Making Cloaked Warp Points, Stealth Armor

[Resident Alien]

quote:

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Originally posted by Taqwus:
One of the help files (Game_Sight.htm) states that objects default to having level 1 EM Active ability, and 0 everything else. Hence level 2 EM Active will hide you -- but not from, say, Gravitic or Psychic scans.

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Here are the results of some of my experiments with sensors and cloaking:

1. There is no difference between Tachyon, Optical, Gravitic, Psychic, Temporal scanners at the moment (v1.11).

A ship with any of the sensor level I components can see Cloak I or Stealth Armour ships in normal space.

Any Sensors II can see Cloak II and any Sensors III can see Cloak III.

2. In a nebula system Sensors I don't see anything. Sensors II and III can see to expected levels.

Some comments:
1. Sensors beat Cloaks in SE4. In SE3 there was no way to detect a cloaked ship unless it hit your tachyon ship. In SE4 a sattelite with a III level sensor can detect any ship in a system. I think I prefer it that way. An undetectable,cloaked enemy Base Ship in you home systems is no fun at all as I found in one SE3 multi user game.

2. Stealth Armour says it blocks EM 2 active and passive. But I don't think there's a gravitic, temporal, psychic sensor that has level 1 that might see it. The Sensor I components can see at level 2 so can see the Stealth armour anyway.

3. Perhaps in future the interactions of cloaks and the different sensors could be expanded so there are choices and trade offs in choosing sensor techs and cloaks.

[Psitticine]

quote:

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Originally posted by Resident Alien:
1. There is no difference between Tachyon, Optical, Gravitic, Psychic, Temporal scanners at the moment (v1.11).

A ship with any of the sensor level I components can see Cloak I or Stealth Armour ships in normal space.

Any Sensors II can see Cloak II and any Sensors III can see Cloak III.

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That's because you only need sensing capacity that meets or exceeds cloaking capacity in one area. The cloaking devices provide level X in all areas. Sensors that give level X in any one area meet the criteria.

I've been thinking of adding something called "temporal cloaking" (which might work by disrupting the timing of particles striking the ship) to the appropriate special knowledge tree. Temporal sensors would see through the cloaking by detecting this very disruption but other sensors would be more easily spoofed. I was thinking of giving Temporal Cloaking I level 3 cloaking in all areas but temporal, in which it would have only level 2.

Something like this would have the intended effects, if it works in the testing I haven't given it yet. All level one sensors save temporal would be ineffective.

[Taqwus]

Something that would be truly evil would be a cloaking facility -- placed at somewhere like Cloaking 4 (at a minimum...), acting as a Cloaking 1 device for colonies so you'd need sensors to find it in the absence of other clues.

The colony would be considered 'blockaded' when cloaked (does not contribute any resource, intel or research to the Empire, and builds at a slower rate, since the shipping et al would give the colony away), plus would need to uncloak for a full turn to interact with the owner's ships (cargo transfer, repair, etc). And it'd be revealed if somebody explicitly attacked that sector, tried to colonize it, etc.

Purposes would be --

a) hiding if you're getting seriously beat-down, in the hope that either allies or dwindling supply forces your enemy to abort the search

b) setting up a concealed outpost near or in enemy space, and then only revealing it once you have defenses in place

Can of worms, but could be an interesting can of worms.

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[Psitticine]

That's a good idea! Pirate/raider bases!

A bit off-topic here, I guess, but I've hoped for the ability to add aggresive facilities to the game. Like Macross' Grand Cannon, if you know what I mean. They've have a big, big bang but would take the place of another facility and couldn't be moved to another planet.

[Cryptotec88]

Taqwus--

Great idea! Talenn, Tampa....you listening?!

[Worgaus]

I think a Planetary Cloaking Facility would also be pretty cool. I haven't messed with cloaking tech any since I have yet to advance far enough to get it. ;P I play games with High Tech cost, so I don't get advancements quickly.

[Shadow99]

Psitticine I have made Weapons like the Macross/Robotech Grand Cannons (I even call them that), but there are three issues with it:

1) Facilities cannot hold guns... (I've tried if someone else has gotten such a thing to work tell me how)

2) Facilities cannot be customized in any way (so no real options jsut soem generic Grand Cannon X)

3) Weapon Platforms were my solution to #1 & 2, but even 4000 kt WP's can be moved with enough cargo space.... (Btw grand cannon size mounts have a huge bonus to dmg., but weigh over 10x normal which fits)...

Oops Forgot to mention I've tried to make planet cloak facilities, but so far I've been unable to tell if they work or not...

[This message has been edited by Shadow99 (edited 15 December 2000).]