Player Features and Ideas Discussion

They also completely ignore the other playstyles that nerfs to cloaking would hurt. After being in EVE for a while (still new compared to a lot of you, but not 100% new any more) I found what I enjoy is exploration, and by that I mean actually exploring the universe in addition to simply the hacking mini game. I ran level 4's to build up a decent pile of ISK, and now spend nearly 100% of my time roaming new eden in a covert ops mapping who lives where, what they do, etc. I love gathering intel, and just roaming the universe. I'm not interested in combat really. The big fleet battles, or the idea of holding space didn't draw me to EVE. It was the idea that I could explore and catalog what other players do in this type of game.

Any nerfs to cloaking really, really hurt the #1 thing I love to do in game. People who are anti-cloaking need to realize there are far more playstyles in EVE than simply 'sov null' and 'blop sov null', and realize what their suggestions would do to the rest of the game.

But that's the problem. Currently I'm logged out deep in null, exploring and mapping out an area simply because that's what I like to do. Chances are someone will hellcamp all gates and there won't be any WHs to escape into sooner or later. If I log out, that 30 seconds I'm decloaked means there is a decent chance someone probes down by safe and takes me out. Not everyone has a station or POS to hide in. If I get up to take a ****, I can't dock up first. If I have to take my dog outside, I can't jump into a POS. Decloaking to log off when someone is actively combat probing me down is a death sentence for me. If I couldn't stay cloaked until the heat dies down, explorers like me would have to do a complete 180 from what we do today.

Why does ease of life for a ratter/miner in nullsec trump ease of life for an explorer like myself?

the change/addition should only affect people who don't move their cloaked ship for over 30 minutes, in a system where a hostile corp has strong presence

from what I read, a mod for citadels that lets you slowly scan down cloaked ships (and requires sov/strategic index to activate) would narrow down the impact to the group above.

I have stated from very early on that AFK cloaking is sub-optimal game play.

But and that is a big but, IMO, that simply nerfing cloaks across the board, which most proposals do and leaving local in place would very likely be worse. Early on I suggested removing local, but giving players to "get it back" by in some way that is vulnerable to attack/spoofing.

Right now the current strategies suck. 99.9% of players seeing a hostile in local dock up when they are in a PvE ship. And the only real way to gimp some people's ability to earn ISK in game is to park an AFK cloaker in the system. There is no middle ground. I want there to be some middle ground.

I hope the proposed changes regarding the observatory array will help in that regard. Remove local, let players get some level of intel back but in a way that is able to be subverted. This way we can get rid of AFK cloaking, yet still keep NS dangerous.

I would make it a stand alone deployable that could be knocked out, not simply holding sov, and I would have local go away (or become delayed at the least, similar to what Teckos suggested...) if that deployable structure is knocked offline.

You can scan me down slowly if you're paying attention, and if you aren't I can knock that structure offline and you can't scan me down, and can't 100% trust local until you bring it back online. That seems fairly balanced

Am not against cloaking or covert op but when you have a guy AFK camping you 24/7 for several months this is not generating content, its generating its death.



I will quote myself: "What is the point then to play eve if you not playing game actively, only to be AFK?"

The WH guys have said "No, not really," on this one. They point out that unless you are looking pretty much all the time, a new entrance opening up is very much like a cyno.

And I notice you want your cake and to eat it too (i.e. local). AFK camping is only an issue because of local. Local going is, IMO, necessary for making cloaked ships scannable.

I've had this happen to me many, many times. I'm basically a solo explorer 90% of the time. There are days where I'm simply hanging out in a null pocket waiting for the right WH to open so I can move on while playing some other game to pass the time. The messages and convos I get are really, really entertaining. I'm not trying to deny content, I don't even have the skills to light a cyno, and my KB is ****, but apparently I'm still evil for hanging out trying to find the right WH to exit into.

Sure, but you would think a group with several thousand active members could have a few fleets roaming around ready to take me down should I (and whatever group I'm with) do anything

If you have a standing defense fleet (and why would you live in null and not have one?) why would it destroy activities? Just do you PvE-ing in a PvP fit and counter drop whoever attacks you.

Don't live in null if you don't want to defend it.