Retail Therapy
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Posted - 2009.01.09 09:28:00 -
[1]
TBH, there may be some small justice in a timer on cloaking, mostly to get a serious STFU over and done with.
No module/probe solution will be viable in-game, as its existence will be abused immediately. So what if it has a lengthy timer, an effective and well funded corp/alliance/mega-power-block will lay down the 'counter' early and often, thereby making themselves immune to enemy recon in important spaces at will or forever if they so choose. This WILL destabilize much that happens in EVE. Everyone else will suffer, especially once the Hyperwealthy begin targeting those that cannot afford this luxury. If you make it really expensive, like bombs perhaps, then again, only the mega-power-blocks will be able to use this 'modest proposal' at will to destabilize recon abilities. Incidentally, a 'resource' like that would encourage me to grief your space, just to see you melt mining profits faster than you could possibly replace them. 
You fail to see that your solution(s) will, for the most part, remove the legitimate role of this module, as well as that of the ship classes that use the module as their primary resource. Cloakers exist to gather intelligence. They also disrupt space deep within 'safe' territories and otherwise are a general pain in the a$$. There are effective counter measures, by way of tactics and more effective game play.
I have thought about some of the OP's scenarios, and I have concluded that the same amount of disruption could occur, had the various 'griefers' simply logged on and off repeatedly from safe spots, time after time over several days, weeks, etc. Their presence in your system appears to be your problem, cloaked or not. It appears to me that they would have the same effect upon your operations.
'Will they engage this time, or just loggoski again' will become your new refrain. Your unescorted mining ops will still be disrupted. Given time and effort on their part, this can be done without any use of a cloaking device. I'm sure that they will still get kills this way, by attacking your unforgivably easy targets, and ignoring any perceived threats.
Forget logoffski games, all I have to do is sit in any very fast ship, aligned to nowhere, and you would sadly never be able to probe me down. Period. Probes hit where one has been, not where one is going, and if I have no object for you to align to in front of me, I am just as good as sitting in a cloaked ship. This by the way, can be accomplished at or away from any keyboard. Yet to be tested post nano-nerf, but I'm still sure of a few fits that will move the right ship off the grid by the time your scanner hits the warp-to button.
In summery, you can 'fix' cloaking, nuking the viable and working as intended original utility of the device and the ship classes that support it to accomplish exactly what? Certainly, this will not solve any of your operational problems in 0.0. There happen to be a variety of ways to 'grief' in local without cloaking, at least two of which I have provided and one that could be done afk. |