Stealth sattelitees in simultaenous?

[Zereth]

Is it possible to drop a satellite with stealth armor and have it automatically stealth in simultaneous movement? I'm playing in a multiplayer game and had plans to do start bugging enemy territory, but then I remembered that you need to toggle on stealth, so the other players would be able to see it for one turn, right?

[Suicide Junkie]

IIRC, units have always-on cloaks, and you can't toggle it. However I haven't heard of recent tests.

[Zereth]

Oh, that's good. Puttering around dropping stealth armor-equipped satellites _will_ work then.

[PvK]

Yep. Until/unless they deploy scanners...

[Black_Knyght]

Dunno if this will help - It's just an idea I've been toying with adding to a mod I'm working on:


Short Name := Spy Satellite
Description := A small, specialized satellite equipped with stealth technology and used to covertly monitor enemy systems.
Code := SS
Primary Bitmap Name := SpySatellite
Alternate Bitmap Name := Satellite
Vehicle Type := Satellite
Tonnage := 10
Cost Minerals := 50
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 50
Engines Per Move := 0
Number of Tech Req := 2
Tech Area Req 1 := Cloaking
Tech Level Req 1 := 2
Tech Area Req 2 := Satellites
Tech Level Req 2 := 2
Number of Abilities := 5
Ability 1 Type := Cloak Level
Ability 1 Descr := Prevents level 5 Active EM scans.
Ability 1 Val 1 := EM Active
Ability 1 Val 2 := 5
Ability 2 Type := Cloak Level
Ability 2 Descr := Prevents level 5 Passive EM scans.
Ability 2 Val 1 := EM Passive
Ability 2 Val 2 := 5
Ability 3 Type := Cloak Level
Ability 3 Descr := Prevents level 5 Psychic scans.
Ability 3 Val 1 := Psychic
Ability 3 Val 2 := 5
Ability 4 Type := Cloak Level
Ability 4 Descr := Prevents level 5 Gravitic scans.
Ability 4 Val 1 := Gravitic
Ability 4 Val 2 := 5
Ability 5 Type := Cloak Level
Ability 5 Descr := Prevents level 5 Temporal scans.
Ability 5 Val 1 := Temporal
Ability 5 Val 2 := 5
Requirement Must Have Bridge := True
Requirement Can Have Aux Con := False
Requirement Min Life Support := 0
Requirement Min Crew Quarters := 0
Requirement Uses Engines := False
Requirement Max Engines := 0
Requirement Pct Fighter Bays := 0
Requirement Pct Colony Mods := 0
Requirement Pct Cargo := 0

[Suicide Junkie]

Level 5 cloaking is pretty evil on a sat.

If it were a mine, at least you could sweep the system for bugs every now and then.

[douglas]

Even on a satellite, it's still possible to find it. You just need an "enemy" to provoke combat in each sector of the system. When your two unarmed ships run away from each other in the right sector, the satellite will show up. With the right design and strategies, you could even make ships that will run away from and not fire on each other but will close on and kill satellites, eliminating the need to send a combat ship to finish the job after discovery.

Yes, this would be an utterly absurd abuse of the game mechanics, but I'm pretty sure it would work.

[PvK]

Yes. Interesting though that he gave it Tonnage 10 kT, which in stock means it can only hold a control component, so no scanners of its own, so it'd only give a default scanning level view.

[Black_Knyght]

That was pretty much the idea.

I designed it as an "eye-in-the-sky" kind of thing, so "Big Brother" could watch over what others were doing.

Just big enough to be usable for that purpose, but too small to actually mount weaponry of any kind on.

Are the Cloak Levels set unreasonably high?

[Xrati]

If you include a level 5 scanner (somewhere in the game) they're not.