Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I like your idea with the reduction and the activate with cyno online. I also think I agree that you should be stuck at 0 velocity after jumping in for a time period, i'm just not sure how long.

More thoughts:

1) Require Astrometrics V and BlackOps V for the mod.

2) Activation delay starts at 10 seconds and gets a 10% reduction per level with "Astrometric Acquisition." I just don't think you should be able to uncloak and jump INSTANTLY. There needs to be a delay.

3) Cool down starts at 60 seconds with a 10% reduction per level with "Astrometric Rangefinding"

With max skills, a forced delay of 30 seconds in space uncloaked seems...fair?. I don't do any scanning, so I don't know what is reasonable, but I think it's only fair that you have to sit there long enough to be scanned down. So you have to keep moving in system, and without a safe that's a risk. And there needs to be some risk involved with jumping into an unscouted system.

[A more simple skill-implementation would just involved BlackOps V for the mod, and Astrometrics skill affects the cool down (with a forced activation delay).]

I re thought this and I think that this mod CANNOT be used for risk-free jumping into a system. Being forced to sit in space for 30 (20?) seconds, uncloaked, at zero velocity, seems like a good trade. It's not as if when local goes up someone will instantly think "Oh, I better go scan down the star to see if someone jumped in." And, if they do, they have a very small window to get a fix on you and warp to you for a tackle. And a fleet is protected anyway because even being scanned down will locate only 1 ship. If the fleet wants a fight, then they should save their buddy.

Well if that's the case, I think 30 seconds would work as a base timer, if it can't cloak in that window- it's simple enough to scan down a battleship-sized signature in well under 30 seconds.

Maybe a related skill reduces it by 13.333... (13 and 1/3) % per level, so it'd be down to 10 seconds at V.

Either that, or have it be the 60 second start, reduced to 30 at skill level V, but be able to cloak. After all, sitting still for any amount of time is a big drawback- and if someone sees a black ops on d-scan before it cloaks, they'll know for sure that it's around the sun somewhere and be able to prepare for it once it decloaks, if they're that dedicated (after all, it can't covops cloak).

Well a sun jump wouldn't put you in some predetermined place around the star- it'd be a totally random spot within a certain distance of it- not on a specific grid, at least the way I imagined it.

Also, the immobilization could work as a balance factor- I mean, it needs a drawback, and that works decently (IMO)- after all, it can still cloak itself, it just can't warp off immediately after sun jumping. It's a minor inconvenience, but it works.

I mean, it'd kind of defeat the purpose of being 'covert' if it could just be found that easily after it sun jumps.

But again, thanks for good input- I have to think about some of these things more

Very good idea. I'd suggest giving this ability to all jump-capable ships and removing cynos from the game altogether but that's been requested before and I won't get my hopes up.

I agree with some of the above. I do think that having it be a random location in the system (around the sun) is important. This way you maintain the 'black ops' nature of being able to enter a system undetected. If you just land on-grid at the Sun, it would create an entirely new game dynamic whereby camping that grid was an anti-blackops tactic. Currently the only way to prevent blackops from entering a system is to stop the cyno ship at the gate, and that's actually impossible if it's a T3.

So, this idea needs to maintain the usefulnes of the covert cyno while adding a new 'buff' for the ships generally.

First off, this Only involves the blackops ships and, once in system, they themselves cannot light a cyno without refitting.

Second, you cannot hotdrop anything because you're scattered in the system. Unless you've already scouted, you're entering blind.

Third, you cannot cloak up or jump out of system for 30-60 seconds. I agree that being stationary for this cool-down is pointless. At worst, it just makes it easy to catch one ship with probes. The real penalty should be that you cannot hide from scanning for a time period.

I'm trying to think of some detrimental/abusive game mechanics created by this. Any thoughts?

I imagine that, typically, a fleet will jump to a system, and then group up somewhere and wait out the timer to cloak up or jump to a new system. If nothing else, this will introduce more battleship-based combat.

I am not seeing this jumping ability as needing a penalty like this at all for balance.

First, you are concerned about something being risk free. That has no bearing here, as any degree of reward possible already comes with it's own set of inherent risks. The BLOPs pilot can't do anything without involving risks already established in the game, so simply being in a new place has trivial reward potential as a result.

Whether it came in from a gate, or cyno, or wormhole, or even this idea, it is not going to drop on grid with it's target before that target has had the chance to see the new name in local, and react to it.

The whole point of the Blac Ops is to establish a ship class that supports stealth entry specifically where it is blocked by any other means. Diminishing it with pointless penalties so it is no better than an interceptor for gaining system entry defeats this, in my opinion.

Being able to cloak right after arriving?
Absolutely.

The Black Ops cannot warp cloaked to begin with, so the idea that it may not have meaningful capacitor with which to actually leave the vicinity by jumping OR warping is always a factor.
I think there would be a good chance the pilot may choose to cloak and slow boat away from the landing spot, giving residents valuable extra time to look up the pilot, or prepare a response.

If someone wanted to know if they had a Black Ops visitor, all they would need to do is hit the grid defaulting to the star, assuming that it lands so predictably.
Whether it intended to leapfrog into another system or move around the current one, it would need to drop it's cloak before proceeding.

I very much agree.

I see too many discussions where others resort to attacking the integrity of the others, if not calling them out as unworthy entirely.
I have even stepped up and argued points that I personally did not favor, just to clarify and establish parameters or expose how flaws existed in an argument.

I happen to think this could very well be exactly what the BLOPs is missing, something that steps outside the box of existing options appropriately for a ship that is supposed to be different and unique.

Perhaps a slight variation of the idea. Let's add a little risk for the happy blops pilot that decides to not use his cover cyno alt. Spawn a beacon at the spot where he jumps that lasts, say, 2 minutes. He would be sitting at 0 at the beacon so he would have to get few km away from it after jump before he can cloak.

Or alternatively. Add beacon for few minutes, blops jumps to random distance from it, say, within 10 to 20 km from it. However, jump happens only 15 seconds after beacon goes up in target system.