Not bad.

I have a couple of things I would do differently:
-hacking should deactivate the cloak
-don't disable shields (it messes with tanking choices and balance too much)

What about a cloak and decloak sound? Should they be as load as the current ones?

Scout suit. That is ALL!

Only nova knives and melees work after decloak for 5 seconds. Any action other than items switching and moving uncloak. Force Recon mod (level 5) can run full speed and others can on move at 50% speed. Totally invisible and can't be scanned. AFK dream! 15 second cool down. Resource heavy equipment module that any suit can use but only Force Recon suits (level 5 light special ops) can use them with no resource draw. Each level of Light Special Operations reduces the PC/CPU use by 20%. Level 3 Light Special Operations required to use Force Recon suit

RECON MISSION: The mission of Force RECON is to conduct deep ground reconnaissance, surveillance, battle space shaping, and limited scale raids in support of the Expeditionary Force , other air-ground task forces, or a joint force.

Nope. Octopus cloak only for scout suits. That'd be balanced, and fair. No other suits needs cloaking, and invisible cloaks are always OP or UP.

Why only for scout suits? I agree that since 1.4 light frames in general have needed even more love than before. But denying content to others just for the sake of balance seems counter productive.

What would be the purpose of a heavy using a cloak other than trolling? same for for the mediums. The light suit is the only one whom wouldn't abuse it, as if they are spotted through the octopus cloak, they'll die pretty quick. A medium or heavy on the other hand will be fine unless it's a couple of people.

Why only for scout suits? I agree that since 1.4 light frames in general have needed even more love than before. But denying content to others just for the sake of balance seems counter productive.

let light frames have heavy weapons then.

I have an idea for the cloaking device that is a little less conventional. My idea is similar: takes an equipment slot, decent CPU, high PG, but rather than a device that rends you less visible, one that makes you appear friendly to the enemy for a set amount of time. Nothing breaks the stealth mode; it just lasts a certain amount of time. I'm thinking 30 seconds at complex. But obviously if you start killing people or hacking, people will become suspicious. It would demand a greater degree of awareness and definitely make for some interesting scout gameplay.

"Dat freakin' scout's a spy!"

I have an idea for the cloaking device that is a little less conventional. My idea is similar: takes an equipment slot, decent CPU, high PG, but rather than a device that rends you less visible, one that makes you appear friendly to the enemy for a set amount of time. Nothing breaks the stealth mode; it just lasts a certain amount of time. I'm thinking 30 seconds at complex. But obviously if you start killing people or hacking, people will become suspicious. It would demand a greater degree of awareness and definitely make for some interesting scout gameplay.

I like this proposal. And yes, CCP has brought it up as part of the road map for Dust's development but it's nice to at least help CCP get it right the first time.

Source:
http://dust514.com/news/blog/2013/03/equipment-is-your-friend/

According to CCP, it's going to be an equipment item anyways. That said, I really don't mind if the cloak is either indefinite or limited time as long as the mechanics are fair and balanced.

I think the shields should deactivate because otherwise the shield-based scouts will have complete dominance over others when it comes to any combat options.

Best thing they could do is add a limited cloaking ability for scouts, already built into the suit that compliments the cloaking module. That way they can do something cloaking related better than any other suit.

I have an idea for the cloaking device that is a little less conventional. My idea is similar: takes an equipment slot, decent CPU, high PG, but rather than a device that rends you less visible, one that makes you appear friendly to the enemy for a set amount of time. Nothing breaks the stealth mode; it just lasts a certain amount of time. I'm thinking 30 seconds at complex. But obviously if you start killing people or hacking, people will become suspicious. It would demand a greater degree of awareness and definitely make for some interesting scout gameplay.

yes but your shield deactivating cloak would favor armour tanking instead, which in term just flips it so armour tanking is better.

let light frames have heavy weapons then.

i don't know. This wouldnt define a scouts role but rather make it a tool ie. logis. Logis used to be the multi-talented support role and now people use them as a wp farm because of their high cpu and pg you can spam all sorts of equipment.

This is not wha i want scouts to be.

anything a scout can do a medium can do better.

edit: if its not clear im against scout only cloak cause it just sounds like an exploit.

But then you'll have to choose between armour and profile dampeners.

I'm not saying make cloaking a scout only thing. Just make them better at cloaking than everyone else since they'll have additional traits tied to their suit. The only other option would be to give the cloaking equipment a crazy high CPU/PG cost while scouts have a fitting reduction, or an additional efficacy bonus for scouts with cloaking. Everyone with an equipment slot is going to have access so scouts need something to give them a clear advantage.

I don't think I follow @MacDoc.

You seemed to be saying that it does matter in your post.

yeah i was saying that a scout doesn't benefit much from armour plates cause they slow you down and give little improvement to scout survivabilty. A scout is still paper thin with armour plates.

At the risk of sounding patronising here, you said the shield penalty would favour armour tanking, and then pointed out that armour tanking isn't good for stealth. So how does it favour armour tanking?

sorry i am horrible at communicating sometimes.

I was saying that if your shields are completely wiped out every time you activate your cloak then it would put shield tanking at a dis advantage. So if you have a scout suit that favors shield tanking and has a lot of high slots ,ie. minmatar, then your kind of screwed over. where as a suit that favors armour tanking and has a lot of low slots does not lose tha much. And since armour tanking on a scout is some what useless then most people would stack dampners instead.

In short. shield tanking is better for scouts since there is no speed penalty, but if a cloak wipes out your shields and you were stacking extenders... your poop. So in terms the suit with more low slots won't get that much benefit from armour tanking but they can stack dampners instead. So shields would lose their a portion of hp while armour won't lose as much. And suits that favors armour can stack dampners while suits that favors shield can't stack as much dampners.

does this help?

Should only be for scouts. I have enough problems with forge heavys not rendering when I'm flying my dropship, the last thing I need is invisible ones, just waiting to materialize in my blind spot, proceeding to two/three-shot me.

Shield dropping or drain for cloaking is extremely unbalanced to minmatar and caldari.
The only cloak effecting for dropsuits should be frames. The same way profile is.

As has been discussed earlier in the thread, shield-tanking is now the only viable option for scout survival. Adding the shield penalty balances this, so that Gallente isn't left in the dust.

Since we are all throwing out idea how it works...

* Duration of 30/60/90
* Cooldown of 60/90/120
* Avg cpu cost, higher than avg pg cost
* Shooting, sprinting, hacking, and taking damage deactivate it. (perhaps proportional cooldown to time active)
* No change to scan profile. (Your body is still physically there so stuff bounces off you just the same)
* No loss of shields

Where are you getting that scouts *have* to shield tank? Armor tanking is a hell of a lot more beneficial to a scout atm as far as I can tell. It gives you more health than a shield module and requires less cpu. The speed loss is negligible since our minor speed increase does little to help us. Not to mention the higher pg requirements (which I agree it should need) will most likely make stealth easier to equip on a Gal scout since the cal scout will probably have less pg than the gal.

but gallente aent left in the dust. they have low slots which can hold dampners and currently the only scout that can break the scanners theshold.

minmatar may have more hp but gallente have more stealth.

bring it.... i love a friendly forum argument.