Neither do I and I have never said so.
Both agree but still canât agree.
I see cloaky camping as the last resort to say stuff you to the null blks. MehâŚ
the solution itâs simple: remove local chat, evryone itâs now an afk miner/ratter in null sec
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But that will end what numbers are left.
While Iâm not opposed, we know what Blackout did to the game. Itâs not a good idea to try that again.
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It doesnât even matter anymore. CCP is going to do what CCP is going to do.
Take it or leave it.
CCP could have just implement a structure that allow local chat number to appearâŚbut require defending and null sec donât like it
so, how will this all change with the new ships, in particular the one that can warp while cloaked?
Changes nothing.
The Odysseus can indeed warp cloaked (like many other ships in the game). It also is way too expensive for anyone to AFK cloaky camp in; one mobile observatory deployed while youâre not paying attention causes you to lose billions.
Can we let this thread stay dead?
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While I agree, I do like whine with dinner sometimes! 
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I had forgotten to add that I was mainly thinking about wormhole space (and I was not aware of the price tag 
).
Yea, the Odysseus is going to be an expensive cloaky.
Also if youâre talking about wormhole space: AFK cloaking has never been relevant there. Without local chat there is no reason to stay logged in cloaked for hours while you arenât paying attention. It makes zero difference if you do.
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You are completely wrong. Basically every corp uses perma-cloak surveillance alts to prepare their OPs. They stay cloaked watching connections, sites or stations for hours, minimized and totally AFK. But they alert the owner via sound-effect if anything jumps through the hole or warps on that grid.
Perma-cloaking is highly used in JSpace! I have seen even groups that monitor grids over night (being AFK for 10 hours) and record the whole thing on video stream. Next day they check the sound-track for events and jump to the time to completely track who in which ships have passed that hole, if they left again though the same or another hole or maybe logged out in the hole.
Note I said âwhile you are not paying attentionâ. Thatâs the idea of AFK cloaked ships in space, they arenât paying attention.
What you describe is a situation where people leave ships in space while paying attention somehow. Either they pay attention through sound cues or by streaming everything they see or rewatching the recording.
I can see why people would do that in wormhole space, but itâs different than the usual âAFK cloaking in order to have your name show in local all day so people never know when you are activeâ, which is irrelevant in wormhole space. I hope we can agree on that.
If you ask me having a ship cloaked in space for hours without input that does nothing but either automatically alert players whenever something happens, or stream what the account sees should be impossible. Or at least it should have a counter.
The purpose is different, yes.
I personally would like to see more counterplay options for both purposes tho. ^^
Neither forcing others on their toes or holding up a defense-counterfleet all the time just by âbeing afk in localâ should be possible, nor leaving chars on a grid for hours to later check all activity in a video stream.
In my personal book I would balance cloaking in a very easy way:
- once you activate cloak, capactior recharge is set to ZERO
- each second of cloak does cost x amount of cap, open for modification by a lot of variables
This means, the total duration of being cloaked is limited. Period.
And now we have endless options to balance that system to whatever target time we want. Ships having boni to cap-use under cloak, different cap-usage per type or size, people can create special fits with a high cap buffer to stay cloaked longer or with a cap-booster to re-stock capacitor for the next period quickly. And and and⌠it allows for a LOT of tactical depth.
And really, no single scenario where you could say ânaah this would be impossible then!!!â couldnât be solved by that system. If the player made the right choices, did the right preparation.
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how can someone be alerted if heâs afk?
Turn volume to 100%. Put cloaked ship next to wormhole.
Go away from keyboard and do the dishes or watch Netflix on the other side of the room.
Be alerted as the wormhole makes itâs wobble sound when someone jumps through.
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this isnât my definition of afk. afk means you are nowhere near your computer and have no means to react. if youâre just sitting on the couch youâre not really afk, you still pay attention to the game.
In the situation I described youâre literally away from your keyboard and not paying attention to playing the game.
While AFK is a scale of âoff to workâ or âasleep in bedâ kind of AFK on one side, or on the other side an âalt-tabbed out browsing redditâ or âalt-tabbed playing another gameâ kind of AFK, I would say being elsewhere in the room away from your PC is definitely on the âclearly AFKâ side of that scale.
Doesnât matter what your definition is.
It is enabling long-term surveillance without actually paying any attention or binding any effort to it. You only need to look if something happens and can do whatever you want elsewhere until that happens. Because you get a sound alert when it happens.
Thats pretty strong intel for a cloak-module that simply cannot be countered in JSpace and is incredibly inefficient to counter in KSpace (because the CovOps doing it de-facto does cost less than a Mobile Observatory and can be replaced within a few minutes anyway).
And it isnât even restricted to surveillance, it can be done with cloaky combat ships, cloaky rollers as doorstoppers, Cynoships and so on. Itâs just not balanced.