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Wednesday, November 14, 2012

What About Command Ships?

With CCP recommending everyone race to train up their Destroyer and Battlecruiser skills, one question I think few are considering is the effect on Command Ships.  No not the class; CCP  Ytterbium stated that after tech 1 battleships are balanced that command ships are next on the agenda.  No, I'm referring to the actual skill.

A required skill is changing
A quick glance shows that one of the requirements for Command Ships is Battlecruisers V.  With this skill about to change into racial variations of Battlecruiser, does this mean that we are about to see racial versions of Command Ships?  I don't think so and I'll explain why shortly.  But whatever the decision I don't see how CCP can make the changes to the Battlecruisers skill without changing the Command Ships skill.

Another question concerns the skills required to fly command ships.  In addition to the Command Ships skill shown above, flying a command ship requires Racial Cruiser V and either Logistics IV or Heavy Assault Ships IV.  Back in March CCP Yttrbium wrote that the changes would result in 14-20 days less time to train to fly a command ship than currently.  In the dev blog he gave some hints of the changes coming to learning to fly command ships:
"For tech 2 ships, it creates an overcomplicated nest of skill requirements, as you need both the Cruiser and Battlecruiser skills to 5 to train for a Command Ship for example..." 

"Tech 2 philosophy is all about specializing into a specific hull and role, thus, requiring players to train for Assault Ships, then Heavy Assault Ships when aiming for Field Command Ships, is quite redundant."
From the hints given so far, I expect CCP to remove Racial Cruiser V as a requirement to fly command ships and replace it with Racial Battlecruisers V.  I then think that with the elimination of Battlecruisers as a skill that Command Ships will see two new prerequisites, probably Assault Ships IV and Logistics IV since CCP is removing the field and fleet classifications.  I would have picked Heavy Assault Ships IV except for the comments in the March dev blog.

[ADDED] - Of course, if Assault Ships IV and not Heavy Assault Ships IV is required, that leaves training room for what I consider a must-have skill for flying command ships, Warfare Link Specialist.  I would think that in order to meet the goal of less training time to fly command ships that CCP would make Warfare Link Specialist IV a prerequisite for the Command Ships skill.  Also, as CCP is balancing command ships against tech 3 cruisers for gang boosting utility, requiring the skill fits in with the role CCP envisions for the class.

Making this move would make learning to fly command ships on par with all other tech 2 ships: learning the racial ship class skill to V and then learning a specialized skill like Interceptors or Recon Ships.  Instituting the change would also result in another "If you could fly the ship before, you'll be able to fly the ship after" moment as some people probably skipped either Heavy Assault IV or Logistics IV on their way to flying a command ship.  Could we see another skill point rush like we are currently witnessing with the Destroyers and Battlecruisers changes?  I don't think so until CCP announces the final changes.

3 comments:

  1. After suffering the incoming Hurricane nerf I fear for my Sleipbear

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    Replies
    1. The Hurricane is my favorite non-cloaky ship. I was considering a Claymore for the warfare links but am waiting now.

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  2. No racial versions for T2 ship skills.

    This is the answer from CCP Fozzie on the forums, to a specific question regarding this issue.

    https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2147534#post2147534

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