So, being back after a lengthy hiatus, it’s interesting that cloaking is now on a timer to automatically fail. Warp core stabilizers are now an active module, and on a lengthy cooldown as well, and we have a new interdiction nullifier module, which is of course very restricted use.
Is CCP engaging in some sort of vendetta against players choosing to avoid as much pvp as possible, or is there some way that this is seen as an improvement for our play-style?
Did people complain enough about having local not be completely empty because we cloaked up and went to work, leaving local ‘ominously’ not empty? Even if they did, why were their complaints acted upon?
No, they simply have replaced bad mechanics with better mechanics. Thats called game development.
Yeah thankfully such stupid stuff is gone now. It did not benefit the game at all, just bothering players with minimal effort. If you want to spy or step on someones toes, be active or they will catch you at some point. Good thing.
In your opinion, at any rate. Looking at it from the other side, I find it amusing that simply having another pilot somewhere in the same system was able to alter the gameplay of so many. Scared of someone who’s not even really there? Someone who wouldn’t engage you even if they were; I always found that amusing.
So whom is it that’s doing minimal effort? From one perspective, it would be the players that fear a lurking ship somewhere, and so will not engage in any normal activities, being cautious, using d-scan, etc, etc.
Like usual, there’s more than one way to view things. So far, from what I can see, this even further slants the field in favor of the gankers and gate-campers, since it further restricts those of us that want to avoid pvp, while adding nothing back to our toolkit to replace what was taken. Or am I missing something; did we indeed receive some boons to compensate for the new limitations imposed?
not really. You don’t automatically decloak when the timer runs out.
That timer is in reference to defense against a new deployable, the “mobile observatory”, which stays active for 2 hrs, pings every 10 mins, and has a chance of 40% to decloak anyone. (see Mobile Observatories – Available Now! | EVE Online). These were added as a counter to cloaky campers. While the timer is still up you are immune to their effect. They are rarely deployed (they cost …), except perhaps during strategic fleet operations where stealth bomber attacks, cloaky cynos etc etc are suspected.
If you camp, and are not afk, these things do not pose any threat at all. At most you’ll need to get to a new spot, until your opponents are getting tired and frustrated of deploying these things mostly for nothing.
Living in nullsec, since these observatories were released I’ve come across them once (1x) … and even then they are quite easy to cope with : warp to a deep safe before the timer runs out, uncloak, recloak, warp back to your perch and enjoy your fresh immunity timer.
“This will ensure that the Mobile Observatory has the most impact against inactive or AFK players.” So it’s as I suspected. They did choose to give in to people complaining.
What is amusing is that people think nothing of setting up a gatecamp to gank every incoming player, and unless that player uses resources external to the game, they have no way of knowing that such a camp exists. But these same players will complain about an afk cloaker ‘ruining their experience,’ and apparently that has been acted upon by CCP.
It definitely feels that only one group is getting anything they want, at the expense of the other group, of course, since this is a zero-sum situation. Playing around the nullifier and stabilizer timers is inconvenient, to say the least, at least at my low skill level and lack of desire for interaction with the pvp community.
I do hope so. It’s hard to argue that anyone who has ‘cloaked up and gone to work’ is actually playing the game. Personally I would add some sort of test, every half hour or so, of a person actually being at the keyboard…if there is no input in that time. And log the person off if they fail the test.
It’s very easy to argue this, actually. The character is logged in, and a module is activated. While a person not taking any further action is psychologically of impact (kinda the point,) it’s disingenuous to argue that the person need be at the keyboard to ‘play.’ Clearly, they are having an impact upon your play, due to actions they initiated and intended.
There are cloaky campers in my home system 24/7, and I am sure we have some in theirs as well.
I can’t imagine that any organized nullsec group has an issue with cloaky campers, if anything they may give good fights if something drops.
Much of the complaining has only one purpose: to gain a personal benefit. Thankfully, ccp rarely gives in to these requests. They do seem to keep a clear head, in my opinion. They never introduce a change without at least one way to counter it, admittedly sometimes with a penalty.
As to gate camps, well, if you venture into low/null/wh space and you don’t expect them, you’re doing it wrong
I more or less do expect them, hence the stabilizers and now nullifier. But the thing is on a timer now, and you have to wait for the cooldown. This creates situations that would not have previously arisen when it was a passive module. The new nullifier, of course, is also on a cooldown, further limiting it’s usefulness, giving the campers yet more opportunity.
I suppose it wasn’t bad enough that they have me outnumbered usually at least 5:1, and often much more, and have bubbles out and an interdictor sitting there, drones swarming all around to decloak me, blah, blah, blah. Now we have to juggle cooldowns against already stacked odds.
