Player Features and Ideas Discussion

An exploit goes against game mechanics. Not being an exploit, doesnt mean its having the effect on the game they want and they dont intend to change it.

Lots of game mechanics, including the above mentioned links in POS, were changed in the past 10 years.

It was never mentioned in this thread, that the AFK cloaking is an exploit. Its part of the current game mechanic, and i proposed an idea to change that game mechanic. Simple as that.

So far, none of the nay sayers, came up with a valid argument on why a player who is AFK should be able benefit from projecting an effect on the playerbase.
All the arguments were based on the assumption that its the playing cloaker the problem, and thats not it.

Did you bother to read the definition of exploit I provided? An exploit is the use of game mechanics, glitches or bugs to your advantage that are not intended by the game's designers. So if AFK cloaking is not an exploit, than you have no valid reason to change cloaks because they are working as intended otherwise I'm sure CCP would have commented on the thousands of AFK-Cloaking-Tear-filled threads over the years. The fact remains that you cannot solve the AFK cloaking "problem" by changing cloaks without hurting the active players that use them in active gameplay. Sorry if I don't feel like shitting my time away with mini-games and timers when I'm just trying to blow stuff up.

Changes are coming to links to because links have a direct, massive impact on gameplay and having them sit in a POS is completely devoid of risk. AFK cloaking is psychological warfare, if you succumb to it then you will suffer from it but it doesn't actually affect anything except your state of mind. But no, it's too much damn trouble to either

A. move to a new location
B. setup a ******* trap for the cloaker if they try anything
C. ignore them, grab your balls and play anyway

I never claimed that AFK cloaking is working as intended or balanced, I said cloaking itself is working as intended and I don't want cloaks changed because you whiners can't be arsed to do anything about it yourselves. If CCP has stated that AFK Cloaking is not an exploit and said nothing else, I highly doubt they will ever do anything about it. Very akin to suicide ganking or market/contract scamming; AFK cloaking is form of griefing. Usually if it's a problem with old code, I'd think they would be upfront and just tell us, "We'd like to do this but it's going to be a cluster**** for our programmers so be patient."

I'm all about new ideas but every DAY there's a new cloak adjustment idea. Cloaks are fine. AFK cloakers are working AS-INTENDED. You want to AFK rat is it? AFK mine? CCP have said it numerous times, cloaks are working AS-INTENDED.

You would want it because if you don't do it. It would mean you eventually lose your cloak. And would have to reactivate the module.

So does the ability to go AFK while cloaked. It was a massive and unblanced to the game and the only risk comes from when they reposition into a new system. Which is not much of a risk anyway considering the low cost of a T1 cyno ship or a Tech 2 cov ops.




I remember a story of a corpmate in one of my older nullsec corps. He told me "stop worrying about the cloaker in system he can't hurt you!" Hours later a cyno was lit and half my corp lost their fancy stuff (except me). Pardon me if the whole "Bait em! Be a man" thing does not convince me because I actually have experience being on the other end of it.

As for moving. That is unbalanced to have to do so because of someone you have no idea if they are actively playing or just away. Come back fresh to light a cyno on anyone dumb enough to be out. Also due to the ease now of using a plex to train an alt it becomes easier to use all your accounts to affect even more systems.



They also never said Links inside a POS was an exploit. That change is happening anyway. If anything hopefully it is a sign that CCP is finally starting to look at game mechanics that are unbalanced.

And I would love to deal with a cloaker myself. I would love to be able to probe the player down after a period of being AFK and deal with it. The ability to go AFK while cloaked and be immune to probing prevents this.



#1 They have done multiple changes to CONCORD to balance ganking. Mainly because it was getting to the point where ganking could be done for free at the time after insurance.

#2 Why not tell us? Look at the POS argument. They mentioned modular POS and when they backpedaled somewhat it caused quite the controversy. If one of them says "Okay we will fix this next year" It will just be a year of controversy and misinfo being posted to cause people to think active cloaking will be harmed. Similar to how the smear campaign against Incursions got to the point where some nullsecers where convincing people that Incursions where the primary cause of inflation within EVE and that's why PLEX was so high. Absolute lies but they will do it anyway because it is such an effective weapon in the toolbox of large alliances. No this will be a change similar to how links are being changed. A topic on the forums before the next update or expansion then a dev blog then sisi.


