Your basic assumption that AFK cloaking is at all a problem is wrong, thus your whole thread makes no sense.

WeGÇÖre all aware of CCPGÇÖS stance on playing eve while AFK! Botters, warp to zero at the gate exploits all punishable offensives! So why are AFK cloakers getting a free ride?

The basic problem is NOT the afk cloakers. They have a reason and a job to do. The problem is that A LOT of people log in their cloaker, cloak it, and go to work. This gives them an 8 or whatever hour period where they gain

ing the game or even being home. Gain is'nt ISK gain can be to deny your opponent isk making. Gain can be many things in Eve and we all know it. So far cloaky afkers have been given way too much leeway.

Because they're not doing anything wrong. What kind of silly question is this?

Now, you mentioned that you wanted to solve an age-old problem. What problem is that?

GǪabsolutely nothing. So what's the problem again?

You sir are an idiot.

The basic problem is NOT the afk cloakers. They have a reason and a job to do. The problem is that A LOT of people log in their cloaker, cloak it, and go to work.

This gives them an 8 or whatever hour period where they gain (by doing what they do and restricting enemy movement) by not actually playing. Which CCP DOES frown upon heavily.

You were never means to use cloaks as a tool while you did not play the game.

There's a point here that is being totally overlooked.

AFK miner. He mines away while he's at work or goes out with his mates, And he makes Isk. That's illegal right? He's making a gain by not playing the game.

Botting Ratter. He shoots rats all day long while not at his keyboard, he's gone out with his mates and he's making some isk. Illegal yes? He's again making a gain by not playing.

AFK Cloaker. This guys aim is not to make isk. It's to stop other people making isk through fear of reprisal or hot drop. Fair play, if that's what he want's to do noone can stop him doing that. However then he goes to the pub. Or he goes shopping. He watches a movie. He's till performing his task, which is giving him a gain. That gain is to deprive his enemy of money through the threat that he actually is going to hot drop or tackle that rorqual you have in that belt. He's getting his gain (gain being the objective of competing what he set out to do), while not actually playing the game. That is illegal right?

The three above situations ALL give the pilot doing them a gain. One gives ore, one gives isk, one deprives their enemy of isk. Why one should be absolutely fine and the other two can lead to a ban is beyond me.

There are two completely simple fixes to the Cloaky camper problem :

1) Log off after a period of one hour inactivity. This means you have to be at your keyboard to stay logged in. Or you have to bot, which will get you banned. For being the cripple that you actually are.

2) Cloaks require some form of fuel or have a recharge timer on them. You either are forced to go and refuel to continue your cov ops reign of terror, or after one hour your cloak completely dissengages needing 30 mins recharge time before it can be activated again. Giving the defenders some time to find you if you remain AFK in one spot. And again, if your at work and leave your pc on, you can't recloak or refuel, leaving you time to die in the way you deserve.


This is'nt about denying the ability to AFK cloak, its about denying the ability to perform your job in hand, whether that's ratting, mining, or striking terror into carebear hearts while not actually playing the game or even being home. Gain is'nt ISK gain can be to deny your opponent isk making. Gain can be many things in Eve and we all know it. So far cloaky afkers have been given way too much leeway.

You sir are an idiot.

The basic problem is NOT the afk cloakers. They have a reason and a job to do. The problem is that A LOT of people log in their cloaker, cloak it, and go to work. This gives them an 8 or whatever hour period where they gain (by doing what they do and restricting enemy movement) by not actually playing. Which CCP DOES frown upon heavily.

You were never means to use cloaks as a tool while you did not play the game.

The problem is that an afk cloaker behaves exactly like a atk cloaker.

Eve is a game, its not meant to be played or logged into while your at work.

just to recap guys! its still a very much hot topic

A simple solution would be to give cloaks a cycle timer, and maybe even a "cooldown" depending on which cloak it is. This is ofc if there actually is a need for a change.

The point is that all those who cry about AFK cloakers should really try to play Factional Warfare lowsec missions for a while, although I know that they are too scared to do so. After the changes, which are pretty good actually, it looks like this:
- Your mission is located exclusively in the opposing militia's lowsec regions, which are usually 2-15 jumps away from your agent;
- The moment you click "Warp to" in order to go to your mission, a publicly viewable beacon pops out in the overview that is visible throughout the whole system;
- If the occupancy of the system is held by the opposing militia, you are denied docking rights to any station in that system;
- You do not have AFK cloakers, you have an active bunch of opposing militia members who gain Loyalty Points and Millitia standings when they blast your ship;
- When I played in the FW, it was not important how many of reds are in local, but how many of them are actively hunting me. Although, my rule was that I should be extra careful when there are more than 7 reds in local (statistically speaking, the percentage of those who are hunting in combination with 7+ reds makes it dangerous to proceed)

Yet, hundreds of players do these missions every day (until recently including me) without any problems.

And you are complaining about a single afk cloaker deep inside your own territory where you can dock or run to a POS at any time while not having a big shiny beacon that say "RATTER IS HERE" in the overview? Seriously?

How would that change anything without breaking cloaking?

A simple solution would be to give cloaks a cycle timer, and maybe even a "cooldown" depending on which cloak it is. This is ofc if there actually is a need for a change.

You and a lot of others seem to be missing the point entirely! its not about the old argument of not being able to mine or rat because a red is in local! its about being able to affect the game while you are not even behind your keyboard.

so many people are so eager to direct this conversation away from the simple point I'm trying to make! why are you logging into eve just to remain afk? I made a number of suggestions and workable solutions and I will be enquiring to ccp directly over this matter and passing on this threat for further review.

i will also post their in game response to some question relating to this topic stay tuned.

How would that change anything without breaking cloaking?

Its about being able to affect the game while you are not even behind your keyboard.

But if you are not stopped from doing anything while the cloaked red is in local, how exactly is he affecting the game?

Happens all the time, you can not use that as an argument to change cloaking mechanics.

how do you tell if someone's playing eve at their keyboard or at work?

again if you're experiencing problems outside of eve then you need to reconsider playing an online game with others! why do you think your life dramas should affect others?

you should read the first post!

how do you tell if someone's playing eve at their keyboard or at work?

its not about changing how the cloak works or how someone can use a cloak! its about removing afk players.

It would make cloaking and going to sleep next to impossible without breaking the EULA. It would also give people a chance to catch cloakers while they are in between timers, and lastly depending on the length of the timers it shouldn't really "break" cloaking.

You were never means to use cloaks as a tool while you did not play the game.

Anything that exposes active cloakers breaks cloaking and severely ruins w-space gameplay. A cycle timer will auto-repeat and won't have any effect on AFK people; a cycle timer that automatically shuts off the cloak after 1 hour (or whatever) will have to have zero cool-down so the active cloaker can double-tap it and keep it going uninterruptedGǪ and AFK cloakers will easily work that in making it a rather pointless addition.

The only problem with AFK cloaking is when an AFK cloaker returns, not with him remaining AFK. Attempting to address the AFK part is pointless and counterproductive, since CCP will never care about your argument. If you want to do something that has any chances, address the ADVANTAGE AT RETURN and nothing else.
I've said all that needed to be said, feel free to go back and re-read it.

It's not important where that someone is. He can be climbing Mount Everest as far as I'm concerned. The place where the other guy is does not affect the game.