with a PG/CPU budget a little bit above the STD-level equivalents would be an excellent way to prevent the much-feared "ohmahgerd bpo protostomper" epidemic... though I personally consider it an overblown issue, given that most "protostompers" are so ISK-wealthy that they can, in a practical sense, sustain full-on protosuits in perpetuity.
This also has the added advantage that it's very easy for CCP to hotfix this into the game. While I do agree that a meta-level limitation is quite brilliant and would also easily allow this, I would argue that simply adjusting the APEX line's CPU/PG values is a simpler, more elegant, and more likely to be implemented solution.
But meh, that's just my opinion.
Buff Logis | Nerf Scouts
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