Regarding decloaking before shooting, this would make sniping with a cloak effectively useless since you'll have the scope sway to deal with. I was hoping cloaked snipers would bring them out of the redline and into more strategic locations on the map. Stealth bombers in EVE have 0 delay between decloaking and targeting. Perhaps the solution is to have scout suits be able to fire while cloaked, all others would have heavy fitting costs and require decloaking first before firing. I do think you should immediately decloak 100% once you fire any weapon or pass within x meters of an uncloaked player/vehicle however. I'd also like to see deployable beacons that decloak anything in x radius.

I also think cloaks should ignore active scanners, but there should be a new proto active scanner that would only detect cloaks. It would have limited range and a long delay.

As far as getting the game perfectly balanced before adding cloaks, I completely disagree. The scout suits CAN'T BE BALANCED UNTIL WE HAVE CLOAKS. I don't want to play for 18 months with scouts being ridiculously underpowered before they get their turn for balancing.

Also TTK needs to be addressed, or else the cloak will be ridiculously OP. With the peek-a-boo shooter that we currently have, whoever gets the drop on the other player is 85% likely to win. If TTK was slightly longer than it was in 1.4-1.5 cloaking would be a major advantage in certain circumstances but not a guaranteed trump card.

Thanks for the bundle of details. However, there's still a crucial point of information missing:
will scouts have to choose between cloak, OR carrying uplinks? Are they going to get an extra slot just for cloaks or something like that?

Also please understand that if your answer is "no extra slot", then you're going to get a WHOOLE bunch of pissed off scouts, becoming ex-scouts, and turning to gallente logi instead.
That what you guys are aiming for?

I bet one or both of the new scouts will have two equipment and no sidearm. The Minmatar Scout will likely keep its assassin role and generally run just the cloaking device or stay uncloaked to use REs.

Yeah... gotta love those BSD updates.

We were planning to release the bundled up stats for 1.8 changes next week (2nd sprint ends next week) so that we had plenty of time to get feedback from everyone and implement any necessary changes.

Too many specific issues to address (otherwise I'd be posting all day and not getting any actual authoring work done) but please keep in mind that everything on SiSi is not final. That doesn't mean that they will change, only that they can. There's plenty of time to provide constructive criticism and for us to act on that feedback.

I bet one or both of the new scouts will have two equipment and no sidearm. The Minmatar Scout will likely keep its assassin role and generally run just the cloaking device or stay uncloaked to use REs.

I'm glad that this is still in the works, because firing while cloaked is something the CPM has adamantly campaigned against.

From my perspective, your suit should require a reset/cooldown when coming out of cloak to restore power to your weapons and equipment. This would make the user scenario for cloak go something like this:

- Escape an enemy's line-of-sight
- Activate cloak
- Move around your enemy using cover to mitigate the shimmer effect
- Arrive at a distant destination and find a safe spot
- De-activate cloak
- Wait a nominal time for suit to re-charge
- Attack

The fact is, cloaks are ridiculously effective for the people who use them correctly. If I were trying to start conservatively (which I would recommend), the cloaks I designed would work something like this (just off the top of my head):

- Active timer: 20 seconds
- Re-charge (from depleted): 60 seconds
- Suit cool-down on de-activation: 3 seconds
- De-activate all weapons, equipment, grenades, and modules (including kinetics, sensors, etc.) while cloaked, as if you were wearing a suit with nothing else on it
- No shield recharge or armor repair while in cloak--de-activating cloak begins shield recharge timer as if you'd just been hit

Then I'd watch whether and how people used this cloak to decide whether it needed to be more powerful. I would anticipate people would use even this cloak to great effect, but it would also require quite a bit of skill and would discourage people from putting it on nearly everything.

One of the things that will kill the usefulness of the cloak is for it to become common--a significant part of the value is in the fact that people are focused on a visible enemy and aren't looking for the cloak.

If cloaking devices are equipements then we have a HUGE problem.
Logi could be cloaked......
They have 25% reductions on equipements.
It will be easy to fit it.



Diversity is sometime good but...seriously.
We NEED to keep some "things" exclusives for some types of dropsuits.

Damagers : Everyone exepting Logi. (Problem of Logi slayers : Ruled because tanking does not makes you a slayers heavies will tell you.)
Cloaking : Only Scouts.

And because Logi are suppsoed to have more life than assault but with less damage.

Actually, it's great and perfect for cloaks to be an equipment item. Think about it... NO CLOAKED HEAVIES WITH HMGS! Because we all know you can't fit equipment at all on heavies. CCP did us a favor by making it an equipment item. Otherwise there will be carnage and mayhem on the battlefield if (GOD FORBID) heavies are ever given a chance to cloak.

Actually, it's great and perfect for cloaks to be an equipment item. Think about it... NO CLOAKED HEAVIES WITH HMGS! Because we all know you can't fit equipment at all on heavies. CCP did us a favor by making it an equipment item. Otherwise there will be carnage and mayhem on the battlefield if (GOD FORBID) heavies are ever given a chance to cloak.

