Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Your already over-balanced by the fact that your basically untouchable, though. Just because they have a chance to escape is a fact of the game for any sort of PvP.

They are only untouchable when they are cloaked, and the PVE pilot is also untouchable as well. You cannot target or activate any other modules when a cloak is active. When it is deactivated the cloaked ship is vulnerable to attack...and can itself attack.

When the cloak drops, the formerly-cloaked ship can be attacked same as any other ship.

Wise target selection is not a game mechanics balance issue.

I'd like to pitch my support for the 30 second delay but increase it to 2 minutes instead to facilitate pve hunters being able to get probes out and start scanning.

I should have phrased that as "trying to run away" :P Since obviously if they're already full speed aligned, you'd be a fool to drop cloak knowing they'd get away, but instead wait till they do something to ruin the alignment :P

for ratting, bother to set up safe spots when you can just slow burn out of the site towards station or pos? :P As for ratting, sure, a venture is most likely not ever going to be much of a valid target (less you and some friends show up to lob a bunch of bombs), but you still get those fools that take barges out.

Barges without support are not the wisest choice with a hostile in system.

When dealing with a hostile in system, make a safe point to warp to, so your warp path is not predictable enough to bubble trap you.

A non blue in local does not necessarily mean game over, but it can mean the free ride is.

Any search would have shown your idea to be flawed and based on a misunderstanding of game mechanics. Let me ask you this.

Whilst someone is AFK and cloaked, which mechanic do they use to interact with you?

I'll give you a clue, it's a one word answer. With this answer in mind, please answer me this:

Why haven't you suggested a nerf to this mechanic, as it is the actual one being used and causing your problem?

I would like to point out that in the context of this topic, the two statements I underlined above are in conflict with each other.

This whole discussion is hiding the forest behind all those trees, to paraphrase an expression.

Let's keep it to a few points, which can be easily verified.

1. PvE pilots, operating in null space where non blue traffic is often rarely seen, are proven able to operate safely.
They fly aligned to a point, moving at minimum warp speed or better, and can insta-warp with the click of a mouse.
Hostile pilots, being reported by local chat usually before they even finish loading into the system, are not given an opportunity to prevent being reported this way.
A local pilot who watches the chat, and stays aligned at speed, can use the chat listing to be warned before it is possible for a hostile to engage.
This is not debated, it is considered common knowledge. It has been demonstrated to the satisfaction of enough to be accepted.

2. Cloaking is not detectable beyond remaining listed in local chat, causing this to be used to maintain awareness of cloaking pilots not otherwise interacting with the game actively. Hence the term: AFK Cloaker, and the expectation that this is done as a means to suppress PvE activity.

3. It is the persistence of pilot presence in local chat, more than any other detail, that inspires doubts in the local PvE pilot base regarding how likely the cloaked pilot is to being attentive. Could they be alertly patrolling the system after 1 hour?
2 hours?
10 hours?

It is this specific doubt that inspires pilot error, resulting in some PvE pilots dieing and others simply mining or ratting successfully as if no hostile were present.

Unfortunately, the risk is often limited to these details. For this reason, the devs have seen fit to roll back available rewards to limited amounts, since the threat of ship combat was proven ineffective.
Recently demonstrated as changes to null sec ice, previously inexhaustible, now quite limited.

Any change to further diminish the risk and uncertainty faced by PvE pilots, and there will be an exodus OUT of null sec, to places where PvE rewards are better.

Making it a given that a hostile must be active in order to be present, and it will be horrible, to the rewards in null, because
no player is going to risk activity if they KNOW the hostile is active.
(Specifying here the players who only risked activity because they thought the hostile might be AFK, and were otherwise unprepared for combat)

I've highlighted the issue you and your friends have.
No one cloaked and/or AFK ever stopped you using gates, modules, fitting ships, docking, undocking, forming fleets, ratting etc, etc. The one stopping you, is you.

Blaming CCP or someone not even at their PC, is rather disingenuous. It's simply you not playing the game.