I have an idea for a special cloak for alpha players. I think there can be a special cloak that requires a gas that can be found in nullsec and wormhole. It also slows the ship down and disables every single module that is not the cloak. It should also have high energy requirement.
EDIT: requires gas from wh/null sites
No. They dont need cloaks
While being able to cloak as an alpha does sound cool, and I’ve had similar ideas in the past, the problem becomes when alpha accounts are left idle in hostile space as scouts. This in turn affects what gameplay the people in the system are willing to engage in while a hostile scout is present, and provides an unfair amount of info gathering potential for a free account to be capable of.
The best I could see would be a “Civilian Prototype Cloaking Device” that has worse stats than the regular prototype cloaking device, but can ONLY be used in High Sec. This would give newer alpha players a chance to see what cloaking is like in order to persuade them into going Omega while not introducing an inordinate amount of F2P cloak scout accounts to low, null and WH spaces.
Even that seems a bit pointless though, since the times you would use a cloak in high sec are extremely limited, and a prototype’s velocity reduction can’t even be used for cloak-trick warping afaik.
As the others have said, Alphas don’t need cloaks, and it would damage other aspects of the game. Any content CCP adds for Alphas should be treated as “new player content,” not as something that can be abused by veterans.
How can cloaking be abused if alphas could cloak?
Alpha accounts are free and you could leave cloaked scout accounts AFK in enemy systems for intel gathering and to make them stay on high alert due to an enemy scout being present, or make them waste a mobile observatory to remove your afk cloaked t1 frigate from system.
the alpha clones could be switched out periodically too… making locals unsure about the ability of the cloaked scout.
I suppose CCP could get around that, by making a civilian cloak that couldn’t be auto cycled, so it would have a cooldown after it’s 10sec or so cycle. But then it would really only be useful for the traveling mwd + cloak trick. I don’t really think it’s worth while for CCP to put dev time into making a module for such a niche purpose.
You are not allowed to multi box alpha accounts. Even if you have a omega subscription you are not allowed to use an alpha account simultanously. But what makes things even stranger is that its apparantly ok to afk cloak and scout as much as you want but only if you have an omega subcription?
People still get around it (and are breaking the rules) using virtual machines and spare PCs. The alpha clone restriction on cloaking at least mitigates the usefulness of accounts that are breaking those rules but haven’t been caught yet.
And yes, if someone is willing to spend their omega time AFK cloak scouting then that’s their choice. They can still get revealed by mobile observatories and removed eventually, but having to do that an infinite number of times for a virtually unlimited number of free accounts would be imbalanced.
Freeloaders shouldn’t get access to advanced mods, even if it’s tech 1.
Afaik the main complaint against AFK cloaking is that its allegedly risk free. But so is ratting etc. in a system without anyone in local pretty much.
If Alphas gain proper cloaking options its not like there will be a pilot in every null sec system cloaked gathering intel. But even if there was, so what?
The players that live in that system don’t know if that cloaked alpha account is actually a covert ops cyno ship that’s ready to blops them at any moment once they start ratting or mining, which impacts the gameplay that they’re willing to engage in, all because of an alpha account sitting AFK in cloak. This means that you’re essentially giving access to an unlimited number of psychological warfare tools for free.
You have enough time to leave if a cyno field opens up in your vicinity if not that seems like bad design
You’re completely missing the point. The mere presence of an AFK cloaked ship, even if they just threw a cloak on a corvette, is enough to impact the gameplay of other players. Being able to do that with an unlimited number of free accounts is too much of a powerful tool that can be used by corps and alliances against each other.
Even if you figure out that it really is an AFK corvette, and you start ignoring it, the next day it could turn out that they swapped for a cloaked recon with an omega character that has almost the same name and they drop super caps on you because you’ve lowered your guard.
There should be enough time to leave if a cyno field opens up in your vicinity and thus no reason to fear the afk cloaker on that basis
But what are you even doing in null sec without backup in case someone drops super caps on you?
Sounds like you want to rat, mine etc. in null without backup and without risk or any inconvenience and you want to go as far as to take away cloaking from all alpha players in order to accomplish that.
All of these cases are affected by the presence of AFK cloaked scouts and could be potentially caught by a cyno hot drop.
You seem like a player that wants the rewards of nullsec without any risk.
I’m not, these are things that concern everyone online in the system. If a blops drops on your mining op of 1 orca, 5 hulks and 2-3 cruiser escorts, you’re still boned.
Being more free to engage in content when no enemies are in local is common practice, no matter if you’re solo or in a null block. Changing this entire element of apparent safety by enabling free disposable cloak accounts is irresponsible and illogical. If you want to cloak that badly, play omega.
There should be enough time to leave if a cyno field opens up in your vicinity if not that seems like bad design.
But what are you doing in null sec in the first place if you are not able to handle someone dropping super caps on you?
Whether it’s bad design or not, the fact remains that alpha account cloaking would be far too great of an impact and should not exist. Ever.
And I think you’ve got some strange concept of Null sec life. Not every player that lives in null sec is part of Imperium or PandaFam. There are still smaller groups that operate in Null that can’t handle having a fleet of 10+ supers and 50+ subcaps show up suddenly in their system.