Player Features and Ideas Discussion

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NOW BEFORE YOU RESPOND USING YOUR TRIUNE BRAIN FUNCTIONS (google and you will understand) I WOULD ENCOURAGE GENUINE PARTICIPATION RATHER THAN THE TYPICAL HATE COMMENT THAT CONTRIBUTES NOTHING OTHER THAN YOUR BAD ATTITUDE OR DISDAIN. AND IF YOU COULD MANAGE TO PRESENT A LEGIT ARGUMENT THAT WOULD ALSO BE APPRECIATED AS WOULD READING THE ENTIRE POST BEFORE RESPONDING.
if you cant manage to do that dont bother cuz you're wasting electrons at that point.


wooo now with that out of the way.

you can probably assume where this is going based off the title and prologue. There is a clear (uh oh dare i say it) imbalance with cloaking. Cloaking is a very valid game mechanic and i find its existence in the game desired. However my main problem is how cloaking mechanics work rather than its existence.
references/discussion topics: AFK Camping, local intel, counters/balancing.

concern#1 : it is near impossible to locate and dispose of a cloaker giving them near invulnerability. true you cant do a lot of things but you can not be located and still do plenty to do some damage. maybe not immediate put it has an impact nonetheless or there wouldn't be so many posts about it. Granted you should be able to cloak to scout out enemy systems and bookmark things relatively undetected but even stealth bomber (irl) can only fly so long and even they can be detected with enough effort (science would suggest that things that do exist are detectable at some level). meanwhile cloaking renders a pilot completely untraceable except for the fact that you can see in local that they are indeed in system. Local is indeed a form of intel however as to its supposed "OverPowered" presence as little evidence as it only gives the names of people in system and NOTHING MORE. Cloaking at its current state is being abused and has gone untouched by CCP FOR YEARS. AFK Cloaking is claimed (by those whom clearly do little else) to be a "nonissue" because of the "obvious" fact that afk cloakers can't harm you because they are AFK.

the Lack of involvement from CCP on the issue shows that EVE is leaning more and more to the pvp side of things (which i know big surprise for me to actually play a game for other advertised elements)

1) I cant tell if you are afk or not and therefor have to assume the worst at all times or i am an idiot and thus have to hide
2) when hiding i cant make any isk and thus causes economic harm (and if the market can be considered a form of "pvp" this is equally legitimate) some even ask for ransom but as you pay one off another is soon to appear, go figure.
3) I cannot detect a cloaked pilots whereabouts AT ALL. which is completely unrealistic and extremely overpowered due to the fact i cant harm you if i don't know where you are, and the previous explanations already given.

so enough squabbling over how it is a flawed mechanic. time for some ideas on how to combat the issue while maintaining cloaking existence and usefulness (other than the use of pinning down defenceless corps for literally months and draining them financially).

#1 Pos decloak modules: an expensive hard to train for module that sends a pulse that renders all ships unblockable for 5-15 min which can either be activated once every hour manually or just do this pulse on a regular hourly interval (CCP can figure out the details)

#2 Cloak probes: simple a ship is fitted with probes that detect cloaked ships and upon such and warp to and target the ship.
accessibility details also up to ccp

#3 the dreaded cloaking Fuel: as previously stated real stealth bombers cant fly for ever and this would be an easy way of limiting cloak ability but still allowing cloaks and could even present a new market in terms of fuel and where it is derived. my preferred twist on it is that the fuel is used as ammo for cloaking modules and thus has a time limit based on the type of fuel and the module but also has a reload time that can limit the reliability (assuming you cant reload while cloaked)

#4 AFK Timers: this would be something along the lines of every 30-60 minutes an inactive player is kicked from the game which both reduces lag but also helps counter afk cloaking (which for those dedicated cloakers who know how to read timers would simply make it a little more impractical)

I believe a healthy combination of these things would insure that cloaking mechanics/cov ops/black ops would be maintained but also make sure that other game mechanics are not only added but preserved and not dominated by the aggressive PVPer who's upset because his space just got taken over (BooHoo ; __ ; Pasta)

"meanwhile cloaking renders a pilot completely untraceable except for the fact that you can see in local that they are indeed in system. Local is indeed a form of intel however as to its supposed "OverPowered" presence as little evidence as it only gives the nmes of people in system and NOTHING MORE. "


Lol. your a cloaky who likes to troll cloak posts, ive seen you in about every post and you have failed to contribute legitimate contributions. If i wanted local to be gone id live in a WH and maybe you should if you dont like it.

