Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I've had an idea for a while that i have pitched to friends a few times and everyone seems to think its a great idea.
This is copied from what i posted in the thread "[Beyond Rubicon] What Mobile Structures would you like to see?"
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=3871152#post3871152

Presenting the Cov-ops Battlecruiser.

These ships offer a new form of combat as well as a way to sniff out those pesky cloakers. they would have 2 major functions.

The 1st being a cloak disruptor that sends out a sonar like wave in a 100km radius that could either disrupt a cloak all together or just offer a ping with general direction as to a where a cloaked ship may be. (I'd prefer something that does not turn off a cloak unless it was setup where only being hit by this at a short range would kill the cloak, like 5km. Anything over 5km would just get the directional ping.) The biggest limitation would be that this can’t just be spammed on a gate much like the way smart bombs currently are limited. Cloaked ships should still have a change to jump systems and cloak up but being in a system with a cov-ops bc adds the risk that they could be caught.

The 2nd function of the cov-ops battlecruiser would be an area effect cloaking field. the cov-ops bc would be able to turn on a cloaking field that is able to cloak a group that is within the field. Let’s say the field would be a 5km radius around the cov-ops bc. The drawback to this would be that no ship is able to move or have any mods on otherwise it will disrupt the cloaking field. So if you have one guy turn on his damage control to get ready for a fight he would bring down the cloak prematurely and possibly screwing up an ambush. Anything that passes through the fields radius while it is in effect would also disrupt the cloaking field bringing it down.

The cov-ops battlecruiser is not able to warp while cloaked and like a black ops battleship does not use a covert ops cloak but can also fit a covert cyno like every other cov-ops ship. These would also not be used for high dps and might favor smaller guns to be effective against tackle and smaller ships.

Think of the new forms of guerrilla warfare and gameplay that could open up with the introduction of the cov-ops battlecruiser, and rather than a deployable object that does little to add content and would have many issues on where they are able to be placed. I believe there should be some option out there to track cloaking ships but a passive object doing the job for you doesn’t seem right. Risk that bc to ping those bombers on grid and send some frigs to try an decloak them.

what does everyone else think?

Yeah, cos that's very balanced...
Got to be a strong no on this one.

I don't think it should be a battle cruiser by any means maybe some more like a destroyer plat form. It shouldn't cloak but should have a sensor into that can ping out cloaked ships. Also think that it should be limited on weapon hard points. Make it more of a scan ship must hunting cloaks instead of anoms. Or even let them have their own probe set up that can only hunt down cloaked objects. Because if a SB is cloaked im sure he will watch dscan and he will know the probes are looking for him so he has a chance to bug out.

This way seems a little more balanced but even so im still sure it's not.

I agree with the limited hardpoints and why I was thinking that it should use small turret or missile launchers only to handle frigs or tackle. There were a few reasons for the bc. Being that if it went through a blackops. Bridge that it would take a bit of fuel. The other being that this thing would really be a sitting duck and would need some sort of tank. It wouldn't be able to warp cloaked at all and falls in line with cost and feel of a blackops.

When I was thinking of the aoe. Cloak it would be highly unstable and could be easily disrupted if being used to hide a small group. Maybe a mass limit would be included in a certain range. But if someone missclicks and starts moving thy screw everything up. If you have been in a fleet doing a bridge you know how often someone bumps the bridging ship so getting everyone to sit still with no mods on might not be so easy.
There would also be the same penalty for being able to target once decloaking so for any non-cloaky ship they would have to wait 30 Sec.

You're taking this the wrong way. This would cloak a small group and maybe have an option to show the direction where cloakers may be on grid like d-scan. If you are in a safe cloaked this does nothing to find you.

I personally love cloaky camping. If I could fit a tear collector I would. But even if you are in a bomber and one of these is on grid it wouldn't have much chance solo against a bomber or two. It would need backup. And if you are not able to get out of the way of a gang then you should be caught. If anything this offers an option to all those who cry about cloaky campers without killing the campers fun.

Idea 1: The AOE show me claokers or decloak cloakers idea is a show-stopper. Absolutely no, as it pretty much nerfs the hell out of covert ships navigating through a gate camp, which is a primary role for covert ships.

Idea 2: I love the drawback that the cloaked cannot move, cannot have active modules. I'd include they cannot have drones deployed, and if anyone/anything other than a ship is within 2 km's of the "cloaking BC" everyone gets decloaked. I would probably add a drawback to the BC (like it can't move for 60s when it deploys the cloaking field), and the trick for your fleet mates to decloak would be to move, turn on a module, etc.

I was happy when I read the topic title
I turned sad when I read the first post.

I was expecting something to fill the hole between recons and blops bs

How about a structure that cloaks a set number of ships for a limited duration?

Would have to be limited to same system, my thinking would be use the device, warp small fleet onto target, all uncloak...for surpirses, should be a targetting delay and/or scan res penalty timer once used.

Maybe could be used via Covert Cyno's??

De cloaking others is never going to happen, unless your blaster close!

My thoughts

Bob