Ideal cloak implementation IMO is as follows:

-Active scanner/dropsuit scanner detects and decloaks someone and increases cooldown [Should only make them show up as red dot on minimap]
-Being shot while cloaked decloaks someone and increases cooldown
-Cloak active length is not limited, 10-25s cooldown starts after deactivation [Cloak activation SHOULD be limited! 15-30 seconds, skill dependant. There should still be a cooldown timer of the length you propose]
-De-activation has a quiet, yet audible noise to alert nearby people who are very alert (Similar to the terrifying hum of charged knives)
-No weapon can be equipped while cloaking; ideally accomplished by making the cloak an equipment piece the player must hold in their hands to use
-Cloak increases scan profile somewhat. Penalty to profile reduced by skill level in cloaking
-Always visual distortion, only amplified to be 'super visible' while sprinting: This is mitigated by being more susceptible to scanners of all varieties. You won't be able to get close to anyone cloaked if they have good/decent scanner modules on their suit, or are using active scanners to look for people. Active scanners should be the direct hard-counter and force people to decloak easily unless a player sacrifices all of their module slots to prevent this.
- Expanding on last point : When facing two max skilled players against each other at close range the scanner should always win. At longer ranges like 50-60m+ the cloaker should win out as the scanner should be less effective.
-Any suit should be able to use the cloak, provided it has equipment slots. Effectiveness and ease of detection is then related to scan profile. IE: The new heavy suit could get a cloak, but getting inside anyone's scan radius would pretty much instantly decloak him because his scan profile is so high [Scouts MUST have some incentive (other than slightly lower scan profile) to use cloak, in this proposal they would only marginally better than a Logi dropsuit (50 Scan Profile rather than 45). They need to be MUCH better - special ability, greatly reduced CPU, greatly reduced movement penalty, greatly reduced cooldown timer...something of this sort.]
-Getting within extremely close range of another player (5-10m or so) should decloak a person regardless of each player's fit.
-The cloak module should have a very steep melee damage reduction modifier, to prevent people from just running around smacking people with it while they have damage modifiers for melee stacked [Nah. No melee when cloak activated, plus you decloak when you get it range of someone. If someone wants to bonus melee, let them, interesting gameplay variation - they will still be **** :) ]
-Unable to throw grenades while cloaked (Make up whatever lore you like. Need both hands to power the thing from your suit or something like that.)

Hi guys,

I thought IGÇÖd collate a bunch of info on the scanner and scanning to answer some of the questions IGÇÖve seen and was getting a bit too sleepy to answer last night. Hopefully this will clear things up.

Every active scanner has its own scan precision value. Every dropsuit has a scan profile value. If the precision is a lower value than the scan profile of the dropsuit, the scan will succeed and the scanned players will be shown on the players minimap, 3D HUD and that of his squad mates. Profile size from largest to smallest is Heavy Frame, Medium Frame, Light Frame.

Scanners are a point and shoot weapon, have a range, an angle, a scan duration, and a target visibility once scanned duration.

Dropsuits also have a passive scanning function that works in the same way as the scanner but is radial and always on. Your profile is not dynamic so it is not affected by movements such as crouching, sprinting or actions such as shooting. Nor does your ratio of shield to armour have any effect. This is something we might consider developing further in the future.

The scan profile of a dropsuit can be reduced by fitting profile dampeners which will protect users from both passive and active scanning by reducing their scan profile. The Profile Dampening skill will also give you a 2% reduction to your profile per level. Precision Enhancement (2% dropsuit precision bonus) and Range Amplification (10% dropsuit scan range) skills do not effect active scans, they only effect passive scans. Dropsuit command will no longer have a scan bonus associated with it.

The initial implementation of the scanner does not reveal the location of or change the profile of the dropsuit using it. We will consider adding this feature if it shows itself to be necessary. It will also not include scan specific WP rewards but we do want to intorduce them at some point.

Hope that helps clear things up :-)

CCP Wolfman

There is no drop off on scan precision over range. The other thing you mention seems strange...

If there is a sniper somewhere in the distance, and I am looking for him in the rock-line through a scope, if I find him, hover my crosshair over him for a couple of seconds only then does he light up as a red dot...

afaik, line of sight and their chevrons have nothing to do with the scan mechanics. Barring odd behavior, if you see it in a main cone of vision, it lights up. (Like at the start of Manus Peak, if I'm running from A to C, I sweep my crosshairs along the ridgeline by the enemy MCC to see if there are snipers there and I need to move erratically.)