Re: a few wee little questions...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">But if you turn on "show plant names" (whatever it's called) you still see the "empty" sector labled w/ it's planet's name. A bug in my opinion.

Re: a few wee little questions...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">but this would also hide any ships in that ssector
What i wanted was to "cloak" tiny planets, uncolonized, untill you researched sensors good enough to detect them, but if you see enemy ships dissappearing in that sector, you would know there is something there.
Then my only hope for that is the way i posted it?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Your only hope is for MM to add planetary cloaks. I know that giving a planet the cloaking ability won't work because I just tested it. The game says 'cannot load stellarabilitytypes' and then trying to generate a map creates a long list of errors.

You know, it would be nice to have both 'planet' cloaks and 'colony' cloaks. One would really hide the entire planet and be very high tech, maybe an artifact tech. The other would just be a normal facility you could get with cloaking devices. Being able to hide the fact that your colony is present in a system is just about as valuable as hiding the whole planet. The only thing you have to worry about is someone trying to land & colonize. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: a few wee little questions...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">But if you turn on "show plant names" (whatever it's called) you still see the "empty" sector labled w/ it's planet's name. A bug in my opinion.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, although this is not a 'documented' or intended use of sight obscuration so MM might not want to fix it. I would report it, though.

Re: a few wee little questions...
 

what about creating a facility with the "cloak level" ability? I'm assuming this would also not work, since cloaking seems hard-coded to work only on vehicles.

Re: a few wee little questions...
 

That's right. It doesn't work either. Hardcode changes are needed for planetary cloaks.

Re: a few wee little questions...
 

ok, so the only way to hide a planet is with Sector - Sight Obscuration.
Unfortunate side effects is that enemy ships at that location will also be cloacked....there is no way to make a ship visible in such a sector, is there? Not without the appropriate sensors anyway

Re: a few wee little questions...
 

BTW, the sector sight obscuration ability will not hide a planet from the AI.
I created a map in which I used this ability to 'hide' ringworlds until the tech allowed someone to find them.
Well, what I didn't know is that a player's colonization minister WILL see them and sent colony ships to that location. ( I don't normally use this minister.) However I am told that you still cannot colonize the planet until you have the tech to see the planet. So if your intent is to keep these planets uncolonized, then this ability IS the proper one! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: a few wee little questions...
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Uh.

Dumb question: how in the nine frozen hells does one manage to NOT SEE a bloody ring world ... ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Three billion times the surface area of the earth ... kinda hard to miss, n'est-ce pas? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: a few wee little questions...
 

"Dumb question: how in the nine frozen hells does one manage to NOT SEE a bloody ring world ... ? Three billion times the surface area of the earth ... kinda hard to miss, n'est-ce pas? "

Divide that by the size of a star system.

That and the thing could be, oh, burried inside of a star that went red giant (not hot enough to melt whatever the world is made off), obscured by nebula.

Even the largest structure in the galaxy is invisible if there's something blocking the light between it and you.

Methinks a sphereworld would be rather hard to detect, too. Not a ring, but SPHERE. No light exiting from the resident star. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Phoenix-D

Re: a few wee little questions...
 

In the tradition of Startrek:

Techno Babble Answer #1: Light warping (bending) magnetic field generators http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

TBA #2: Totally transparant materials (and inhabitants) http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

TBA #3: VERY thin ring world http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif