Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Wow another one, lets see i will try to get this all out with one post so here we go.
first point that will be brought up is AFK cloaking only happend because of local is a flawed intellegence tool, to remove AFK cloaking remove local, at the very least remove the cloaked ship from local.
second a AFK cloaker player has never killed any one.
third a POS module that shuts off cloaking devices would have to affect every module on every ship to be balanced.
I know i am missing something else.

Simply amazing.

It seems if you let players have a massive advantage, like free intel, that other players will find a way to counter balance it. That's where "AFK Cloaking" enters this picture.

Let's be clear: A person's willingness to glance at the roster for a chat channel does not equate to earning that intel. It simply means the bar on effort was lowered to discover who was in the same system as you are.
This is not an intel tool. It is a chat channel.

It lists everyone in the system, regardless of their status.
This includes:

Ships docked at an outpost: Go ahead, try to shoot them.
Ships sitting inside the shields of a POS. I am sure they are waiting for your fleet.
And, of course, cloaked vessels.

The FACT the information from local contains elements that are contrary to useful intel should be a warning, but since some avoid this realization there are cloaked pilots who reinforce this message.

By stripping away the ability to combat the flawless intel, you would unbalance the game.

It is not that cloaks should not change, but this stalemate effect is countering the free intel being given out by local.

We have right now, a case of: "I know you are there, but I cannot find you"
(Absolute presence awareness countered by absolute location concealment)

You cannot change one side without the other, and still have balance.

Too much focus on how to remove AFK cloaking. You are addressing a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself.

If you want to remove AFK cloaking's game impact, remove cloaked ships from displaying in local.

When this is done, it becomes reasonable to consider means to hunt cloaked vessels. NOT before this happens.

So long as people in a system magically know cloaked pilots are present with them, cloaked vessels should not be vulnerable to being hunted effectively.

Cloaking will be earned when cloaking awareness is earned. Balance must be maintained.

Remove local, then AFK cloaking becomes pointless, one might as well log out at that point.

AFK cloaking "defeated" - problem solved.

The annoyance I've seen from people stems not from the fact they have a cloaked ship in system, but by the fact the player is playing tennis 30 km away, THAT level of AFK seems to annoy them.

I'm AFK a lot, but I'm in the room, or in the bathroom. I once had to really go pee while I was warp scrammed in mission, and while I did look around for convenient containers, I just went to the damn bathroom.

... if you put something in place that requires player "interaction" to stay cloaked, wont people just use some automated program to cause some "input noise" anyway?

Sure. But I get an undocking/kickout pulse to use. I come roaming through your system, your guys all dock up, I fire it up and it force undocks everyone in the station, and kicks everyone out of their POSes.

Can't have people being AFK now, can we.

i like this idea.. removeing local is an instand +1 from me.

Why does AFK cloaking need to be defeated? Your post doesn't explain this.
Also, how do you propose to do it so that non-AFK cloaking remains untouched? Your idea doesn't address this — quite the opposite, they all seem to screw over normal cloakers as much as anyone.

So……no, why would they address something that isn't a problem?

• Local Chat is a flawed intel asset. It only states the names of the people currently in the system.
• AFK Cloaking is a psychological tool used to force people to dock or log off.

1) Solutions have included removing them from the Local Chat list, which actually makes cloak ganking become a much more viable tactic.
2) Cloaking requiring a pilot to interact with the game to maintain their cloak, which leads to some sort of macro system being used violating the EULA.
3) Making cloaked ships able to be scanned down, which defeats the purpose of the cloaking module, or does it?

Making cloaked ships able to be scanned down (with considerable consideration to the difficulty that should be imposed upon this new ability) seems like the best solution in my estimation.

I would imagine that when the cloaker is cloak and remove from local, they also cannot see local. To get the Intel they want / need it will take lots of warping around and looking.

Very likely, as has been stated in other threads.

I have gone so far as to suggest that cloaked vessels, docked vessels, and any vessel in a POS protected by shields, should be removed from local.
I also specified they should not be able to see local either, using a completely delayed version of local chat with no pilot roster visible.

This would allow local as an intel tool, but only showing vessels that could be targeted and PvP available.

AFK Cloaking would not be possible. They would have to work harder for intel, but in exchange they would be harder to find.
A means to hunt them, under these conditions, is widely considered balanced as well.

Proper effort for defense finally worth making, and excuses no longer worth bothering with.