Still currently a few TFC stealth SD has more than held their own against the DM hoard (which includes Seers btw)

If stealth were removed from SDs we would simply get swamped.

A change needs to be made to the class itself, the vis and cloak changes went quite well but its still not enough. As Trevor said, 1 or 2 -vis augs should be MANDATORY for SD's to go stealth in there combat ships.

Personally I'd prefer stealth SD staying in the game, In my opinion it just adds some variety to the gameplay. The way I look at it right now is, if everyone cloaks, a person can use a athena+, lose some DPS compared to what he'd have had if he had used a CaP or CaL rather, and be able to see other stealth SDs around him from a reasonable distance. Otherwise a person can just use his normal setup and not have to make that sacrifice. To be honest, I dont know why so much fuss is being made about stealth SD, there are other equally broken things in game. Even if you can see a stealth SD from 1k away thats enough to chase him down, since he would most likely not go too fast considering that he uses a athena+. If he doesn't, you both can't see each other and its equal. Against other classes, I dont think stealth SD or not makes too much off a difference, they can always strike you in their aura no matter what..

But having said that, I have no problems at all if it is taken out. If I were an endgame PvP SD I'd surely prefer unstealthed SD PvP since it requires a bit less effort and concentration, and there the group with larger numbers would always win. Thing is, that since the game seems to be a bit "small-team-friendly", I think the stealth SD and stuff is needed, because it does actually give some chance to the weaker team with lesser numbers to try and do something. Otherwise really, they'd just be toast.

Anyway I feel the vision on the radars does need a significant beef of upto 5 or 6 folds like denoan correctly pointed out. Detection too could do with a beef, maybe 50%. That should make it a bit hard to stealth so conviniently as a SD.

Also what could be done is to nerf all cloak stats in half keeping their sizes the same. And give Sniper and Seer some cloaking bonuses.

You see..atm the problem is not with SD, it is with the radar/vis/cloaking system. Cloaks are way too powerful. And radars seem a bit too weak.

What is the admins stance on the issue currently?

Is the system going to stay essentially the same, or are more changes inbound?
If the latter, has the nature of the changes been decided? when might we see them?

Well... I'm using alby, CaL, spacy sup, Z+ on a DS+ and I just wanted to see what a cloak would do.. Switched my normal radar with a passive radar, put a cloak on, the result: 6 vis and I can hardly be seen. I still think stealth needs some work..

I think now we have a situation which is similar to the original.

It used to be that you were either visible or entirely invisible

Now you are either visible or slightly less visible.

The Difference in visibility/detection between a seer with 4x Seer Masts and a Speed Demon with just a cloak is far too small. I think there needs to be some sort of multiplier for visibility as it gets lower, As i believe that the lower your vis gets the less it is reduced by -vis augs.

im still invisible with my gunner a panther seer could only see me when he got within 375 distance.

Juju must have really low reflectivity. Because SDs with ath+s can see my seer with a lot of neg vis from my augs from hundreds away.

jujus reflectivity is around 70%.

Sniper has the most effective cloaks if both seer and sniper use the same cloaks. Cloaks reduce reflectivity.

That +cloaking boost? It doesn't exist. Its just -visibility. I'll be changing the wiki page on that shortly.

EWWWW

If you actually have lots of -ve vis augs..I dont see how a SD with athena+ can see you from hundreds away, last time I tried with a athena+ and all good radars, I couldn't spot an average seer from more than 70 or so.

Cant aug a sniper for stealth very well

Sniper masteries only go so far. Qa augs dont work. What else is there?

I've got about 1 vis while cloaked, but i could still be detected from 1000 or more distance by a LF with multiple athena augs. But i think it's fine; I'll just kill them >.>