Player Features and Ideas Discussion

So was thinking about this.

Context
Im pretty much solo the game. Its the playstyle that suits me. I fully accept that there is huge benefit from having one or more extra accounts, however I much prefer having one character and only playing that.

From my friends that usually solo, most of them have a second account for various things, but mostly to scout ahead at gates. I'm not taking probing, simply flying their alt through a gate in a shuttle/cloaky to check to see if its camped.

Not being able to do this on my sole account often prevents me from doing things that I'd love to, e.g. flying an "expensive ship" into a wormhole/low sec purely for the fact that if its camped on the other side, Im done for.

Proposal
I always wished that I could fire a probe through a gate that would give me a quick, short range d-scan or even a local scan.

So what do people think about having something like this? It could be an expensive skill to train so only those that solo a lot would go for it. Maybe you need to sacrifce a rig in order to use the probe? Maybe the more you train into it, the further range it would scan and return results?

Does it nerf gate camps? Maybe a little bit the camp itself, but I feel it would encourage more solo people to fly more expensive stuff into WH/Low/Null so it would positively impact that content.

Just some thoughts. I know that if I had something like this, I would be much more inclined to be more adventurous going into low sec/wormholes with more expensive stuff and not only restrict myself to cloaky/fast ships

I'm afraid I'm -1 on this too. I do sympathise, really, but it's too much.

-> Extent of the scan could be grid only, or even smaller. It could even just return a "number of entities", it doesn't have to show ship types, or even if they are ships or something else. It could be minimal information, just enough for a small taste of what might or might not be on the other side. Some small tibit of info to encourage you to maybe jump thought with something fancier/bigger than the usual stuff

-> I was thinking it could be a module, so maybe you would need to sacrifice one gun (assuming pvp focus). If it hits the module fitting too much, then a rig is an option. It could be part of the Probes window, with the button greyed out unless you have the skills/rig (feels weird, but its one suggestion if its not a module). Also it could be made unavailable to non combat ships


I understand and mostly agree with the comments about "you choose solo, you live with the consequences". Some of the consequences I fully accept; no booster alt, no probing alt, no transport alt, no trader alt etc. etc. However the reason this "probe" idea popped into my head is that I believe it would create more diverse content for everyone, no more sticking to cloaky or small fast ships. Better variety of things to shoot as people would be more confident to fly a wider variet of ships around.

Havent fully thought it through obviously, hence me picking all your intelligent brains!

The most i would support for this problem would be having probes that work for wormholes, not gates.

I can support this with following:
- umbers returned are nameless entities with no distance shown based on the default "All" overview setting, meaning even wrecks get counted as a nameless entity
- Distance is the maximum Dscan distance at 360 degrees
- Has to be a high slot module with fitting akin to a large neut or equivalent

Not sure if worth it.

It's an intriguing idea, if it were restricted to wormholes only and worked similar to as follows:

High slot module - must target wormhole and activate module
Sends a single probe (charge) through module can only be reloaded if you pickup your probe, or it is destroyed
Upon reaching the other side has to setup in the same time frame that cloak/invulnerability would expire for a ship.
Is visible/lockable/killable by whatever is on the other side which if the player hasnt scanned yet will return no results (similar to if nothing was there anyway)
After setup is finished can click a single ping (using a dscan type window) which would display only the number of ships (not type/hullsize etc.)

Those camping will have the option of killing probe and waiting to see if whatever was on the other side got a proper scan or comes through thinking all is clear. Or alternatively preemptively jumping into to kill what may be waiting on the otherside (perhaps using a probe of there own to check at the same time.)

Either side can make a somewhat educated decision on what to do ie. A solo player looking to fight a gang may see 3 or 4 ships and be like, "imma fight that," then get through and realize whatever is there roflpwns him/her anyways.

Could even add a range restriction to the targeted wormhole. Make it so you must be no more than 10km away to run the scan or even send the probe through.

Make it use the Expanded Probe Launcher, 8m³ in size and give it a level of uncertainty in the scan result, similar to scanning down ships with signature radius, ECCM and scan strength. Only results above a certain percentage actually show up. Also add a time component so it will become infeasible to use in a pressured situation.

It's purpose would be to replace the need for scout alts and avoid getting blapped by lol-camps.

+1 from me.


I also like the idea of just asking the gate though.

"Hey gate, anyone on the other side?"
"Yes."
"Fancy being a bit more helpful?"
"No."