Player Features and Ideas Discussion

IMO, local is too omniscient. We need to put some ambiguity, some deception, and some mystery back into this game. At the same time, we need a system taht provides a balance to both the hunter's and the hunted. I believe this system accomplishes just such a thing!!

Replace local with an Intel chart based on a ship's automated scanner system.

The Main Mechanic:

• Each ship has an automated scanner that updates every 10-15 seconds.
• Whenever a ship enter's space (Undocking, Gates, et. al.), when its scanned, its added to the Intel Chart as "Unknown".
• You gain more information from your automated ship scanner based on Range-to-ship.
Example, at 14 au, you know ship type. At 4 au you know Pilot Name & Affiliation.

Additional mechanics for balancing:

• All intel is SHARED with fleet members. Example: When John scans Bob, John transmits Bob's info to his fleet mates!


• Pilots docked in station do NOT show up in the list, until someone flies their ship within scan range of the station. At which point, they show up just fine, but with "Docked" as their ship type. Unfleeted Docked Pilots only get Station Based info, i.e., they know ships in space, and only know ship types/pilots of ships that bother to fly close to station.


• Ships and modules could provide bonuses and penalties to the scanning range and periods of the automated scanner. For example, CovOps and Interceptors could get a significant role bonus to their scanning period (say 3-5 seconds) and scanning ranges. Fitting a cloak might provide a penalty to the scanning period and/or ranges (50+% penalty).


• Intel Timer: Intel on a ship/pilot is maintained for 3 minutes. If you scan down the ship type and/or pilot in System A, and they leave system (by gates or by docking/undocking), but return to the system within 3 minutes, you retain intel on that pilot as long as they are in the same ship.

Other Thoughts:

• WSpace: for whatever lore reason, automated scanners don't function in WH space... you only have the delayed local chat.


• But I want to share intel with my allies: Then fleet up with them...


• Cloaked ships: Cloaked ships (even gate-cloaked ships) show up as unknown until they become scanned (requiring them to be uncloaked). This means a SB could be cloaked on grid next to you, and you won't necessarily know their ship type or pilot info unless they decloak. But you know there is an unknown ship in system... Interestingly, you can now afk cloaky camp your allies...


• Hisec Intel: Hisec is very crowded, identifying threats (war targets) while missioning in say, Dodixie, would become a huge hassle: The number of unknowns would be overwhelming... To simplify this for hisec, concord automatically identifies and transmits ship and pilot info.


• Switching Ships: Only piloted ships appear in the intel list. Boarding/switching ships in local will reset your ship information to unknown.


• DScanner continues to work as is... Perhaps with the caveat that max d-scan range is the same range as your automated ship-type scanner range.

Potential Intel chart:

___________________________________
Local Channel: (# of piloted Ships in Space )
___________________________________
Ship Type -- Affiliation -- Pilot Name -- Portrait.

• Unknown -- Grey -- Unknown -- Unknown
• Taranis -- Grey -- Unknown -- Unknown
• Raven -- Red -- Bob Lee -- [Pic]
• Docked -- Blue -- Johneey -- [Pic]

___________________________________
Delayed Local Chat:
[Bob]: My name is boB!
___________________________________
Broadcast: [Yes/No checkbox] (collapse-able, so this can be hidden to save space after it is set)
[Ship Type] - [Char Name]
___________________________________


Allow sorting by Ship Type, Affiliation, and Pilot Name.

Configuration options:
-- Chose whether "Unknowns" at the top or bottom of the list.
-- Can Create custom order for sorting by affiliation.
-- Allow Drag and Drop of info into chat channels!

Please post any positive or negative feedback to this!

Friendly Bump

Things I like about this:
I like the ability to hide your identity, as well as the ability to lie about it!!!
It actually creates an intel tool, where an enemy gang compositions can be easily captured.


Things I dislike about this:
It feels like your just creating a second overview... One overview already takes up too much of my screen, I really don't want a second one!

1.) I moreless agree with this statement. CCP pretty much announced plans to implement a method to hunt down afk cloakers, and any tools that do this must be balanced such that cloakers can still traverse gate camps just as effectively as they do now, and it must be balanced that when a ratter in system cloaks, taking the time to find and decloak them is costly (i.e. typically not worth the energy for a standard roaming gang, but worth it to purge your system.) Cloaks must also be balanced, such that the prey of a cloaker is alerted to the possibility of a threat, but not to the immediancy nor level of the threat. I don't want a system where stealth bombers are the new standard tacklers!

2.) I firmly believe that a careful balance must be struck between predator and prey. If its to easy to catch prey, they die off, if its too hard, the predators die off. The system needs to be setup so unalert and ignorate/incompetent PvEers die regularly. However, alert and competent pilots should have a very high (95+%) survivability, where their demise usually happens do to the unfortunately timing of an NPC scrambler. IMO, instantly knowing the new local is an enemy is unbalanced towards the prey!

