Player Features and Ideas Discussion

You do know I don't advocate removing intel, I advocate competing.

We can't compete with intel, currently. It is automated, and persistent.
Whoever can use it first, based on the least remaining preparation needed, automatically wins.

The PvE pilot is currently that category most often, since they don't need to know anything about the hostile, just that it exists. They know where they need to go, and how they want to get there.

IF the hostile was not reported until the gate cloak dropped, and knew exactly where to click so they could land on grid with the PvE pilot, that would also be fair.

I could work with that too.

What you want would also require a complete rework of several core mechanics. I am not saying that it would not be fun, but its still radically balanced against PvE ships so long as hard tackle can be applied from any ship indefinitely. You want hunters to have every advantage solo while PvE require fleets to operate with any profitability.

@Bane, it would not kill wormholes to make cloaks probable. I did have an idea that if cloaks were probable they could take scripts that would mask thier signature as something other than a ship signature. Mask yourself as a wormhole while sitting next to one...

You are mistaken.

My position is almost the opposite of that which you suppose.

I would like to see the free intel in local reduced or eliminated in a manner appropriate to the level of infrastructure in any given system.

I also recognise that cloaked ships are a very one-sided guerrilla force.

I think that giving cloaked ships a limited time of operation until they became visible would:

1. not penalise active cloaked players at all, since they can manage their timers/cap/fuel/whatever and move if required.

2. prevent risk-free AFK disruption of enemy operations.

I am not in any way advocating risk-free PVE in nullsec.

Neither do I support risk-free ganking of industrials, miners or ratters in a cloaked ship.

Risk should be present and real for all parties, and be mitigated through correct player behaviour.

In exchange for a limited presence window, the hunter must have realistic expectation that they will have an encounter with which they can have a chance at winning.

I want that encounter to happen, above all, and that it give neither side advantage beyond what individual preparation allows.
They must fight as equals, or the game is dulled by favoring one side.

I want to be in my exhumer, (probably a skiff if I read that thread correctly), and see the single hunter on my sensors, and know I can have some fun soon.
I want the hunter to find me, and for us to have fun shooting at each other with space ships.

It sounds truly magnificent, and makes the heart race with anticipation, as the fight ensues....

If you get tackled by something cloaky (without a cyno), you have time to launch ecm drones and align to where you want to get safe. It's an easy counter

I think we are in agreement. For the record, I have had that skiff encounter in w-space.

The skiff was equipped with ecm and scram. It effectively neutralised and trapped my cloaked proteus for long enough for a defender to arrive. The encounter eventually cost me 1 proteus + 1 tengu for 1 skiff (this pilot reshipped to a legion once the skiff went down).

Needless to say I was impressed with the trap and gave respect to my opponent.

Here we go: http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=19125253

Actually I am pretty sure it's intentional.

For one thing, the original programmers of EVE were hell bent on reinventing the wheel. Even their original forum software seemed to be done by them personally, and it was borked all to hell. Off the rack is not how they did things.

Secondly, every other MMO I have ever played allowed for the chat channels to be polled for population--- /who [name], /whoall, etc. No where but EVE have I seen chat display a constantly updated list of who is in a given channel. Even most chat boards and such don't display that info as a constantly updating list.

1) Get out
2) this thread is about local chat not cloaked afkers - please don't go off topic.
3) cloaking is the counter to bubbles and insta-lock camps and probes and other resources you have available. You have it reversed.
4) you are advocating an irrelevant position
5) Any non-stabbed industrial in nullsec is asking to get ganked if not scouted...deal with it. The same largely goes for low sec.
6) cloaked ships have their scan resolution taken down quite a bit except for specialized ships like stealth bombers. SB's are also fragile, cov ops frigate are also fragile and recons and t3's have a decloak locking timer of about 5 secs and if you have any protection while mining/gas harvesting then they are hard pressed to win without dropping a crap load on top of you via cyno. Also mining with a neutral in local is hilarious in that you feel entitled to do so without potential risk.

Again...the cloak is the counter to probes, probes are a counter to safe spotted ships with or without eccm systems. So no you can't have a limited time or fuel requirements. CCP has already addressed this now get over it.

Justin, you're too keen to be confrontational.

I support reform of local chat.

I recognise a legitimate complaint about cloaks that has been brought up in this forum. It may be strictly off topic but it was raised as a concern by a 0-sec player in connection with changing local chat, so I think it has relevance.

The specific concern is that an AFK cloaked ship can prevent all operations in a given system. This is a legitimate concern because it does indeed seem to be a broken side-effect.

The reason (if you're still reading) is that the people who want to operate in that system have no way of finding out whether that ship represents a threat or not. The pilot could be watching TV or visiting his granny and the other residents of the system cannot know no matter what steps they take.

Giving cloaks some kind of time limit or requiring the pilot to take action to avoid eventual detection would specifically address this one game breaker without impacting any legitimate non-AFK uses of a cloak.

Cloaking up in someone's system and going AFK for an extended period can reasonably be considered a form of botting - it is area denial without effort.

That does not seem to be fair or reasonable to me.