Little bit about the new battleships
Well we've been busy lately and we haven't really told you guys what we've been doing. Instead of going through that all in one blog I figured I'd just focus on one thing. That thing is the new tier 3 battleships.
The name Tier 3 is mostly just a name that we use to reference these four new battleships. It doesn't mean that they are like tier 2 battleships only better. In fact tier 1 and tier 2 battleships should do something better than the tier 3.
We've found a name for these ships, many of you know that the Amarr one is called Abaddon, however I don't think anyone has published the other names. the Caldari is called Rokh, the Gallente Hyperion and the Minmatar is called Maelstrom. Since we've agreed on names for these ships the hardest part is over. Thats not saying that finding roles and making them fit in them is particularly easy its just you wouldn't believe how hard it is for us to agree on names.
All the battleships are combat ships, and all of them are turret based. They don't really do more damage than the other battleships of their race and those that can don't exceed that by much. In most cases the have considerable more defensive capabilities. Well lets just get down to it and look at some designs. All this hasn't been nailed down for release so we reserve the right to change designs in the near future.
Abaddon
Bonuses:
- 5% large energy weapon rate of fire per level
- 5% armor resistance per level
The most obvious thing about this ship is that it isn't getting any energy weapon capacitor need bonus. The bonuses it is getting however are pretty powerful. It has the option of more damage than an Armageddon or a better tank than an Apocalypse. The problem starts however when it tries to do both at once.Slot wise its gonna have 8 turret hardpoints, 8 high slots and 8 low slots. Whether it has one more slot than the Apocalypse isn't really decided but its quite clear that if it does then it will be a med slot.
Rokh
Bonuses:
- 10% large hybrid optimal range per level
- 5% shield resistance per level
Caldari favor missiles and hybrids as a primary weapon system. They usually get a range bonus for hybrids which is a lot more beneficial to railguns than it is to blasters. Their "railgun" ships however usually have fewer turret hardpoints than other races turret ships. The Rokh does not, its not really lacking in the missile hardpoint department but it does have 8 turret hardpoints as well.
Hyperion
Bonuses:
- 5% large hybrid weapon damage per level
- 5% increase in capacitor when using microwarpdrive
You might have guessed from the bonuses that this is a kind of blaster ship. Its not only noticable by the bonuses but also the attributes of the ship. Everything on this ships is optimized for it getting in range fast. Its lighter and faster than Megathron, it has unusually large capacitor but slower recharge time. It has roughly the same peak cap recharge rate as the other tier 3 battleships but when it has to take that long sprint toward its enemy it has more cap when it finally gets in range.
Now you might be asking your self what is the use of megathron then? Well not everything is better on the Hyperion, it has really crappy targetting range, and I mean really crappy. It also has smaller drone bay than Megathron and obviously worse tracking. Megathron would therefor be considerable better long range ship, while still being a decent blaster boat.
Maelstrom
Bonuses:
- 5% large projectile weapon rate of fire per level
- 7.5% shield boost amount per level
A bit unusual Minmatar ship in the way that its rather slow and heavy but has a pretty good tank. In fact this ship can boost the most hitpoints per second of all the non capital ships. It has 8 turrets. It doesn't outdamage the Tempest as the Tempest gets a rate of fire and a damage bonus but Maelstrom's 8 turrets do outdamage Tempest's 6 turrets. When we factor in the two high slots that Tempest has it does outdamage the Maelstrom.
