Optimal Range

EVE circa 2006

One day long ago some developer deep in the bowels of Fortress CCP decided that the minimum distance an object could be that one could choose to warp to was 150 km, the reasoning of which has been lost to the sands of time. (Note: Minimum warp distance is 50km as you can choose to warp to 100km to an object 150 km away.)

We don't know the exact reasoning for this selection but we do know the outcome. When I started back in 2006 Sniping Battleships, especially Megathrons, dominated a lot of the large fleet warfare because their optimal range was in the sweet spot of ~160 km: close enough to do considerable damage but far away enough to make getting tackled or bubbled difficult. Remember, this was the age of Next-To-Impossible probing so unless you had things in the right position to begin with, or the enemy was unlucky/bad, catching the sniping battleship fleet was a challenge. The big tanks (especially in the age of Arear of Effect titan doomsdays) and long range damage projection were more useful than the low mobility.

Things changed.

Probing mechanics changes which made probing out an enemy fleet on grid within seconds instead of minutes a reality, so suddenly a sniping fleet stood the risk of getting bubbles within 10 seconds, forcing them to move close under that magic 150 km number in order to prevent the on grid warp of enemy interceptors and interdictors. They also had to avoid getting too close to prevent a fast tackle from crossing the distance quickly, but at the same time had to avoid getting too close to 150 km or else the threat of the enemy burning away and warping back became a possibility.

While the low mobility of battleships was starting to hurt, the advantage of the big tank to survive an AoE doomsday or two evaporated as the weapons were changed to single target lances instead of grid sized smart bombs. The meta quickly adapted to advanced cruisers and cheaper battlecruisers and sniper battleship fleets became a footnote in history for the most part.

Fast forward years to now and once again the game is radically changing.

Grid sizes have grown by an order of magnitude, micro jump drives and jump field generators are changing the mobility of the fleet around the grid, Citadels and new capital designs promise to expand the combat area across hundreds of kilometers.

That 150 km range used to represent "pretty far away" in old EVE, a universal constant that allowed the stitching together of the extremes of the grid of the day. Now its barely a hop skip and jump of the grid now. The question has been raised on twitter and in the CSM if the distance still makes sense or if the developers should look into making it larger.

I think there are some definite advantages to increasing the distance to 250 km or farther. I realize that it could lead to an increase in a sniping meta but at the same time I think it increases the utility of micro jump drives and the larger ships that use them, as well as carving out a larger space for the new carriers to operate not with impunity but rather with some room to operate and make use of those new weapons and abilities.

CCP, its time to try out larger minimum warp to distances. Perhaps expanding it can create a niche for the old battleship to shine again.

Warship Wednesday - Battleships

The situation had gotten dire.

I was in my Tirpitz battleship sitting around half health. A friendly Tirpitz and North Carolina battleship had gone towards the enemy capture point but had gone in separately and were now sunk. The remainder of the fleet, a cruiser and carrier, was way off on the west side of the map. A hostile Tirpitz battleship, New Orleans and Pensacola cruisers, and a Hatsuhara destroyer were ahead of me. Four to one odds.

My allies had softened up the cruisers down to less than 20% health, and all but the Pensacola were on the other side of a point. The Pensacola was running away from me, about 15 klicks off and growing, hoping to open up range while his allies moved into position. I could not let him get away and distract me. I fired and my aim was true and the cruisers foundered. I swung my guns back to the starboard side and turned the rudder hard port, knowing the Hatsuhara would be aiming torps right around the point. I predicted correctly and as I came around the point the destroyer and cruiser were close and bearing down on my position. The torpedoes missed me and I turned my guns on the New Orleans and sent her down to the bottom of the see. Down to two to one.

The enemy Tirpitz was farther back and the Hatsuhara pulled range from my secondaries. I swung my rudder back to the starboard to turn my fire on the enemy battleship and start to approach to try and use my own torpedoes. We started exchanging fire and while hid health points were higher than mine, my armour angling reduced the incoming damage while he was taking big hits from my guns. We were pulling even in HPs when I saw him start to turn to try and fire his torps into me, so I pulled port hard again and fired my torps in a tight spread. I ate one of his torps fired in a wide spread, but my torps slammed into him and he sunk.

As I turned to finally deal with the ineffective Hatsuhara, the game ended on points in our favour.

I told this story not because I look awesome in it (although it helps) but because it highlights a lot of subtleties in commanding a battleship that neophytes might not realize coming into the class: angling armour, pre-turning to avoid torps, picking targets, etc. It also highlights nicely the sheer staying power and hitting power of battleships, something no other class has in such a combination.

Today's post I'm going to give a short list of tips about commanding Battleships.

