Survey - Cloaking devices

[Lord Chaos]

The new system not only killed the cloak disruptor but also killed the Survey module,
Remove the "too close not to be seen " thing and bring back the cloak disruptors.
At least the Teamcould keep bouth jump drive types in the game and thus the surveys could still be used,
Some of us did like doing the surveys and jump werever we chose to,
The current system is forcing us to have a snub on the other side with a matrix, wich takes like 5 minutes to get him there, the survey however needed to be made by 2 players no way to get around it cause fuel consumption.

[darkwind]

The new system not only killed the cloak disruptor but also killed the Survey module,
Remove the "too close not to be seen " thing and bring back the cloak disruptors.
At least the Teamcould keep bouth jump drive types in the game and thus the surveys could still be used,
Some of us did like doing the surveys and jump werever we chose to,
The current system is forcing us to have a snub on the other side with a matrix, wich takes like 5 minutes to get him there, the survey however needed to be made by 2 players no way to get around it cause fuel consumption.

Agreed. Previous jump drives were better by magnitude, the current ones are nerfed in all directions and kind of far less worthy and far less memorable experience. Castrated jump drives.
Previous jump drives were able to handle the biggest issue, of traveling at big distances across galaxy, fixing the BIGGEST issue freelancer has, travling at big distance in monotone way.
Removal of this main feature... is... not great. I managed to data mine substitution what could be used instead, but it is still kind of not enough.
We could perhaps create separate topic "Survey - Jump drives" with similar poll and discussion

For some reason development too much concentrated on removing all fun mechanics.
- Nerfing in all directions cloaks (with according removal of cloak disruptors),
- nerfing in all directions jump drives, (with removed survey accordingly)
- And also all those recent versions nerfing transports in all directions
- And then nerfing capital ships in all directions
Who is benefiting at this point from all those nerfs?
- Only Snub fighters in range from Light to Heavy classes
- Hegemon and pob custom build ships?
- And i guess PoBs had plenty of love received

Can we consider actually... more aiming onto fun of ALL players, and more checking community feedbacks, instead of going into where the stuff goes?
Unique items make the most important impact on game play and having fun. Having nerfs to them make the most noticeable.... decrease in game mechanics.

If some mechanic is actually hurting some group of people.
- Consider not removing it, if it is actually a group of players liking to use it and not impacting other players by their usage (Looking at jump drives here)
- Or if majority of players prefer to use it and it affects only small subgroup in negative way. (Looking at cloaks)
Otherwise the improvements are serving as poison (instead of being medicine) to unique items with unique game mechanics
Freelancer Discovery is not having big amount of unique amount of items in effects in the first place. Each one being turned into broken.. is very noticeable.
(If u remove fun mechanics u just remove i think players themselves, not redirecting them to remaining lesser options)

We can mention here that all players at some point or another one need to be traders to get some credits. Heavy nerfs to transports (making them super slow in comparison to others) combined with cloak nerfs prevent gameplays related to smuggling here too. That should be affecting All players at some point or another one.

If some mechanic is actually hurting some group of people.
- Consider not removing it, if it is actually a group of players liking to use it and not impacting other players by their usage (Looking at jump drives here)
- Or if majority of players prefer to use it and it affects only small subgroup in negative way. (Looking at cloaks)
Otherwise the improvements are serving as poison (instead of being medicine) to unique items with unique game mechanics
Freelancer Discovery is not having big amount of unique amount of items in effects in the first place. Each one being turned into broken.. is very noticeable.
(If u remove fun mechanics u just remove i think players themselves, not redirecting them to remaining lesser options)

Some extra point towards this. Do u remember in the past groups of players / factions just dedicated to have fun together with jump driving to trade or smuggler stuff?
I do and it was the most memorable moments for me.


Jump trading with Phoenixes (With trying to fit my Acquilon ship sandwiched between two barges)
Jump trading during trading events with friends
Seeing other factions Jump trading during smuggling events
It was the most memorable thing to do. Killing it is a shame

I had dedicated fleet of ships and equipment built just towards it.
Jump driving vessels, survey vessels. All of them being not usable now.
I had smuggling ships with cloaks? Again not useful. Regretful.

---

Interstellar	Autogit	Ctrl-V	Encryptor	Discovery At Linux
Dark Tools	DarkBot	DarkLint	DarkStat	DarkMap

[darkwind]

For some reason development too much concentrated on removing all fun mechanics.
- Nerfing in all directions cloaks (with according removal of cloak disruptors),
- nerfing in all directions jump drives, (with removed survey accordingly)
- And also all those recent versions nerfing transports in all directions
- And then nerfing capital ships in all directions

Can we consider actually... more aiming onto fun of ALL players, and more checking community feedbacks, instead of going into where the stuff goes?
Unique items make the most important impact on game play and having fun. Having nerfs to them make the most noticeable.... decrease in game mechanics.

