Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Agreed. I guess now I think about it, I have come round a little and tend to use it more.

Any thread that aims to "solve" the AFK Cloaking menace is either a troll or made by someone who can't read well enough to see that their suggestion has already been proposed.

And it has been proposed before, every possible response has been proposed before, at a rate of 2-3 threads per week for several years now.

Your idea is not special.

Similar to Cyno Jammers, just make it possible to drop a device in system that forces cloaked ships to become visible after they have been in system cloaked for more then say 30 minutes.

Make this device dependent on having the military index maxed out.

The Null sec Sov owner has the choice to drop one or not at that point to protect that specific ratting system but they would also first have to max out the index for that system and if it ever dropped that device becomes inert until the index is returned to it's max.

At least then there IS a way to counter cloaked ships but it's not going to be easy and it forces ratting in that system first to even get that advantage.

Also, cloaked ships can still be in system for 30 minutes (or whatever seems fair) before they would have to move on which enables covert ops fleets to pass through or even perform ops if they are fast enough.

Too Open? Not really, follow the logic here.

An alliance wants to protect their ratters. Now they have an option to do so. But in order to do it they have to max out the military index which means lots of ratting. Lots of ratting means lots of targets. Lots of targets means gankers will be drawn to the systems where the index is raising, especially to the ones at a high index that's closing in on maxing out.

To protect the ratters from the gankers that are now flooding in the alliance needs to deploy protection fleets. That means even more targets. Gankers will of course want to keep the military index down so they will be more active in order to do so.

Alliances may also see this as a way to protect their borders to a limited extent. So they have to rat in more systems broadening out the number of systems that will have active targets.

Once the military index is maxed out and the alliance deploys the device this still does not mean they are safe. First off they have to keep the index high which means further ratters. Ratters who now feel somewhat safe. But cloaked ships will not be revealed unless they are in system for more then 30 minutes which in most cases is plenty of time to scan down a target and attack if you have everything ready.

The only thing this will really prevent is AFK cloakers which seems to be what everyone is complaining about but it could potentially instigate more fights and provide more targets. I see this as a net positive.

This has actually been suggested before a few times.
The basics are this.

Removed from local chat channel.
Unable to see others in the local channel.
Delay of a few minutes when decloaking, for use of the local channel. (Removes the chance of decloak, recloak games)
There has also been suggestions of removing use of descan whilst cloaked and ways to find them, if this change was introduced.

This would indeed cure AFKing. But it seems a lot of those that don't like AFKing, also didn't like this idea. They felt it made cloaks to powerful.
You'll find most that want to nerf AFKing, simply want to nerf cloaks. Balance isn't their strong suit.

You misquoted me.

We are not talking about RL here, it's a game. As such balance is important. Any changes to cloaks that enables you to find them, would mean more intel power. That's not a balanced approach. Cloaks should not be nerfed, unless locals all seeing eye is also nerfed.
This doesn't mean total removal, but a change that means having to work for your intel, instead of the 'on a plate' version we have now.

I'm not even saying I like the idea, I'm merely saying it would cure AFKing. I actually like the status quo, as I've said numerous times before.

Although some may be irritated by a pilot in local, it is local that they reading and that's where their problem lies.

What is ridiculous is that to catch a ratter in nullsec you need cloaky alts, cyno 5, and a covops fleet or a titan. But we all see are posts about how bad afk cloaking is. Want you really want is nullsec isk with hisec noob corp risk.

Ahh OK, that explains it.

The thing is cloaks do have counters, just not ones that will break the point of having one fitted.
The reason people AFK, is to counter local. Local gives it's intel without bias, 23.5/7. Any nerf to cloaks, means more intel and the removal of a semi effective counter to local.

But the balance still remains in your favour. For although they may sit there all day, they really cannot do anything to you. The only one stopping you doing anything, is you. For although local's intel is guaranteed, the psychological effects from AFKing, are not.

The covert part of cloaks, is already nerfed by local. But they still have positional stealth.
So you have perfect awareness, they have positional stealth. I do believe it has balance.

This is a great point and bears repeating. The resources required to pull off these types of hot drops are very significant. People that don't like the potential of loosing a ship this way never seem to look at that side of the equation.

And back to "AFK" cloakers; move systems and bubble the heck out of the gate, if he's afk he wont follow, and if he follows you have a chance to catch him.

I understand your point. In regards to local chat I personally think that you should get rid of the Local chat entirely in Null. But don't do it just for one ship class or just for a ship with a cloak. The local chat "According to lore" is a service that runs off repeaters that are in the gates and your ship is registered on the way through them. But it's supposed to be provided by concord in my understanding. No concord in Null so there should be no local chat at all.

On the flip side I still think there should be some way to capture a ship that is cloaked especially when they are AFK and standing still even in wormholes. I think it should be something that's very difficult to do and require maxed out skills of some sort but I think it should be possible by some means to locate, and if you are lucky, to kill them.