A solution that does not involved Structures or arrays.
So there has been a problem in Eve that has persisted for many years.
Cloaky camping, the act of sitting cloaked in a system for hours at a time, some times AFK, sometimes not.
Cloaky Camping adversely affects game play in several ways:
- Prevents PVE players from being willing to undock, thus reducing the potential for content.
- Gives FCs advanced warning of hostile fleets by allowing eyes to remain in hostile staging systems watching staging structures, thus increasing their evasion chances and reducing potential combat.
- Gives advanced warning to PVE players in pockets causing them to dock up in advance of a hostile fleet entering the area, thus decreasing the potential for content (possibly applies to AFK miners/ratters, and or botters)
- Reduces willingness of people to move assets through space via stargates, jump bridges, and/or pharolux cynosural beacons, reducing the potential for content.
While many suggestions have been put forward, nothing has yet been done about this and i feel it’s about time something is.
The main issue that needs to be addressed is the act of sitting in one spot cloaked for many hours at a time usually AFK, or with little to no input from the user, allowing a single person with dozens of alts to maintain a presence across great swaths of space with very little effort or input.
Or to put it another way, a cloaky camper requires attention only 1-5% of the time it is in a system, where as any counter to this potential threat requires constant attention 100% of the time.
The advantage goes to the group who is taking none of the risk as opposed to the group who is trying to live in, operate out of, and maintain sov in the area.
I feel it would be wrong to adversely affect those who are legitimately at their computer for one reason or another, evading hunting parties, etc, so i suggest the following:
First the things that will not be changed:
- Cloaked ships maintain all on grid properties, such as disappearing from the screen, being unable to be approached, orbited, etc
- Cloaked Ships will still be decloaked when an object is within 2000m of them.
- Cloaked ships can still maneuver as normal, warping cloaked where currently able, and with no additional speed reductions over what is currently applied by the cloaking device they are using.
- A cloaked ship is still able to be warped to by a fleet member.
Now for the changes:
- Cloaking modules now have to be loaded with a charge for the specific racial sensor strength of the ship they are fitted to; EG Rader for Amarr, Ladar for Minmitar, Gravametric for Caldari, Magnometric for Gallente, etc.
- These charges are a consumable with a volume of 0.001m3 each.
- Cloaked ships appear only as an “Unidentified Cloaked Object” on the probe scanner at all times.
- Each cloaking device reduces a ships signature radius by a set amount as a property inherent to the module, and not any loaded charge.
- Each cloaking devices consumes charges at a rate of 1 charge per second, but can hold variable amounts of charges according to their meta level:
- A cloaking device can continue to run without charges loaded once the charges have run out, but will only receive the signature radius reduction bonus and no sensor strength bonus.
Prototype: Can hold 4800 charges (4.8m3), with a 30% signature radius reduction, and a 60 second reload time.
Improved: Can hold 5400 charges (5.4m3), with a 50% signature radius reduction, and a 45 second reload time.
Covert Ops: Can hold 7200 charges (7.2m3), with a 95% signature radius reduction, and a 30 second reload time.
Faction: Can hold 10800 charges (10.8m3), with a 99% signature radius reduction, and a 3 second reload time. (Can only be fitted to a Battleship class hull or larger.)
Officer: Can hold 14400 charges (14.4m3), with a 99.95% signature radius reduction, and a 1 second reload time. (Can only be fit to a capital class hull or larger.)
These charges increase the racial signal strength of the ship they are fitted to by 1,000% while the cloaking device is active.
The signature radius reduction inherent to the module itself means that a ship does not necessarily have to have the correct racial charge loaded, or any charge at all, to have their signature radius reduced, but they will not receive the sensor strength bonus without the specific charge.
The aim of these changes is to make it possible to probe down ships which are maintaining an AFK presence in a system, while making it possible to continue to evade hostiles and maintain a cloaked presence in system with a small amount of input from the account holder.