Science Reseach results

Good to think about this before bringing it into the game...

OK, 1. of all i agree with your reservations.

In all cases if it is only the coice between 1. and 2. - it need to be 2. because death zones have to be active otherwise targets will escape much to easy and never be found...

I like the cloaking fuel idea very much too - evrytime be cloaked could harm the roleplay to much - well i would point out, that not only the cargo hold but the mass in addition should be counted for the fuel loss. So BS or trains can cloak a longer time - but need much more of this fuel - and will make lesser profit than - because they have to take much more from it with them. Other way to control the usage could be the price of this fuel.

And of course, shooting while cloaked shouldn´t be possible in any way - so you could use it only in a defensive way and hornet, wasp or mosquito or a new rocket (the class 5 from coalition which is made for it(didn´t remember the name yet)) should interrupt the cloaking process - like going to cruise - or be in cruise speed. What about not seeing the cloaked ship, but have it on your scanners?

Yes i´ve read that codeing is needed than to bring this in. ImO don´t bring it in - when the RP is harmed to much from it - in the moment let it be until someone is able to change it. What about asking the Modder who did it?

Kermit

I didnt like the fact that Cloaking might be added to the game, i thought it would be impossible to tax anyone, however, the amount of changes you can make to make it practical is really encouraging.

Would it be possible to have a Cloak Jammer ? or have the CDs disrupt the Cloak countdown the same way as with Cruise???

hm ... or maybe ... if we add another "energy meter" int he game ?
like now you have it for: energy, hull and shield

and the new one would be for Cloack ...
but you need to "rechareg" it somehow .. and that somehow would be with the help of the "cloack-fuel" .. once you have no more fuel ... you dont have the ability to cloack ...
limiting the time could get a bit tricky .. cuz , in my opinion, who is going to count that ? the only logical way for me is the console (the FLshell or hook .. something) .. this way you could stopwach the time .. and add a new console command for that aswell ...

like: when you activate the console (lets say /cloack ) then your fuel would start to be used fromt he device) ..

There is an even easier solution to the "use of fuel" idea but from another angle....

Make the cloaking "device" actually a level 10 gun, or an energy using device from panel one of the onboard equip screens. Maybe even a fulltime burning shield replacement.

Make the "gun" or "shield" an "auto-fire" once activated and you will see your energy bar start falling like a rock. Actually, you could even make it force-out the use of guns while in cloak.

The timing of the cloak has to be energy based anyway and I would think you can pre-fix the burn time to make the use of it worth the cost and loss of a gun and/or shield.

Once the energy runs out, guess what? No cloak, and no guns either until the bar restores to functional levels.

The advantage here is:

(1) you have to lose a gun or some other "important" object;

(2) it would be used less in sneak combat since you are a gun short as well as no power to use guns or in a limited way depending on power restrictions placed on guns.

(3) Primary use would be more for traders and others getting past bad rep NPC systems safely.

It's just an idea, not sure if it is even feasible.

I would say if the addition of a cloak costs more headaches for OP and disrupts the dynamics of the game, then I vote for no cloak.

If i can share my idea of the cloak device:

1) about the two points that OP listed above i think point 2 is the better choice to do

2) the way i see it cloack should be a device that is to buy and mount and when activated it will start draw energy untill the ship runs out of energy. In this order of thoughtscapital ships and big trader ships which use better power generators will be able to cloack longer. In the same time would be good if anti-cloack wepon is created as example could be a EMP mine wide explosion range which would be able to draw shields and ship power after that so as result, cloacked ship will show up.

3) if special fuel will be needed to cloack then i suggest to be sold evrywhere, not like coalition torpedos which are used rare cause they are not easy to find near the battlefield.

I like the idea with the "cloak fuel", imo the "cloak fuel" should be pretty expensive.
I just didnt understand if the cloaking device will have to be bought at the dealer (like every other piece of equipment) or you can just tipe /cloak...
It would be good if it must be bought and that it also costs a good deal of money.
Anyway i like the idea and it could be developed into a great RP addition.

I am dead set against the whole project, I have never will not ever support cloaking in a game.

Sound good but i have my concernings about the device itself...i think it should only be used as and escape/evade item...but it will be impossible to avoid player to use it as attacking...

And what about case that you are using the device and a player choose you in his radar list...the selection will show where you actually are...?

Its great addition anyway, but hard to balance and polish...

Quote

Originally posted by pcforce
2) the way i see it cloack should be a device that is to buy and mount and when activated it will start draw energy untill the ship runs out of energy. In this order of thoughtscapital ships and big trader ships which use better power generators will be able to cloack longer. In the same time would be good if anti-cloack wepon is created as example could be a EMP mine wide explosion range which would be able to draw shields and ship power after that so as result, cloacked ship will show up.

problem with energy usage is that we would need a class 1, 2, 3, 4 etc... cloaking device for each class of ship. Otherwise if your a defenseless little starlflier or a merchant in a rhino, you would never have the power for such a device, but these people need them the most.
Also, size of ship should not matter because smaller ships require a smaller mass to be cloaked thus less power.

