Player Features and Ideas Discussion

The cloaky version of a POS, with much less CPU/powergrid after running it's cloak, enough to fit a specialized ship maintenance array and a corp hanger, maybe some other things.

They're set in distant orbit around moons.

The idea is obvious, players get a place to 'base out of' especially attractive to solo players but could perhaps also be utilized by larger corps.

While in the POH cloak bubble the player or players are removed from local.

There would finally be a place where you weren't 100% visible and detectable in the universe.

edit: this would also empower smaller entities which CCP has said they want to do

Probing isn't hard. If the goal is giving solo/small groups an option to base somewhere with some measure of protection then it would fail.

...It does, however, need some manner of counter.

It has CCP's own idea in part, they suggested small holdings.

I independently came up with my own version of this, and I can share my own idea.

POS / Small Station seed, low initial cost. (If the unit needs complete replacement when a generator is replaced, then it must be priced accordingly as a nearly disposable object)

Upgrade sections purchaseable, what you are actually buying are raw material kits that allow you to tell your station to upgrade itself with a specific aspect. (Downtime change)

The actual station / POS cannot be probed down.

Cloaking field generators: These are what hostiles could eventually scan down and find. They are hardpoints in that they project an obscuring radiation field within a certain radius. The radiation saturates the area, causing structures attuned to the correct wavelength to become invisible.
The radiation dissipates after 24-48 hours if not sustained by the generator.
Optionally, the items in the field are spatially displaced, and connect to a different location in the system itself. Cloaking or displacement, either explanation works.
The key effect is the generator being destroyed tips off the owner they must leave, that their little slice of heaven is about to be eaten. This is the reinforced equivalent for cloaking. If it is not restored, the actual station / POS will be easily probed, as it's stealth field will no longer be concealing it.

A new generator needs to be placed, whether or not this means it needs to be linked to a new POS / ministation or can be attached to a previous one not located yet by opposing forces, would be a balance issue.

It sounded like something useless for moon mining, as anything close enough to mine could be stumbled across I think.

If it is using a swapped effect to duplicate the reinforced timer, then I can see the actual hidden POS being undetectable until the equivalent reinforced time period expires.

And following the logic of stealth, combined with smaller size and ability, replacing the generator in a new hidden spot makes sense. You don't get to repair the POS shields, you need to completely replace them. Another trade off.

I think this being a smaller POS or mini station sounds balanced, since it needs the same equivalent support and attention. Not to mention, it demands more from pilots accessing it, since they would probably want to hit a safe spot BEFORE warping to the station, to avoid people watching the direction they warped in to help find this hidden outpost.

As people became aware of these places, SOV holders would bookmark them, and patrol them.

They would become trivial if you could still see them in local, as you would immediately know where to find them.

It's not hiding if they know where to find you.

You were doing great until right there..

No to this part. The rest is interesting.

Darn AFK Cloakers are playing cards in a space station now...

I am picturing paranoia ramping up, as people start to assume anyone AFK cloaking beyond a certain point, must actually be in a POS or small station you described.

I can picture jokes about 'there goes the neighborhood', 'darn cloakers moved in', etc.

I would love to see this.

Well, so long as noone but you could find it, that works. The whole logic behind this idea seems to be immunity to brute force by being impossible to find.
(Regular POS / Stations just go reinforced, making them in your face, but indestructable)

Show some consistency in your argument, you just said that the idea would fail to probes then claim it needs a counter.

I like the idea this and I think would be a good addition, but I don't think it would be an overall fix to the problem of large numbers/big ISK vs. everyone else.

I think there is a simpler solution.

Simple add a "Stealth field Array" POS module. It would use up CPU and PG, giving you a penalty for using.
It would work like this:

It could be mounted to any POS with enough CPU and PG, generating a field that makes the POS and its contents invisible to Dscan and probes, but not visually.

The only way you can find if there was a POS running this module in a system would be to fly to the right moon and get a visual.

Having it work this way it will be obviously better to do this in systems with lots of moons, making it very difficult to find but not impossible. Of course there are more details to balance this but its a simpler way to implement the idea.