Mobile Observatories – Live on Singularity

[Derath_Ellecon]

@Capitaine_Charle_Patenaude

the 15 minutes to the decloak invul is too long, the structure itself just last 1h30. a 2 minutes invul timer should be way more then enough

Is it an invuln or just higher resistance? I haven’t had time to test enough to know for sure.

There are plenty of active scenarios where having some protection IMO is valid. I’m getting actively chased by hunters, but I also REALLY gotta go. It isn’t safe to log off. I would be hard pressed to run upstairs to the bathroom, pee, and make it back down in 2 minutes. At that would probably require not washing afterwards (eww gross).

This isn’t here to actively hunt cloakers, its to combat those who used to sit afk for 23 hours a day. You only need to decloak them once to get rid of them.

[Tima_Shailee]

if its an instant decloak and instant worpable then cloaking would be nearly useless, reduces the game variety by a lot
apart from that u are on something, this ranom chance of decloaking is a bit silly
something like a charge up would have more sense, like a countdown, by the time its 0 either get out, shoot the thing, or it fries cloaks

[Casper_DaGhost]

I have personally been waiting for this for months. Very glad to see this implemented. Now to see how its balanced.

[Wadiest_Yong]

As expected, it’s a simple counter, not to AFK-cloaking, but to ALL cloaking. Why ? Because using the ship, flying around, dscanning actively, making bookmarks, any kind of At Keyboard activity does not prevent the active pilot from being decloaked. The only thing that prevents it is decloaking (LOL) and recloaking, or leave system.

Yes, so-called AFK cloakers (in reality most of them were FU cloakers) will be hampered. But any fleet ops with stealthy ships that require presence in the system for a while (and 15 min is nothing in this game) get compromised. Cloaky scouts, cloaky cynos, SB squadrons on fleet movement interdiction assignments in pipes, bridging blops on standby in staging systems or systems where the operation occurs, support ships with fuel, cloaked gate and hole camps/sentinels all see their risk drastically increased, if not made virtually impossible. And those are VERY ACTIVE pilots.

There is nothing in this game that can be done without collateral damage to more than a single “play style”. This one affects everyone with a cloak, active or not. A hunting solo sb, caught by premature decloaking while sneaking up on a target, is either as good as dead (15 sec recloak) or has his mouth full of dirt instead of target.

The decision at the time to remove automatic intel from the contacts list (online/offline) was not a bad move. It pushed for more active gameplay, with “eyes in system”. This new deployable, however, can create a fog of war in staging systems, the same thing that made jump fatigue seem like a wise decision. And that is also a bad move.

Corp ops for income, like anom running ? Deploy x number of observatories and stay safe for the duration of the entire ops. The systems where these can be deployed make them cheap, residents have the resources.

Nope, too much collateral damage, too much favoring the defense, and every active cloak user affected. Warping to safes to uncloak/recloak to reset the timer is just dumb gameplay, and as good as a no go for cloaky fleets. Regarding the latter, a single one in the fleet that gets decloaked also compromises every other cloaked ship in its vicinity…

[Kal_Orellian]

I get the need to stop people spinning up dozens of alts and cloaky camping multiple systems permanently. I also get the need to stop people from going afk for long periods of time while cloaked. But this seems way to much. CCP \ CSM are pandering to the PvE’ers yet again and again taking a massive nerf bat to the hunting community.

I remind you all that this is on the back of the nullification changes that are already looking like they are going to significantly nerf T3C pilots.

CCP. Every action you take seems to be part of an ongoing effort to force out solo/small gang hunters, such as those of us that like to ‘live’ behind enemy lines. And to force us to join the major blocks for our content or to go camp a gate somewhere.

You are literally killing an entire mode of game play here.

[Hug_Motsu]

@Electric_Dott

You’re not supposed to be carefree in null sec.

I never said that. I was just saying that it’s not worth undocking anything bigger than a t1 bs. Even after this half measure attempt to remove AFK campers.

There is danger in living in null… there will always be.
but the dynamic bounty system has made it irrelevant if the system is camped or not.
it’s better isk to go out on a pve solo roam looking for a better DBS% in an expendable t1 bs, than staying “home”.
and i don’t go out in a t1 rng roam, or even scout home pocket for a dbs above 100%, nor do I undock my carrier or dread, regardless of camping (t1 bs is same isk as carrier ratting.) = why i said that the effort vs reward is not worth it. (ergo, these cloaks changes do little to nothing for my reward, but these changes are a step in the right direction. )

@Mater_Shogrun

There is a ton of counterplay to cloaky camping. Our hunters are paper thin generally.

@Mater_Shogrun

Alternately, get some buddies and prepare to counter the drop fleet.

How many buddies would I need to counter-drop a 200 man kiki/drec fleet that just dropped on my capital?
How much time do my buddies have to form until I’m dead and my wreck is blown up and there is nothing left to save?
How do I make these buddies be on standby for a week to a month (or longer) -depending entirely on the AFK cloaky campers…

@Wadiest_Yong

The only thing that prevents it is decloaking (LOL) and recloaking, or leave system.

theres your answer buddy, i guess you just hafto change your game play a minuscule amount - every 15 min.
pro tip: just decloak, have dscan up for added saftey measure… warp away and recloak in warp. Problem solved?

[Derath_Ellecon]

I guess it really depends on how much they get used. Hopefully they remain expensive enough that they won’t be dropped like candy. I honestly don’t see them being deployed everywhere, and if I’m actively exploring I’m staying out of systems that other people are ratting anyhow.