1) Don't let the South Carolina and Kawachi get you down. The first battleships you run into in the tech tree at tier III are horrible. They have the hit points and long load times characteristic of battleships, but combined with incredibly short range main weapons and dismal slow speed. They are shorted ranged and slower than same tier cruisers and thus can be burned to the ground without ever getting in range if the enemy is smart enough. Worst of all, they have no AA defense and sometimes are in battles with tier IV carriers whose torpedoes can be a pain in the ass. Good news is that you can push through it pretty fast and things start to get better with upgraded Myogi and Wyoming.

2) Learn to turn. Going in a straight line for any length of time makes you a perfect predictable target. Torpedoes from destroyers love battleships that continue in a straight line, and so do Torpedo bombers. Just doing constant half turns is often enough to throw a shot off enough to miss, and if you even suspect a destroyer or torpedo bomber is coming your way you should be turning hard to one side, preferably towards the incoming torps but not necessary.

3) Learn to aim. You have to make your shots count in a battleship since you only get to fire twice a minute (or less!). This take practice to get the long range shots to hit, but under ten klicks you need to be nailing every target. And just hitting anywhere is not enough, you need to know where to hit. Check out this guide from the forums. This means using AP ammo against everything except destroyers (with occasional exceptions) and trying to get those juicy juicy citadels which can cripple enemy ships very quickly.

4) Angle your armour. When facing enemy battleships, you need to avoid as much as possible presenting your entire broadside as it gives the enemy shells the best chance to penetrate your citadel. I realize you need to turn to your broadside to fire your own guns, so I try to weaving approach where I alternate half turns through my firing cycle, coming far enough to one side to fire and then turning back to try and bounce the return fire. If you do this, and your opponent does not, you can make him pay.

5) Be conservative with damage control ability, liberal with repair. Don't use your damage control party on the first fire to start on your decks, because sure enough as you put it out they'll start another and you just have to watch it burn. Try to save it until you are low in hit points or have multiple fires going on. Or, if you suspect you are going to take a torpedo any time soon, save it for that because flooding lasts longer, slows you down, and does a lot of damage over time. Conversely, the repair ability should be used as soon as its reasonable, i.e. after you have taken a significant amount of light and moderate damage. Hitpoints don't get wasted if you use it early and it will be ready sooner that way for next time. Be warned, make sure you use it after you've taken significant damage or you might end up only repairing a bit. I aim for 75%, 50%, and 25% health point totals to activate it.

6) Don't go alone. Try your hardest to get a cruiser or two to come with you early in the battle, or if not turn around and follow them. While I've been able to kill destroyers with my battleship in the past, its bloody hard and even a success can mean eating a handful of torpedoes in the process. Cruisers, on the other hand, eat destroyers like no body's business. Plus, while your own AA is constantly getting better as you go up the tiers, its always good to have more AA to protect you from bombing runs as much as possible.

7) Constantly evaluate the situation. Your long gun reload times can be seen as a boon if you take the time to look around and see what's going on. Count the DDs on the minimap so you know how many could be near you, see what enemy is approaching in case you want to angle your armour differently, see what the flight squadrons of the carriers are doing, pick your next target. Use the Shift key to switch from zoomed in to zoomed out views, look around, be aware. Too often I see battleship captains focused too much on the nearest target that they miss what's happening around them.

Whatever you do, have fun! Remember its only a game.

Warship Wednesday - Battleships

Yeah, I'm a day behind, stupid work.

So I'm going to go over the lessons I've been learning for each of the four ship classes in the coming weeks, starting with the iconic Battleships.

King of the Seas

Battleships are big in every aspect in World of Warships (aka WoWS). Big hitpoints, big guns with big range and big damage. They are the line breakers of the battles, wading into the thick of the fight and raining death on opposing ships... assuming they don't get torpedoed to death from sly Destroyers that try to sneak up on you from behind that island over there, or a couple flights of torpedo bombers from the enemy carrier.

Currently in closed beta there is only the Imperial Japanese Navy line of battleships, seven hulls of which I have tried the first four of. The tier III Kawachi is the first of the line and is really a chore to use with its pathetic range of its main guns only being around 8.5 km and lacking any real Anti Aircraft (AA) defense. It feels more like a cruiser and a true battleship.

The tier IV Myogi is significantly better with 50% more range which allows it to duel at longer ranges, but the line really starts to feel impressive at the tier V Kongo which has the scout plane, range over 15 km, and four big double turret main guns. I'm currently on the tier VI Fuso battleship and it is a glorious engine of destruction with 6 double turret main guns, decent AA, and lots of hit points.