So... my proposal is potentially gathering reviews about all dubious changes and suggesting to revert or address some of them in one way or another one. Some possible suggestions for a route to fixes

• Cloak stuff looks to be simple reverting to old one, by just disabling those different optional configs (So this fix should be easiest to do)
  
• Jump drives regretfully more difficult going to be fixing, probably best to leave for desert, gathering opinion thoroughly before acting upon
  • A good (and simple) starting point for fixing jump drives could be by making their fuel cheaper considerably (to before nerfed values) and lifting restrictions to cargo amounts needed for jumping
    
  • At some point returning ability to jump by coordinates and ability to use surveys would be a next possible direction to fix them completely. Then all new mechanics with present predestinations will be only ENHANCING on top of previously existing jump drives abilities, instead of nerfing them.
    
• Somewhat fixing transports could be made by making 5k transports speed being equal to at least capital vessels
  

That's the thing that is nice to do. Enhancing things instead of nerfing. But enhancing carefully
As if u enhance for example all combat ships flight speeds, u debuff transports too much so they aren't able reliably escaping any longer.

Make enhances, not nerfs. Thanks.

---

Interstellar	Autogit	Ctrl-V	Encryptor	Discovery At Linux
Dark Tools	DarkBot	DarkLint	DarkStat	DarkMap

[Leo]

Another option I think might be interesting is to have cloak disruptors work passively in this system. Revert to the old system but if any one player has a cloak disruptor equipped, this decloaks a cloaked player. It's kind of the best of both worlds and makes both pieces of equipment viable and desirable. Just a thought.

---

You fear oblivion. Yet you forget. The universe remembers every atom of your being. Even dust hums your name in the dark.
Roleplay is dead. Long live Powertraders and PvP I guess.

[Kosa]

Another option I think might be interesting is to have cloak disruptors work passively in this system. Revert to the old system but if any one player has a cloak disruptor equipped, this decloaks a cloaked player. It's kind of the best of both worlds and makes both pieces of equipment viable and desirable. Just a thought.

Really good idea! Of course only if cloak mega nerfs are reverted.

---

[Ramke]

I was disappointed to learn that the decloak range is so high. It would have made sense if that would have been a passive cloak disruptor effect, but not for every ship.

---

[Harcourt Fenton Mudd]

I left before cloaks and POBs, and returned after the nerfs, so I can only comment on the current ones:

Cloak: still lets you run and hide, great for people who pay attention and see someone approaching they want to avoid, also great for ambushes if you can handle shields starting zeroed out, or if you want to bait someone riding the player list.

Jump drive: compared to not having one it's great, however the fixed set of jump spots are oddly implemented at times, cambridge for example the default spot drops you right into a PVE.

Personally I'd like the option to set coordinates more directly or in some way that feels more sci-fi than what we have now, say selecting which grid you want on the map and what height, with a margin of error, with the default setting redone to allow for some random variety in where you jump out at.

[Aingar]

I left before cloaks and POBs, and returned after the nerfs, so I can only comment on the current ones:

Cloak: still lets you run and hide, great for people who pay attention and see someone approaching they want to avoid, also great for ambushes if you can handle shields starting zeroed out, or if you want to bait someone riding the player list.

Jump drive: compared to not having one it's great, however the fixed set of jump spots are oddly implemented at times, cambridge for example the default spot drops you right into a PVE.

Personally I'd like the option to set coordinates more directly or in some way that feels more sci-fi than what we have now, say selecting which grid you want on the map and what height, with a margin of error, with the default setting redone to allow for some random variety in where you jump out at.

Jump drives do pick a random entry from the list. That said if there are any 'weird' jump spots do report them so they can be fixed. Having one lead directly into a PVE zone is less than optimal.

---

[Harcourt Fenton Mudd]

I left before cloaks and POBs, and returned after the nerfs, so I can only comment on the current ones:

Cloak: still lets you run and hide, great for people who pay attention and see someone approaching they want to avoid, also great for ambushes if you can handle shields starting zeroed out, or if you want to bait someone riding the player list.

Jump drive: compared to not having one it's great, however the fixed set of jump spots are oddly implemented at times, cambridge for example the default spot drops you right into a PVE.

Personally I'd like the option to set coordinates more directly or in some way that feels more sci-fi than what we have now, say selecting which grid you want on the map and what height, with a margin of error, with the default setting redone to allow for some random variety in where you jump out at.

Jump drives do pick a random entry from the list. That said if there are any 'weird' jump spots do report them so they can be fixed. Having one lead directly into a PVE zone is less than optimal.

By random entry and list, do you mean it randomly picks the A B or C option?
Cause I then several others traveling for a different PVE all defaulted to jumping into the BAF PVE in Cambridge on different days.

[Xenon]

Thanks to all who voted and discussed the cloaking devices situation.
The poll will end in one day, and so far, there are 27 votes (not enjoying the cloaking devices) and 11 votes (enjoying the cloaking devices).
The majority of the votes show the real dissatisfaction with the current cloaking devices



I hope that the developers will rebalance this issue. thanks.

---

NEBULA INFORMATION BOT ☆ NEBULA DISCORD SERVER
XENON WEAPONS MARKET ☆ NEBULA GRAND PLAZA ☆ NEBULA TECHNOLOGIES
THE DISCOVERY POBCAST ☆ DISCOVERY SERVER RULES