If I have missed this point in your OP, please let me know.

Your ideas would more or less kill wormhole space in it's current iteration. Cloaking is arguably the single most important game mechanic for us. To do what you have proposed would ruin an entirely unique part of Eve.

Literally everything you say can be applied to docked players too.

CCP, nerf AFK docking.


(They also wreck literally every other use for cloaks, but that's obvious.)

I fail to contribute legitimate contributions, yet provide reasons why cloaking is balanced, I have yet to EVER see anyone counter my reasons, not once, AND I have yet to see a single cloak thread recently that HASN'T been locked. So, how about this, please stop beating a dead horse.

What other uses? Try the following.

Bombers
Scouting
Wormhole Shenanigans
Gatecamps
Running said gatecamps
Hiding
Blockade runners in general
Recons in general
Covert t3s in general
Any form of black ops gang doing anything at all, ever
Seigefleet (that is, structure grinding in bombers)
Cynos
Bait
Dictors
Exploration



If you can find the ships, as in your pos module and cloak probes ideas, then the cloaky ship with it's already tremendous disadvantages compared with it's non cloaky bretheren, are worthless. Cloak fulel prevents any kind of prolonged deployment, adds another hoop that wormhole people have to jump through and does a number on all of the above forms of play.

And taking a station requires a week, and still does not allow me to get you. In any way.

And hell, your AFK timer breaks hauling, market alts, fleets, mining and ratting as well as everything above.



Why should the entirety of the rest of the game suffer because you are afraid of a person who is not even at their keyboard?

neither, it's because they're pants wettingly terrified of one guy who isn't even at the computer.

That's the only reason for these threads. Fear of the unknown.

I will now explain something. I will be blunt, but careful with your fragile understanding of cloaking.

A: Cloaking is not a risk free adventure. Cloaking is infact the reward for the risk you took getting into position, and being smart about one's positioning. The amount of risk one incurs flying a heavily nerf ship, that can hardly provide any combat abilities outside of it designated target. Example, Stealth bombers are design to hit slow moving targets/large fleets, they are not design to combat ships of it own size, or any kind of quick moving, small signature ship, like a frigate.

B: Cloaking outside of those covert ops ships, heavily nerfs one's targetting system, as soon as you decloak, you are now a sitting duck for a good full ten server cycles. Which for those that don't know. That is 10 seconds. This allows the defender to respond first, unless said defender is AFK.

C: Cloakers are highly valueable assets, which are easy to destroy. People say oh cov-ops can warp while cloaked! Constantly, they forget things that can not only force a cloaker to decloak, but the amount of stuff they CAN'T do while cloak. One of them is to activate a Cyno. As soon as someone uncloaks, that should be your cue to warp out and away, of course there are a few other things one can do. One of them is a counter hot-drop. Nothing will ruin a hot dropper's day, then finding their easy kill... Not so easy to kill. Infact, destroying just one hot-drop fleet... nine times out of ten, will stop future hot-drops from happening.

My final point I will now provide: Cloak is broken, I don't to contest that, however. Local is broken as well, thus Local and cloak, both being broken by nature, balances eachother. I know it a hard concept to understand and all, but if one studied, and used cloak. Actually set up a cloak operation will fully understand what that saying means.

Everything you are posting has been suggested a dozen times before. Are you surprised in any way that you get the same replies the last twelve people got?

Why should I take time out of my day, constructing a brand new post for threads that provide, in no way, any new or meaningful ideas?