Inb4 gallente heavy

- The cloak field is a piece of equipment.
- When selected the cortex is raised and you press fire to activate it.
- Once activated, it goes away and your weapon is raised. You can switch to other weapons/equipment while cloaked.
- You cloak. The amount of "shimmer" is increased as you move so standing still you will be nigh invisible, but when moving you will be noticeable to an extent. When cloaked, you obviously have no chevron or health bars, but the enemy reticule will flash red if you run past it.
- Cloak can be deactivated by selecting it and pressing fire.
- Once deactivated or it runs out it will start to recharge.
- Firing a weapon while cloaked will rapidly deplete the cloak field (a single shot from a sniper rifle, for instance, will decloak you)
- You can only fit one cloak field at a time.

- The cloak field is a piece of equipment.
- When selected the cortex is raised and you press fire to activate it.
- Once activated, it goes away and your weapon is raised. You can switch to other weapons/equipment while cloaked.
- You cloak. The amount of "shimmer" is increased as you move so standing still you will be nigh invisible, but when moving you will be noticeable to an extent. When cloaked, you obviously have no chevron or health bars, but the enemy reticule will flash red if you run past it.
- Cloak can be deactivated by selecting it and pressing fire.
- Once deactivated or it runs out it will start to recharge.
- Firing a weapon while cloaked will rapidly deplete the cloak field (a single shot from a sniper rifle, for instance, will decloak you)
- You can only fit one cloak field at a time.

30 seconds for scout or not at all, as a low hp suit needs iy

prediction:
cloaks will be used defensively.

i see alot of people nutting out on how the cloaks will work for an infiltrative attack run.

and yet the greater potential will be to allow scouts to retreat effectively.

If cloaking devices are equipements then we have a HUGE problem.
Logi could be cloaked......
They have 25% reductions on equipements.
It will be easy to fit it.

Proposed Addendum:

-Cloak is recharged by sitting still
-Fitting a cloak disables the use of a light weapon, perhaps even reduces the damage of the sidearm/grenade

Optional changes:
-Restrict the use of a cloak to a new GÇ£blackopsGÇ¥ scout suit with no light weapon slot, 2-3 equipment slots, and paper thin hp.

A man of reason. Very rare these days.

Yeah... gotta love those BSD updates.

We were planning to release the bundled up stats for 1.8 changes next week (2nd sprint ends next week) so that we had plenty of time to get feedback from everyone and implement any necessary changes.

[...]

[quote=CCP Remnant](List of cloaking mechanics)[/quote]

As a min scout my concern is that this 'shimmer' will be so noticeable that it will make approaching an enemy very difficult, while at the same time I can't 'lurk' (not camping...cough) an objective due to the removal of the profile reduction skill

A man of reason. Very rare these days.

Yeah... gotta love those BSD updates.

We were planning to release the bundled up stats for 1.8 changes next week (2nd sprint ends next week) so that we had plenty of time to get feedback from everyone and implement any necessary changes.

[...]

I think I might be a really sad scout if they remove the profile reduction skill. Something about understanding how to evade the reds, how to use cover, how to pop-out from cover and surprise prey....these skills I have honed as best I can, and continue to do so, over the last year or whatever. It's such a basic part of my scout-play, I feel it won't ever be the same without it.

Here's to hoping that it's not actually being replaced. Can't say I care that much for a cloaking mechanic that will leave me vulnerable when I assassinate someone. I should be rewarded with that kill by not giving anything away short of the sound of the shotgun (or almost-no-sound of the knives mua ha ha).

I really would like profile reduction skill to stay with scout suits. Please?

the bonuses are all flipped in dust compared to eve.

in eve:

gallente get armor repair bonuses

amarr get armor resistance bonuses or increased hp

it makes little sense why theyd want to flip them around for dust.

Don't change the amarr assault bonus!

Please!!!

- The cloak field is a piece of equipment.
- When selected the cortex is raised and you press fire to activate it.
- Once activated, it goes away and your weapon is raised. You can switch to other weapons/equipment while cloaked.
- You cloak. The amount of "shimmer" is increased as you move so standing still you will be nigh invisible, but when moving you will be noticeable to an extent. When cloaked, you obviously have no chevron or health bars, but the enemy reticule will flash red if you run past it.
- Cloak can be deactivated by selecting it and pressing fire.
- Once deactivated or it runs out it will start to recharge.
- Firing a weapon while cloaked will rapidly deplete the cloak field (a single shot from a sniper rifle, for instance, will decloak you)
- You can only fit one cloak field at a time.

+1

I only ask because I it is tradition. Hacking bonus for scouts?

Proposed Addendum:

-Cloak is recharged by sitting still
-Fitting a cloak disables the use of a light weapon, perhaps even reduces the damage of the sidearm/grenade

Optional changes:
-Restrict the use of a cloak to a new GÇ£blackopsGÇ¥ scout suit with no light weapon slot, 2-3 equipment slots, and paper thin hp.