On a side note. Forum can you make it any more of a clickfest to do multi quoting on a single post?

Then you don't want it because you are making use of the unbalanced ability to remain AFK while cloaked in my opinion. And just like many other people you feel the need to constantly come to these idea topics because you fear CCP might actually do something about the issue in my opinion.

I am sorry. If that ability was not in such widespread use and growing by the day I would not feel it is a priority for development time. However, It is growing by leaps and bounds and even hunters in wormhole space admit to using that aspect of cloaking. It is not an exploit and you can't be banned for using it so right now it is almost silly to not make use of it. That is the issue. There are so many pros and virtually no cons that it has grown by leaps and bounds and the PLEX for dual training is making it worse. In my opinion it needs to be handled now and in my opinion a minigame based system is a fair way to balance it without seriously affecting active cloak players.

They are going AFK in a wormhole while stalking a group of targets. It is the same effect. The cloaker can't be probed down. They can go to work or class. Go to the movies etc.. and never have to worry about being discovered before they choose the time to attack. Only difference is they cant pop a cyno.

The ability to go AFK while cloaked is just as unabalanced when being used offensively in w-sec then as a supposed "counter" to local. There is nothing to encourage a player to remain at the client and plenty of incentive to leave the client logged in 23/7

If the minigame idea gets implemented or my idea of afk based chanced to be decloaked with special probes it will remove that incentive and then problem is solved. Cloakers will remain at their clients, log off, or hopefully be probed down and defeated hours later being afk.



You just said you don't AFK cloak. It does not affect you. (Unless you consider yourself too good to do a quick minigame every once in a while) Or do you?

CP has stated that it is balanced, but not in the way they WANT. loaking is a counter to the omnipotence and defensive ability provided by local, countering that by becoming a consistent presence in system is the only way to get through the nullsec safety-net that is local.

CCP wants to do soemthing about cloaking, but "fixing" loaking without "fixing" local, would undermine the reason and existence fo cloaks as a viable platform for operations.

fact is, what it would become is, on current cloak ships, if you get decloaked for any reason on grid with somebody, your dead, no 2 ways about it. so being hidden is the only way t avoid death. you gain invulnerability (though not really invulnerable) at the expense of being able to receive no tangible rewards while AFK.

so while yes, while AFK i can report what i see in your system, if your part fo a nullsec alliance im sure you knwo every hostile and what system they are in for 40 jumps.

Dude, do you really need to be told that the problem with a single cloaker, is not the cloaker itself, but the gang behind him ready to hotdrop???
Activities in w-space are completely different.
1) AFK cloaker as a psycological warfare tool is pointless. If you need to go AFK on a wormhole, you might as well safe log off, its exactly the same effect.
2) The amount of risk a cloaked pilot or gang is limited to whatever you have in that system.



Dude, there is NO NERF. having a finite cycle is messing with you cookie?? ok, lets fix it for the challenged ones. you get an infinity cycle like you have right now (hurrayy!!!!) and you get the sliders that will move a unit every ... lets say 10 seconds?? (i believe at this point you may start to notice that the only difference with having a finite cycle, is that you dont have the cycling thing around the module ...). And if you call in the next 10 minutes, you can have a countdown timer in the slider's window just to make it easier to keep up with the time.

See? NO NERF, cloaking remains the same, unless you are not near the PC every 30min or less. No nerf, no compensation.



Dude ... i called it a minigame ... but just pushing 3-4 sliders back to the center ... thats not even a minigame. Its not like someone asked you to best your latest candy crush highscore or something ...
Pushing sliders too challenging for you? having 4 boxes with numbers 1 2 3 and 4, in random positions and having to type down a 4 digit combination of those numbers sounds easier??
I liked the sliders idea a bit more, thats why i called it "recalibrating the cloak matrix", trying to include some "sci-fi theme" to the deal.