Well people are locked into the idea that all assault suits need to be called "Assault". What if he just look at the types of roles in two very broad categories.

Assault - These are your primary damage dealers, the ones kicking the doors in, doing the most damage, and focusing on killing the enemy.

Support - These are the force multipliers. The roles that fill in the gaps and perform more specialist roles. They're the ones providing cover fire, healing allies, and picking off long range targets.

So now if we think in these broad terms, now let's say you have 6 corporations each making their own version of a suit that fits into one of those broad categories.

So corporation A-C builds their version an Assault Dropsuit. Corporations D-F builds their version of a Support dropsuit.

A builds a Vanguard
B builds a Frontline
C builds an infiltrator

D builds a Sentinel
E builds a Logistics
F builds a marksman

Does that make sense?

Well people are locked into the idea that all assault suits need to be called "Assault". What if he just look at the types of roles in two very broad categories.

Assault - These are your primary damage dealers, the ones kicking the doors in, doing the most damage, and focusing on killing the enemy.

Support - These are the force multipliers. The roles that fill in the gaps and perform more specialist roles. They're the ones providing cover fire, healing allies, and picking off long range targets.

So now if we think in these broad terms, now let's say you have 6 corporations each making their own version of a suit that fits into one of those broad categories.

So corporation A-C builds their version an Assault Dropsuit. Corporations D-F builds their version of a Support dropsuit.

A builds a Vanguard
B builds a Frontline
C builds an infiltrator

D builds a Sentinel
E builds a Logistics
F builds a marksman

Does that make sense?

Vanguard is the new name for Commando.
I just said Frontline instead of Assault to avoid confusion.

As for the rest, I've explained this a few different ways but it seems none of them are really clicking with you, and for that I apologize. Perhaps someone else will have better luck, cause I'm not really sure how else to explain it.

these are humans and humans interact with corporations more than empires.

Wait.....what?

I didn't know humans could respawn

I'm trying to get clarification.

Amarr Ship Tree

This picture illustrates my expectation for Nova.

Ship "Classes" break down into specialized ships, each of which developed by a corp that is a member of its race and based off a base line ship.

Will Nova follow this structure or not?

"CCP Rattati
What are your favorite NPC corporations and why? We are exploring a new way to approach player classes. less focus on empires, and more on the fact that these are humans and humans interact with corporations more than empires. We are also not interested in making GÇÿ4 of eachGÇÖ anymore."

[url]http://biomassed.net/2017/05/20/project-nova-what-we-know-so-far/[/url]

Why you saying I said something I never actually said?

From my understanding, no.

This is my understanding of how it will look (forgive the half assed flow chart)
Remember that I am obviously not a developer and everything I know is available on Biomassed.net, so there is a degree of speculation on my part, so take it with a grain of salt.

http://biomassed.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Rough-Class-Progression-Page-1.png

Also I'm trying to get clarification about the "one faction for each class" thing. It's been implied to be that way but I will try to get a definitive confirmation one way or another.

I'm not really a fan of being forced to play other classes to unlock gear you want, but the idea will work much better for new players.

I'm not really a fan of being forced to play other classes to unlock gear you want, but the idea will work much better for new players.

One thing I hope for is the ability to manufacture gear that you can use without training a separate class. The resources required should be shared between eve and nova creating a real infantry market. Even npc corps should have a limited stock available on the market and allow players to sell unused resources to npc's to help them produce things.

Npc corps will even use blueprints sold to them. They'll use the blueprint in the most efficient way creating the most gear per blueprint, but the item will be on the market for anyone to buy. This will make player corporations a lot more meaningful if, for instance, corp members with the same manufacture skill trained will boost production and have control over who gets what. In the end game, players would desire player corp markets and create a more interesting corp battle motive, wherein dust you just sold excess clones.

Well the playing field hasn't been completely leveled, but the difference has been reduced significantly. Remember, you're not unlocking new suits, you're taking the base one you have and layering on new bonuses. So your T1 simply turns into your T2, it's not like you'll have a T1 suit sitting in your closet and then a T2 of the same suit sitting next to it.

So yes, each suit has all of the benefits that come before it (T2 has T2 + T1 bonuses). So there is power increase there which was similar in Dust.

However unlike Dust, the slots, hp, resources, ect. Are the same regardless of tech level. Also there are not tiers of weapons, modules, ect. So that's going to be a huge difference in closing that gap.

Instead of 4 empire/racial variants of a particular dropsuit, we could potentially see something over 30 different Corp based variants of the same "class".

A LOT more work but it provides a future wealth of potential content as more and more corps could added to the game. For example, caldari 4 major corps out of their 8 megacorps, are Kaalakiota, Ishikune, lai dai, wiyrkomi.

But a quick look at this more complete listing of caldari corps shows just how many corps there really are to pontentially create content for.

Caldari NPC Corps

One option for avoiding playing classes you don't like to gain equipment you do could be to do missions for specific corporations or factions that have unique variations of the suit class you like with the specific equipment type you want equipped already...nothing says that all suits of a given faction and race need have the same equipment baked in.

For instance, to use the Manufacturer System and a star-ship analogy
Heavy Assault Cruisers are produced by both Khanid Innovations and Viziam. Let's assume for a minute for the sake of argument that they both produce a Vanguard Suit in the same way.