As powerful as battleships are, they work best in conjunction with other ships: other battleships to pound a target to death faster, cruisers to provide additional AA cover and destroyer defence, and friendly destroyers for destroyer defence and throwing distracting torpedoes at enemy battleships and cruisers. One of the greatest threats to slow turning battleships are torpedo bombers so its wise to stay in open water where you can make evasive turns and conversely avoid channels or getting too close to land in general. Not to mention being close to land gives more blind spots for hostile destroyers to try and sneak up on you. Related to this, treat smoke clouds with heavy suspicion as well because destroyers can easily launch torpedoes out of them to your surprise.

For offensive capabilities, practice long range firing. The Fuso can fire about 20 km and getting early hits on enemy battleships and cruisers can be invaluable when the fight gets heated later, not to mention the bonus of a magazine detonation if you get a lucky hit on the citadel (the area low in the ship where the munitions are stored). But for target selection I almost always go for closer targets than farther as they are easier to hit with more shells and present a greater danger to myself and my allies.

Battleships sport secondary batteries which engage targets within 5 km and can take some limited direction in terms of target priority, and can be useful for dealing with close destroyers or adding damage on cruisers, battleships, and carriers. But don't depend on them to save you from enemies, your proper captaining and good artillery fire will do that.

Another capability of battleships are often a scout plane that you can launch about 3 times a battle and provides longer sight for you, including detecting enemies on the other side of land masses. I try to stagger launching mine with watching when my fleet mates launch theirs (if any) so we have some scout plane coverage when refueling of the first of them occurs.

Finally, battleships have an ability to send repair crews out and get some hit points back, giving them a bit more survivability over the long term. In a heated fight it won't save you, but if you clear a flank (or run away) and start moving towards another fight, while travelling there you might get to repair damage a couple times and get back into decent fighting shape.

Next week we'll take a look at cruisers.

Return of the King

Last March I had three posts discussing the meta of ship hull sizes in the current low sec Meta. In Downward Pressure I talked about all the mechanic changes that encouraged the meta to favour smaller ship sizes. Then in Swimming in a Shark Tank I looked specifically at Battlecruisers and Battleships and their available roles in low sec and concluded that "Battleships need more abilities that other classes can't perform" in order to see more general use of the hulls. Finally in Battleship Ecosystems I talked about where Battleships might carve a niche in the meta of low sec without reverting to the "large ships only" meta of previous years.

One factor I missed in all the theorizing about the downward pressure on Battleship use in low sec was the psychological power of the ever-present threat of capital hotdrop from low sec powerhouse on any battleship operations.

Imagine you are a moderate sized faction warfare entity in this past summer and have an opposing IHub to bash to take a system. You suspect the enemy faction will form up to resist so you consider a battleship fleet that can deal the damage necessary to bash the IHub but also the tank and firepower to fight off the enemy fleet. HOWEVER, you operate within the jump range of several powerful low sec entities with access to dreads, carriers, and titans and have been known in the past to hotdrop fleet of any considerable tonnage or value. They have scouts/spies and cyno alts everywhere and the jump range of battleship-blapping dreadnoughts (with Loki webbing of course) means they can reach the entire warzone with ease any time they please.

When combining that factor with all the other downward pressures I talked about in terms of mobility and cost, the decision for fleets in the warzone was to avoid battleships and use cheaper and faster Attack Battlecruisers for when DPS was needed, and anything smaller for all other operations. Even if a hotdrop didn't occur all the time, it happened enough to create a chilling effect on the use of battleships; natural selection on ship types if you will.

Phoebe changed that dynamic much like it changed everything else related to capital ships.

With a massive jump range nerf and jump fatigue penalties, using capitals (or titan jump bridges) became a strategic decision instead of a tactical one. I've discussed how this limitation on large scale capital operations opens the door to small scale use of fewer capitals by smaller entities in local scenario, but the unexpected upshot of Phoebe is the Return of the Battleship fleet.

Without the constant threat of hotdrop from more distant entities, Battleships retake the throne as the best fleet to use for general application of heavy combat. The combination of tank, damage, and range along with micro jump drives give a battleship fleet the power to take on and hold the field against many other fleet types. This is valuable for strategic operations where holding the field is the primary objective compared to simple roaming and random encounters. While local capital are still a factor to consider, they typically don't have the numbers or backup to be an existential threat to the battleship fleet in low sec; indeed the opposite is true as we find that battleship fleets are a greater threat to small scale capital use in low sec than other capitals!

