Player Features and Ideas Discussion

You are definitly right in terms of an anomaly like mission rooms. What about the belts and the sites that are directly warpable to via the probe scanner interface (like ghost sites)?
But we would derail your topic if we went further on in this....



I seem to miss the connection between the covcyno topic and the interstellar transportation of communication.
*smart***mode*
But how Dows this work in wormholes?
*/smart***mode*



Training up a covcyno alt, messing down it's sec status, deleting it, trainnig a new one.
Should there be a prevention? Would it become abusable (this might be wrong word for it, but I allready heard this word in connection with gank alts) in the way gank alts can be created and thrown away?



There is no need to get personal. I ask because if you define it clearly enough, you can automate this task and have a computer check these parameters every now and then (perhaps daily, weekly or monthly). Adding up on this... It would be interesting if this could be used to make a completely random system "cynoproof" by just trading loads of stuffs in one system. I would never be capable to acchieve this, but i think larger alliances might be able to bring a system up to rank 4 in this list. Should this check be limited to high-sec systems? Should low-sec systems also be possible to become a trade hub? Include 0.0?

Is it possible that this might be massively abused as a way to force those carebears out of the game? I would hate to loose fellow pilots if some areas would become too hostile for the general "recreational" player with like 2-6 hours/week at hand to play.

Just imagine the mad LP you would make running level-4-distributionmissions with a whole secure highsecalliance... you could have a covcyno next to ANY station involved, making movement of goods a matter of undock-cyno-dock, get LP. Risk-free.

+1 for more highsec Wardec Fun!

Nonsence. Nullsec is a reign of capitals and supercapitals. Those ships can't jump to covert cynos. So covcynos CAN'T turn highsec into anything like nullsec. Not mentioning that 0.0 lives on sovereignty system. Please, think more before posting.

+1
(And I'm mostly high-sec miner at the moment, who should be against this. At least according to some stereotypes here...)

There is no valid reason not to allow Covert Cynos in High Sec...
All reasons stated for keeping it banned, are easily eliminated.

In Highsec you simply give the Cyno-Guy a suspect-flag and additionally the Cyno needs a warmup-time for scanning the jamming-frequencies. So, basically in Highsec, the Cyno will come online with a massive delay of let's say 2 minutes (can be reduced by x12 skill to 60s at LVL5 -> reduction of 15s per level after Level1). The delay could be also multiplied with the security-level of a system (0.5 = half time). This should require minimal code-change and would give the security-levels more meaning. The delay is more than enough time to warp off. That's fair to those who are actively playing (and payin attention) and serves them right who are floating in space AFK...

Covert Cynos will also not increase ganking. Ganking requires cheap ships with tons o' DPS.

Trading and Distri Missions (which can be also done in low-sec where this is already possible...) will not really be affected. You can do that already using nearby low-sec system, but it's inefficient. Blockade-Runners are extremely fast and travel through gates defacto unseen (probably flash the overview... yes, but not more than that. Otherwise youre doing it wrong). Absolutely no change here. Besides that it requires alts and costs fuel.

I think this is an excellent Idea and really does give the small - medium sized group another tool they can use against larger groups of people (and yes these exist in highsec.) I also think it could add another player driven economic element in the sense that merc corps could sell their black ops services to alliances who are a in a war. I also appreciate the well thought and well presented OP.

Then I read some of the feedback comments and feel the need to clear up a few misleading statements. I feel that some people are unsure how Black Ops works and that it has distinct limitations.

1) Black ops is not a "big toy" or big group activity. It can become a big group, but then it isn't much of a secret anymore. Given that Blackops battleships have limited fuel supply you can only send a certain volume of ships per Blops BS. I don't recall the exact numbers off hand but its a few cruiser sized ships and some frigate sized ships, but nothing ungodly or blob like Titans are capable of.

2) "Cyno Alts" It takes a while to train up a cyno alt, you need cyno 5, you need racial frigate/cruiser 5, you need Covops/Recon, you probably want to train up some tanking mods, probably a covops cloak, chance are you will want ewar of the racial ship you chose, if you went for a bomber you probably want missile skills. Especially if you get a suspect timer and can freely engage. This is quite the training investment, and requires at least a 2nd character or a second account. The downside being this only works once, and you would need to get a new cyno alt.

But I thought about it and it does seem a bit "unfair" until I remembered that I have literally dozens of Alts of cyno characters from various affiliated entities saved into my contacts list. If they show up in system I see them and know they have lit cyno in the past, and have the capability to do so again, I also have the knowledge of potentially who is waiting on a Titan or Black Ops. Then it hit me...

3) Spying on your enemy. Not in the traditional sense of infiltrating a corp or alliance, but the actual function of sitting in their system with an alt of your own, watching their station. Once you know the m/o of what they want to do to you, you can see them undock their Black Ops BS, you can watch them get ready to jump into you, and know that it is going to happen. Counter intelligence is simple and easy. It also requires much less extensive training than a covert cyno alt. Simply train cloaking to 1, slap a protoype on an ibis and warp to their station at 100.

You have now eliminated the surprise element of the black ops gang. If you know the ships are active you can retreat, or you can use this information to bait out a fight and trap them. Once you get the name of the covert cyno alt, not only can you watch them on their front porch, you know everytime their covert cyno is in your system.

So frankly in conclusion I don't think either of the arguments put forth really are serious potential concerns. If you can't bother to keep tabs on an enemy you are at war with, and you let the same cyno burn your guys numerous times, you should probably just stay docked up through wars.

interesting idea but the only cons i can think of this is too easy for highsec wardec griefing force projection.. and would break highsec.. a little like how cynos in low break low.. and break null even more.

friendly bump!

Sec status hit - only for lighting it.
As I've mentioned in the OP, it would add some demand for security tags, thus increasing ratting activity in lowsec, thus populating lowsec a bit more at least.
And, as you mentioned, more popular BS + covcyno + maybe SOE ships combination --> potentially more highsec-lowsec traffic bypassing the gatecamps and allowing (for highsec 'bears) access to deeper and safer parts of lowsec.

I missed this thread :(

this is a great idea for many reasons. There is no reason to have a suspect flag for lighting a cyno, and no reason to have it change visibility on the overview.

The standard rule still applies here. If you don't want to be war decced, stay in the NPC corporations. Corporations should be for those who want to work together to achieve a goal, and be part of something greater. I see no reason not to have black ops fleets jumping around murdering pos' and pocos to claim sovereignty and passive income from high sec PI initiatives.