Player Features and Ideas Discussion

While I understand there is quite a lot to read, the conversation has moved a bit from the OP.

My preferred solution involves allowing cloaks to be scanned by specialized combat probes, preferably only useable by the covert line of ships and anything with a scanning bonus.

They would show up as a 'localized Anomaly'. Each system would spawn a number of localized anomolies as false positives, each lasting no more than 2 hours, and numerous enough that there would always be one despawning and a new one created every 10-15 minutes. The false positives would have some random space garbage or something, and looting/destroyijg/whatever would despawn the Sig, though it would not change its respawn, so you don't clear them and have them all bunched up.

With just a lone ship with decent scanning skills you could eliminate each anomoly one by one until you found the cloakers grid. If the cloaked camper is stationary your odds of landing on him are pretty good. If he's active and looking for probes and such, he can move, warp away, etc.

Multiple hunters will clear the sigs fairly quickly. I am not opposed to other ideas for locating an on grid cloak, from it being a secondary function of the specialized probe launcher to some new kind of ewar or whatever. Just getting on grid with people warping to zero on you is a huge step in the right direction.

Assuming the OA is useful, I further suggested that a single OA automatically recorded all local anomalies as they appeared, and time stamped each. Any anomaly older than 2 hours is someone cloaked, and you can use that info to make educated guesses about any others. If the cloaker just arrived you check newer sigs, for instance. The discussion on OA suggested they get better with multiples, and my suggestion was that an OA network actually be able to plot movement of the localized anomalies, so a moving anomaly is your target, and it can be more effectively hunted with the additional info.

That setup allows for an active pilot a chance at evasion where his safety is not assured, yet he is unlikely to be immediately uncovered and can evade if he is active and on the ball.

stuff one more time

Who cares if I don't personally care to hunt you down? There are other roles in the game. Maybe I would rather call an exterminator on demand rather than keep a bodyguard bored stiff forever. S A N D B O X. My way is as valid as yours.

It does not take a rocket scientist to see the double standard currently at work. You have already stated that any and all situations should favor the PvP pilots, and are actively promoting a system that denies PvE focused players the basic ability to even try to bring PvP to the aggressor. I am guessing you don't like the idea of false positives going in with a way to hunt cloaks, because that would put some risk and effort into the PvP side of the conflict.

stuff

...LOL no. Stop being a carebear. You're demanding you get a MASSIVE BUFF to your playstyle as a tradeoff for a minor change that wouldn't even affect you. Seriously, stop being terrible.

... And all those reasons should entail some risk. They should require you to be active, aware, and even evasive if you don't want to be attacked while doing any of it in enemy space, or even your home space if enemies show up. Invulnerable cloaking mechanics are not balanced.

I am sorry if you cannot tell the difference between a core game function that operates equally for everyone everywhere, and the function of a module with trivial cost in every way.

You can play word games and reverse sentences if you want, but PvE ships are vulnerable. You can't stay afk with hostiles in system looking for you in a ship without a cloak, if you are undocked. Local does not protect the ship in any way, it allows an active pilot to protect himself. If that PvE pilot is distracted (maybe he wants to alt-tab out or something), wants to grab a sandwich, and does not want to log out his character or dock... Too bad. You want the double standard that you can be immune to interaction while being considered a threat.

The idea that the cloaked afk character is harmless was debunked back a hundred pages or more. You like to troll on that point, but you know as well as everyone else that only fools go about their business ignoring a hostile in system. K-space isn't a wormhole.

That sounded a whole lot like a pilot taking action, and not like local protecting him.

It does not matter if the intruder is afk or not. He is present, and must be accounted for, or you are just flying stupid. Since there is no way of confronting him and dealing with the situation directly, the only way to account for him are a number of options that all either reduce your profits by a radical amount (guards, sub-standard fits, endless baiting), cede the space to him entirely (move system, don't play), or else ignoring him which is his goal and will result in your death eventually. That's why the problem isn't the afk, it's the cloak that is so safe it allows indefinite afk.

That's a whole lot of effect for one module to give a pilot with no way to challenge him. The fact that he is so safe that he can afk all day if he chooses is ludicrous.

I am sorry you cannot tell the difference in the function of a single module with trivial cost in every conceivable way and a core game function, or structures designed to provide the only safety in the game.

Cloaks are useless on PvE ships for the most part. Can't use them while targetted or too close to things, and that leaves them out as an evasion option for both ratters and miners. Sometimes it's worth the utility high, and there is a cloak there, but it's nothing a ship engaged in PvE can count on. Kinda like saying a PvE ship should load ewar.

... And all those reasons should entail some risk. They should require you to be active, aware, and even evasive if you don't want to be attacked while doing any of it in enemy space, or even your home space if enemies show up. Invulnerable cloaking mechanics are not balanced.

I am sorry if you cannot tell the difference between a core game function that operates equally for everyone everywhere, and the function of a module with trivial cost in every way.

You can play word games and reverse sentences if you want, but PvE ships are vulnerable. You can't stay afk with hostiles in system looking for you in a ship without a cloak, if you are undocked. Local does not protect the ship in any way, it allows an active pilot to protect himself. If that PvE pilot is distracted (maybe he wants to alt-tab out or something), wants to grab a sandwich, and does not want to log out his character or dock... Too bad. You want the double standard that you can be immune to interaction while being considered a threat.

The idea that the cloaked afk character is harmless was debunked back a hundred pages or more. You like to troll on that point, but you know as well as everyone else that only fools go about their business ignoring a hostile in system. K-space isn't a wormhole.