Player Features and Ideas Discussion

If you donate to a charity, you have chosen to give. The charity did not force your action.
It is likely they did something to promote awareness of their existence, obviously. You probably did not discover they existed exclusively by your own efforts, after all.

"AFK Cloaking" has no direct expectation of gain. It cannot force players to respond a certain way.
Any changes these players make to their play is like a donation to charity, in that they made it of their own free will to a perceived issue.

The willful ignorance of the fact that local chat created AFK Cloaking as a counter to itself never ceases to be displayed, apparently.
AFK Cloaking IS the counter. It is placed in check by the very game element it uses to affect other pilots, which is local chat being used for intel.
Stop using a flawed intel tool, and you might actually get better results.

>>>>"Prolonged Cloaking" has no direct expectation of gain.


Not at all. Your conclusion that I agree to the existence of any expectation of gain does not logically follow my statement.
It seems you clearly wish to read this into my words.

Might I suggest the common cause that you are objecting to, rather, is the chat channel pilot roster's own flaw being used against pilots grown accustomed to an absolute sense of security using it?
I do realize it is a popular item for use as an intel tool, despite it's clear labeling as a chat channel.

>>>>It cannot force players to respond a certain way.[/quote]


People who use flawed tools should expect flawed results. One leads to the other.

If they did not rely on local chat as intel, they would not be likely to react to vessels which are incapable of harm under their current circumstances.

The donations presented to these pilots, of time not used, and play not risked, simply have no conversion to direct profit.
And frankly, indirect profit, while perhaps sounding clever, simply has no firm connection not relying on assumptions.

>>>>It seems you clearly wish to read this into my words.


Still laughing here...
I can't support your implied claim to reading my mind. While entertaining, you seem to have connected instead to your own expectations.

Your assumption of gain is an interesting association. I welcome any solid evidence you have to support this.
So far you have not provided any, although your theories seem to expect popularity to lend missing factual support.
I can't verify any popularity beyond a few outspoken posters on this forum either.

>>>>People who use flawed tools should expect flawed results.


Tell ya what... why don't we remove cloaked ships from displaying in local chat's pilot roster, in exchange for a balanced means of hunting cloaked vessels.
The caveat being that you get no free warning on cloaked ships. You either work for the intel, or simply assume it's potential worth the effort, and then you patrol in an effort to locate something.

The joyful nullbears get meaningful warnings now, and you can hunt down the cloaked vessels.

Win / Win, everyone is happy.
( I would suggest any local exclusions be mutual, no sense letting cloaked ships see local if they are not seen in it)

>>>>Still laughing here...

>>>>I welcome any solid evidence...
I am afraid your assuming a few details on my part.

For example, I know that a few cloaking pilots enjoy the psych warfare aspect. Certainly not all of them.
As a representative of those not interested in that version of cloaking, we are more interested in the stealthy hunting aspect. It is perfectly reasonable that we can be hunted in return, so long as we aren't flagged for attention by an automatic warning system.

Right now, all we can do is stare at our names in a list. Oh, sure, we can warp around the system undetected, but everyone knows we are in the system. There is no hunt on either side.
You can't find us, and our targets are all docked up in stations or outposts.

Boring.

>>>>Tell ya what... why don't we remove cloaked ships from displaying in local chat's pilot roster, in exchange for a balanced means of hunting cloaked vessels.
The caveat being that you get no free warning on cloaked ships. You either work for the intel, or simply assume it's potential worth the effort, and then you patrol in an effort to locate something.

The joyful nullbears get meaningful warnings now, and you can hunt down the cloaked vessels.

Win / Win, everyone is happy.
( I would suggest any local exclusions be mutual, no sense letting cloaked ships see local if they are not seen in it)
Oh, not really true there either. Wait, you prefer absolute statements to eliminate uncertainty...
Cloaked vessels do not require being visible in the pilot roster of the chat channel in order to have a psychological impact.
That is simply the lazy / passive method.

An unlisted cloaked vessel can have an even greater impact by broadcasting their presence, reinforced by their absence in the roster which would confirm their cloaked nature.
They would need to move about frequently, since it would be probable a means to hunt them would exist concurrent with their being left out of local this way.

Such a chase... who would catch whom? Would one side have a trap ready?
Perhaps other strategies with finesse could be devised.... such possibilities...

It is more likely under this method that a cloaked vessel would NOT be left AFK over the long term. The chances of a patrol finding it simply make it impractical.

I think it may help clarify, to your perspective at least, why I consider AFK cloaking a zero sum effort.

I do not perceive gain, since I view it more as a form of sabotage. Unless you have some means of benefiting from such loss, such as driving up costs of something you can sell, it could offer only a sense of satisfaction.
I see no way an isolated pilot could have a significant impact on a game economy on this scale, so that leaves a self inspired sense of accomplishment or satisfaction.

As this sense of accomplishment is not at all specific to cloaking, but to anything you believe you have succeeded with, it speaks only about the pilot.

Many cloaking pilots such as myself, have no interest in fostering terror. Certainly, it may be a byproduct of our actions, but it is not the primary goal of them.

Being limited to only inspiring this reaction dulls the cloaking experience to the point of being intolerable.

...facepalm... Nice troll. Ya got me.



I can't believe it took me so long to catch on, lol.

Counter?

With my idea, AFK Cloaking would not be possible. Cloaked vessels would not appear in local at all, so in order to create awareness of their presence, they would need to either post chat entries in local, or let other pilots see them directly.

With anticipated balance being present to hunt cloaked vessels, being that cloaked awareness no longer is free, such hunting is expected to be included with changes removing cloaks from local.

I have no interest in any mechanic that leaves cloaked vessels listed in local, and I am less interested in one that leaves them listed as well as exposes them to additional risk.

I respect that some pilots may enjoy this current state of affairs, but I am not one of these pilots.
My goals are quite different.