Hiding in plain sight.

[DeckardRunner]

Not sure if this has been asked before, so mods delete, re-point as necessary.

Remove the hollow signature for players.
Except when :
A). Have fired any weapon in previous X amount of time or
B). Have hard points deployed.

This means that none shooty players would look the same as the AI, forcing pirates etc to attack any ship that has decent cargo, rather that just (mainly) player ships.

It would also limit the Griefers or Hard core PVPers activities and force them to select AI ships as none aggressive players would look almost like AI.

Please note I'm not against PVP for profit, but think it should be based on a ships value / bounty or otherwise, rather than a lets kill the player for fun approach.

 

[sibbers]

I like this idea. I think it should be easier to fall off the radar too, maybe with ion drives or something for very slow stealthy movement.

 

[Seonid]

There has been some discussion on this, the last big one was here:
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?p=537536

 

[DeckardRunner]

Thanks for the link, I like the opt in /out method, but perhaps the "shot weapons in last x minutes" and "hard points deployed" should also make a temporary opt-in status.

 

[Flavio]

There are pros and cons to either method so am not too bothered but I prefer to keep things as they are because as a non-shooty but sociable player, I want to know who the players are so that I can say hi.
If I go to an unidentified signal and see that all the boxes are solid, I will leave asap as I don't want to be shot at but if there are hollow ones, I will stay and have a chat in the hope that they don't open fire (if gun ports are open then it is time to leave). With your method I would find it more difficult to be sociable as either I hang around waiting for the solid boxes to show themselves to be peaceful players or pirate npcs which may not be nice. You could say the same for the players but hopefully, once they see that I can't fire back as I haven't opened my gun ports as I don't have weapons, they would leave me alone unless they want my cargo.

 

[Rickenbacker]

Not a bad idea at all! I actually like it more the more I think about it.

 

[DeckardRunner]

Just another thought - perhaps for those like Flavio who want to announce that a real player is open for some convo, then perhaps a broadcast message should be allowed to all ships in range, to prevent spamming this could be limited to 1 every few minutes/seconds or so - I dont want an EVE Jita spam fest..
After all you also may need to shout for help now and again and a broadcast message may be the way of doing it.

 

[Tornado]

Not sure if this has been asked before, so mods delete, re-point as necessary.

Remove the hollow signature for players.
Except when :
A). Have fired any weapon in previous X amount of time or
B). Have hard points deployed.

This means that none shooty players would look the same as the AI, forcing pirates etc to attack any ship that has decent cargo, rather that just (mainly) player ships.

It would also limit the Griefers or Hard core PVPers activities and force them to select AI ships as none aggressive players would look almost like AI.

Please note I'm not against PVP for profit, but think it should be based on a ships value / bounty or otherwise, rather than a lets kill the player for fun approach.

Good idea but how will your computer know if the player has "fired any weapon in the previous X amount of time" ?

 

[StayFrosty]

Not sure if this has been asked before, so mods delete, re-point as necessary.

Remove the hollow signature for players.
Except when :
A). Have fired any weapon in previous X amount of time or
B). Have hard points deployed.

This means that none shooty players would look the same as the AI, forcing pirates etc to attack any ship that has decent cargo, rather that just (mainly) player ships.

It would also limit the Griefers or Hard core PVPers activities and force them to select AI ships as none aggressive players would look almost like AI.

Please note I'm not against PVP for profit, but think it should be based on a ships value / bounty or otherwise, rather than a lets kill the player for fun approach.

It comes with more flaws than anything. Plus how do we deal with the Pilot's federation specific bounties if you can never know who you attack?

Griefing in the form of attack is already limited by bounties, security, and many other consequences for attempting to attack someone, so it just won't happen that easily, it's already "part of the game". And let's not forget you can defend yourself, so on top of those consequences, attacking a ship isn't a guaranteed victory.

