Player Features and Ideas Discussion

While I do agree with you on removing local as an intel tool is a good idea, I disagree with your premise that SOV Null is supposed to be the most dangerous place in the game. The most dangerous place in the game is supposed to be Wormhole space. SOV Null is exactly that, sovereign. For all of the ISK spent upgrading the systems and installing infrastructure, it seems stupid to me that a person can potentially grind production to a halt by logging in a character and sitting idle for days. Having an expensive anchorable module that jams the ability to cloak for all parties is at least fair to both sides. Cloaky players can avoid that system if they want, and do their cloaky war in a different system. The opportunity cost of placing an expensive upgrade module to prevent that in a single system will cause financial damage to an alliance that is probably greater than the AFK cloaker could do on their own.

Truth be told, there is more to the SOV Null issue than just AFK cloaking. For one, SOV Null should be the second most profitable part of the game after wormholes. Manufacturing and mining for null sec alliances should be centered around their SOV space. It's absurd that High Sec empire is valuable enough that the vast majority of players live there. Why do null alliances buy tons of 425mm Railgun Is and ship them to their null space to build supers? Because it's more efficient to do it that way than to mine it on location.

As I've said, I agree with you on the local issue, but I also think that there should be a counter to all activities in the game, including the ability to threaten a system for days on end, with no interaction with the game on the cloakers part. Whether we do it with an expensive anchorable module, or we remove local as an intel tool, something should be done. Maybe the answer is that something should be done as CCP expands the usefulness of null sec altogether.

I understand that to an outsider, the ratting anomalies and the general safety of SOV Null seems like we're the kings of the castle, but the truth is, for the expense of maintaining what we get, and having a station that we can keep hostiles from docking in, there are a lot of parts about null that simply are not as profitable as they should be, like industry.

Back to the topic at hand:

Something should be done to encourage more player interaction and "fear." Whether that is removing local as an intel tool, an anchorable structure that vastly increases the SOV bill and blocks cloaking for all parties, or some kind of cheap, easily destroyed structure that sends out a "pulse" that forces cloakers to react or be decloaked; some reasonable feature of the game should keep things fair for cloakers, but also allow null players to hunt you down and kill you if you mess up. Leaving your computer logged into EVE while you are away a work for a week, not fighting or ganking the players in the system, does not strike me as a valid tactic.

There needs to be changes to the cloaking mechanics, whether those come from the things I've listed, or from CCP doing something you're really not going to like, is ultimately up to you. Maybe Recon Ships, T3, and Covert Ops are fine, considering they are specialized to be cloakers, but what about Titans and Supers? Should a super be able to drop on a freighter, warp away, and cloak at a premade safe spot until it generates enough capacitor to jump away again? This actually happened to us btw, we had a fleet of battleships up to go do something else, some fool in a freighter was doing something he shouldn't, and got tackled by a stealth bomber. The bomber lit a cyno, dropped the super in, the super killed the freighter with it's bombers, and then warped off. By the way, the entire event took less time than it takes for a battleship gang sitting on the opposite gate to warp to where the freighter was.

Granted, that one was totally the fault of the freighter pilot, and none of us felt very sorry for him, but the fact that the super carrier could be absolutely 100% safe 15-20 seconds after the drop is ridiculous. Ponder that for a moment and then ask yourself why so few supers die.

With the simple removal of Local Chat reporting presence of cloaked vessels, not even removing it entirely or putting it into delayed mode like in a WH.... It becomes balanced to include a means to hunt cloaked vessels.

The key point of balance is that intel on cloaked vessels must be earned on every level.
It will never be balanced to know they are there to be hunted by simply seeing a new face in a chat roster.

The bonus, which many do overlook: The cloaked vessel cannot threaten passively, as "AFK Cloaking" does.
It must make it's presence known, at which point, being known, it CAN be hunted.

