Player Features and Ideas Discussion

So...

Apart from people who actively use it to drop on others (and will obviously disagree with everything here), the "cloaky camper" is not a good game mechanic. Using it in an actual combat/stalking situation, great, that's what it was designed for. But having someone fly into a system, cloak up and sit there for a day, two, three and effectively cripple the residents just based on being in local - with complete immunity - is something that needs to be addressed.

Off grid boosts were removed as too many people complained of miners getting huge boosts from industrial ships sitting in the safety of a POS shield for a whole day, and on the flip side, gank groups getting combat boosts from someone sitting in a safe point across the system.

But there's been nothing to address someone being able to sit in a system for days at a time, even if just to grief the locals with their presence. Hell, you can login after DT, cloak up, and just leave the game running and go out. Completely afk, and totally invulnerable, and having a big effect on the game. Not to mention sitting in a system for hours in a 20m covops ship, just waiting to drop supers right on your head.

There is no other system in the game that makes you truly invulnerable, apart from this.

I think the Cloaking skill needs to be revised an expanded. This is something I came up with over the past few days, and I think it could work well. Now before anyone jumps all over this and yells that cloaking does not need a huge nerf, this is (I think) a balanced idea, that still allows for cloaking to function, but remove the option of being totally afk while cloaked up, and also introducing a mechanic where those being camped actually have a way of doing something about it.

All cloaking devices need to be on a cycle, being how long they operate, and then a cooldown timer where they cannot be switched on - and therefore the ship decloaks. The cooldown timer can be reduced by introducing a Cloaking Specialization skill, with each level, the cooldown timer is lowered.

Small example of how this could be implemented:

Prototype Cloaking Device I
Cycle time: 5 minutes
Cooldown: 5 minutes

Improved Cloaking Device II
Cycle time: 10 minutes
Cooldown: 5 minutes

Covert Ops Cloaking Device II
Cycle time: 10 minutes
Cooldown: 3 minutes

Certain ships, such as those that are Covert Ops capable could get a role bonus, allowing them to increase the cycle time and/or reduce the cooldown timer.

The Cloaking Specialization skill would allow a 5% decrease in the Cooldown timer per skill level. This skill should have a reasonable X level, such as 6X. Therefore a pilot who is flying with Covops cloak, at level 5 Cloaking Specialization, would have a cooldown timer of 99 seconds. Any ship role bonus would also apply to this.

Let's assume a skilled pilot could get their cooldown down to 90 seconds.

Using a system like this allows the cloak pilot to be able to warp to several safe points while in their cooldown timer, but also for those who are affected by the cloaky camper to have a chance to remove them from the system. 90 seconds is not a long time for someone to try and "stay alive", and even for those who want to remove the cloaky camper, it still requires an effort on their part to scan them down, especially as they don't know when the timer is up.

Anyone who is not afk will still be able to avoid being killed. Someone who is afk, well, they shouldn't be afk and if they lose their ship, so be it. The rest of us are in this exact scenario, so why shouldn't they be. No ship class should be totally immune, cloaked or otherwise.

I'm sure the idea needs some finesse, but I think it could not only remove the cloaky camper annoyance (and as mentioned, apart from those who engage in this activity, I don't think there is anyone with a positive word to say about this "feature"), and introduce a new style of hunting cloaked ships.

Just my 2 ISK worth.

There is a stickied thread for this. Now hang your head in shame.

You can ignore Danika. CCP does.

Might want to change the timings somewhat but otherwise, great idea!

Yes ignore challenges to your idea and upvote sycophants. That'll help you.

And you wonder why ccp ignore these posts and put them all in one place to collectively ignored by everyone, save for one poor isd whom i assume drew the short straw.

If your alliance is crippled by having a single person in local 23/7 then your alliance sucks, and deserves to be crippled until you all ragequit and go back to highsec. 0.0 is not supposed to be risk-free effort-free PvE farming, either organize a defense fleet that can insta-kill any cloaker that tries to do anything but sit cloaked and idle, or STFU.

Cynos are broken. Local is broken. The synergy between both questionable mechanics creates an oddly balanced situation.

Local pretty much means even cloaked ships cannot actually stalk anything. If local wasn't instant, free, and reliable intel which all but rules out real hunting, then I could see making cloaks actually take fuel or eventually burn out, or any of the other hundreds of permutations of the same idea. As it is, saturating intel and local is the only counter-play to the safety net that local creates.

If you don't like Local go to W-Space. And I don't know what you're talking about 'a cloaked ship can't stalk anything' . Of course they can. (That is until their cloak overheats and shuts down for a few minutes, see OP. At which point the active player bounces around the system until he can recloak ).

No, at which point you appear on d-scan, your prey knows you're active and a threat, and everyone is suddenly docked in a station.



Grow some balls and stop being so terrified of a giant fleet on the other end of a cyno. So what if there's a tiny chance that they have a huge fleet, if that happens maybe you lose a ship or two. Most of the time there isn't dozens of players, there's just one person in a cloaked ship (who is probably AFK anyway), and maybe a black ops or two waiting nearby.



IOW: "I don't want to have to organize PvE operations with a fleet, I want to be able to solo PvE at any time in complete safety like it's highsec, because otherwise I don't make enough ISK." Have you ever considered that 0.0 is not for you, and that farming highsec level 4 missions until you commit suicide out of sheer boredom would be more enjoyable? 0.0 is supposed to be about cooperative empire-building, not just the next highsec to level up your Raven in.

How do you get the jump on anything when they can see you 10 system out, and can get off grid within 3s? They have to be hilariously lazy to get caught. The hunter being good has almost nothing to do with catching things 99.99% of the time. I agree it would make for more engaging play for cloaks in k-space to last no more than 5 minutes, in exchange for the cloak actually being a cloak - i.e. actually granting stealth by removing cloaked players from local.

My idea had more to do with eliminating the afk cloaky campers, rather than the whole play style.

Where is the gameplay in someone deliberately griefing systems by being in local and not doing anything? Sure, psychological warfare is a big part, but how do you know it's psychological warfare vs "ha ha, cloaked up, now I'm going to go do something else for a whole day because it will annoy everyone". Even if it's an hour... if you are not at the game, why shouldn't there be a way to kill you? And if you are there, jump to your next safe and recloak - why is this so difficult?

Every time a miner or ratter posts a thread about being blown up out of nowhere, people are quick to point out "well you shouldn't be afk playing". This door should swing both ways.