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[DeadRow]

It won't be until on-grid boosting is mandatory that the wound will heal. Until that happens, the 'outside POS bubble' thing is just a band-aid and won't do much.

Eh, not really.

Off-grid boosting as it is is overpowered. This is purely down to the fact that t3s give better boosts and are all but unscanable. These changes make having off-grid boosting with a large gang not very viable but they still have a use for smaller gangs and 'solo' pilots.

These changes give CCP a chance to take a step back and look what they really want to do with gang links.

[Lyn Farel]

These changes make having off-grid boosting with a large gang not very viable but they still have a use for smaller gangs and 'solo' pilots.

These changes give CCP a chance to take a step back and look what they really want to do with gang links.

How so ?

[Morwen Lagann]

A large part of the problem with OGB is that one of the places you usually find them is inside tower shields. Where they're effectively invulnerable without nuking the tower.

Which, I'll be honest, is perfectly fair when we're talking about people having these things in their home (I really can't begrudge a small alliance having a tower that's specifically for holding linkboats in their home system, for example), but when you have people with multiple towers and towers with linkboats in every single system... it gets stupid. If the temporary solution is to make it so that these links do not work while inside a tower forcefield, then that's fine.

At least now, these linkboats are not as invulnerable as before: they can either give boosts and be catchable, or they can be invulnerable and not give boosts at all.

Basically, CCP's taken the first step in the changes they want to make, and they're going to see where it goes. It's perfectly possible that this coupled with the CS changes will go a long way to fixing the problem - if it does, it means that CCP doesn't necessarily need to roll out a huge list of further changes to nerf it into the ground; they can just take small steps.

Not that I expect it to happen, of course. But it means keep an eye on your linkboats' d-scan while they're linking. They might get popped.

[Katrina Oniseki]

I don't understand how it's any better. The linkboat can hug the forcefield and offer boosts, and when somebody shows up on grid they just burn back inside. It's not as if these things are capitals that can't quickly flee into the POS if something warps in or uncloaks. They're fast and agile ships, often pretty heavily tanked.

For solo flying or gang flying, in most cases we've encountered (inb4 I-RED is terrible), by the time we realize the enemy gang or pilot is linked it's could easily be too late. I'm not an FC, so maybe I'm just bad at this... but I fail to see how forcing a linkboat to be 1m outside the forcefield helps anything.

The simple fact is that OGB still exists, and it takes all of half a second for the boat to burn back into the forcefield, even without propmods. Unless you have somebody camping the linkboat inside the POS while your gang is fighting elsewhere in system - this changes nothing.

EDIT: Sid has pointed out that now the pilot has to at least pay attention to his link alt every now and then while using it. That's about as good an answer as I can find on why anybody would be remotely satisfied with this other than as 'a step in the right direction'.

[Desiderya]

Forcing linkboats outside of a bubble make it a lot less convenient, because there is the threat of someone with a couple of Tornadoes showing up for some 5 seconds of fun, whereas the typical OGB boat is very difficult to probe down. We're not talking about command ships here but about cloaky Tech3s with a paper tank, a tiny signature and a buffed sensor strength, crammed to the nook with warfare links. The change in efficiency for those alone makes the situation a lot better. In space somewhere they can at least get probed down, as hard as it is, or on gates/stations they can get bumped off. On a starbase, too,  because the typical buffing starbase is a small pos with no furniture except maybe hardeners or hangars. If you put down a deathstar it makes things a lot more safe, as it should be.

In my opinion the change in efficiency of cloaky (ie, mobile) boosting platform is a solid move. Gameplaywise putting gang support modules on grid is extremely sane and important. I'd like to see non-battlecruiser, tech3 or capital platforms for those links, though, to be useful in different kind of gangs at different efficiency (size of the bonus/fleet size).

[DeadRow]

How so ?

If you are going 'solo' and want a link alt. An off-grid t3 is still the way to go. Not quite as good as before but good enough + you get a choice of three types of links that are getting bonused

For larger fleets you will want a command ship in your group (you could put this off grid, but the chances of it being scanned down greatly increase) that provide the high bonus to two of the leadership groups (woop for Navy Mindlinks too).

This means that CCP don't have to be in a too big a rush to bring up some hard-arsed fix to OGBs that will break the game and/or make them so useless as to not have them.

I don't understand how it's any better. The linkboat can hug the forcefield and offer boosts, and when somebody shows up on grid they just burn back inside. It's not as if these things are capitals that can't quickly flee into the POS if something warps in or uncloaks. They're fast and agile ships, often pretty heavily tanked.

For solo flying or gang flying, in most cases we've encountered (inb4 I-RED is terrible), by the time we realize the enemy gang or pilot is linked it's could easily be too late. I'm not an FC, so maybe I'm just bad at this... but I fail to see how forcing a linkboat to be 1m outside the forcefield helps anything.

The simple fact is that OGB still exists, and it takes all of half a second for the boat to burn back into the forcefield, even without propmods. Unless you have somebody camping the linkboat inside the POS while your gang is fighting elsewhere in system - this changes nothing.

EDIT: Sid has pointed out that now the pilot has to at least pay attention to his link alt every now and then while using it. That's about as good an answer as I can find on why anybody would be remotely satisfied with this other than as 'a step in the right direction'.

Knowing if they have OGBs isn't that difficult. If it's in your home region you should have fairly solid Intel about your locals, if you've engaged them frequently you should have a fairly good idea of who that booster is. If you're not in your home region, then if they are in a fleet of a decent size, I'd assume OGBs and play it around that.

Tbh, the POS thing is just a bit of sugar coating. The big change is the nerfing of the t3 bonus, now if you want to get the biggest boosts you need a command ship. If you fly a command ship you are more than likely going to have it on-grid with the fleet or have a POS set up which is only practical for defensive play.

[Lyn Farel]

I think that solo + link alt is an oxymoron. Unless we consider solo multiboxing still being solo.

What is the point of T3 links if commandships are better ? Just to do "solo" pvp with an alt link ?

[Desiderya]

That's why it was called "solo" and not solo.

Are you seriously asking what the point of T3 links are or are you just being facetious?
They're smaller which is a consideration for Wormholers, they're easy to move around (cloaky), they're relatively safe offgrid (sig/sensor ratio), they offer a wider array of bonuses which can make them better than a command ship and if this 'has to be on grid to boost' thing ever makes it into the game they don't have the huge tag on them saying, 'HELLO, I AM THE BOOSTING SHIP', provided they're not the only T3 (of that type) in the gang, and provided that T3 gangs are more common that command ship gangs.

[Lyn Farel]

I am not being facetious. I may have played the game for many years, that does not mean that I deduce everything and all every time. So yes, I am seriously asking it because i'm curious to see what I forgot. Actually I am asking for opinions, like, you know, the concept of sharing info. I'm not a T3 aficionado.