Other details, such as denying local intel to cloaked vessels, are balance issues for devs to decide upon.

the only reason that people want AFK cloaking removed is to make it easier to either

1. Make it safe to bot
2. Make it safer to mine whilst watching p0rn.

I have a very very small amount of sympathy for person 2.

yes afk cloaking can be used to grief, grow up, put some bait out there and have a response fleet waiting. we have a whole corp of ice mining botters near us in great wildlands. We've dropped the petitions but to no avail. I will be in there cloaked all fricken weekend with an alt, after which I will ransom the guy to be left alone.

This is EvE - the one and only great PVP MMO that has consequence. If someone is cloaking in your system set a trap, watch what your doing and find out who they are and perhaps return the favor. I find it annoying as hell when you warp off and cloak, this means I cant find you to kill you but I don't mew like a child to get cloaking nerfed. I find myself deeply distrustful of anyone asking for cloaking to be removed or somehow nerfed by fuel or probing etc.

NO to nerfing AFK cloaking and NO to putting mechanics in game to allow them to be found. It's like a fecking burglar protesting about people having locks.

Your avoidance of PVP, your desire to rip money without risk in a damn computer game makes me want to puke. Harden up. Do you want all of life to be a safe, soft food no choking hazard bland expanse of boredom finished with a slow fade into grey. I realize you want to mine / mission without being assaulted, but I want to kill you and take your stuff. At the moment my want is what this game is about.

I pray your desire to see a padded room experience never takes place, should however it do so I will still find a way to kill you and take your stuff. I have yet to read a single cogent argument against afk cloaking, my request to CCP would be that anyone asking for it's removal is immediately investigated for botting.

Not this garbage again....

This is the crux of the argument. Isn't it? I don't like how TheGunslinger42 has been, in my opinion, unnecessarily rude. But he is right with the above logic. The statement is brutal but undeniable true.

Like I said earlier, there shouldn't be a way to decloak a cloaked ship with just an item of sov item. Instead it should be more along the line of being able to get a general idea of the cloakers location, something that would allow the defenders to put some pressure on them. It would require a lot of work to cover a 30-40km distance and hope to bump into the cloaked ship to knock it out, actually it would be impossible is the player was active he could easily move to another spot.

I agree, it's a non issue they won't touch it.

TL;DR

I'm so tired of these threads!

If something is important to you, you look after it. In eve; you have insta's at stations, dock when afk, align out once you land on a belt and don't spend too much time in one spot.

By my name, you'd guess I do a lot of mining. An afk cloaker has never ganked me. In fact a cloaker at his keybourd has never ganked me either.

I challenge all you miners, ratters, industrialist to actually carry on with business as usual when the afk cloaker shows up in your system. All you have to do is practice due diligence, and you'll have nothing to worry about.

Stop being the victims!

i agree that the problem isnt the afk cloaking, its the free intel of local

someone came up with a nice solution earlier, the remove cloaked people from local

i would add 1 thing to that, to remove local to cloaked people at the same time,

if you arnt on local you dont get local


that would force cloaked scouts to decloak every now and then to check local and show up on local when they do, like a sub surfacing to check the area

I've seen this before... where people who are politically aligned with one side pretend to be in the other camp to try to persuade others. First off, there is no such thing as a "Pro" afker. Whatever it is the op is doing in a “pro” fashion, afking is not it. If he was a "pro" covert agent he wouldn't be calling what he does "AFK cloaking".

The ideas posted by the op are not new or amicable; they are the same tired old ideas dressed up in sheep’s clothing. A pos module that bans cloaking system wide... really?? I don't care how long it takes to online the module or how much it costs... someone will have it on all the time 23/7. It will make blockade running impossible in that system... it will make Wormhole cat and mouse ridicules... and any other intel gathering activity that requires a cloak would be squashed in those systems. Bad idea.

No, this is not a "solution"... "AFK" cloaking is not a problem - it has nothing to do with being afk.... The problem is the whiners and nerf herders who are complaining based on free intel provided them by local chat. Remove the cloaked from local and they can go about their happy business without worrying if someone is in local and not at their keyboard.