3.) IMO, the intel system should quickly alert a person to the presence of another pilot (i.e. a potential threat), but they don't deserve to immediately know if the new local is an allie or enemy. I would restate point #3 as such: "EVERYONE deserves a level of intel on par with their efforts." I think forming up a gang and putting a scout on the incoming gates to monitor incoming traffic is an important part of intel gathering. I think a new gang flying in scan range of a station to determine how many pilots could undock and join a fight is an important part of intel gathering. Just because you have sovereignty, or a POS, does NOT entitle you to free intel. The benefits of owning space is you should know your entry/exit points, and have a method & mechanism to diseminate intel on incoming and outgoing visitors.

4.) No... I disagree with that statement entirely. System defenders should be timely alerted to the presence of a potential threat.. They deserve tools to investigate it, and share intel on the threat. However, it is their responsibility to determine if that potential threat is friend or foe. It is their responsibility to determine the magnitude of the threat. It is their responsibility to get safe when need be, and it is their responsibilty to evict threats.

I like this idea!!!

+1

"Should it be as effective as an intel tool as our current system?"
-- IMO, No... I think our current tool is too Omniscient.

"Large amounts of intel combined with intel sharing:"
I would limit the Intel Tool to sharing within a single system. Rather than having a scrolling intel (which would become quickly overwhelming), I would leave it as a table. Having the table fill up with information would not be any worse than having local fill up with 100's of new pilots. And I would leave unpiloted ships off the intel scanner. The collapsed local channel now, with an extra column for ship type would be perfect IMO... You could assess information quickly as it became available, and except for extreme circumstances, it wouldn't be overwhelming.

How would someone be alerted to being probed?
D-scan.... I don't think they need an automated tool for this.

Alternatively, how would someone in a mission with gates EVER get caught?
They are scrammed by an NPC?? Being aware of your surroundings and flying smart SHOULD make it very difficult to get caught. I don't think we need Open season on PvE'ers. I'd like more of a fog-of-war atmosphere though, leaving more room for people to make mistakes, and new tools for deception.

If you can see holes in the system, please point them out... I'm aiming for a balance...

Crossposting from your vote thread, just because I love to hear my own voice, and I like to brainstorm with people:

+1 for change local.

Since everyone is throwing their two cents in, I'd like it if...:

Local displays number of people in a system, but not who they are or their affiliation in any way, unless they are foolish enough to start talking. Like a wormhole, except you know that other people are or aren't there in general.

Intel is gathered through scanning. Not necessarily probe scanning. D-SCAN provides the name of ship, the shiptype at 360 degrees. Let it start getting more specific intel if you actually narrow on someone. If you get someone at 90 degrees, have it reveal if war target or not, alliance name at 30, etc. etc. You get the idea, the numbers aren't important at this point and we can hash out those details later.

This means that people will see someone is in system with them. They scan... Maybe your alliance all uses the same prefix on ship names, so you see he has the same prefix and you feel safe.... Or do you? Could that be a goon who just happened to put KRY. in front of their name? You'll have to decide whether to actually spend a second gathering that intel.

Once you have the person's details, stuff starts to appear in local. When all you have is the most base level, there is a generic name, and it mentions the ship type and ship name next to it. As you get more info it starts to become more specific, until you reach the full level of intel on that person, at which point they appear in local as normal.

Once the person leaves the system, any data you gathered on them is lost. This benefits and hurts both parties the same way. I know that enemy left the system, which is handy. He knows he can change his ship name and jump back in, and I have no way to know it was him.

+1

I think your ideas are basically sound, but I believe balance must be observed to favor group effort, over individual effort.

Remember, gameplay is important, but logic makes things feel right.

Consider this:
For close range: You can determine ship types, and friendly status, of anyone automatically.

For medium range, you get a free ship type, but to learn Friend or Foe, you have to active scan.
(medium is nice, in that seeing a stranger prompts you to scan to feel safe)

For long range, you must manual scan to get ship type. Up to you if you wanna try getting close enough to see if they are friendly...

What are the ranges? Not sure what works, and different ships might be better at scanning, so for them short range is a lot bigger.

My opinion is each ship type's sensor strength should determine the ranges. It makes sense that in fleets, some ships should be present just to gather intel due to their superior sensors.

Electronic Warfare ships have a new value, as they can scramble the ability of enemy craft to see your ships. It's not a cloak, but you are hidden from scanning. When active scanning, ships get a warning that it is being jammed in a certain direction.

It is range based.. but I honestly don't think that's a big problem. If you assume a 10 second scan period, and the 4 au "now-I-know-who-you-are" scan range, the reaction time you have is small enough that there's a good chance you'll get caught. However, if you treated the new unknown as a potential hostile from the moment they entered local, you typically have the time to get safe before they land!