Making Cloaked Warp Points, Stealth Armor

[Noble713]

Ok, I'm working on my mod and I want warp points that can't be seen unless you have good enough EM and gravitic sensors. I've run into two problems:

1. The type of warp point selected will affect EVERY warp point in the system. This is bad as I don't want all of them to be invisible, just 1 or 2 per system.

2. When assigning abilities to the warp points, you can't assign them in Groups, only 1 at a time. Example: In order for a point to be invisible at the beginning of the game, it would need lvl 2 cloaking in Act EM, Pas EM, Gravitic, Tachyon, and Pyschic detection. However, instead of having all of these, the point will randomly have just ONE ability. This means that it will always be seen, no matter what.

Anybody have a workaround for the above?

Actually, I just realized something else: If you put Stealth Armor on a ship (Lvl 2 Pas EM Cloaking) and order it to cloak, you can move it through enemy territory totally unnoticed. Why is that? It doesn't Lvl 2 cloaking in any of the other areas, so regular ships should still be able to see it, right? Or am I interpreting the whole system wrong?

[llreye]

? I think the way it's implemented: is a "low level" (L2) cloak which can't be detected by std L1 sensors everyone has. So without advanced sensors, the cloaked ship can't be seen.

Cloaked WP would be nice for Starfire.
-MKC

[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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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[Jubala]

I've also tried to figure out how to make hidden/closed warppoints like in the starfire books I have. So far no go.

[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.