Science & Industry

Do not choose the mining or ratting profession in Eve. At present, the mining profession has become a "dead end" due to a Null Sec tactic with cloaked ships.

You cannot successfully mine in Null Sec if you are member of a small or medium alliance. Bitter vets have discovered how to use alts in cloaked ships to basically "grief" all industrial activities in enemy systems. CSM approves of this activity, because they think it leads to more hostilities and conflicts. In fact, the industrialists usually have no idea which enemy is backing the "neutral" cloaked pilot. And, some pilots just enjoy giving this grief. Miners are a primary target. So are the ratters.

At present, cloaked ships can stay cloaked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In this way, only one "alt" account can shut down industrial activities in just about any system in null sec. Provided, of course, the hostile kills an industrial pilot once in awhile (or serves as the "warp in" for his buddies once and awhile to kill an industrial pilot).

While there are counters to this tactic of pilots who grief systems cloaked (usually AFK) for days and weeks on a 24/7 basis. The only effective tactic against this grief is to join a HUGE alliance with enough space that the industrial pilot can find a "quiet" system. Since most of your CSM representatives are elected by LARGE alliances, guess who approves this tactic? CSM approves this tactic. CCP approves this tactic. They say that it is to "increase conflict"? No. I think it is intended to keep the small alliances down by denying them the ability to maximize their industrial potential. But, that's just my opinion.

How to counter this problem if you are a miner? Just QUIT GAME. The pilot won't grief an empty system. But, then again... that only benefits the large alliances, doesn't it?

Anticipating the response saying I'm a whiner, and saying you just kill the cloaky dudes ... I ask for proof or STFU. Because, you cannot scan down a cloaked ship. IF the guy is AFK 23/7, this means you can put your team on the scanning job for 24/7 and maybe find him. But, have you ever tried to scan down a cloaked ship 24/7? Oh, so you want to bubble and watch the gates 24/7, too? Get serious. The cloaked ship has bookmarks to avoid such traps and will laugh at your feeble attempts. We could call bullshit, but this is an approved feature of the game, not a bug and not an exploit.

What we really need is a new MMORPG game. Maybe a clone that is "like Eve". A new game, which would emphasize industrial cooperation for your PvP wins. At that point, you might get CCP's attention to this insufferable problem called the 24/7 cloaked AFK grief ship. CSM won't deal with it. CCP won't deal with it.

There's a cloaked ship coming soon - to a system near your hulks and ratting ships. ATTENTION, all Ratters and Miners . . . PREPARE TO QUIT GAME !

Cheers! and thanks for your response!

I have never had a cloaked ship stop me from mining before in this way so I may not properly understand the frustration evident in the 2nd post here. However, as a miner myself I do see a cloaker as being a valid ambush tactic against industrials. There should be pvpers in alliances big or small that are needed for pushing back opposing forces so that the industrialists can mine. If someone manages to get that far into your alliances space to where industrialists are mining a black ops ship or otherwise, then they should be able to hurt your industry. It shoudln't matter if your alliance is large or small for this to be an issue.

That being said, I still believe cloaking to be too much of an "I win" button at the moment, and I would love to see a counter to this. I would personally prefer to see a counter mechanic to cloakers as opposed to cloaking miners. Cloaking miners would be a carte blanche for bot miners.

Something that isn't easy, but still a viable anti cloak method (especially against afk cloakers) would be better. Maybe down the lines of sonar vs submarine style of gameplay. Could be a new form of probe, and even add a new mini game specifically for tracking down cloakers with wavelengths and background noise etc.

black ops mining is a terrible idea. you have Local window to warn you of possible threats as soon as they enter the system. if you are trying to mine in a hostile system you probably deserve to die. you also have capital industry ships with a clone vat bay. it's allready very difficult to catch a miner in 0.0. If you are hoping for some kind of special mining they are allready in game. they are called ladar and mag sites.

Fit a cloak on your Hulk. Boom > Ninja mining

Or did you want the yield of the Hulk *AND* something else?

Actually, I just want a more interesting mining ship with more protection from ganks and rats. A T3 miner with covops cloak use would be ideal for that.
Yield can be lower, sure, you've got to pay SOME balance for the usability.

Maybe a black-ops Orca and fleet of cloaky mining barges? It'd make nullsec mining safer and more fleet-y, and you can stage mining ops without attracting people from surrounding systems for cheap kills, or being popped by rats or running out of capacitor because you went AFK to take a leak or let the cat in or something.

A Hulk can easily tank rats, and can just as easily POS up. Mining in null is fine; it's the reward that's broken (by drone poop).

If you die from being AFK, I must ask "Why the hell were you AFK out of a POS shield?"

RT Click, Warp to POS (or autodock). Takes under 5s. If I have an emergency more urgent than that, I will be ecstatic if some pixel spaceship is all I lose.

You want a counter to cloakers? There is one: Cloaky vessels are the squishiest ships of their class, generally. Kill them.

I'm not entirely sure if your post is being serious but if it is, cry moar. You can harass anyone in a cloaky afk'er. It works both ways. A solo player can bugger off half an alliance providing he is persistent enough and the alliance consists of mostly null bears. Wormholes, black ops and cloaky ships are the only weapon you have against large alliances. What you want is risk free null and that's just not how Eve works. If an afk cloaker is camping down your region, set a trap and kill him. Why would a large alliance bother afk'ing for weeks to annoy some silly miner in null, when they can hotdrop a fleet of Nyx' and annihilate you all.