Due to the large spread in numbers, wealth, and abilities of low sec entities, not to mention the inherent nature of faction warfare complex size restrictions impacting fleet composition, I don't foresee large hull warfare dominating to the exclusion of all others. Indeed, the preliminary stats on the Amarr Confessor Tactical Destroyer promises some great fun at the lower end of the scale (both for the pilot of the ship and the pilots of the ships that get kills of them). But make no mistake... the King has returned and he's pissed.

Aideron Formup

Battleship Ecosystems

Previously I talked about the historical Downward Pressure on ship sizes in low sec through mechanics and balance changes, and then I looked at Battlecruisers and Battleships in their current incarnation and came to the conclusion that:

Battleships need more abilities that other classes can't perform. Black Ops battleships and Mauraders are perfect examples of specialization in battleships that gives them more of a niche to operate in that is not crowded out by other classes of ships.

This post will be exploring ideas about Battleships and modules to see if we can create a niche for them in low sec without crowding out the current meta.

* * * * *

Last post I talked about the Micro Jump Drive which is a unique-to-battleship-class module which attempts to address some of the mobility issue that the big ships suffer from. There is also the Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher (aka RHML) module which is new in Rubicon for battleships, and like the Rapid Light Missile Launcher (aka RLML) for cruisers, it allows the battleship to use cruiser sized weapons at a battleship volumne of damage so that it can punch down a class. Much like a Caracal with the RLML can terrorize frigates, a Raven can threaten cruisers with a rack of RHML.

They are a start, but they are insufficient to carve a niche for them in low sec. What else can be done?

One approach is to increase their current offensive and defensive abilities even further. Since Cruiser hulls are the dominant vessel, make battleships even more capable of dealing with them in ways that other classes cannot. But this is just a form of power creep and would unbalance the scales too far to the battleships until low sec is dominated once again by the behemoths.

Another approach is to expand their abilities. Like the Scorpion and Armageddon, give the other battleships unique combat abilities to differentiate them from single aspect cruisers. Like the Nestor, a battleship with remote repping bonus. A Gallente sensor dampening battleship; a Minmatar battleship with webbing range bonus; and so forth. In other words, start expanding battleships from pure combat and bleed more over into the realm of recon and logistic cruisers. This has the advantage of not replacing Cruisers with super-heavy-hitters, but rather complimenting them for specific roles. I like this approach as it opens up gameplay decisions in a fight rather than limiting them, but it would require another huge rebalancing pass and concept change of the class that I suspect CCP will not go there again any time soon, especially since Battleships are seeing regular use in other area of the game.

So, one other approach: drop the price. Battleships are 3-4 times more expensive than battlecruisers and ~18 times more expensive than cruisers. So easiest path to getting more use for them in low sec would be to make them less expensive, at least by a quarter or even up to a half. While this would not expand roles for them in current low sec fleets, it would make it easier for pilots to opt for their increased tank and gank over a cruiser if the cost differential is less galling.

Failing that, there is one thing that could be done to at least give battleships a niche, albeit a small one, in low sec. We could make faction warfare complexes with acceleration gate restrictions that have a lower and upper limit mass, i.e perhaps the mythical Large faction warfare complex could allow battlecruisers and battleship (T1 and T2 and faction) classed vessels only (lore justification: too much energy in acceleration would rip apart smaller ships, but not enough to move a capital ship). This would give a "Big Ships Only" environment where using battleships is rewarded (i.e. capping the plex and getting the larger LP and system control reward) much like smaller plexes reward small ship usage. The reward would have to be significant enough to encourage pilots to jump in battleships and run the timer down instead of just ignoring it.

* * * * *

In the end, CCP's best course of action for battleships in low sec may be to do nothing at all. As long as the class is healthy in other areas and seeing minor improvements through iteration balancing and new module introduction, perhaps that is sufficient for the health of the game.

But I miss cruising around in my Rokh. :(

Swimming in a Shark Tank

Last week in the post Downward Pressure I talked about the mechanic and balance changes over the years that morphed the meta of low sec PvP from battleship-battlecruiser dominant to cruiser-frigate dominant. Now I want to discuss what roles the larger ships fill in the low sec arena and if they can be expanded upon or added to without reverting to the large-ship-only environment of past years.

Battlecruisers

Let's start with battlecruisers as they are less of a departure from cruisers in terms of capabilities and price.

Right now battlecruisers have roles in low sec. The Attack Battlecruisers, nee Tier 3 Battlecruisers or as I used to like to call them, pocket battleships, are the go to ship for anything that requires high damage like attacking structures (POS, POCO, IHub) or piling on a capital kill. The other Combat Battlecruisers are pretty rare to be seen in space doing anything as they don't provide enough value for their ISK over a small and more nimble cruiser except the possibility of fielding command links. Unfortunately for them, Tech 3 Strategic Cruisers configured with a Warfare command subsystem, and to a lesser extent Command Ships, already cover the linking platform with far more capabilities.

