Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I know this has been posted on before but I am tossing an idea out there to be considered.

Several years ago a game was created by Wolfpack studios called Shadowbane. In that game there were stealth classes of character; thief, assassin, scout, etc etc. Now Wolfpack determined that stealth was a very powerful thing and limited in certain ways. I am suggesting an idea here that is similar to theirs.

Scout class ship:

In shadowbane the scout was the ONLY class that could see hidden characters. This wasn't a passive skill but one that required that the scout track down and get close enough to its target before he could see them. This idea could easily be implemented into a ship design. The scout was no more or less powerful than the average stealth character, and thus this new scout class ship would be a frigate in design, with roughly the same power as a single bomber.

How it would work:

The idea would be simple. This ship would be able to scan systems with probes, like combat probes but would be able to find a general location of a cloaked ship, say a 25KM radius around the ship, and decreasing to 5KM as you train skills. Now once the scout class ship has located the general area the cloaked ship might be, he can warp to that area but then he would have to manually fly around to locate the cloaked ship. Once the scout is within 5k of the cloaked ship, the player AND ONLY THAT PLAYER, would be able to see the cloaked ship. He would not be able to bookmark the ship or someone broadcast the location to his fleet while the cloaked ship is still cloaked. He would have to get within the standard 2.5k to decloak the ship. Once the cloak is dropped, BOTH ships are decloaked, and then normal combat can begin. NOW the scout ship would have one major advantage. A targeted cyno jammer. It only works on a single ship, only has a range of 5k and would be fueled by something like heavy water or something of that nature. Quick cycle time and fairly high use of materials to power it, so that its not used as a crutch to stop all cyno fields. The idea is a skilled player has to work to lock down a cloaked ship AND if they succeed, they need to have an advantage. The jammer is that advantage.

What this ship would do:

This would allow for PVP which is what CCP wants. It would combat AFK cloaked camping of a system. Anyone that is AFK is at risk of losing their ship. I feel that a cloak shouldn't be a safe guard. Be active or don't play. AFK cloak camping of a system is cheap tactic and requires 0 skill level to accomplish. I am purposing to add some skill back into an already skill dependent game. Most cloak campers are in ships that are worthless and they are preying on expensive ships that people have invested large amounts of time and effort into. I personally feel that if I am going to be at risk of attack, I want it to be on a level playing field.

I realize that PVPers hate care bears and CCP wants to increase the amount of PVP in the game. Well if they want that then they need to level the playing field. This ship design does that, especially with a cyno jammer.

Like I said. This is an idea. It can be and will be refined, BUT I think its a easily implemented solution that every side could agree is fair.

This is false. There are a dozen different things they can do to deal with (or circumvent) the cloaker. The fact of the matter is they REFUSE to do any of them. They know exactly what kinds of things they can do (we repeat them every time they come to the forums to whine), they simply wont. You want to change the game so that your way of playing works perfectly, with no compromise and no effort on your part.

Biomass plz

AFK cloaker ruins RMT botting, so the bot community came up with this bullshit propaganda campaign about carebear rights and "impossible to counter", just psychological forum warfare with the goal to advance their income streams, nothing more.

That's not the point. The point is that those players should have a way to make sure they can be safe by removing that afk cloaker in the same way as you can make sure to be safe by cloaking up.

Why can't the others be safe in space by killing you when you can kill them and be pretty much safe all the way?

Again, this is not about those who are active while being cloaked, those will do whatever they like to. It's ONLY about those afk cloakers who just sits there in space to **** off the others in the system while having no risks or danger of dying while the others have to fly around all the time in big risks and danger as they don't know if you are afk or not.


What does that help when you just cynos in alot of others to kill him?

Yeah, he might kill 1 in a fire before he dies, but he had no ways of surviving.

Why should he accept to die in a fire when you can't accept to actually die in a fire if you go afk while being cloaked in space?


Again, you are in 0.0 space where no one should be safe anywhere except for stations and POS'es to some points. And you haven't answered me on how we / those who are in the system with you as a cloaker actually knows if you are out of their way or are after them?

It's about them and not about you arguing that YOU are no danger to them when it's all about what the others in system thinks.

I hope i don't have to repeat this 437568 times, but as long there is no way for a player even with alts to find out if you are afk or active, it means that they wont take any risks and will dock up or just log off while you are there. Again, why should a player who are afk in a cloaked ship be in a way that it makes it dangerous to the others in the system as it is now?

If there had been a way to actually see if you are afk or not, this conversation would be something else.

As usual 4 or more issues get rolled into one thread and it ends up a mess. Those 4 isssues are,

1. Cloaks getting used as a griefing tool - people cloaking for days (afk and not afk) inside a hostile system and only leaving when the system is empty and they are bored, being removed by a GM or losing their ship to system defence. This only seems to happen in space where players hold sovereignty.

2. Cloaks getting used as an intel tool - someone cloaking up once in hostile system but staying active, seeing who and in what ships are ratting, mining or doing other things then leaving or logging off when they go inactive.

3. Local giving too much intel to blues - a few very active posters say this is the cause of afk cloaking

4. Local giving too much intel to reds.

We still have to worry enough to actually dock up our ratting ships and come out with a PVP ship and spend hours and maybe days to find you. Now i don't say that i'm doing this. I'm just making points here.

You then say this: You want to be able to rat, mine, PVE, etc. and not have to worry as much.

Here i will say that you don't have to worry about anything while being cloaked and afk. Why should we have to worry about this all the time you actually are afk when you don't have to worry about anything?

If i have to worry all the time, then you in a cloaking ship should have things to worry about to. Simple as that.

Then you say this: You want it for free. You don't want to work for it you want CCP to give it to you.

So you mean that it's CCP who are giving it to me / us when it's in fact me / us who have to do the works of getting the system safer. How is that getting it for free?

Basicly, you talks about something else than we actually are talking about here. You're not on the same planet as i'am / we others are.

You are skipping ahead, and quietly glossing over the key point.

You are able to dock up the PvE ships, and noone can stop you.
Oh, sure, you might screw up, and be distracted at just the moment a hostile enters, and somehow guesses exactly where to find you.
But that's on you, and your failure to notice when you could have.

The hostile cannot force a break in your avoidance.

The token argument, that you are willing to reship into an overwhelming PvP force against a cloaked vessel, AFTER having avoided it beyond it's ability to prevent...

Simply ridiculous.

You want to avoid combat when it suits you, but you want to deny this to other players.

How very convenient for you.

So i want to avoid combat when i'm more for the ability to actually PVP that cloaked guy who might as well be in a cloaked Battleship or whatever ship?

Explain that?

Alright, so if it's about being equal, then the afk cloaker also should dock up in stations to be safe like everyone else have to do.

We still have to worry enough to actually dock up our ratting ships and come out with a PVP ship and spend hours and maybe days to find you. Now i don't say that i'm doing this. I'm just making points here.