Khanid Innovations merges Caldari Weapon an Electronics Systems with Amarr Engineering and Metalurgy. A Khanid Vanguard may come equipped with a Rail Rifle or Scrambler Rifle with breach Action and an ECM Burst Generator, Armor Hardeners (simplifying for the sake of illustration), and Reactive Plates.

Viziam on the other hand favors traditional Amarrian Weapons philosophy, but general gears more towards precision, so may have a Scrambler Rifle with Tactical Action, a Damage Modifier, a heat sink, an Armor Repairer, and a Nanohive.

@CCP Rattati:

Ok,so to over-simplify here for me to get my head around something that I can relate to, dropsuits are going to be a generic nebulous thing, that we as players will then apply a software design to so that when "built on-the-fly," we can tweak the physical build of the suit to support whatever role we are looking to provide. If anything, it's the firmware patches that we earn/purchase/whatever that defines the suit being BUILT in our little player suitcase (or whatever we call it) that we take to the field.

I take that to mean the original design of a suit is some generic universal template, where race isn't even a factor anymore. Do I assume all races are using the same generic molding blank? I mean as far as lore goes? So each race will then have a "car" template. Basic 4 wheels, sedan, 6-cyl engine. Everyone in the universe has access to this due to some universal socialist-type agreement that this is everyone's base standard; or over some long time-frame that allowed all suit tech to distill itself down to the most basic common version? Instead of evolving the suit, the suit devolved until reaching that most comment default universal state, while custom firmware evolved instead?

Everyone buys a ps3, but with each software update, your ps3 goes to the next gen capability without really changing the ps3 case. Well, I guess in this example, you have a 3d printer at home just building a slightly modified version of the ps3 with each upgrade, but essentially the ps3 is the base model.

Who designed the default suit? How did enemy races get access to that design?

Please correct me where I am wrong. I am only trying to connect the dots. If I am understanding you right, this is *very* different than what we understand dropsuits to be based on our experience with DUST. That is not necessarily a complaint as it is just pointing out why it is so difficult for us out-of-the-know to grasp. We are trying, but all we really have to to relate to is coming from DUST experience. I think it would help greatly to preface everything with "this is not DUST... strap in, because this is going to be tricky to explain! Forget everything you know because it's no longer relatable." ;) I'm over here trying to conceptually patch your A to my understanding of what A used to be and it's no longer a one-to-one relationship. At least something like that would help break us from the ideas we have already built so many fantasies on since NOVA's announcement ;)

I mean that with respect and love btw.

I think I'm getting closer to getting what is going on. Assuming my post is anywhere near point. Thanks for the check-ins.

@CCP Rattati:

Ok,so to over-simplify here for me to get my head around something that I can relate to, dropsuits are going to be a generic nebulous thing, that we as players will then apply a software design to so that when "built on-the-fly," we can tweak the physical build of the suit to support whatever role we are looking to provide. If anything, it's the firmware patches that we earn/purchase/whatever that defines the suit being BUILT in our little player suitcase (or whatever we call it) that we take to the field.

I take that to mean the original design of a suit is some generic universal template, where race isn't even a factor anymore. Do I assume all races are using the same generic molding blank? I mean as far as lore goes? So each race will then have a "car" template. Basic 4 wheels, sedan, 6-cyl engine. Everyone in the universe has access to this due to some universal socialist-type agreement that this is everyone's base standard; or over some long time-frame that allowed all suit tech to distill itself down to the most basic common version? Instead of evolving the suit, the suit devolved until reaching that most comment default universal state, while custom firmware evolved instead?

Everyone buys a ps3, but with each software update, your ps3 goes to the next gen capability without really changing the ps3 case. Well, I guess in this example, you have a 3d printer at home just building a slightly modified version of the ps3 with each upgrade, but essentially the ps3 is the base model.

Who designed the default suit? How did enemy races get access to that design?

Please correct me where I am wrong. I am only trying to connect the dots. If I am understanding you right, this is *very* different than what we understand dropsuits to be based on our experience with DUST. That is not necessarily a complaint as it is just pointing out why it is so difficult for us out-of-the-know to grasp. We are trying, but all we really have to to relate to is coming from DUST experience. I think it would help greatly to preface everything with "this is not DUST... strap in, because this is going to be tricky to explain! Forget everything you know because it's no longer relatable." ;) I'm over here trying to conceptually patch your A to my understanding of what A used to be and it's no longer a one-to-one relationship. At least something like that would help break us from the ideas we have already built so many fantasies on since NOVA's announcement ;)

I mean that with respect and love btw.

I think I'm getting closer to getting what is going on. Assuming my post is anywhere near point. Thanks for the check-ins.

You're too focused on "what race". The real question is "who is the base manufacturer?".

Each of the 6 base classes has 1 manufacturer. So the base suits design is based off of that manufacturers design specs. Now, that company may belong to a certain race, so those design specs may resemble that race in general.

So the Core Logistics will probably look Minmatar since Core is a Minmatar company.

If Sisters of EVE made a dropsuit, it would probably look like a Sisters of EVE ship, since they're same manufacturer.

The company may or may not be tied to a specific race, so stop focusing on "what race". Focus on the manufacturersGÇï.

Again, we are trying our best to translate the soul. What makes EVE and DUST so great, and where can we improvise without compromising the essence of New Eden.

I get you byte. It can be hard to break a deeply engrained perception of how things are from what you're used to.

It's like biting into an apple expecting it to taste like an apple, but it actually tastes like an orange. Not what you were expecting, but you may end up really liking the new taste anyways.