Fast Battleship

Hi All,

I’ve been reading about the up coming changes with a real deal of interest. Specifically, the changes to the Megathron hull, but also with the (later) expected ongrid boosting and changes to the T3. Also absolutely want the Eos command ship to get a wee bit of love. It’s sadly lacking atm.

Anyways, I did want to talk about the fast battleship concept. As far as EvE goes, we haven’t seen anything that really fits the bill with the exception of one hull… the mighty Machariel. If you don’t know about about this pirate faction hull, here are some stats:

Base speed 185 – at level 5 232 m/s
Agility 8.6 – at level 5 5.8 sec
8 high slots of which 7 are available for guns

Staggeringly good in other words. This is a ship that, with good skills, kit and links, can break 800 m/s with an afterburner. Some hulls are lucky to break that with an MWD, especially once you start adding plates and tri-marks.

Caldari ships? No. Just… no. The Amarr aren’t much better. Minmatar are the best of the bunch, but even the Typhoon only starts with a base speed of 130. The navy version is quite a bit better, but still has the challenges of a split weapon system. Which brings me to the Gallente…

I’ve long desired something iconic in EvE to match the great names of WWII. Bismark, Scharnhorst, Iowa, and the prototype fast battleship, the Queen Elizabeth. Something the Gallente hulls had historically not even been close to supplying. Over time though, this has begun to change.

First there was the boost to railguns and blasters, which was followed up by another boost to base speed. Now we have further changes afoot to bring the Megathron into line with the speed of the Typhoon. This is to match with the attack ship class touted by CCP. This will come with some tweaking to drop its durability a little.

Now, at last, I’m beginning to be hopeful that we can truly have a Gallente hull that matches the fast battleship template: great speed, good armor, and heavy weaponry. They were designed for mobility so that they could dictate the ranges and angles of engagement (crossing the T) and could chase down a ship or avoid an engagement if needed.

It suits my playstyle down to the ground. Engage the enemy, keep them at optimal and take out varying threats as the situation evolves. I’ve never really been a sit there and tank it kinda guy. It irks me that fitting a ship to do that basically destroys the ability to react to a changing situation.

If you hit a trigger prematurely for example and you’re scrammed with no way of dealing with it, you either better hope you have corpmates in system, an alt to help, or count on the kindness of strangers. Something which can be a rare thing in EvE.

I’d much prefer to move it, move it, and either be less than cap stable or less durable and actively play the game. And with a true fast battleship, you can do exactly that… I can’t wait to see how the changes pan out 🙂

FS

H

P.S Note the proteus will have a drop in the command link bonus, but will be able to fit both skirmish AND armor links. Yeah baby!