EVE General Discussion

Right, and lots of people are going to make cheap computers just to AFK cloaky camp...I'll believe it when I see it (on a widespread basis and not just some chump doing it because).

And if people do find a work around and log in more than one Alpha on one computer...Hello Exploit and Permaban. Nice knowing you.

It is amazing how many Eve players understand opportunity cost when it comes to minerals, but completely fail in applying it anywhere else. Yes, I am going to spend my time building and money a 1-2 dozen el-cheapo PCs simply to cloaky camp systems in an t1 frig with a prototype cloak. And in fact dozens and even hundreds of people are going to do this because they have literally nothing better to do with that money or their time. Sure.

This is the type of reasoning behind every single instance where people light their hair on fire over minor changes.

Oh, and I presume if this change were to go in to effect you'll be one of the people doing it. Right?

I like the idea of cloaks requiring fuel. An hour or two of cloaked time seems good if one can easily resupply.

Not being able to afk cloak in wh keeps the incentive up for going omega.

You need only two features. "Get Outta Dodge" which lasts 10-30seconds tops and a lil longer I need to sit and wait this out which is 10-30mins max. Any longer and you can either log off or run away and if you are caught that badly then yeah its just your time to die.

Cloaky alpha alts is a valid argument. But I don't see an afk alpha cloaker as being any different than an omega afk cloaker. That's more of an "Is afk cloaking really griefing argument." Which I've never supported.

Considering that an alpha and omega account can't be active at the same time, this isn't enabling players to do anything different than they already are. It's not as if an omega could set up an alpha afk cloaker and play on their omega account at the same time.

Also, "How can i exploit this." is the right way to think. So bravo.

Maybe people aren't aware that running an alpha and an omega clone concurrently (however you do it) is going to earn you a permaban?

Pretty prominent in the EULA and easily detectable if CCP choose to do so :

"2. YOUR ACCOUNT

You may establish more than one Account for each copy of the Software licensed. You are however not allowed to play EVE by using more than one Account at the same time, unless you pay a subscription fee for each of the Accounts you intend to use for that purpose."

That's condition 2 of the EULA guys and affects CCPs revenue stream so best case you'll get hit with a 6 month ban. Far more likely you get permabanned,

I think alphas need access to cloaking skills/mods so they understand their options aren't just "jump & be ganked" - from their limited perspective.

I've been thinking about this. Especially after talking to some older players returning to play the alpha.

The whole point of the Alpha program is to give people a taste as many different facets of eve play while still reserving enough to give incentives to subscribe. We want more people in null and ls right? The problem here is that getting in-and-out of ls/null in standard racial ships is generally done with the aid of an prototype or improved cloak.

With a cloak standard ships have a chance, not a great one, but a viable chance of getting through gate camps, especially bubbles. An explorer, for example, doesn't only want to get their ship through a camp, but they want to bring the loot back as well. Which is important. Players generally need to feel like they have a worthwhile chance before they take a chance.

And back on the whole concept of giving players a taste of EVE. This is only a taste. The most common piece of advice given about the prototype cloak is "never use it. Use improved cloak only." Why? Because prototype sucks. But even a prototype cloak can be better than no cloak. Anyone that uses a prototype cloak will desire a better cloak, which provides incentives to pay. On the other hand, if a player has to base their gameplay on not having a cloak, then there is less incentive to pay for a subscription.

Denying cloak skill to 2 week or 30 day trial members is one thing, but now that it is basically infinite trial, trial players should be able to access intermediate gameplay. I don't think anyone can argue that prototype cloaks are OP, and slowboating around with a prototype cloak active will give lots of incentive to subscribe and use a better cloak.

Anyway, what do you think?

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edit,
Well, we are 3 pages in and I thought I had a good point, but even in light of that the response is overwhelmingly negative. So let me modify the argument.

If prototype cloaks were modified so they consumed fuel and limited the duration an alpha could cloak, which would eliminate afk cloaking. Would you accept alpha cloaking then? If so what kind of limit on the cloak would be appropriate.

I think it should definitely be long enough to slowboat out of a bubble get far enough away to decloak and warpout from a standing camp.

edit2 - Another interesting suggestion is a 1 minute cloak. Such a cloak would be useful for getting past camps, and not much else.