Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Even if limited, this still offers a possible means to hunt for cloaked vessels.

It is not that cloaks should not change, but this stalemate effect is countering the free intel being given out by local.

We have right now, a case of: "I know you are there, but I cannot find you"
(Absolute presence awareness countered by absolute location concealment)

You cannot change one side without the other, and still have balance.

Too much focus on how to remove AFK cloaking. You are addressing a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself.

If you want to remove AFK cloaking's game impact, remove cloaked ships from displaying in local.

When this is done, it becomes reasonable to consider means to hunt cloaked vessels. NOT before this happens.

So long as people in a system magically know cloaked pilots are present with them, cloaked vessels should not be vulnerable to being hunted effectively.

Cloaking will be earned when cloaking awareness is earned. Balance must be maintained.

You brought up Cloaking, and also mentioned was AFK Cloaking.

To assume it is not tied into Local Chat is a glaring failure to recognize the cause and effect relationship they share.

Actually suggesting that the problem begins with the pilot using AFK Cloaking tactics, ignores enough to be considered mislead.

I shall try to explain a few details that are usually glossed over crudely, but hold the truth.

AFK Cloaking: This is done in response to Local Chat flawlessly reporting pilot presence. It dumbs down the interaction between pilots by outright telling all parties who is present. Without this crutch, use of sensors, strategy, and cooperation would be needed to fill the void.
What does it achieve?
It creates a flaw in the usual flow of cause and effect for life in many systems. Often, a neutral or hostile pilot is seen entering, and activity is suspended until they leave. There is trivial risk, as standard procedure often involves being ready to get safe in the time frame provided by this instant alarm. Hostile pilots who refuse to leave are subsequently hunted down.
When the "AFK Cloaking" pilot enters, he disrupts this process, by not leaving. Further, since this intel tool persistently shows him present, the default response of suspending activity is perpetually pushed as chosen reaction.
This devalues the intel tool, as it is now being used against the native PvE pilots instead of helping them.
If local were removed, sensors strategy and cooperation would be placed as valuable means of protecting PvE income assets.
It would also be pointless to AFK cloak, as noone would be aware of your presence while you were passive.
It is widely anticipated that any change to local which stopped free cloaking awareness would also include a means to hunt cloaked ships.

Summary: That free intel tool favored by so many can be used by the hunters too.

Hot Dropping: Bridging is intended to bypass reinforced blockades and travel time. Here, it has been fine tuned to avoid advertising the presence of a fleet to the free intel tool as well by delaying the easily recognizable population spike till the last possible moment. The intention is to deny the warning local provides, although it still reports the presence of the cyno boat enough to be associated with AFK Cloaking instead.
Quite simply, while PvE pilots would never resume regular activities with a hostile fleet present, they are sometimes willing to gamble over whether a cloaked vessel represents that level of threat at a given time.

Sorry about the length, but the mindless repetition of "AFK Cloaking is bad mmkay" sounds foolish.

I never said It was bad, I actually approve of the technique as a viable disruption method. I mentioned the use for detecting AFK cloakers as an example of how this system could be used.

My main purpose of suggesting this tool is to ADD an intel gathering tool, one which could be used for some possibly interesting tactical and strategic uses.

Have you ever tried to locate a GSC that someone anchored at a safe spot? Calling this a counter to AFK cloaking is like calling a battleship a counter to storing loot in one of those GSCs (i.e. only using a battleship to locate it, not an interceptor)

Care to elaborate?

You cannot counter AFK cloaking, you have no method of scanning them down and removing them. There is no way the owning players can be proactive about the situation. You literally just have to gamble and hope that the cloakers aren't active or constantly have a 20 man fleet in every system ready to jump on any hot drop fleet that is sure to be on the other side of that cloaky cyno.

Act like a *****, get treated like a *****. Pure and simple.

because it makes people like you mad.

So tell me, what game mechanic is the AFK Cloaker using to interact with you?

Let's ignore the assumptions linked by using the description AFK, it is accepted they could return at any time, assuming they were ever absent to begin with.

How is it that you know they are present, so that they are locking down anything at all?

And how do they know you are present to be hunted?
Assuming your location to be wildly obvious, as many might suggest checking obvious places, how would they know you had no protective forces present, and strategically placed to ambush hunters?

Do you really think local doesn't help hunting for targets, every bit as much as it helps avoid unwanted PvP?

Dude I see you saying this in lots of these threads.

Obviously, you've noticed there are many. Therefore, don't you think that it might be a problem that there are so many people being made unhappy by this? Personally, I don't find it that hard to deal with it, although I generally don't risk doing the little ratting that I do in my more expensive ships when I have cloakers in system. I just take it as time to pvp instead and leave the system that they are camping.

Yes CCP isn't the biggest fan of nerfing things to make certain game mechanics easier for a percentage of the player base (although think of things like doomsday nerfing and POS fuel blocks), it is in their interests to keep people from rage-quitting from the game. You can call people who are complaining whatever you like, they are still paying for the game and are therefore part of the stakeholders that CCP takes account for.


This is a very fair and minimalistic idea, but you haven't even taken that into account yet.


As for my opinion, I think it's a pretty good idea. There could be something included also that makes it hard to dscan their location by either limiting the distance they can be detected, or by making it only possible to detect them in maybe a certain direction (like 90 degrees scan and less for instance).

i dnt think null sec was put into the game so ppl could rat risk free



if local was removed and this gave hot dropping gangs an advantage, then counter-hot dropping gangs would have the same advantage.

why are ppl needed in every system? if nullbears are working together from the start wont they be in groups already? its the attitude that ppl can work alone in null that would change with the removal of local.

and the removal of local would probably be joined with a way to detect and locate cloaked ships