Now, the reason I stopped writing blogs for a while is because I was wrong in my calculations on the active scanners scan range - it's actually quite a bit more because I did the calculations based on a triangle and not a cone. This was due to my lack of geometry and in a game like Eve Online and Dust 514, it's kind of silly to approach things from an analytical standpoint when you have a lack of knowledge in the field you're trying to express a point on.
Though, I'm not going to let that stop me. The mathematics of it all is silly when you get right down to it because be it 20,000 meters or 37,000 meters, improper mathematics isn't going to change the feel of the equipment at hand. If it's over-powered, it's over-powered, regardless of what the effective scan range is. I haven't quite been convinced that it's -not- over-powered though after a bit of personal testing and seeing that the CreoDron Flux Active Scanner has the highest cool-down (25 seconds) it's a bit more balanced than my original approach of it but I do feel that the precision is far too low for being a general purpose tool.
Now, after a bit of re-education through some Skype conversations I've (with the help of others, of course) come to the determination that the scanners need to be more focused on what they're supposed to. Right now there's absolutely no point in using the vanilla scanner because every other variant supercedes it in some way or another. I'd like to advocate that the vanilla scanner be more of a general purpose tool that doesn't excel in anything but averages better.
There's the issue of 'twirling' in which you can use an Active Scanner and just spin around in a circle, making everything around you show up on the map. I dislike this and think that you should have to point the scanner on someone for a second or two before they appear as it's far too easy to scan a large area. Once that's knocked out, you can focus more on the specializations of each.
The Flux scanner needs to be for general infantry, considering it's powerful range, but it shouldn't be so powerful that it can pick up scouts due to it's massive range. The Quantum is in a pretty good place but I feel that, due to it's low cool-down and exceptionally long target visibility, it could also stand to have some changes made to make it a bit more balanced. The Focused is pretty good, in my opinion, minus the twirling aspect it fulfills it's roll pretty well. The Proximity on the other hand is rather useless due to it's very small scan range and design seems to be based around the twirling bit (five second scan duration? really?) I suppose it's nice for close quarters engagements but beyond that it's sort of a silly concept being as, at that range, you're likely to spot them visually.
There's the issue of 'twirling' in which you can use an Active Scanner and just spin around in a circle, making everything around you show up on the map. I dislike this and think that you should have to point the scanner on someone for a second or two before they appear as it's far too easy to scan a large area. Once that's knocked out, you can focus more on the specializations of each.
The Flux scanner needs to be for general infantry, considering it's powerful range, but it shouldn't be so powerful that it can pick up scouts due to it's massive range. The Quantum is in a pretty good place but I feel that, due to it's low cool-down and exceptionally long target visibility, it could also stand to have some changes made to make it a bit more balanced. The Focused is pretty good, in my opinion, minus the twirling aspect it fulfills it's roll pretty well. The Proximity on the other hand is rather useless due to it's very small scan range and design seems to be based around the twirling bit (five second scan duration? really?) I suppose it's nice for close quarters engagements but beyond that it's sort of a silly concept being as, at that range, you're likely to spot them visually.
Now, I don't want this blog to be just another rendition on my "Perfecting the Roles" thing on Active Scanners but I do want to use it as an example to hallmark on my new method of thinking. No amount of specific mathematics is going to change something from being over-powered in a set environment. From this point forward I'm going to work on giving less specifics and simply use an informative standpoint.
The reason for this mostly spawns from my recognition that educating forum goers is a bad move. They either understand the concepts and principles or they don't and when they don't they're usually pretty adamant on it. Disproving someone's math on the forums isn't going to help anyone because CCP knows, far better than we do, what their designs are capable of. So, if someone's wrong in their math - the only people you're going to be proving it too is other forum goers, which are less likely to listen anyway.
Apart from the community being rather sheepish in the sense that they'll follow someone's ideals simply because they agree, it's important to understand that they will do that. If a mass of players think something should be a certain way, correct mathematics isn't going to change how they feel - they'll just retort with something else and stick with their belief that they're right and that no argument will ever defeat their logic.
To which, I'm going to just ignore all of that and work more on the design aspect. What -I- feel the gear should do, with as general a concept as possible because in the end CCP is going to be the ones who inevitably work out the numbers. That's not my job. My job is simply conveying how I feel it should operate and I have a feeling that a lot more people will agree with that if I keep the numbers to a minimum - the less specific, the better.
Apart from the community being rather sheepish in the sense that they'll follow someone's ideals simply because they agree, it's important to understand that they will do that. If a mass of players think something should be a certain way, correct mathematics isn't going to change how they feel - they'll just retort with something else and stick with their belief that they're right and that no argument will ever defeat their logic.
To which, I'm going to just ignore all of that and work more on the design aspect. What -I- feel the gear should do, with as general a concept as possible because in the end CCP is going to be the ones who inevitably work out the numbers. That's not my job. My job is simply conveying how I feel it should operate and I have a feeling that a lot more people will agree with that if I keep the numbers to a minimum - the less specific, the better.
With that being said, I also want to convey that I am still going to campaign for the CPM when elections are open, but I do have a lot to learn before that ever comes to fruition. Considering that elections usually aren't until a few months before Fanfest (which is normally held in April/May) I think I still have some time to focus on the learning aspect of things in order to fully prepare for the responsibility.
One of which is to hone in on the aspect of not caring what people think or whether they approve of my tactics. In the end, if they disagree with what I have to say, it doesn't matter. My sole concern is the health of the game, not the approval of that person. Of course it does help to have the people's approval but I'm not going to play the Politician and outright lie to you in order to get the seat and then go against my word, doing what I want. I'm going to be upfront with you - I am going to do things you may not agree with.
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