Friday, October 24, 2014

"Blighted" weapons

Evidently CCP plan to introduce a new variant of all short-range weaponry, currently called "blighted".  They'll be in Phoebe.

(The name is awful.  "Blight" is a biological thing and really does not belong in a scifi game, unless you are talking about infection by nanobots or something analogical to the biological.  CCP is aware of this from the thread, where everyone is saying "ugh".  Hopefully it will change.)

Anyway, "blighted" weapons are supposed to be glass-cannon makers.  They are on Sisi right now, although CCP is saying they may change them.  On Sisi they exist in the sense that markets know about them (thus you can see their stats).  But none are actually available.

Currently they get about 10-20% more DPS than a T2 weapon of their type, and can use T2 ammo.  They seem to have T2 power and CPU requirements. Their downside, which is huge, is lowering all ship resistances to 0%.  (It's not clear to me exactly how this is supposed to work: is that resistances before or after other modules' effects?)  Another downside is (or may be) cost.  CCP is saying they will cost like faction weapons.  This will depend on how they enter game, though, as well as if they are useful. 

In their current incarnation, "blighted" weapons seem pretty useless to me.  Highsec gankers might like them, if they are cheap.  Maybe a few alpha fits in other spaces.  But there is one "blighted" weapon application that does seem useful: torpedoes on stealth bombers.  So I am keeping my eye on that.

6 comments:

  1. From the transcription of the Eve Vegas round table done by Sugar Kyle (http://www.lowseclifestyle.com/2014/10/eve-vegas-2014-ship-and-module-round.html)

    The resists get set to zero and cannot be modified by any other module.

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    1. Thanks.

      I wish it were otherwise. I hate it when CCP smashes fantasy into my scifi.

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    2. There could be a scifi reasoning behind it. If we look at the hardeners as some sort of active element to the system (active in the sense an electric heater is active), not just in our world where there is both powergrid and capacitor you could see them as having been enhanced and changed in such a way that they are dirty in a power sense.

      Talking electronics for a moment. A dirty supply of electrical power has, things like phase harmonics disruption, spikes, brownouts etc. some things don't mind power that has this kind of noise in it. A resistive heater for example at it's core is just wire that is technically under rated for the power going through it. the reaction is power loss and heat. Since the heater's job is to provide thermal energy to the surrounds as long as the thing doesn't melt, catch fire etc all is good. Something like a sensitive measurement instrument on the other hand (scanning electron microscope, mass spectrometer, and the like) Is negatively affected by power fluctuations etc, computers suffer the same, that is why they have things like surge protectors and other safeguards in them.

      Suppose that the hardeners, either extra modules the jury rigged crap we throw in them, or things seen as intrinsic to the particular ship were all somewhat sensitive. They have been protected by systems that would keep some level of interference down but all these systems have limits.

      Into this you stick some really supped up piece of gear, the designers had no care that their equipment was out of spec for the amount of noise it generates on the grid they just wanted max power.

      The result is simple the hardeners are overwhelmed and their protection cannot keep up with the level of interference so they shut down to protect the internals. why they don't affect other things? Don't know, but it is not beyond the realm of possibility to create a plausible science based explanation.

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    3. Entity: uhm, OK. I mean, one can dream up technobabble for just about anything. But as a personal matter, it just does not cut it here. I can believe hulls that mount special weapons such that they have little defense. (Stealth bomber!) But I don't buy weapons that of themselves cause an unrelated function of the hull to stop working. (Yes: unrelated: that's why it is tech and not magic.) Personal taste, though. If it does not bug you, don't let me poison your mind. :)

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  2. The whole thing is dumb. They said 8 figure prices, well there is a HUGE difference between 10M and 99M. At 10M stealth bomber pilots MIGHT use them, from there, who knows. I just don't see where you would use them for such a harsh penalty. I could see it reducing your ship's base hardness to 0. That's still pretty harsh, but workable. Or alternatively making them do 40% more than base damage could perk people up. As it stands, I don't see them being used at that price/bonus/penalty point.

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  3. If the price is aceptable, I agree I'd use for stealth bombers, and also for boring POS bashing fleets.

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