Mobile Sentry Tracker Gun

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
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So, I found myself in Nullsec earlier today, and I found one of these mythical cloaky campers I’ve heard about. I tried talking and engaging with the person, but I got no response. I realized of course that there was nothing I could do about that it, and that’s fine to an extent. But there was absolutely nothing I could. No matter how much I used probes or dscan, I couldn’t get even get a hint. I thought, maybe If I just sat in the system and waited, they might reveal themselves, but nope, nothing. I got bored real quickly, so, I came up with a new idea for a deploy-able structure, which might provide at least some way for someone to do something about it, if they were so inclined and dedicated.

I think this new structure, if balanced right, will still allow cloaky campers to exist and thrive, but will provide a small and limited way to potentially counter this threat, while perhaps providing new content.

Enter the New Mobile Sentry Tracker gun. A new deployable structure similar to an MTU, which can be deployed near a star-gate. The MSTG is a special deployable turret which can only fire a special nano-tracking device. Upon seeing a ship within it’s range, the MTSG will automatically fire a tracking device upon all ships it sees. After some time, which is negotiable, like 1-2 minutes. It will allow the person who deployed the structure to warp to wherever the device is currently located to in system.
The person who was shot with the device won’t be helpless of course. First, they will be immediately notified that they’ve been shot with a tracking device. My idea right now is to give them some options to get rid of this device. First, jumping through another star-gate, going through wormhole or docking will automatically disable the device. Second, they can try hacking the device through the mini-game like you see with data/relic sites. Third, they can immediately rip off the device, but at the penalty of not being able to cloak for a set period of time…perhaps 5-30 minutes. Its debatable.

Note, this isn’t meant to totally stop cloaky campers, but just those that are lazy, or inept. For a skilled and active player, the MSTG will not stop or track them at all. It will however, put them on their toes a little bit and provide people in Nullsec some small way to counter this threat. I was also thinking of having about 3 different MTSGs of different sizes, A small one for frigates and destroyers. A medium one for Cruisers and A third one that only works at tracking battleships or larger. Also, restrictions so that only one may be deployed at a single gate. Also, of course, should be restricted to only Null and Wh space. Also, the MSTG should be relatively easy to destroy, and also, perhaps limited in the number of people it can track, like just 2-5 with a time limit of course.

Also, keep the mind, this is a rough draft of my idea. The main point is to able to track people using trackers at some scale. It should be relatively easy to counter, but at the same, require some attention and effort to defeat. It will also add new tactics and strategy and maybe make things more interesting.

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Sadly this thread - like any that mentions cloaky camping - is destined for the scrap heap. Discussions on this topic are promptly and effectively silenced in this forum by a “dedicated” ISD member.

Nice idea tho.

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Personally I liked the idea of a 1-2% chance of cloak failing per cycle. (it is a “prototype”, usually, after all) it should do the job just fine 98-99% of the time, but if you just let it sit there and cycle for hours, well the odds are eventually gonna catch up with you…

But as R4d1o4ct1v3 stated, the odds of getting anything done in regards to the issue are basically nil.

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Nope, cant see how this is overpowered or will be abused at all. :laughing:

Are you serious… Every Ship that enters the system… direct warp to them…

I get you are annoyed by a ship in a system that has no pilot at the controls. But did you even consider for a single minute how other people might use this device?

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So what you are saying, is that whenever someone not blue shows up in System that not on D’scan, I get to deploy these as an instant counter… Right…

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Just wanted to respond. The MSTG is no more over powered or “instant counter” than a mobile warp disruptor. In fact, I would say the MSTG is far less powerful than a mobile warp disruptor. Only a small limited number of ways to counter a mobile disruptor. But as I outlined, there are three ways every ship can counter the MSTG.

The real main point of the MSTG is to add a new small meta. It can help people in ns control their systems. Also, a mobile warp disruptor is only effective with a force behind it. So, it will be the same with the MSTG.

Also, keep in mind Concord and hs. In HS, Concord seems able to track you, since they can warp to wherever you are. Maybe ns should have a small limited way to do the same thing in order to better police their systems.

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I can still cloak while warp distrupted. B; I still have to break gate cloak to recloak, instant lock ships already provide an active counter to cloaking, This system will make it all that harder to catch things or to sneak into systems. This tool makes local intel even more powerful. Something that active anticloak activists seem to ignore. WDB are balaced because there are tools to actively counter it. Local is on the other hand, uncounterable.

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It’s important to note just how limited the MSTG can be. Here are the four ways I currently have to counter it.

  1. Jump gate, dock or wh
  2. Hack it
  3. Rip/disable device at penalty of not being able to cloak for a set time
  4. Wait out tracking timer.

Note, you say an instant locking ship acts as counter, but I think this is not reasonable. You might as well say a bunch of smartbombing bs is also a counter. It requires a specific ship with specific fit and active constant particitpation. The MSTG simply offers a passive way to do this, albeit in a limited way. It shouldn’t require such a burden to control system or to track cloak ships that are lazy or inept.
If a ship comes into system, refuses to leave, hack or rip out device, than they should be vulnerable to death! Assuming you set up an MSTG of course.

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To hack something you need to declock. It already decloaking you. If combined with wdb it will make it impossible to bypass gate camps. Unless in a vessel that ignore wdb. There are already systems in play that can counter cloaking, use them stop being lazy and stop asking ccp to do the work you should be doing yourself.

