Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Specifically, you can weigh the value of using your active sensors.

If you think someone will find you without active scanning, then passive scanning alone will not give you security for practical purposes. You need to know they are coming in order to react, if them being on grid is too late.

From a proactive viewpoint, teamwork in EVE is worth more than the sum of it's parts. A scout watching over you is always a good idea, and here is a new possible role they can perform.
Overwatch: The scout deliberately goes off grid from the miners, and active scans on a regular and frequent basis. He should expect to be hunted, so he should be kept aligned and at warping speed. He uses his active sensors to see probes and possibly hostile ships.
Since he is at least in the same fleet as the mining group, the IFF flags their sensor returns automatically. (He can even set the overview to exclude them entirely, the same way we can exclude fleet already)

The moment a probe or hostile ship is in range, the mining group can be alerted. This scout can be near the mining group, or he can be placed where a hostile is expected to bottleneck. Just bear in mind that ships can log out anywhere, so they can also log in the same way.

First, two notes to keep in mind.
1> This won't let anyone hunt cloaked vessels. It has no means of locating or hunting them in a practical sense, just a proximity warning under the right conditions. Hunting cloaked vessels won't be recommended by myself unless local is delayed or removed entirely.
2> This does not remove local. It makes it obsolete, but it can be left in place.

1.) Your first point is essentially correct, with the exception that local can still be present. I won't push to have it removed here, but I have no problem making it obsolete by providing genuine intel tools. Chat needs can be easily met with local in delayed mode, in my opinion.

2.) Passive scanning is slightly more than the overview is right now. It just adds in all friendly ships in your sensor range due to IFF, and alerts you to others performing an active scan.
Active scanning is similar to the current D-Scan, except it should be able to auto-cycle at user set speed. You are broadcasting a signal based on your ship's sensor type visible to twice the range at which you get results from. Only results from unknown contacts will be given, as the IFF mentioned above will cancel returns from friendly vessels.
(If you want to scan without broadcasting your presence to the passive crowd, use probes. Just keep in mind the active users will see them and know someone is hunting)
Neither active nor passive gives warp usable information.

3.) Cloaking vessels, if not handed out by local, get to play cat and mouse more.
I follow the base logic that it takes effort to counter effort. Cloaking is an effort, so must the ability to be warned of it.
A cloaked vessel can certainly launch probes, once in a system, the same as they do already. They can use these probes the same way too.
A cloaked vessel can active scan, but at the cost of disrupting it's cloak the same as though they had manually toggled it off. Any penalty time applies before they can restore it, on top of which they would have broadcast their presence to every passive ship in range. For obvious tactical reasons, most will probably avoid doing this.
Detecting a cloaked vessel is only possible by active scanning.
The range it can be detected is based on a set of factors, listed in order of importance:
A> The skill of the cloaking pilot with cloaking verses the skill of the detecting pilot with sensors. (Electronics or better)
B> A bonus appropriate to the sensor strength of the detecting ship.
C> A bonus appropriate to the signature of the cloaked vessel, (smaller is easier to hide).
D> Number and quality of modules fitted on both ships that are involved.

The cloaked vessel is not in more danger of being decloaked at any time with this idea.
The potential target could be warned by local, or by active scanning and detecting probes, then finally by the means described above.

4.) Wormholes are a unique experience in EVE, and I have not spent enough time in them to say whether or not this would be a good fit for them. Unless CCP felt otherwise, I would leave them as is.

I can see scouting for fleets becoming more of a skilled job from this, and more in demand.

A fleet doesn't want to broadcast it's size and location to possible enemies, so they send out scouts to active scan and report.

A fleet wanting to make a false impression of their location can also send scouts to be spotted in other systems by possible enemies.

The strategies and tactics feel more real.

I can certainly see command ships or black ops coordinating intel like this. It feels like a natural progression.

For this level, I think they might use the system map instead of the overview.
The same way it displays contacts from probe information, it could be displaying information periodically updated from reports by the field ships active scanning.
Your would want dedicated ships for those roles, with best possible sensor ability and pilot skills.

Intel would become a valuable asset even more.

Signed, all of it.

I like the Intel Coordinating Command, ICC, Ships. sounds fitting.

Basically this is what i have been getting at. Is the ships themselves at as probes.

BUT with this being said there NEEDS to be 1 major draw back, with the network of ships in support of ICC, you could never get a bookmark using this method (Can never get a pin point position).

Do threat though Why ?!?
With the ICC Wing it can get you with 1-2 AUs of a ship or Fleet you are trying to scout out, Close enough to Drop probes and Make 1-2 Sweeps with the Probes to GET the bookmark..

The Sweeps done by the Probe are uploaded to the ICC Ship (For Detailed Exact Location, Which becomes the bookmark, and transferred to the rest of the ICC Wing. IF there is an ICC Mother Ship/Titan then it will be pushed out to the rest of the fleet ;)

Combat probes still need to have a use!! Granted at 1-2 AUs mean about 30-45sec of Scanning,
Its a last line of Ohh **** someone knows where i'm at. (If the pilot is paying attention)
Its not really enough time though for someone to go **** probes, gotta move, unless they are in something FAST and Agile.

Awesome idea @ OP.

I agree that Overview/Dscan is far too revealing and adding in some skill and suspense to sensorial games would make it more fun.

I had a similar idea of overview/dscan only revealling basic T1 hull name rather than all those infos about - well about everything. I bet overview could even tell if he or she is picking their noses right now.
Anyhow, the idea was ignored/trolled.


Good to see that this one is apparently the better one and I really hope this gets through somehow. It would really bring more sense to scouting and intel.

bump within a bump
(Bump-ception!)

Inside the last bump, another bump...

For those who believe that Local Chat is needed for intel, please ask yourself this:

Is it telling you who is attacking you?
Of course not.
Your overview does that.

Ok, then does it at least tell you when someone is on grid with you, and possibly going to attack? (Cloaked)
Of course not. At best you can see there is a pilot who is not blue to you in system.
My idea would give you a chance.

Does it tell you who is near your grid, scanning your location and possibly going to attack?
Of course not. At best you can see there is a pilot who is not blue to you in system.
My idea would give you a chance.

Does it give you information about who is at least near you in the system, so you know your surroundings?
Of course not. At best you can see there is a pilot who is not blue to you in system.
My idea would give you a chance.