The High Sec Carebear has finally moved to 0.0, Adventures with TEST awaits.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Cloaky Campers, Risk vs Reward.

I've read a lot about cloaky campers on forums, in chats etc, the consensus is that it's all whining, HTFU and all that good stuff.  I really would like this to NOT come across as whining and shall try to present it in a more rational/constructive manner. 
The truth of it is that I don't really mind it at all on one level, it's a necessary evil in 0.0 and an effective means of area denial, while I do have huge problems with it on another level.  I shall endeavor to present my argument as such.

Cloaky campers is something I've not experienced at all until now, seeing as I've only recently moved to Providence, I've heard and read about them, but it's all been second hand experience.
While it should be said that cloaky campers are somewhat of an oxymoron in Providence, NRDS, neuts and all, we do have red campers, and I've made their acquaintance recently.

I pretty much divide my time between the Fleet staging system and a "home pocket" for making money, whenever I'm not at the staging system shopping or waiting on a fleet, I'm in the pocket chatting and making money.  Recently some people started sitting in most of the pocket systems, effectively denying access to the belts and anoms for the residents.  The concept is simple, make yourself visible in local and the residents won't undock for fear of what you might do to them, cloak you're ship so no one and scan you out and you're good to go.
In Providence this is not really a problem seeing as all of Providence is open to everyone, no restricted systems etc.  I also mentioned how cloaky campers are somewhat of an oxymoron in Providence, considering that you will quite often operate with several neuts in local.

I can see how this starts becoming more of an issue in space that's restricted.  You and your corporation has access to a handful of systems, the availability of upgraded systems is limited or something similar, one camper can effectively shut down your income.  You will either stay docked or take the risk of undocking and hoping that he won't drop you or something of the likes.
Nullsec is supposed to be risky, but for the most part it's quite safe to operate in isolated systems, due to the availability of intell and backup a large part of the risk can be negated.  This is why I don't really have a problem with the cloaky campers, they introduce a level of risk and inconvenience one should learn to live with in nullsec. 

The problem I have with the campers is that this level of risk does NOT go both ways.
The camper shares none of the risk of his victims, he/she is completely safe in their cloaked ship and runs absolutely no risk of harm or injury while shutting down an entire system of people.  In my opinion, damage on that level should carry with it a level of risk proportional to the damage you do.  You disrupt a system full of people, you should at least be at risk of loosing your ship, not be completely untouchable as it is now.
I look at the map, find a few upgraded systems within reasonable range of each other, stick a cloaked alt in these and I've forced a lot of people to move or stay docked.  I've either created alot of inconvenience or a lot of risk for a sizable crowd of people and I'm not at risk at all.

The second problem is that you can do all of the above with absolutely zero effort.  You get to the system in a cloaky ship, which isn't all that hard and then you log in after DT, cloak up and walk away.  You're now sitting there for 23 hours, cloaked, disrupting activity in that system for zero effort and zero risk.

CCP has stated that they want to change the current state of 0.0 sov over to something else.  One of the models they've suggested is an occupancy based sov mechanic, where you basically have to use the space to own it.  Now, I don't know how the mechanics of this is going to work at all, so I'm just speculating now, but if you have to use the space to own it, the cloaky camper has the potential of disrupting sov all by himself.  I assume that it's not gonna be that easy, there must be some other mechanics involved to counter that possibility, otherwise you're actally ruining sov for zero effort and risk.  I find it completely unacceptable under those circumstances that you have no way of pinning down and killing the camper due to cloaking mechanics.

Anyways, that was just my observations on the matter, I've no real solution to the problem considering how cloaks work under the current mechanics.  I support the fact that a camper introduces risk and inconvenience into a system that is otherwise very safe if you're even semi conscious.
I just feel that the proportions of risk and effort are very much off between the two parties.

Conflicting opinions and arguments are more than welcome.

Fly hard, Amarr Victor.

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