It isn’t perfect but if a recloak resets my 15 min timer AND that timer is actually a full invulnerability (unsure as the description is not clear). Then at least you can choose the time and place to toggle your cloak on and off every 15 minutes or so.

[Petrel_Milk]

You could buy one of my New Eden “Large Capacity Effluence Bottles”, available with a non-return valve and an integral hand sanitiser bowl. These wonderful pieces of kit have long been extremely useful during gang roams and it seems they will soon have a new following … get yours now while stocks last! Seriously though, as I wrote elsewhere in this thread, being scanned and destroyed while I take a dump is a very funny prospect … not an event I would hope for but all the same, verging on the hilarious. I have yet to adapt the LCEB to accept solids but I will work on it; in the meantime, adopt a good diet and try to plan ahead. Fly safe.

[Bob_der_Blob]

@Mater_Shogrun

This will make taking bridgers out to mids much more dangerous. It is already possible with in game skills and equipment to get bridgers on their jump ins, or at least get the probes close enough that you can get their location when they decloak to bridge out. This means if I take my eyes of that bridge for 10 seconds, and this thing goes off, a guy who nearly had me on jump in is now in warp to kill me. And I have no way to move the bridger meaningfully other than to jump out.

you mean bridgers would “RISK” something?? omg thats not intendet right?? they were made for riskless gankjumps on small corps/ allys with no more then 50 guys. damn love that salt in there

[Tom_Harriet]

2 things: Can confirm the 10 minutes/40% now, https://i.imgur.com/OHYXr6E.png from https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/neqhey/how_do_the_mobile_observatorys_work/
And turns out, the Observatory pings once it goes online, means after 10 minutes you can be decloaked.

[Electric_Dott]

@Kal_Orellian

CCP. Every action you take seems to be part of an ongoing effort to force out solo/small gang hunters, such as those of us that like to ‘live’ behind enemy lines. And to force us to join the major blocks for our content or to go camp a gate somewhere.

You are literally killing an entire mode of game play here.

Spot on

I’m curious if it’s intentional, it feels like it has to be considering how consistently they do it. Do they expect the small gang community to either do as you say and join coalitions online or just compete in arena pvp as if that’s in any way the same thing?

Perhaps they don’t care, it’s a small community, particularly after all these years of nerfs and the easiest place to make sacrifices for more popular gameplay styles. It’s not like many of us are going to unsub 10 accounts when they do something we don’t like

[Tima_Shailee]

the issue here as others pointed out is that: in order to avoid being decloaked u have to decloak
how about this thing decloaks everywhere after a countdown only once except in a 100-200km bubble around it
with long enough timer to avoid affecting capitals traveling through
it messis up afkers, wont decloak active ones, and if its not on d-scan its defenatly on grid

[Renan_Ruivo]

You in bomber fleet. You waiting for opportunity. You have 1 minute till cloak buff goes away.

Warp to safe, decloak/recloak in warp. Return to position.

New 15 min buff.

I’m no bomber FC, but does that sound doable?

[Derath_Ellecon]

Only if the system is big enough to get off dscan range?

[Hug_Motsu]

@Petrel_Milk

not an event I would hope for but all the same, verging on the hilarious. I have yet to adapt the LCEB to accept solids but I will work on it; in the meantime, adopt a good diet and try to plan ahead. Fly safe.

I think this is a wonderful attitude.

in all the “noooo this is game destroying” non of the cloak pilots seem to really have adopted the mentality of “don’t fly what you cannot afford to lose”.
this speaks volumes as to why this is a great change.
albeit, a rather toothless change all things considered.

even if you manage to sit in a system uncloaked for a couple of minutes (something happens and you couldn’t log out/alt+f4 and safety warp…) im pretty sure your pretty save anyway?
…someone still has to scan you down!
Chances are good that none will try that…?
unless you are visible on dscan or a well-known afk camper at least I wouldn’t bother with rng scanning a populated system.

[Tima_Shailee]

with the current shipdesigns cloaky stuff is 99% cuntered by decloaking, even if this works in the context of ratting/ ratting hunters it does not in the context of pvper vs pvper

@Hug_Motsu

“don’t fly what you cannot afford to lose”.

there is a big difference in losing ur cloakyship or not being able to do anything w it witch a non-cloaky can do better

[Winzentowitsch_Madeveda]

One thing that I’m not sure both sides understand:
If you were afraid of cloaky campers and use this new deployable, you will have to consider the remaining campers to be even more frightening.

People who complain that cloaky camping is a needed part of meta should realise that camping if not done afk got even more effective, because they now know for certain that there is someone in the system that is active.

Throwing 50 of these in a system make make the camper magically go away, as he will only leave if he finds it to no longer be fun/profitable.

[Bob_der_Blob]

strange im sure ive read this counter the last 15 years from the other side

[Tima_Shailee]

@Hug_Motsu

someone still has to scan you down

afkers are at safe, legit hunters are probably on grid

@Bob_der_Blob

strange im sure ive read this counter the last 15 years from the other side

probably because its true

@Winzentowitsch_Madeveda

One thing that I’m not sure both sides understand:

the ratters and ratterhunters are probably fine-ish with this overall
the problem is that this affects all cloaks in lowsec and null

btw, why is this thing in lowsec?

[Salt_Foambreaker]

@Tima_Shailee

its a tool for bot/any farmers in sov null too

The key difference is the concept of ownership. The “owners” of a system should be able to remove cloaked ships eventually.

No one owns low or NPC null.

So this should go in sov null only.