Years of complaints. Hundreds of thousands of unequal solo battles. Enough tears to satisfy the water needs of
the Syrian refugees for the next ten years. Heaps of travesty piled upon the very manifestation of abuse.
For years, we were told, “Changing the code would be too
complex.” We were given words like
“legacy code” to focus our hate upon.
And finally, after all the terror, the torture, the isk lost
to frustrating engagements, off-grid links are dying a well-deserved death.
If I could dance in the halls through WiS, I would.
Let’s take a moment to bask in that. From about a month or so from now onwards,
for that ship to go 8 km/s, you’ll have to see the links on grid with you. They’ll be exposed, vulnerable. And many of them will die. No longer can the same boosting ship survive
for years on end. And no longer will
links be an automatic win button that simply can’t be defeated.
Sure, there are the obvious advantages to solo pilots. Fighting in a FW plex will be a fair fight
now. Solo and small gang pilots will be
able to see what they’re facing, and can even attempt to head-shot enemy links
now. With the advent of T3Ds, expanded
probe launchers are more common now, and that makes every ship on that grid a
viable target.
This is a glorious day for the small-gang and solo
enthusiast.
Never say CCP doesn’t give us what we want!
Yeah.... but this comes after the, "...we have made the grid size bigger."
ReplyDeleteGiving us the potential that a Link Loki will just sit at a 1 or 2 or 3000km tac and still need to be probed down to be attacked... combat probes in the sky... Link Loki just starts fast bouncing multiple X0000km tac's...
It will, if nothing else, be interesting... =]
True. My interest is in making links vulnerable and visible, not easy to kill. After all, folks still need to be able to use them effectively, just smartly. Otherwise, remove them from the game entirely.
DeleteBesides, a solo player who doesn't have probes is missing about half the targets out there.
Links were visible before.. check your grid sizes again. I know spots where 3 gates are on the same grid. If I were dropping links on grid, they'll be fast and low sig and after engagement. you'd never get to the links. the win is they aren't passed through the plexes and acceleration gates. being on grid didnt matter. they were probably before since they took them out of POS's. It's changing the mechanic. And what are eve players good at? figuring how to use mechanics to their advantage.
Deletehmm mining links still currently retain the ability to operate within a POS shield. I wonder what happens when POS is replaced with Citadels? Boost from on-grid BCs?
ReplyDeleteLOL so.... u can see it, u will still need a prober to land on it, it will still be hard to probe and the fits will just change to mwd all over the grid along with the bounce points Tur mentions. I will revel in ur tears following the changes as you have cried gallons over this already. If the grids had stayed the same then you would have what u wanted, but they didnt and you wont.
ReplyDeleteI'm fine with it needing a prober. I don't want it to be easy to kill the links, nor to reduce them to uselessness. I just want all the cards on the table. Now, if they could only get links on kill mails to rob people of the delusion that solo with links is real solo...
DeleteI'm fine with it needing a prober. I don't want it to be easy to kill the links, nor to reduce them to uselessness. I just want all the cards on the table. Now, if they could only get links on kill mails to rob people of the delusion that solo with links is real solo...
DeleteInteresting changes. I look forward to huge grids and to all unexpected consequences coming from it.
ReplyDeleteAnd incursion runners just got hammered. I am sure most of the posters here are thrilled with this.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good point. Can you tell me more about how incursion runners use links? I didn't even consider PvE applications. Were incursion runners caught off guard by this change? CCP has been moving in this direction for years, citing only technological limitations to implementing it. Their interest in it has been there for quite some time.
DeleteThe norm in PvE is that the fleet boost is at a wing level, in a safe travelling aligned. (killing this ship can sometimes destroy a Inc fleet - depending on the allowed tolerance for the loss of the resists, cap and rep cycle reduction). This structure allows for multiple wings. Which means you can run several Vanguard squads or Assault squads. Assaults (2 year old knowledge) requires split fleet objectives. I can imagine this would mess up, because now the boosts need to be on grid.
DeletePlus they will run the three shield/armour links plus an additional skirmish link for the webbing. I doubt a four link ship on grid would be contributing much - unless it is a sentry drone Eos. Plus factor that shields are the predominate doctrine.
All of which maybe become moot. The hint from Eve Vegas was that "incursions do not make sense". Whether this means a complete re-write to the experience or just removal - time will tell.