I think less of limiting the ability of the cloak, but more on cost to run would be good deterrant, but saying that, how could a guy in a rhino afford to buy the fuel !

would like to see this as an option for all to buy rather than just another Uber-weapon for the richest.

btw, whether i choose option 1 or 2 depends on whether the ship could be damaged while in cloak.

its more realistic to not be able to fly through planet, but If you cant be shot and killed by player in cloak then does it matter whether you can fly through a planet or not?, have a think, only low level players really need the cloak against NPC, because NPC can be swat like flies to most ppl of high grade ship. to many factors to make decision on that yet.

In reality, theres too thin a line between whether the device is made unusable by limiting its usage to protect RP and fairness, and making it useful and destroying RP.
For the time being, unless its clear that this can be implemented in a fair way, without messing everything up, im against having this in the game.

I agree with E.D. and PCForce. If the cloak could be made to draw ship's energy, it would make more sense, and have a wider RP value. If the cargo hold is needed to hold cloak fuel, it would mostly have value as an offensive tool, to do sneak attacks. With a 5-second delay, defensive use would be limited. A trader would not likely use the cloak defensively, since he would want to protect valuable cargo, and the cloak fuel would consume valuable cargo space (trains, of course, don't have so much limitation in this regard).

Firing while cloaked would only be possible for a few seconds at best, if the cloak was drawing energy from main power, and a fighter would have to accept the possibility that he may have no power to guns, either, in short order. The time delay to re-cloak would also be essential to balance this type of use.
If fuel is going to remain the power source for the cloak, I see no reason why its availability should not also be limited to planetary bases or the largest space stations, like some types of mines and ammo. And considering the potential advantages of a cloak, I would place its sales price right up there with the less-useful holoprojector...

i agree with u OP and suggestion number 2. i also think that the Cloak fuel (if it is implimeted) should on be sold at 1-2 bases around the galaxy and it should be put in places hard to get. for example a new base in Tomsk or someplace like a station in Sol that is at the edge of the map somewhere. if that isnt possible, then how about putting it in some areas with higher traffic? this could encourage RP i think then just sneaking around with this stuff. i also assumed this fuel would be perishable?

i for 1 would like to see this ingame, it could make some changes to RP and would add another new thing to CF.

Hummm, I'm not convince that a cloaking device is a must for CF. I remembre the time that OP said " NO WAY ! " but times are changing...

I find it to strong if you give every ship access to this device.

My suggestion is to create a few new types of ships ( 3 or 4 ), that have the capacity to load a cloaking device.

But this ship will not be a super ship, just average to compensate the ability to cloak.
Let say 1 explorer/spy ship, 1 transporter/smuggler ship
1 heavy/torpedo ship...

Thanks for clearing those misconceptions up OP.

option 1 then as per OPs update.

can it be restricted to People who have an agressive RP licence? I.e. for Merc, Police, and Pirates, not traders.

this way it encourages the use for Attack rather than evasion as the main evader types are freelancers or traders.

Another way to keep it as Attack feature is to fine player for activating cloak if they have been shot, like with the F1. Maybe that is possible?

in first seconds after uncloackign while energy is restoring missiles/torps can be used cause they use nearly none energy to fire a misle/torp

a new dimension in gamepaly i would welcome, and cloaking is a new dimension on FL

if there is going to be a cloaking device there should also be an anti-claoking weapon/device. Like a CruiseDisruptor but then a CloakDisruptor. Some could think a CloakDisruptor would make de CloakDevice superfluous, but if you make the turn rate about 6.00 / 7.00 you have the shoot in the direction of the ship which you dont always know.

The "cloak fuel" and the cloakdevice itself should indeed be very expenisve.

To use energy instead of "cloak fuel" is not a good idea because if you reload (f1) your bar is full again.

Silver

i never wear bats and bots in my fighters. We have an agreement here not to use this in any case when fighting human opponents (trains are allowed to reload but never F1) - so it will not be a problem bec. its not allowed to use it or F1 to avoid roleplay.

Its called a dishonorable act - you know that now.

regards
Kermit

(have a look at my sig ;))

i have not mentioned F1'ing during a fight. I'll give an example:

A trader is flying in a system where also a pirate is active.
The trader is using his cloak but the energy runs low. He has not "seen" the pirate "face to face" yet so he reloads to stay longer in cloak incase the pirate shows up.

It is indeed dishonorable but that will not prevent players from doing it this way.

So i agree with the "cloakfuel" way.