Player Features and Ideas Discussion

We all know the one trick ponies that black ops have become. Covert jump bridge, too impractical to do anything else.

What if they also had a secondary function, that of concealment?

As a reference, I point out the heavy interdictor. With it's bubble of warp disruption, it is a mobile lockdown unit. Consider the range, as modified by skills, etc.

What if the Black Ops had a similar bubble generator. Instead of warp disruption, it would be a cloaking bubble, where any ship in the field had the effects of a cloak on it.

Limits would be similar to a POS bubble, weapons would not function, etc.
Additional limitation would require that the ships be in fleet with the Black Ops, to confirm agreement and permission to be cloaked.
(You are losing access to weapons and all functions the same as any other cloaked vessel when this field is active on you)
This will not give ships the ability to warp cloaked, or even move beyond the range of the bubble without dropping the cloaking effect.

Absolutely.

They are gaining a cloak, not full CovOps status.

They gain all penalties of the Black Ops pilot's cloak, (which is affected by his skill for the cloaking bubble's size)

As the others are not in the actual Black Ops ship, they do not get the speed bonus.
CovOps, Recon, and the Tengu's configured to cloak, must cloak BEFORE entering the field, or they too will be penalized as if they were using whichever cloak the Black Ops pilot is using.
(and switching to their own cloak is disabled until they leave the cloaking field, if that was unclear)

+1 to this idea.

though maybe make some sort fo limit on how many ships can eb inside it until the cloak collapses on itself from "too much interference" or whatever, and if ANYTHING comes within the claoking bubble that is NOT in-fleet, the whole bubble should deactivate.

i say this because i would REALLY ahte to see a 100-man fleet compleetly cloaked huddled up on the black ops (though if you knew they were there, even if you didnt, an errant Stealth bomber bomb would be gorgeous.)

Interesting idea.

+1 for using word "ponies"

I like BlackOps and I like this idea. If that bubble would be just 5-10 km it would be really fine. An additional penalty could be a reduced capacitor size because such a cloaking field would require much more energy. Also, to make sure that only BOs can fit it, the CPU should be like Covert Ops Cloaking Device and only BO have a bonus to reduce it to 10 percent.

Anyway, I look forward to see some progress on that idea! +1

What happens when you mate an Arazu with a Dominix ?

You get a T2 Battelship capable of flying cloaked, fits Anti-Capital EWAR mods to nueter those pesky titan guns, and it fits a new mod capable of jamming titan bridges which increase the fuel cost to reduce the effectiveness of the blob it the titan can summon.

What do you think ?

When you say they get the same penalty as the cloak on the black ops, what does that actually mean ? If they all get the penalty to scan res, how long does that last for ? It couldn't be permanent, because... well... it couldn't. So how long does it last for

On top of that there's the issue that it basically allows fully combat fit ships to sit under the cloaking umbrella. Atm if you want to cloak, you need a hefty 60cpu and at a minimum you lose a utility high, and at most a gun. By FAR the biggest penalty to using cloaks on non-covert ships is actually having to fit the cloak itself.

The scan res penalty can be partially (or even totally) countered balanced by SeBos, and the de-cloak delay just need careful planning (either decloaking before the target arrives or not until the target is thoroughly held down).

What I find particularly problematic is that its such an easy fake out. Now you can not only hide recons and t3's, you can hide ANYTHING at almost no hit to its effectiveness. The most obvious use would be hiding logistics ships or even carriers under the bubble, with your gang just chilling and awaiting a fight, and of course you can't be probed or even d-scanned.

The best approach would be sitting at a 1000km tactical, letting the decloak delay vanish into a short warp, pretty much becoming a non-issue by the time you land.

Add to that the constant uncertainty of stations in system where people often idle, and you have a pretty awesome trap. Double points for doing it in a cyno jammed system and bringing carriers to the fight. It looks like a 10 man gate camp, and theres zero possible information saying otherwise, no matter how well you scout. And then boom, literally as many people are you like (because lets face it, the big alliances have been able to operate at whatever scale is needed... even if you can only cloak one dude per black ops, they'll use it) in fully combat fit ships with carrier backing. Good times for all!

+1

I wil give my 5 cents too. The field should not cloak capital and super-capital ships.

Definitely something to consider.

I would question whether freighters, Orcas and Rorquals would be exempt from this detail, A partially cloaked mining op could be interesting.

(transfers could not be done cloaked, but it might give ships a quick hiding place in the event something popped into local, much like a POS is the current run to for this now)