Perhaps at your skill level, this is no big deal, but at mine these are issues, and since I don’t want to actually give out a lot of real money to replace losses, the isk-loss is an issue, as well. Replacing ships is not cheap, for me, and I would imagine for most new players.
On top of every logistical and situational advantage the aggressors have, they have been handed even more by gimping me, is how I see it from my perspective. Is this an incorrect view?
No, not at all. If anything they turned the warp stabilization points even more into a game of rock/scissors/paper, starting when you fit a ship, and ending with the timepoint at which you use the nullifier in the high slots with its limited action and activity (and cooldown). But it gives you extra options as well.
But unless one really forgets to look at the F10 map for data, or scour zkillboard or any other intel website/tool, it’s easy to avoid probable camp spots - they’re not present where there’s no traffic.
I hear proteuses protei with smartbombs are popular these days to catch those pesky shuttles in nullsec …
Indeed. It’s ironic that CCP has managed to, in a space simulation, space being so vast that you would collide even with dust only rarely, funnel traffic into bottlenecked corridors that can be camped. Then, even at the spot of the gate, it’s such a small area that you can be decloaked by cans, drones, random flotsam which is liberally spread over the area.
“Not enough,” declaim the same people that cry about afk-cloakers just existing - “give them cooldowns and gimp them further. We hate that anyone escapes,” even when all their sp so far are spent on evasion skills, and their ship completely designed only for that, with modules fitted only for that. We’re a loot-pinata, and they know it. Don’t try to tell me they’re looking forward to the ‘combat.’
We all know good and well there will be no combat with a loot-pinata. It was bad enough, before, but with the changes I see now, I’m seriously wondering if coming back to this game is a good idea worth more after my current sub expires.
No, the disingenuity lies in a person pretending that they are ‘playing a game’ when they’ve actually gone shopping, gone on holiday to Antarctica, or even died since they logged in. Thus far I have not heard of any near death encounters where the bright light says ’ go back !..you are still logged into Eve ! ’
Oh, there is a thread about that, too - some want their virtual generational-wealth to be able to be passed on to their kin… so, yeah…
Not enjoying pvp, I tended to annoy people in other ways. Would it make any difference to you if I were in front of the keyboard or not? While this was possible, I’d sit there and read a book, completely ignoring the computer, even tho I was at the desk.
With people liking to pop explorers, a lot of times, things did turn into a waiting game. Since the same thing will result, whether I’m at the computer or not, well, you’re arguing that a difference that MAKES no difference, somehow is a difference.
From a standpoint of logic, you seem to have a losing proposition.
No…I think a literalist ‘at the keyboard’ doesn’t work. I think you have to fulfill the role of ‘the observer’ otherwise Schrodinger’s Capsuleer is both alive and dead. Playing a game at the very least involves participatory observation. If I tell people I was ‘at the football match’…they are gonna think I was actively observing, not that I was passed out drunk on a stretcher for the whole match and using a technicality to argue I was ‘there’…lol.
Look, we both knew if I decloaked I’d die - there’s zero chance I’m gonna win a fight against a dedicated pvp’er with not only vastly superior pvp skills, but a ship and skillpoints and modules tailored to blowing me up.
If the gates are camped, and I can’t escape, and I can’t fight, it becomes a waiting game. Are you seriously proposing that I sit there and dutifully stare at the computer, rather than get in some studying or recreational reading? Waiting them out is the only way I emerge from this scenario victorious. They crave excitement and profit - it is not profitable to wait on me.
Well, that’s the only tactical advantage in my favor - I’m used to very delayed paydays. A difference that makes no difference, IS no difference. Drunk and passed out, as you propose, is exactly the same result, to them, as me sitting there reading: they lose the waiting game and find easier prey.
I’ll check periodically, sure, but usually they camp it until traffic stops flowing due to external game information telling people, basically, lotsa ships popped in this system, etc, etc.
When it tapers off, they leave the system. So sure, after an hour, I’ll look. Does that count as playing, in your personal definition?
There are Twitch sites that give you a live display of what’s going on at Uedama, Ahbazon, etc, etc.
In my definition, anything that does not involve actively monitoring what is going on in a game does constitute ‘not playing’. You are playing a game when that game is what your consciousness is primarily focused on. Simple as that. One could argue over what time period is too long to be ‘away’.
At this very second, I’m afk-mining on an alt while reviewing this board, and yes, reading a book. I read a lot of books, and if I can make basically passive isk simply due to being logged in with active modules, I do it.
No disrespect intended, but whom do you think you are, to dictate to anyone else ‘how’ they should ‘play,’ and what level of ‘attention’ is acceptable to you? If CODE, if they still exist, wants to come and gank me, they easily can, so there are consequences to my choices. You can very attentively take action against me while I’m NOT paying attention.
And I won’t even whine about it. I know very well this is a possibility. You don’t get to decide other people’s playstyles?
