Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

People like blood sausage

And now an important message from Jester's evil twin, Garth.  The opinions of Garth are not the opinions of Jester (unless they are).

You know how new parents do that sickening thing where -- when their new off-spring take their first enormous smelly dump -- they "oooh" and "aaah" over it like it was adorable?  Well, as reported by this guy over here, CCP Fozzie has doubled down on his first bad decision.  And I find it fucking adorable.

Even if the rest of you recognize it as something smelly and awful that should be chucked in the trash.

"Why oh why," Fozzie has been asked, "is the Ferox keeping a range bonus when another bonus -- pretty much any other bonus, really -- would be more useful?"  After all, absolutely nobody is going to fly a sniper Ferox as long as the Oracle and Naga and Tornado exist.  Here's the first thing Fozzie had to say:

The Blaster Ferox works quite well with the current stats, and the optimal bonus is in fact useful with blasters (especially with Null or Void ammo, as well as alongside a TE module) and creates a nice (if subtle) game play distinction between the Ferox and other blaster ships.

"Subtle," he says.  It's a "subtle" distinction.  Using Void ammo, that subtle distinction is 1700 meters: that's the difference in optimal between a Ferox and a Brutix.  Using Null, that subtle distinction is 3100 meters.  On a ship that is almost 200 meters/second slower than a Brutix, that's subtle all right.

Put another way, if tackling someone on a gate 15km away, the Brutix will hit the optimal range of its guns in 9.75 seconds.  The Ferox will hit the optimal range of its guns in 9.54 seconds.  Congratulations, Ferox!  Thanks to your oh-so-special range bonus, you hit optimal range 0.2 seconds faster.  It's a "subtle" distinction.  The thing that might be an issue is the Brutix will be doing about 220 more DPS when you both get there...  But the blaster Ferox "works quite well."

As my buddy Kirith put it, the extra range "on the slow-ass Ferox does not make a difference because you're either faster than your target and close the distances quickly, or slower and out of range quickly anyway."  Yup.

In other news, if you fit a Tracking Enhancer to a Ferox, you're an idiot.  Just saying.  Matter of fact, I dare Fozzie to go back to his PL buddies and tell them they should fit Tracking Enhancers to Feroxes.  You know, just to see what they say.

Moving on, here's the second thing Fozzie has to say:

We have metrics on how people are fitting their ships, and many of you may be surprised to know that the most common high slot modules fit to Ferox in the game are named 250mm rails. There is actually a significant number of people using the Ferox for turret based PVE that many veteran players can easily overlook.

Someone ask Fozzie to check how many of those ships are sniper Feroxes from 2009 that haven't been undocked since then.  But let's say he's serious.  Let's say there are really people out there doing this.  As my favorite weatherman put it in this situation, "People like blood sausage, too.  People are morons."

If you're out there using named 250mm rails on your Ferox for anything, please stop.  You're preventing the rest of us from getting a useful ship.  Here's why.  At 35km, your named rails are producing about 250 DPS.  Unless you follow Fozzie's advice and fit a Tracking Enhancer in which case they produce 240.  Drake at same range?  275.  Harbinger?  380.  Hurricane?  400.

Talos?  Naga?  Oracle?  Tornado?  It starts at 500 and only goes up from there.  A properly fit Talos can one-volley rat frigates at that range, no problem.  If you are using a rail-fit Ferox for just about anything, you are officially doing it wrong.

Which brings me to the last thing Fozzie has to say:

The issue of balance between long range fit Combat BCs and Tier 3 BCs is an important one. In the end the solution will likely revolve around making sniping with medium weapons and sniping with large weapons more distinct. I'm not expecting people to use RailFerox fleets in pvp after this point release, but while also keeping a strong BlasterFerox alive I want to put the ship in a place where it can benefit from any changes we make to both help medium rails specifically, and the balance between medium and large long-range weapons in general.

This is a "subtle" way of saying that tier3 battle cruisers are about to get their tracking nerfed right down into the ground.  Can't wait.

Anybody want some blood sausage?

Garth out!

The preceding has been an important message from Jester's evil twin, Garth.  The management apologizes to any and all whom Garth may have offended.  If ignorance is bliss, Garth is the happiest person on earth.
Source: People like blood sausage