Eve Online development plans detailed for 2013, more ship changes on the way

Developer CCP has detailed its plans to tweak and balance a number of ships in long-running MMO Eve Online over the course of 2013.

According to the post, following the release of free expansion pack Eve Online: Retribution on Dec. 4, CCP will begin making adjustments to battlecruisers, then battleships. Battleships will only receive minor tweaks; However, the developers plan to make more significant changes to battlecruisers.

"Let's face it, they had it coming," reads the post regarding battlecruiser ships. "As current tier 2 variations perform too well while tier 1's are found wanting. With this in mind, the plan is to adjust total slot layout to 17 on all of them and split them into two categories depending on their expected role." CCP includes a chart detailing how tech 1 ships will differ following this massive overhaul.

"When we're finished with tech 1 hulls we are going to start looking into more advanced roles, starting with Command ships," the post continues. "They are seriously lacking at the moment for two reasons: first, regular tier 2 battlecruisers mostly fill the same combat role for less expensive operational costs, and second, tech 3 hulls are just plain better at gang link boosting."

This will result in a removal of the distinction between fleet and field Command ships.

"All of them will now have 3% bonuses to two Warfare Link fields and be able to fit three warfare link modules simultaneously (instead of 3 for fleet versions only). That also means that the previous fleet Command Ships will be rebalanced to fit combat roles."

A graph summarizing Command ship changes is available here.