The whole point of the thread is that the OP wants to see more diversity in the fighting going on. The problem is not with the speed of the bots (although I would like to see Light Combat Bots get a speed boost), the problem is there is no reason either side feels the need to engage the enemy when there is not a clear advantage tactically. EWAR usage gives attackers the option to refuse battle at will and lower risk.

Right now the only PvP besides intrusions are high speed roaming raids; get in, get a kill, get out, unharmed. This can be done with EWARS. Bringing anything else gives the enemy the ability to actually catch you and force you to fight where losses might be taken. The willingness to take losses on a roaming raid where there is little or no physical reward is counter to human nature. Heavier armored bots with competent pilots and equal enough numbers force the EWAR gangs to withdraw for fear there will be heavy losses. Stalemate. No real PvP.

I would like to see there be a reason, multiple times DAILY, that corporations or alliances would be willing to risk bots and equipment for some sort of physical gain. Some reward worth trading equipment for. The heavier bots would have the advantage and be able to hold terrain giving them the reward all to themselves unless. . . . attacking forces brought more armor and firepower and had the will to risk equipment loss for some sort of substantial gain.

If the reward were something available ONLY during these "minor challenges", corps would risk bots, attackers would be forced to expect armored resistance and have to deal with it, or go without the reward. These challenge nodes would somehow require bots other than EWARS to be completed (at a minimum requiring assaults to complete).

If these "minor challenges" happened multiple times per day in dispersed locations away from outposts, no alliance could "call to arms" their whole available forces that many times per day to form blobs (as what happens now in intrusions). What you would most likely see is adhoc small gangs getting formed up at regular intervals with a minimum number of assaults included, throughout the day to take a shot at winning these rewards.

Consistent small gangs engaging checkpoints around the islands willing to take equipment losses in an attempt to gain a physical/substantial reward unavailable anywhere else in the game.

TL/DR: EWAR speed isnt the problem necessarily in the lack of diversity of combat bots on the battlefield. A shortage of content removes fighters' desire to control portions of territory where heavier/slower bots have an advantage and can only be beaten by heavier/slower bots. There is no material incentive to risk equipment. EWARS risk less in their ability to avoid danger. Why take a chance of being forced into a confrontation where you may take losses due to larger bots slowing the battlegroup. Multiple "minor challenge" nodes scattered across the Betas with substantial unique rewards, beatable only by assault class bots or better would foster regular small gang fighting with a more diverse bot composition.

Avatar Creations, you only have 4 classes of bots in the game.
Therefore, you have to be careful to make at least 2-3 relevant to roaming or you end up with a boring roaming environment where there is only reason to use 1 class.
Good changes in the last patch but it was just not enough.
Roams are still mostly just EWAR lights.  No real change.
Get to the root of it.  Reduce the speed gap a little more.

Watch your own trailer again. http://www.perpetuum-online.com/Media:Videos
Did you advertise just swarms of EWAR spiders fighting?  No, because that is boring.
What you showed was a variety of bots of every kind, including the larger bots, fighting in free flowing PVP.
Instinctively you know that is what draws people.  The cool interplay between lights and heavies. 
Look at World of Tanks. Lights, mediums, heavies are all used and have a role in free flowing fights.
Instead of making the speed gaps so huge its uncrossable and you make heavies obsolete 99% of the time.
People expect you to balance the classes so all 4 are used in daily free flowing PVP.
We want that many unit type interaction, not this boring EWAR run and out.
Cut the speed gap to a smaller amount already.
We want to see more variety of bots in roaming PVP more often.
INCLUDING mechs and heavy mechs.

DON'T BALANCE CLASSES AROUND INTRUSIONS, BALANCE AROUND ROAMING.
For the simple reason that not many participate or care about intrusions and it only happens rarely compared to roaming anyway.

Well, its very boring to have 4 classes of bots in the game and no point at all to undock 3 for roaming.  A 4 cylinder engine only using 1.  Wasted potential.

To think of Roaming -> EWAR light, Intrusion -> Mech/Heavy Mech is a limiting dynamic.
Intrusions are only participated in a tiny percentage of the time by a tiny percentage of the Perpetuum population so you are making some classes irrelevant most of the time.

Instead, think of Roaming -> EWAR light, light bot, assault, mech, EWAR mech, heavy mech all viable would be a MUCH better and more interesting game.
The game we see in the trailer with all sorts of mechs in open warfare.
Then you will have an immensely popular game.

What prevents the use of anything but EWAR?
The speed gap.  This one little factor skews everything to make one type of bot much much more important than just 1 out of 4.  And makes other classes obsolete.
They can catch anything and evade anything so there is never any point to bring anything out for roaming as they will just be caught by EWAR lights.

Its a general problem: open PvP games advertise - be fast and backstab your opponent.

my previous post is aiming at what the DEVs wanted to accomplish -> freedom in fitting, diversity in equip. Its ruined by must have equip like LWF and sensor amp.

and because all equipment-parts are affecting speed, which you need for hit-and-run its only natural to fit the tools have the least speed reduction... diversity bye bye.

you cant counter the speed advantage with armor in this game - because it needs more slots and way more expensive equipment to build up armor tank.

That is not problem of diversity. That is problem of lack of situations where you need something but speed.

For a gang that fight outnumbered, speed is life.
Norhoop blob up and plate up because they lack of organization, intelligence and pvp skills.
If norhoop actualy had skilled EWAR squad backed up by fire support, they could take on any EWAR roams with equal numbers.

Instead they seems to be incurable ***...

we had no damps or ECM

And we were, literally, hiding behind plants 50m from him, after we saw he was toothles, armed with neuts....

Container went down like sack of *** because he had shield fit with neutralizers. Now he is here to whine "this would not happen if you were slower, waaaaaah!".

Just to be clear, he and HUN tried to pincer our gang, instead we pincered HUN's, and after HUN's were dead, container and his buddy kain were _alone_.

Please go cry about your colossal fail to someone else and leave perfectly fine EWAR alone.

1 H mech + 1 mech

vs

~15 ewar

We could have been in arke MK2's and they still would die to us.

Like i pointed out, we killed HUN EWAR support that did not get support from the main group, and the Gropho + kain that were there to pincer us, were left stranded.
If the gropho and kain were there 60 seconds sooner, the story may have been different.

Ewar is the cavalry of perpetuum, if you don't know how to use it or counter it, learn. Do not whine for the horses to be relapsed with donkeys...

De-mo-bi-li-ser

Its called, "missiles in your face" approach.

Works good.

As for catching them? Try ewar?

Because if you introduce mech class that can catch EWAR, that class itself becomes next problem

Now, please, try to think past your little "solutions"...

So.. M2S needs a 37.5% speed advantage to fight in PVP.
Seems you can't survive with just a 20% speed advantage.
Not confident in your abilities?  I thought you guys were saying you are good.

Size of speed gap is distorting the game.
Not asking to remove it, just to adjust it is all.

How about we introduce 60 second dock up procedure delay.
When you click "dock" you have to wait 60 seconds.

And that stacks with instability.

You counter pure e-war squads by bringing bigger e-war squads. If you try anything else, the e-war squad will simply run away and you're not going to catch them. They can pick the fights, decide if they are going to fight or run, while anything else only has the option to fight or die, once engaged by e-wars somewhere not close to stations. That's why OP is right, the gap should be reduced, so that light combat bots become a valid option for roaming speed-squads.