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.