Let’s take this down to the simplest points. Do people AFK cloak without local (i.e. in WH or when local chat was buggered)?
The answer is no, they don’t.
So if you change local, AFK cloaking goes away without any module changes required. At all.
Now consider if you were to change cloaks. The ships that are designed to use them will need rebalancing across the board, as the current cloak mechanics are integral to their function. That’s ignoring all the others who use cloaks.
Cloaks do not need to change, local does. We have definitive evidence of this from local chat screwing up in null.
That’s not the issue though. Reward should relatively = risk, right?
What’s the risk to being cloaked, besides real life compilations? I see no risk, so why is there a reward?
You gotta learn which people posting here aren’t posting in good faith. Don’t even bother engaging them.
And yet, if you remove local you remove part of the community, which you know, is one of the main (and flawed) arguments as to why the cloak isn’t the problem, it’s the player. That player should get more friends they say, sure is hard to strike up a conversation if local becomes null and void as a place to talk, doesn’t it?
Full support means nothing unless we get ideas/examples to work off of. Would you happen to have any?
You sure your not a bot? Because you sound like a bot.
Great, then remove local. Nobody will AFK cloak again.
Because bad players are unable to secure their space and insist on solo PvE farming in easy targets. This is a reward that is fully within the control of the players, and complaining about it is like complaining that AFKing in station is overpowered because there is zero risk and people give you a billion ISK just for sitting there.
Hardly anyone talks in local anyway, outside of Jita scammers. And this problem is easily solved by making local have no members shown unless that player talks. You can still use it as a chat channel, but you can’t immediately see who is in the system by looking at it.
Oh he’s posting in good faith and made some very good posts. Some people aren’t worth engaging, that’s true, but the guy I responded there to was.
Yep, removing local will remove the reward for AFK cloaking. I’m not sure if removing people from local is the best choice, but it is a possible solution for the issue of AFK cloaking.
I have to once again “lol” the connection between local and cloaking.
The only connection is really anecdotal. “If you didn’t have local you wouldn’t know they are there.”
While true and humorous it would not change the use of cloaking one bit. In fact I would say in WH space people cloak more because they don’t know who else is out there.
Let’s stick to reality, the only reason this thread exists is because there are people who are afraid to undock if anyone is in the system.
Those pixel cowards are the driving factor behind this entire thread.
And this friends is why CCP will never take this topic seriously.
They cloak, but they don’t AFK cloak. The only reason to AFK cloak instead of logging out when you go AFK is to mitigate the ability to use local to identify when you are an active threat. Remove local and there is no longer any reason to stay logged in if you are going AFK for more than a short time.
Do you wormhole? Most of the time the only way to know someone has entered the WH system your in is because they appear on dscan for a brief moment, before cloaking up, after jumping into the WH. The reason to be cloaked and AFK is because when you log out your ship appears on dscan, and when you log back in… you guessed it… your ship appears on dscan, thus notifying any potential targets (or hostiles) that you are present.
That’s the opposite of what I’d like to see happen with AFK cloaking. We need less reasons for people to play this game AFK, not even more reasons. Encouraging people to stay AFK cloaked long enough that they disappear in local after a while is going to encourage even more AFKing.
Instead, if people were to be removed from local immediately or a minute after cloaking, then AFK cloaking would become useless.
Cloaks are the only defence carriers have if someone bubbles the Fort. Because Carrier tank is so weak. You go to a safe, cloak, & wait for the response fleet.
Obviously Carriers have just had a nerf too. And they are a touch pricey. Make carriers too flimsy and no-one will fly them any more.
So… I think fuel for cloaking would ruin the game. There has to be an option for someone to evade PvP ( or at least try ), or they’ll just go play Star Citizen instead.
And no, I am not interested in dank killmails for newbies. Someone has to pay for that killmail after all.
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As for the AFK crowd I’m not fussed. Skill yourself into a strat cruiser and you can evade both bubbles and other gate-camps. Job done.
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Leave cloaks as they are. They work fine. No need to break another meta just to appease a bunch of kids who have no intention of paying a subscription.
You realize all this requires is making it more dangerous to be cloaked.
But we’ve got a buncha babies that need the perfect security that cloaking provides. Can’t be found by probes, can’t use fuel, can’t generate heat, can’t do anything but be invincible while out in space. In their safe space, mind you. And it’s very safe.
Cloaking doesn’t need a hard counter, but instead a soft one. One that penalizes you for staying cloaked, not being cloaked. Cloaking is a tool with no drawbacks. But who am I kidding, how many thousand posts in this thread are the same people saying the same things?
Where is the harm in adding a little risk? We can nerf anything PVE into the ground, but the moment you touch ANYTHING PVP related, these kids throw fits so powerful they generate upvotes through seismic activity and loud wailing.
