(01-31-2025, 11:06 AM)Toaster Wrote: The issue with IDs being completely invisible inRP is that - if there are no other gameplay mechanics available to uncover them - an undercover character can't be uncovered unless they go out of their way to expose themselves. If I fly an Order ID, Freelancer IFF Sabre with no Order tech equipped, no one can ever know that I am an undercover Order agent unless I deliberately slip up. Until then I can happily spy on others and report back on forum message dumps with absolutely no counterplay whatsoever.
Unlike the problem with cloaked espionage, I think that this IFF covert espionage has a fair way to counterplay it.
Probably two characters who have something really important and secret to tell each other, wouldn't do it if someone else was present, even if he was not carrying an IFF from an enemy ID, or even if he carries an IFF from a friend one, but they don't know who he is. They would try to find a place where they could be alone, with no one in sight of the scanner.
With the cloak instead, yeah, this is almost impossible to counterplay, because the characters and their players think they are alone, but they may not be, and they have very little way of knowing it.