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It’s hard to bypass gate camps, that’s just their nature. The MSTG can make it trickier in certain situations, but it might be a good thing! Look, it’s my understanding that a standard tactic to get away from gate camps is to burn back to the gate. In this situation, the MSTG wouldn’t really matter. However, if you manage to make it through the gate-camp and want to stay in system(instead of going through a gate) than you may want to hack it. I mentioned there is a delay of 1-2 minutes before they can warp to you. All you gotta do is warp to a celestial or something, or a safe spot if you happen to have one and try to hack it in time. You can also alternatively, keep warping around while being chased until the tracking timer wears out. This may seem harsh, but I think it’s worth the price in order to create new content. Also, there should be consequences to entering a system where a bunch of people want to kill you.

Also, generally speaking, I don’t think it’s advisable to stay in the same system where you just managed to run though a gate camp. Why should they now be completely safe after running through a gate camp? If someone is smart or strong enough to be able to go straight pass gate-camps, (as opposed to burning back to gate) than they should be able to deal with the tracking device. It’ll add more tension, but that’s the name of the game.

And No, there are not enough ways to control system or counter cloakers. Also, this thing is open to balance. It is possible that mobile warp disruptor and the MSTG might be too powerful together. If so, just have it so you can’t deploy a MSTG near other deployables…I’m open to the idea.

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A Mobile Warp Disruptor doesn’t decloak you on entering system… Your proposed device would.

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MinerArt, No it wouldn’t. You can stay cloaked all you want, you would just be at risk of someone warping to your current location while in system. (thus decloaking you). It’s only if you choose to hack it, that you become uncloaked. Your effectively decloaked, but not actually. If you truly wanted to, you could stay cloaked, and continuously warp from place to place in the hopes that you simply outrun your pursuers.
Now, I am open to the idea of someone being able to hack the tracker while cloaked. I don’t have any fundamental problem with that actually. Though I suspect, it’s not really needed. After-all, when you enter a system, you always have to decloak, plus there could be debris which decloak you. On top of that, in order to use a module, like probes, you would have to decloak.

I would try to dispel any notion that you have some divine right to always stay cloaked. This is an idea I think we should stay away from. The MSTG will just put a little fire behind you.

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Sure, you can make this a thing when they remove local intel.

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I always thought the first thing that would need to happen would be any system with 0.0 or less security status has no local chat.

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I REALLY REALLY like this, though I’d modify it slightly. The first activation cycle has no failure chance, because then you’re not going to lose 2% of ships you take through a camped gate hoping to use the cloak+MWD trick to get through. After x number of cycles you start building up instability, at first slowly, then with increasing speed. At a certain threshold of instability you become visible on grid, but still can’t be scanned down. At a certain higher level you can be scanned. It would even be possible that after so many cycles after that (tuned to hours or longer) you might even become a marked “optical anomaly” on d-scan without the need to probe, or at least probes get a bonus to try to pin you down.

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Let me just add my peace. First of all, the MSTG isn’t only meant to target cloakers. It’s a new tool and meta which creates new dynamic game-play possibilities… Some of which may be strongly targeted towards cloakers. I think the cloaking mechanic is fine as it is. People should be able to stay cloaked all they want. There are very few ways to stay safe in Eve, with cloaking being one of them, and it comes as a great cost I would say. You cant use any modules and you cant even warp unless your in a covops ship. I don’t think we want to limit cloaking too much as I still consider it a legitimate tool, even for spying.

The idea of cloaking failing 1-2% would have too dramatic and broad effect in my opinion. The problem is that it’s too targeted at a specific problem, campy cloakers. It would only be working at targeting 1-2% of cloakers while effecting all 100% of people who use cloak. Campy cloakers are a small number of people, they might even be less 1% of people use cloak. However, this new setback would effect everyone who cloaks, even those who are using it legitimately. Even at only 1% failure rate, it would likely have a chilling effect on all kinds of activities, and inevitability, bad luck will cause undue stress and harm to legitimate cloak users. I don’t think we want to nerf cloaking, that’s not my goal here.

However, the idea is not without merit, and that’s why I’ve come up with a trade-off solution. The solution is another deployable! I will put forward yet another idea right now! A brand new deployable structure available for use only in Null and wh space. I call it the Poncho Desynchronization Unit! or PDU for short. This new special unit when deployed, will effect all cloaking devices system wide, causing them to fail at some set failure rate, perhaps 1-2%. Now, the great thing about the PDU is that it’s more targeted, it won’t effect people who are outside of null and WH who are using cloaking technology legitimately. Instead of indiscriminately targeting all cloakers, it will allow users to target those who really needed to be targeted. Plus, due to it being a deployable, I see no reason why you couldn’t increase the chance of cloak failing, perhaps 5 or even 10%. However, you don’t want it to be to op, so I would say making it so that only one can be deployed at a time… Also, having a beacon be created so that anyone can warp to the PDU and destroy it.

I’d say its a better path to follow than totally changing a fundamental feature of the game. It’s also a very niche and specific module, but there is hope for it, I think. I’m not sure I even fully endorse the PDU, but it may be something to consider.

Thanks, -Vash

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I like the out of the box thinking, but I think this is just too easy to counter. Just warp around while you wait for the timer to go down and then cloak up. It slightly increases the pain in order to camp a system, but that’s all.

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There’s an entirely different method to avoid this also. Enter system, warp to a point, deploy a depo, fit the cloak, pick up the depo, cloak.

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While I appreciate the thoughts behind this idea, it really primarily hurts active cloakers more than AFK cloakers.

An active cloaker may want to change systems to follow prey or gather intel. Each system change means he may get tagged by your module.

An AFK camper, once in the system, just needs to log on and activate cloak. The only time he needs to worry about your module is the first time he enters the system… which may have been weeks ago!