Modular Equipment System

[Reeves]

I do want to mention that calling things chasers and duelists is just an example, I'm not advocating for a certain fixed ship equipment type here, but rather that instead of having to either go for a CD or an additional utility weapon, like an MR or Maxim, why not give someone the ability to have both, with a drawback of having to give up something else of their choice. As it stands there is rarely ever any reason to not mount a CD in place of any of the existing weaponry that previously occupied the auxiliary slot.(The above examples citing categories such as duelist and chaser were mere illustrations based on observations of how certain people actively fly their ships in-game. And they are exactly that, examples. Needless to say that people can always choose to fly and fill a different purpose and trying to be versatile under a system such as this would be possible, there'd be nothing stopping someone from using a more traditional load-out, with a CD, CM and Mine.)

I do suppose that this does have its own set of drawbacks, but I believe that some drawbacks are necessary because auxiliary slots came with absolutely none, all they did was make heavy fighters redundant. My objective with this suggestion is to make Very Heavy Fighters seem more user configurable and perhaps even more purpose-fitting. But you have raised the point of people being forced to hop ships and things coming down to a matter of rock-paper-scissors, and while I can't comment on the latter, the only thing I have to say to the former is that why should any one load-out be able to fill every role there is to be filled?

An additional reasoning behind bringing about some form of a system like this has to be the fact that CD's are simply too useful, let's just be honest on this one little subject. They are used in not only stopping someone, but detonating mines, popping missiles, disrupting an E.K, etc. It is severely crippling for any fighter to not have one given how the mechanics seem to have shaped themselves over time. So in the face of such an issue, would it really be problematic to allow someone to play around their own strengths and inability to find wingmen, by granting them the freedom of perhaps using a Maxim along with their CD and mine? While obviously having to forego the CM in that instance.