Filaments:
A spool-up timer has been added to all travel filaments (Triglavian Space, Needlejack, and Ice Storm).
A Filament Trace will appear next to the travel filament’s owner on activation:
Nearby fleet members without capsuleer log-off timers will become linked to the trace as it appears.
Characters will unlink from a trace if they cloak, change ship, or go beyond 30km of the trace.
A link cannot be reestablished once broken.
If the filament’s owner unlinks from the trace, it immediately closes.
Traces can be scanned with combat probes or d-scan.
After the spool-up completes, the filament’s owner can jump all characters which remain linked to it:
Warp disrupted players will not be jumped.
Filament owners will be given a confirmation prompt if characters will be left behind.
Traces will close after 15 minutes have passed since it first appeared.
Travel filaments can no longer be used on a deadspace grid.
I've underlined the sections I'm interested in, as it's not particularly clear to me. Do filaments remain open and scannable for 15 minutes? Regardless if the owner cloaks/warps off or does it close immediately if they close or warp of and no longer scannable?
If it's the former, I think it's a little too OP in favour of hunters, 15 minutes seems a little much. As someone who enjoys hunting myself. Though either way I think there's better options to use as a deterrent for those trying to use it as a get out of jail free card than what's been implemented.
REBALANCING SOLUTION - SUGGESTION
Since CCP wants to add an element of risk to filament users and balance out the advantage it gives, I have some alternatives.
FILAMENT SIDE EFFECTS
Similar to using drugs, filaments could have a table of side effect risks to using them such as;
Cloak Destabilization Debuff - Capsuleer is unable to cloak for 5 minutes due to interference from filament properties.
Scan Res Penalty - A reduction in scan resolution/accuracy due to residual effects from the filaments.
Wormhole polarization - Any wormhole the capsuleer travels through for 15 minutes, becomes immediately polarized.
Warp Speed Penalty - Reduction in warp speed, again due to residual effects.
Increased logoff timer - A chance to Increase log-off timer by 5 minutes with each usage of a filament along with any of the other side effects.
ADDITIONAL PROPERTIES:
As a compromise for removing the spool timer which I'm not a fan of;
Drag effect - Anyone within a 10KM radius of the filament conduit is dragged in with the owner. Can't be activated in range of a player structure, or gate to prevent griefing. This adds an element of risk for cloaky hunters being rumbled, and dragged into an unfamiliar area. Especially with the additional risk of a cloak destab debuff which would apply to anyone dragged into it too.
What do you guys think? This seems like a much more nuanced rebalance to me than what's been presented which seems more like a band-aid.
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