Slightly Delayed Local Suggestion

[Mac_Gunderson]

The topic of local chat being used for intel has been a relatively controversial subject for quite a while. Some people thought it should be removed, others don’t, and the battle rages on. However, I have a suggestion that might approach things a little bit differently.

As it stands right now, local chat outside of wormholes and Pochven alerts players as soon as someone enters the system. This allows it to be a very effective form of intelligence gathering especially when paired with intel chat channels like most larger groups use. My suggestion is that local be slightly delayed — not like the “delayed local” phrase that refers to how local in WH/Pochven works, but instead, quite literally a delayed local roster.

My suggestion is that players entering a system not show up in the local roster until their gate cloak breaks, be it from timing out or them taking action. This would allow for local chat to still be a semi-reliable source of intel on a regional scale, because player movements could still be reliably tracked. However, it would give roamers / hunters a very small window of opportunity for some additional concealment — lining up with the existing window of stealth they receive, because the gate cloak prevents your ship itself from being revealed.

I don’t know how easy this would be to implement from a development perspective, but it’s just a suggestion — the thoughts of someone who enjoys both going out to hunt and wishing local didn’t allow for quite as much moment to moment safety as it does; but also appreciating its utility as something akin to an intel resource.

I am sure that this change would lead to more destroyed ships at least in the short term, but I also don’t think it would be nearly as drastic a change as something like making the entirety of Nullsec have wormhole-style local. Essentially all it does is give the hunter a “head start” as long as they don’t move — they could still be reported from previous systems, and taking any action besides using D-scan would cause them to show up in local, meaning that potential prey still have a window to escape.

[Aeryn_Maricadie]

Doubt this will ever happen, and I dislike local myself. they tried removing local before and the Null-blocs basically went on strike. The good thing is I think CCP knows that its not a good mechanic for everyone as their new territorial expansions have not had local (WH’s, Thera, Pochven). I think best compromise in future would be something like what they did to k-space systems for Pochven with the NPC Null areas, since those are mostly dead anyway and it wouldn’t affect SOV Null. Basically either a black out for some of NPC Null or maybe a “rolling blackout” where some systems have blackout on some days.

Sov Null can keep Sov Null how it is.
Local isn’t as big a problem in Lowsec since it isn’t really organized
It’s fine for HiSec

They could also improve areas that already have delayed local.

WH’s I think have been getting better due to K-space nerfs, more people are venturing into them now thus increasing potential interactions. Biggest problem for them I think is accessability, maybe could be improved with J-space filaments that take you to random WH’s

Pochven has a serious lack of viable solo content, most combat sites require fleets. The pipeline nature of the systems is also limiting. It is also hard to get established in Pochven due to standing requirements to access station services and lack of Solo content to gain said standing.