Player Features and Ideas Discussion

First of all, let me see that I'm a fan of cloaking and love my own cloak and use it often. But here are some ideas to make cloaking a little more challenging/interesting.

Anti cloaking probes to pinpoint those AFK cloakers. Or WH cloakers

They would require Level 5 skills in
1. Cloaking Level 5
2. Astrometric pinpointing Level 5
3. Astrometric range finding Level 5

Each probe would be counterdetected easilty and visible on the scanner (or even overhead), easily. Each scan would take 3 minutes for a total scan time (to narrow down the cloaker) of about 15 minutes.

Opinions?

yk

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Edit: Additional ideas on how the probes would be balanced

1. Anticloaking probes can have a drawback in that it can't distinguish between a ship and any other anamoly even at 100% signal strength... only that a 'gravitometric/magnetometric anamoly detected'. This could be the main drawback to this type of probe in that unlike other probes they can't give as much specifics to tell if its actually a ship or not even at 100% strenght. It will take some effort, trial/error and familirity to the environment as well as some luck.

2. Again, these probes will have much longer scan times than normal probes. When the probes themselves are detected on the scanner by the cloaky (yes, a cloaky should have to use the scanner just like a noncloaky), the long scan time will give the cloaky plenty of time to warp to another location before the probes finishes scanning. To the ship that was doing the probing it will just look like a false anamoly. Unless of course the cloaky is afk on the couch watching TV, not paying attention.

3. The anti-cloak probe could have a limited scan range (say only 8AUs) making it more clumsy to use.

4. It could also take a few more level 5 skills (some of the science skills) to make it a skill not easilty acquired.

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EDIT 2: In response to some of the "remove local arguments" later in the thread as well as the "The game will be broken!!!" arguments

This is not the "Local debate". Local is an entirely different debate altogether and has been ongoing for the last 8 years. There are some definant drawbacks to removing local and I've listed some in the other Local Debate thread. Namely:
• 1. Alliances benefit from local. How can a alliance control space when a 1000 ship fleet can literally park next door in a non-local system all in cloaky ships that can never be detected and without any way to counter? This of course would absolutely gimp the ability to claim space or sovereignty... unless-of-course ways to detect those cloaked ships are possible, but then the whole "anti-cloak probes will break the game" whiners will start.
• 2. It gimps the uniqueness of WH space. WH space is kindof a cool environment not just because of the variable entrances/exits, but because the abscense of local makes it a little edgy. It was supposed to be the solution/option for those that did not want local. Now it won't be so unique.

Second of all. In response to "THE GAME WILL BE BROKEN!!!!!!!111" post below; this game was played and played well LONG before cloaked ships were even possible. The consistent cry of "THE GAME WILL BE BROKEN!!!!!!!111" Is stupid.

Third of all. If you even read the original post you'll see that this isn't a method that can instantly detect cloaky ships, but a method that with effort may offer a clue that they're there... and only with a lot of effort and a careless prey, can they be found.

That is all. Carry on.

yk

Incredibly poorly thought out concept that breaks wormholes mechanics. You should be embarassed for thinking of this.

Hang your head in shame. You damage wormhole PvP to a degree that makes Aura wake up screaming in pain.

Let me clarify a bit... even the knowledge that you have someone cloaked in your wormhole observing is damaging enough to proper intel gathering.

Doesn't solve any problem; creates new ones.

-1. Not needed.

…which isn't a problem, so there is nothing to solve.
It breaks cloaking.

Ok I have said this before, and I will say it again.

Cloaking devices are DESIGNED to make your ship COMPLETELY INVISIBLE. To ALL forms of detection. If they didn't then they would not be cloaking devices; they would be camoflauging devices.

The cloaking device has been an integral part of Sci-Fi since the days of Issac Asimov. They were DESIGNED to make a ship SEEM invincible. They are specifically in the game to MAKE IT so that you have to think twice about what tactics you are using. So instead of griping the same gripe THOUSANDS of other misinformed players who; just like you; REFUSE to read the "COMMONLY PROPOSED IDEAS" thread; how about you learn how to play better and try using some new tactics.

Or you can just keep letting me and the rest of us cloakers blow you to kingdom come... your choice.

This is Sci-Fi, not WOW where you can have it your way like Burger king. You can't just change an entire extremely succesful game mechanic by whining to the GM's about some thing you are too weak minded to do something about.

The Cloak has been a part of Sci-Fi and mythology since the days of Issac Asimov and King Arthur... This is Sci-Fi...

Now STOP F***ING WITH MY SCI-FI D*** IT!!!

electro mag what? damn scientists trying to poison everyone with their new fangled types of radiation.

Except one... local.

That's a bug CCP needs to fix.

What problem? If they're AFK there's no problem. It sounds like the problem exists in your paranoia.

-1 to anti-cloak probes. Just go back to high sec.


There's always star trek online....

AFK cloakers aren't the problem. Knowing they are there is the problem. Get rid of instant intel local in nul sec. Leave it in lo and hi sec. If you don't know they are there, then they won't afk cloak. There's no point to it.

What you are proposing is not a solution to afk cloakers. It is a solution to cloaking in general, which defeats the purpose of cloaking all together.

The only time you need to worry about a cloaked ship is when they decloak on grid with you. This is something you should always consider, just as you always consider things like gate camps, warp bubbles, war decs, and which route to set for your nav computer.

It's the local that makes it seem unfair. If you're worried about a couple bombers in your system, run in a group. Run those anoms or belts together instead of separately. There really is no need to do everything alone when it comes to PvE or whatever you're doing.

You're either completely misinformed as to the mechanics of the game or you're a flat out liar. Being able to launch a probe that can tell you if there's a previously unknown cloaked vessel in your system breaks cloaking. You break wormhole intel by giving someone a ridiculously easy means to even tell if someone is there. That's enough information in and of itself to not only completely change the behavior of your potential targets, thus spoiling the intel, but to also make this a mandatory requirement to have in wormholes, thus changing how everyone involved in wormholes trains their characters.

This is why this is a ****-poor solution to a non-problem. You completely change the entire wormhole meta, over basically someone that isn't there in null sec (but you can see him!).

(As for why #2 fails... eight of these probes covering 8AU ea will blanket an entire system well enough to get at least a hit from a single probe on a cloaked vessel. Odds are you'll have someone cloaked in view of a POS or the like, so the smart move is to begin with tight spreads around the POS(s) in the hole for immediate hits at 100%.)