Assembly Hall

I'm not seeing that as a good path.

I am a miner by preference, usually in null.

Before you can solve cloaky camping, you need to solve the reasons that inspire it.
Long story short, it is one of the more well known ways that has a reputation for success against PvE targets.

Give them a better way to attack PvE targets, (HINT: Something we can actually resolve instead of that useless stalemate effect), and you will eliminate the AFK cloaky bit.

Ok, let's say for now, that you are right. Cloaky camping has disruption as a primary focus, and any actual kills are simply a bonus. (Many would claim the reverse to be true, and they cannot be proven wrong either)

You are missing the real issue, by assuming that disrupting game play goes against the spirit of the game.

Obviously, the players only looking at the effect on PvE in null, with sympathy towards the players claiming they cannot operate, will see a problem.
BUT, does CCP agree?

This is EVE. The legendary sandbox, where betrayal and meta-gaming are actually advertised features, not embarrassing secrets.

The key is, and I know many players who will not hesitate to point out this fact, there are players who LIKE the psychological warfare aspect specifically involved with threat projection.
Is he actually paying attention?
Does he have a cyno fitted on his ship?
If he has a cyno, does he have enough players ready to go currently?

If all three of these can be answered yes, then you have the reality of danger, which is something many praise as intended to exist in EVE.
If you are uncertain about any aspect, then you have potential danger, the uncertainty that costs more ISK by reputation than actual ship losses themselves.
If you KNOW that any of these three is false, the threat is empty, and you can operate safely with minimum preparation against possibly a single ship.

BUT: If you open the door, even for the price of effort, to resolving the presence of a cloaked ship... then you also remove the uncertainty, and with that goes the cloaky plus AFK combination's effectiveness out the window.

TL:DR : If you can balance the ability to hunt cloaked ships, AFK Cloaking will become manageable, if not entirely obsolete.

Shoretened quotes in the interests of brevity

We agree, in this case. Perhaps in many other ways as well.

I have worked the problem from reverse, and done some research into cloaking.
For myself, cloaking is great for travel, assuming one has the correct skills and tactics combined with a properly fitted ship.

I also explored the side relating to countering my own normal gameplay, by seeing how hard it was to catch miners or ratters.
(In null, obviously)
My results, in hindsight, were quite predictable.

I could not catch anyone. (Details oversimplified here, obviously)
Oh, sure, if someone had been traveling between systems at the wrong moment, or were not watching local or their intel channels, I might have had a better chance, but those opportunities are far from guaranteed, and can be rather uncommon.

Then I recalled how I had evaded similar threats while I mined. What tools and tactics I had used. What my vulnerabilities were.
In summary, I realized that if I was simply alert, and planned on what to do in an emergency, I was safe to anything beyond a ridiculous threat such as a blob reinforcing POS or outpost.
And I could simply JC out, or leave entirely with my corp, in that case.

My ideas on how to approach this followed, using my insights and experience.

The two threads linked in my signature, are intended to be used together or not at all.
This third thread below, can be used even with local unchanged at all. It also does not allow hunting of cloaked ships, but does trade better awareness for effort.

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=112964&find=unread

If you are bored because you are too afraid to undock due to neutrals grow a pair of big balls or go play DOTA meanwhile, nullsec isn't safe and it will never be, deal with it. Consider hisec as a afk-cloaker free carebearland

Just one question springs to mind. How do you post while AFK?

THis is a non issue. It is just another game mechanic people use and some abuse regularly. As for CCP response I can some it up in one of the oldest lines of Eve... Don't fly what you can't afford to lose.


But if I was going to make a suggestion to fix it then just make a tech2 version of the Mobile Cyno Jammer that would jam or decloak cloak a ship entering it's field.

I think most people have no issue with a pilots ability to stay cloaked, afk or not and harass enemies in a system. However add a new aspect to the game. Give us the ability to hunt cloaked ships just like the allies found new ways to hunt menacing submarines during world war one then again in world war two.

it just makes sense that technology would be developed to hunt cloaky ships.

It would add a new challenging aspect of game play too, trying to hunt down stealth boats and stealth boats no longer running around cloaked with complete impunity.

I have long endorsed this as a solution.

BUT, it is not complete, by itself.

The reason is, in my own and several others opinion, that cloaking becomes trivialized if you are made aware of it automatically, and can then choose to hunt it based on this awareness.

The world war two analogy, did not have the radio shack operator warning their respective ships that a sub was in their region, and ships should return to port for safety concerns.
The sub had to either screw up, and let itself be spotted, or be known as a consequence to otherwise unexplained ship loss...

Battle Group Commander: This freighter was lost contact at these coordinates. With no enemy surface assets close by, it must be something we could not have seen, and we all know what that means...
Destroyer Captain: I follow your point, Sir. I'll have my boat and the others begin a sweep with sonar. We'll catch that devil!

It was also a point that proactive searching was also common, around important ships particularly.

Keeping in mind, that WH players have been perfectly clear that they want no means to detect cloaked ships.
(a few often show up in various threads, to warn off ideas they see as threatening their play style)

CCP has implied they would like to see cloaking made into a cat and mouse exchange, with ships chasing after each other.
I think that would add a lot of interest to the game, especially in null.

In the interests of full disclosure, I must point out that so-called "AFK Cloaking" has a definitive meta gaming aspect that has not been mentioned here thus far.

So-called "AFK Cloaking" is also a tool used BY the PvE players who meta game.

They set up a fake threat, under a different account and unfamiliar name, help it sneak into the system, and set it up to AFK cloak.

Using this fake threat like a scarecrow, they keep other alliance mates out of their systems... heck, they can even keep their own corp out, if they are nasty enough.

Using this threat to hold their "competition" away, they can rat and mine to their heart's content.

They can even stage mock battles showing how they narrowly escape the dangerous camper, to boost it's realism.

Nope, AFK cloaking can be done BY PvE too.

Welcome to the sandbox.