Here is an new proposal I just came up with during a discussion in my corp.
The idea is to renew the cynosural beacon to make it a more interactable meaningful experience for all involved without changing its main purpose and use.
Let me introduce you to the “Hellkustinda”:
The general idea is that a cynosural field is created wich is targetable and can then either be stablized by other ships with the scripted module or attempted to be closed. The situation now can turn into a “tug of war” for ships trying to keep up the cyno or close it down. The Cyno stays open until a threshold is met that closes the cyno. If the cyno is not contested it stays up just like it would at the moment, but should a situation arise where the cyno is contested but not closed, then a field of influence will be going up in the area around the beacon. This field would give all ships in its area of influence a debuff (reduction of tank resistances, less local and remote repping power, maybe other interesting stuff) much like the Abyssal effects work atm.
The strenght and range of this tug-of-war field would increase with the number of “Hellkustinda” modules fighting for control of the cyno field.
It is an active cyno module much like the one we already have but with three different use cases.
It can be scripted and works much like the HIC bubble.
Unscripted: A normal Cynosural Field Beacon is created, module consumes LO and disallows warp and sets your own speed to 0.
Scripted for Support (Green): the Module adds to the strenght of the Cynosural field making it harder for offenders to force a collapse of the field. Cycle time maybe around the 15 to 20 second mark. Range of the module is made so that you are always in the field of effect of the beacon. Movement and Warp allowed as normal.
Scripted for Collapsing (Red): The module attempts to destabilize the cynosural field to force a collapse and to make a debuff Zone appear. Cycletime, range etc. same as the Green script.
so different situations with this module would look like this:
A single ship sets up a cynosural field, uncontested: the cyno goes up just as normal and consumes LO. No AOE effects appear.
A ship with the intent to close the cyno warps in: The opposing ship locks the cyno beacon and activates its “red” scripted “Hellkustinda” module. A tug-of-war begins wich creates a debuff zone around the cyno affecting all ships in range including incoming jumping ships.
-The Opposing Ship is able to keep up the attempt to close the cyno: After a while the tug-of-war will be won and the cyno will be forcefully closed. The ship that intially opened the cyno is free from debuffs and the AOE field goes down.
Other ships help stabilize the cyno field: another ship with the “Hellkustinda” module scripted green comes in and helps stabilize the cyno field. The tug-of-war status will stabilized and the cyno will stay up but the strenght and range of the debuff field will grow. this works for each additional ship coming to aid the field or force a closure.
edit:
it would need some balance as to where the thresholds are set. but a general idea would be that in a 1 to 1 situation the cyno will be slowly closed (maybe 4 cycles of the attacker 60 seconds). Another threshold could be that if there are 3 more attacking modules than defending the cyno would close in a single cycle (15secs).
What would be the point if the ships all jump through it in the first 20 seconds? Long before you’re able to even notice the cyno going up, dscan it to check, warp to it, lock it up, and then attempt to close it.
you could either allow this or make the module have a warm-up time before jumps are possible. i.e. the creation of the beacon would take 20 seconds before it pops up
I am proposing a change to cynos as I said at the start of the thread.
I want to open up more options and interaction for players engaging the cyno without disrupting its use alltogether. I am of the opinion that one of the problems atm is that there is little interaction around the cyno mechanic and not many ways to stop it. The cycle times and and stats are just a proposal and can be set at any value that makes sense really
As someone who is proposing a change, you need to show why it’s a problem in the first place and why your change would provide a solution to said problem.
The only point you’ve brought here is “there is little interaction”, to which I ask, “why does there need to be?”
The “not many ways to stop it” is already solved by just killing the ship that’s lighting the cyno, just like how it’s always been since Cyno modules were able to be fitted on ships, so I don’t see that as a problem.
The only cue visual cue for upcoming cyno right now is recon appearing in your overview after decloaking. Next one would be said overview bloating. And I do not belive that that is right…
Maybe we need heavy cyno battleships which would be able to open a cyno instantly yet would be unable to cloak, and give recons a big delay before cyno is functional.
As for original idea, being FC is hell as is IMO. IMO only though, I never ran fleets outside of small scale.
This is a rather silly and convoluted idea for for many reasons in addition to those already described. >>>IF<<< a similar concept were to be introduced, a Cyno-jamming module would be more straight forward.
That’s just how I feel. I can’t toss a coin in?
Most of the experience I have with cynos is my solo BS being dropped on. You have way more of the same experience, so maybe you know better. I digress though. Cyno is too easy to take advantage of atm. At least some additional visual cues could help, there are still some newbies in this game.
This is a place for ideas from the playerbase. I do not "need " to fulfill any requirements other than believing that this idea could be the initial spark to a positive change in the game. If you feel otherwise you are free to propose your own ideas of course, voice your opinion on mine or express your own. What is your opinion on the current situation of the cyno mechanics at the moment in eve? Do you see need for change? What will that change be like? Share your ideas Scoots.
You seem to assume that cynos being open for a long time is of benefit to the person lighting the cyno.
This assumption is inherently flawed.
Not only do most ships jumping to a cyno do so as soon as they are able, but the longer a cyno is lit, the more risk the ship lighting it faces. And now that only relatively expensive hulls can light regular cynos, reducing cyno cycle time would be a benefit.
