Today's Gooder Eve post isn't about one thing and one thing only, but it does share a common theme so I thought I'd group these concepts together. Each one is probably not worthy of a single post, but together hopefully they are. What do I know anyway? I'm just a pot-stirrer. Ask anyone.
The Depth Charge
Eve has often been compared to more of an underwater simulation of submarine warfare than a space simulator, that may or may not be true (I see the point but it's hard to ignore the fact that it takes place in space!) but perhaps we could take something from the world of the submarine and apply it to Eve? And if that wasn't a run-on sentence, then I am a turkey.
Introducing the depth charge. What does it do exactly? Well it doesn't cause any damage, instead it de-cloaks cloakers. It has the same type of radial area of effect as regular stupid Eve bombs, but instead of damage it disrupts the cloaking field around nearby ships - causing them to not work. Since it doesn't cause damage, the radial effect is one based on time. The closer to the center of the explosion the more time it takes to re-activate the cloak (make repairs) and the further the vicey versa.
Eve is crying out for a way to de-cloak ships and I think this is a way to do it and keep the cloakers somewhat safe. Let's face it, you'll still need to know where they are, they can still hide, but wouldn't it be nice to catch them at their own game sometimes? Or see if they really are hanging out around the gate?
The Bumper Bomb
For those that may not know, "Bumping" is the act of ramming your ship into another ship to "bump" it away from an undock, gate or out of a POS shield. Let's all continue to ignore the silliness of this system and the fact that doing it causes no damage to the bumper or the bumpee. What if Eve had a bomb type that did the same thing? Instead of damage it caused a shock wave that "bumped" ships within its AOE away from the center of the explosion? Said Bumper Bomb also has the ability to be programmed, effectively entering a POS password would allow the bomb to affect ships inside a POS shield! Whoa.
The Scrambler
Currently there aren't any in-game mods or ammo types that affect the UI, not that I am aware of anyway. But why not? One of the biggest parts of modern warfare is electronic countermeasures, and while Eve has its share of those - not a single one that actually impacts the "electronics" of the pilot. What do I mean? How about a bomb that disrupts the targets Overview? Take any science-fiction universe and crap in space is always messing around with the sensors, mucking up the computers and generally giving false information. Gosh, how many times did Spock tell Kirk that very same thing? In Eve? Nothing. I think this would add a level of interesting developments and immersion to the universe of Eve - devices that directly impact YOUR electronics (in other words the UI you rely on) and return false information for a certain amount of time.
In the end, are these actually bombs or modules or ammo types or missile types? I leave that to those that know better, the point is that without much effort at all an entirely new line of available offensive and defensive weaponry can be made available to the Capsuleer. I picked bombs because right now they are, in my opinion, about the most worthless ammo type imaginable and it would be nice to change that.
What are your thoughts? Can you imagine any other bomb types that might be useful? And what do you think of the Depth, Bumper and Scrambler? I await your wisdom.
[ Of course we do also have Lock-Breaker bombs, which do have some utility. Killian Redbeard wrote me an email and suggested we could also add a bomb that drained capacitor or caused heat damage to mods. Both are interesting suggestions, I like the Cap draining one especially. ]