Question about cloaking

[Suicide Junkie]

If any sensor in the system exceeds the corresponding cloak value, the ship is visible.

If the ship has level 5 in all of the applicable cloaks, it cannot be detected without modding sensor strength.

[Q]

SJ I am aware of this. My question is if the abilities of two different cloaking components are addiditive?

[Skulky]

So you could not make a series of lvl 5 cloaks that only defend against one type of sensor? If you had just one sensor strong enough to see one of the say 3 cloak components the ship would be visible, the other cloaks wouldn't back up the revealed one? It seems a shame to have all these different sensors when they aren't really too different.
How about a mine detector? Or a super cloak whose detector is only available for sats and WP and bases, the cloak would be enourmous and $$ too but hey it could get you into the homeworlds. Also, if you have a cloak, say stealth armor and you warp through a mined warp point where the enemy has no detection will you take a hit? or can you slip through minefields like that?

[Phoenix-D]

If you have a, say, two cloaking devices, one that gives:

Level 2 Active
Level 3 Passive
Level 5 Gravitic
Level 3 racial

and one that gives
Level 4 Active
Level 2 Passive
Level 0 Gravitic
Level 0 racial

("racial" is actually two different techs)

If you have BOTH these devices on your ship, you'll have a combined cloaking ability of:
Level 4 Active
Level 3 Passive
Level 5 Gravitic
Level 3 Racial

And be detected by level 4 active sensors, level 3 passive, level 5 gravitic, and level 3 "racial" (cloak level = or < sensors, detected)

So yes, cloaks can be set to provide differing levels of protection against different kinds of sensors, and they CAN be combined.

EDIT: and in other words, the ship in Q's example question would NOT be visible unless you had a sensor other than tachyon or hyper-optics.

Phoenix-D

[ 11 January 2002: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]

[Suicide Junkie]

Mines can "see" through any cloak. The general idea is that your ship runs into the mines on its own. (really only makes sense in warppoint/planet sectors, where they can be concentrated around the object).

Mines are a poor man's cloak detector

[Q]

Thank you Phoenix-D for your precise answer.

The reason for my question is that I was thinking about modifying the cloaking devices so that you would have different possibilities and that not one type of sensor would be sufficient to detect all cloaked ships. But you must be careful not to create cloaked ships that can't be seen by any type of sensors!

One more question: Is it possible in the design vehicle file to call for a specific type of cloak or sensor ability (e.g. active EM or gravitic)??

[Rollo]

To make the design minister choose a specific cloaking device or sensor you would need to add a second ability to the component. For example "star - unstable" to hyper optics and "ruins" to gravitic sensors. Those ability will do nothing, but you will be able to use them in the designs to call for the components that you want.

Rollo