Remember, ships bonused for cynos get a bonus that is a reduction in cyno duration, not an increase.
If your proposal were to be implemented, the most likely use case would be friendly recons scripting red in order to drop the cyno as quickly as possible in order to reduce the risk to the ship lighting it…and that fundamentally alters the current balance of jump drive mechanics.
well of course that goes both ways. a solution could be that the debuff of the ship lighting the cyno endures longer than the cyno is up. but the main thing is the debuff wich makes all ships more vulnerable as the cyno is closed. the times of the cycles and stuff needs to be set right but I dont see the possiblity of closing your own cyno early as a negative in this case. you will have to expose three ships plus the cyno ship to be able to close it down the fastest.
So here’s the other thing that you’re overlooking: do you realize how powerful and rare area debuffs are in EvE? Outside of warp disruption, these are effects reserved for Titans. Your change would effectively give Force Recons and BlOps the ability to throw around precision AOE debuffs wherever they wanted.
See that tightly packed squad of enemy ships over there? Yeah, warp in two recons, have one light a cyno and then have the other one red script it. Boom, you just AoE debuffed that squad, and you did it with CovOps platforms.
If you think for a moment that players won’t use this to their advantage you are grossly mistaken.
Still a hard no on this. You clearly have not thought this through sufficiently.
well that is what I meant with opening up cyno mechanics to more interaction. I know eve and eve players and yes they will find ways use gamemechanics in creative ways. considering the way CCP advances their game those effects will only be more in the future and ofc at some point be player controlled or at least influenced. the trick with this is to make it not so overwhelmingly strong as to have players abuse it. but this can easily be balanced by setting the debuffs accordingly or by setting a hard cap.
if you wanted to use this offensively you would need to pin down the opposing fleet in the area itself while having the cyno be immobile etc. as stated above it would work much like a HIC bubble and would be way harder to set up amidst a hostile fleet. ships using the scripts would be booshable also so theres plenty of room to work both for and against this mechanic
But here’s the thing. No one cares about your feelings.
If you claim there’s a problem, show us that there’s a problem.
If you say there’s a problem, and refuse to point out anything that makes a situation a problem, and resort to, “well that’s how I feel.” No one will take your claim seriously.
I feel like this isn’t a problem. See? No one cares.
What do you mean “take advantage of”?
What does newbies have anything to do with it?
Visual cues could help… with what? The Cyno icon appearing on the overview and a bright ball of light appearing on screen isn’t enough? What would it help with?
It’s fine.
No.
You seem to assume that there needs to be a change for some reason.
I don’t have to provide alternative to criticize bad ideas.
But here’s the problem: it can be abused regardless. Make the debuffs weak and players will use them to rapidly take down their own cynos. Make the debuffs too strong and you’ve got Covert Debuff Bombs.
There is no balance here because either solution is bad.
If you want to interact with a ship lighting a cyno…try shooting it…
Thats… rich, coming from a person who sent me to scrounge up some asb filaments in gammas where they do not drop.
Not all people are full-fledged FCs as soon as they started to gather some roaming parties.
When your fleet is about to be dropped, every second matters, as chances to escape are slim. As much of reaction time should be given as possible. For example, whole screen flashing for a moment would help, and would not hurt for sure.
While I do not see big fleet battles possible without cynos, I’d like them out of small scale. Idealy done so cynos are almost impossible to pull out on the same grid. So I welcome any idea which makes them more difficult to use for hot-dropping.
Also I’d like the intent to drop someone to be made visible, not just predictable. Would not hurt fleet battles whatsoever, as there it is obvious. I do understand that cloaky drops and such is a bread-and-butter fun for some people, it ruins some for me. Democracies work by people “pulling the blanket” in opposing directions, so I do not feel bad about putting this out.
Also, I do not feel that the fact that you have to check whether or not you will be dropped by people in local with a third party website is an intended gameplay.
I guess, cyno discussions are far from being new, and I am not sure I have the energy or knowledge to participate…
I don’t control RNG drop rates in Abyssal that you’ve decided not to take advantage of. If you feel offended, that’s your problem.
Again, the cyno appears on the overview AS SOON AS IT IS LIT, what more do you need? Do you want CCP to come up with a way to read players minds and warn you if someone is thinking of lightning a cyno?
On top of this, there are only a limited number of ships that can light certain cynos. Memorize them. When they appear, congrats, you have a good idea of which cynos they can light and react accordingly.
Yeah, this is hilariously dumb. I’m not gonna waste my time on this point.
You want a player’s INTENT to drop on someone to be “made visible”.
So again, you want CCP to be able to read player’s minds and warn you when they’re intending to drop? Why don’t you just assume they’ll always drop on you, covers all the bases and doesn’t expect CCP to do the impossible.
You’re right. It’s not intended gameplay. If we operated solely on what CCP did, you wouldn’t even have access to that information in the first place. But instead of being thankful for the members of the community who’ve set up these 3rd party services to provide you that information, you’re whining at CCP because they can’t do the impossible.
People which have the most justified opinion on cynos are probably fine with the way they work. But they are not the only ones playing this game. I do agree as well that the way cynos work atm is about perfect for fleet battles.
But for example, recons not showing on d-scan does not bring noticeable impact there. By visible intent I mean that even cloaked recons should be visible on D, as an exeption. It’s against the lore, but not against the balance.