Mind Blown.

I am going to spreadsheet some stuff.

I've gotten some feedback from people who don't like the name of 'powercore' as they don't feel its really lore-y enough. I kind of like the idea of some sort of acronym that incorporates aspects of subsytems, reactor, computer and datacore (datacores in eve represent the sum of a races knowledge about [subject]). So the datacore provides doctrinal info, the computer provides cpu, the reactor provides powergrid (and support for shield and armor functions?) and the subsystems flavor some of the other things like profile, scans and equipment/weapons.

Yep. Countering a racial/inherent weakness in a dropsuit is usually counter productive to a fit for that class/race. Building on Strengths is more efficient and has a lower impact on resources. Sure, a shield tanked Amarr fit can be made, but it still suffers from the lower speed, lower regens, that even when corrected leave it worse off than the proper Caldari build.

A logi can fit what most assaults can, or even scouts, yet the built in weaknesses like lower HP, speed, regen, stamina, etc. make that suit a poor imitation that now excels at even less than it did before. That is why class and race matter. The bonuses and stat differences count alot. Sure, some unique fits occur, but they are the exception. These are rare, and when they begin to dominate (like the killer bees 3 yrs ago, bricked scouts, myofibed flyers) corrective actions are taken.

So I'll comment on two reoccurring points:

Making dropsuits BPOs. I'm not sure what people's issues are. You'll be paying the exact same price per fit by simply allocating all the dropsuit price to the core price. It's simple and turns two transactions into one. If your concern is lore, explain to me why we never had to purchase the clones that go in our dropsuits?

Regarding progression creep, it is absolutely intentional to make standard and advanced better while keeping prototype the same. Currently progression is quadratic in that you get multiple upgrades each tier - more slots and more fitting space to fit better mods to fill these slots. The goal here is to make progression linear, only one benefit as you upgrade - more fitting space. Now sure you can withhold slots to fit some better gear a tier above, but it will never be as good as a proper next tier fit. And sure with maxed fitting skills you could probably fit some next tier items, which is fine but it'll have to be carefully managed as like anything else.

Emphasis on just "Focused" instead "Laser Focused".

That irks the hell out of me because it only shows how little thought CCP gave to the system when they first launched the game. But I'm gonna stop complaining about that as that won't change the past. But at the very least I look forward to seeing what CCP Rattati comes up with since now we know he's doing some spreadsheet stuff related to the OP.

I honestly don't have much concern over the APEX and Officer suits as well since those are just very few suits compared to the number of redundant suits your proposal eliminates.

Overall, the idea proposed by Aero and Avallo seems easy to implement. Let's look at the Scout Mk.0 since that is the suit I know very well.

Scout Mk.0 (Currently In Game)
Slots: 3 High/3 Low/2 Equipment
CPU/PG: 366/62

Scout Mk.0 (With Proposal)
Slots: Same as above.
CPU/PG: 0/0

Core (working like PG or CPU upgrade mods but without actually taking up CPU/PG):
Tier 3 Core Bonus: +366 CPU/+62 PG when fitted

However, I think this will require a change on some of the current skill books from affecting the suit to affecting the module itself much like how Shield Extension or Shield Regulation affect the efficacy of the respective modules. For example:

Dropsuit Core Upgrades
From: +1% to dropsuit maximum PG and CPU per level
To: +1% to overall Core efficacy per level

Dropsuit Electronics
From: +5% bonus to dropsuit CPU output per level
To: +5% bonus to Core CPU efficacy per level

Excellent question. I'm not sure which would be better.

Update: Rattati is working on the powercore / tiericide Google doc. So it seems he has plans to implement it.

*proceedes to run around screaming in excitement.*

Even then, 32 suits is a hell lot smaller than 180.

If that is the case, then all the more reason to implement the CORE idea.

Just so that everyone here can know, I have scheduled a new lecture this Saturday 23 May @ 1500 EST / 1900 GMT at the Lecture.D-UNI chat channel.

The purpose of this lecture is to help bring this discussion to the game. Apparently there are a still a lot of players in Dust who don't know about this discussion and have often times made their disagreements known about this idea of the Core either because they are confused about it or because there are certain questions left unanswered. They don't visit the forums for whatever reason such as lack of access to a computer, not wanting to bother reading a 21-page threadnought, or because they just don't ever visit the forums at all.

Therefore if anyone here likes to join in and help me explain things better to those people, that would be great. Aero, Avallo, and Rattati, if any of you can attend at that time, I will be happy. Just let me know.

It's likely that the Cores will be categorized by both race and role.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pHiL03gy5uNwjFAUQEljbFOn1bKJB96rT098BgoPpbo/edit?usp=sharing

Looks like current escalation in CPU/PG differs between suit-sizes.

It was my understanding that scouts are always weaker than assaults in some areas. But what you're forgetting here are the bonuses. Scouts are the only suits that benefit from the cloaking fitting bonus and EWAR. Assaults do not benefit from this at all.

Poor Aero Yassavi came too late for the lecture. I was just about to finish when all of a sudden he stopped by to say "HI". XD

After my recent lecture, I just had the realization that this may not be from Rattati as I originally thought. I like to apologize for any confusion I may have caused as a result of that mistake.

I will remember to adjust my mic accordingly next time. I noticed that I sound about as quiet as a mouse when I was giving my lectures which might explain why the guy was able to talk over me effectively. Being loud and clear is something I'm trying to aim for but obviously I wasn't loud enough that day. I will not make that mistake again.

The reason my mic was set to "3" in the accessory settings of the PS3 was because I didn't want to be too loud especially when I was in a squad when the Squad Leader needs to be heard (I'm almost never squad leader anyways). I will remember to adjust that to a louder setting at least only for the lectures.

So is this still happening or what?

How in the glorious hell did I know that's what the link led to?