Your vision also only takes into consideration the trader/pirate scenario, one out of many, and sacrifice all exchanges with other players for the sake of one irrational fear. If you really think this is a good idea, then we might just as well all play in singleplayer offline, because it'll make no difference: players are supposed to make one.

 

[DeckardRunner]

how do we deal with the Pilot's federation specific bounties if you can never know who you attack?

You would have to scan each and every ship, surely players are not the only characters with bounties.

Griefing in the form of attack is already limited by bounties, security, and many other consequences for attempting to attack someone, so it just won't happen that easily, it's already "part of the game". And let's not forget you can defend yourself, so on top of those consequences, attacking a ship isn't a guaranteed victory.

I agree, all that this system does is make it likely that a PVP pilot may just pick a ship to attack, it may be a player it maybe AI, that's as it should be, no distinction between the two. All it is intended to do is make players look like AI.

Your vision also only takes into consideration the trader/pirate scenario, one out of many, and sacrifice all exchanges with other players for the sake of one irrational fear. If you really think this is a good idea, then we might just as well all play in singleplayer offline, because it'll make no difference: players are supposed to make one.

Err No. If in all places players could look like AI then you would never know if you where attacking a player or an AI - that's as it should be. Players can still make a difference, the can attack whom ever, I just don't want the ability for anyone to single out players. Obviously if you want player/player interaction then there needs to be a broadcast channel, from here a consenting player can list there ship transponder for PVP, if not then you would have to scan every ship AI or otherwise to discover the player.

 

[Nemesis-T-Warlock]

Not sure if this has been asked before, so mods delete, re-point as necessary.

Remove the hollow signature for players.
Except when :
A). Have fired any weapon in previous X amount of time or
B). Have hard points deployed.

This means that none shooty players would look the same as the AI, forcing pirates etc to attack any ship that has decent cargo, rather that just (mainly) player ships.

It would also limit the Griefers or Hard core PVPers activities and force them to select AI ships as none aggressive players would look almost like AI.

Please note I'm not against PVP for profit, but think it should be based on a ships value / bounty or otherwise, rather than a lets kill the player for fun approach.

Until NPC start having conversational skills this pretty much kills in-system chat.

 

[DeckardRunner]

Until NPC start having conversational skills this pretty much kills in-system chat.

Actually I don't think it would, if you could broadcast a message in system, to anyone in range "CMDR ABCD: Hi any other players here"
The other commanders could respond directly to you or broadcast a message back. As I have said broadcast would have to be limited to stop 'Jita' spamming.

 

[D'Kaeth]

Good idea but how will your computer know if the player has "fired any weapon in the previous X amount of time" ?

I agree that this might not make sense. But, then, how does it know that hardpoints are deployed (to make it a triangle) if it is simply reading heat signatures?

I read a similar suggestion to the OP before (but not that really big thread linked to in this one). I like the suggestion, I think.

It also allows us to feel like the game is potentially larger and more dangerous than it is at times. When I leave a station and see no hollow signals, I feel like I am alone and risk free. If they were all solid, every departure would be a little more exciting.

 

[Zenicetus]

Actually I don't think it would, if you could broadcast a message in system, to anyone in range "CMDR ABCD: Hi any other players here"
The other commanders could respond directly to you or broadcast a message back. As I have said broadcast would have to be limited to stop 'Jita' spamming.

Or the other scenario:

"Hi any other players here?"... followed by 5 or 10 different ships' hardpoints deploying around you....

 

[DeckardRunner]

Or the other scenario:

"Hi any other players here?"... followed by 5 or 10 different ships' hardpoints deploying around you....

Well actually yes that might be the case if they are all players, however they would still need to scan to find out which ship the announcing commander belonged to.

Like D'Kaeth says it would create a sense on tension when docking or launching, assuming no player had fired in the last 'X' minutes and hence just look like another AI, it could add another level of game play, several pirates might need to work together to keep one of them cool and AI looking.

It would limit 'pick on the player' types to some degree and force them to go hunting.