However, one reason why linking is left to these more expensive ships is that links are system wide so the linking ship is rarely facing very much risk as it merely needs to be in space in a safe locaiton. Yes, they can be probed down but if they remain cloak until an engagement is about to begin and cloak up soon after, the window of opportunity is small and most enemies will rather work around the links than give up a pilot to try and probe down the linker during a fight. Furthermore, the probing mechanics allow for ships to make themselves harder to probe down by boosting their own sensor strength (which still makes absolutely no sense to me, BTW). But if linking was limited to on-grid only, the boosting ships would be at far more risk and much easier for an enemy fleet to target and try to take out. That might make command ships and combat battlecruisers more attractive, the former for their cheaper-than-tech-3 price tag and better combat performance and the latter for their even-cheaper price tag.

And the end of the day, battlecruisers are not too far off from where I think they should be and its possible that over time without any mechanic changes that the meta will evolve to include them more frequently again.

Battleships

Battleships, on the other hand...

The base hull cost for a Vexor is about 10 million ISK, for a Myrmidon it is about 48 to 50 million. About 5 times increase in base hull cost. To go to a Dominix batteship you need about 180 million or more which is about 18 times the cost of the cruiser. Its a big jump in cost for a far less jump in capabilities and downgrade in terms of mobility.

Let's be clear: battleships are not dead in EVE as a whole. They are still the dominant platform for PvE activities in high sec and probably still see use in PvE in null sec and wormholes. They still see use in null sec fleet doctrines and in wormhole space small fleet combat. But in low sec they are virtually unheard of. The reasons are different for the different areas of space: high sec you are not worried about getting caught by a faster ship while travelling, wormhole space combat tends to take place very close to your home system so there is less risky travel and fewer enemy targets (in general) to worry about, and in null sec frequent titan bridging and established jump bridge networks reduce the downside of travelling in a battleship so its easier to make use of its advantages.

But in low sec? The violent and uncontrolled nature of the area coupled with medium length travel routes laden with bottlenecks and opposing forces means that the slow and attractive target that is a battleship is like swimming in a shark tank with several bleeding cuts on you.

That's not to say there is no role for a battleship in low sec. Station games where you depend on a massive tank to keep you alive while an aggression timer runs down is one example. Specialized ships like the neutralizing Armageddon or the 90% webs of the Serpentis Vindicator have uses as long as they have proper support. However, its exceedingly rare to see a battleship in a typical session roaming low sec.

So what can be done?

CCP has already recognized some of the issue with battleships and hence the development and introduction of Micro Jump Drives which attempt to give battleships some unique mobility not available to other classes of ships (although it is now through the new deployable structure but that's a different topic). The new module allows the Battleship to make a straight line 100 kilometers immediate jump after a 9-12 second warm up period (depending on skills). This is not stopped by warp disruptors or warp bubbles in null sec/ wormhole space, but is stopped by warp scramblers. While this is cool functionality, it has more use in null sec and wormholes where bubbles are a factor while in low sec the extra maneuverability does not outweigh the downsides of slow movement and being a big target, especially with so many fast locking ships in small gangs packing warp scramblers.

Another advantage of battleships is the average drone bay size of the class is larger than cruisers. This allows all battleships (except the Rokh, ccp, get on it) to have at minimum a full flight of lights and a full flight of mediums allowing them to punch down as it were at smaller targets. So in theory, a group of battleships should be able to fight off a group of frigates or cruisers, right? Well, remember that for most battleships those drones are unbonused so do less damage, for example, with a flight of Hobgoblin IIs than a Tristan would. And remember what I said about Frigate Logistics and improved cruiser Logistics last post? They ensure that small hull fleets can punch up more easily than drones allows large hulls to punch down, and the cost differential pretty much ensures that every battleship will be possibly facing a horde of opposing smaller ships.

In the past, battleships have been excellent at remote repair gangs with their large buffers and ability to fit large remote repairers in the high utility slots. This meta has fallen off as the downward pressure has been applied and cruiser fleets with tech 1 logistics have proven just as or more effective for a lower barrier to entry and price point.

Not sounding very hopeful, eh?

I think the Micro Jump Drive concept has the right idea. Battleships need more abilities that other classes can't perform. Black Ops battleships and Mauraders are perfect examples of specialization in battleships that gives them more of a niche to operate in that is not crowded out by other classes of ships.

Next in this series of posts I'll bat around some ideas of special modules / abilities that would increase the use of battleships in the low sec meta without unbalancing the class in regards to the rest of the game entirely.