Druadan
Aristotle Enterprises
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Posted - 2008.08.09 18:50:00 -
[1]
I'm undecided on whether or not AFK cloakers are a problem. One of the things people, those who reply "he's AFK, what can he possibly do while not at the controls?", are missing is that the problem isn't him being AFK, it's that he is AFK and unfindable. This means he can sit there for ages, go and play something else, go to the movies, whatever, and by the time he's come back the inhabitants of the space are thinking "**** it, he's AFK, he's just trying to spook us". Then he uncloaks and pounces. He is risk free until he engages, and the fact that he can sit there like Jack Sparrow while everything else acclimatises to him, then lash a couple of sea turtles together and kill a ratter is, in my eyes, a problem. That is to say it's a problem to the people whose space he is in.
What I'm undecided on is whether or not it is a problem to the game; whether or not CCP need to fix it. One the one hand I would say he's not going to do anything to people who are in groups, especially after the nano nerf where it might be possible to actually fight back. On the other hand, there's nothing really the alliance can do to take the AFK cloaker down. That's why he's cloaking, so no one can touch him. You can rally people together in defence, but you realise pretty quickly that the guy's an AFK cloaker so you're not going to get him 'cause he's not stupid enough to pounce while there's a fleet looking for him. So he does exactly what I've said up top: goes AFK, comes back an hour or so later and looks for an opportunity to pounce. To counter him, you get two or three people ratting together and hope that they can take him down together. If he's nano'd you put a huginn in there, but if you put a huginn in there he's not going to engage, so you put a rapier in there and all he does is warp 10km behind the ratters cloaked. So you've got squads of two ratters and a rapier going round just to be safe from one guy.
In some ways that's part of the nano problem, so I'd like to wait until after the nerf to see how much of an effect AFK cloaked recons still have on the game.
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