Different levels of cloak and cloak detection

posted on November 18th, 2016, 6:17 am

I believe I read in the forums at some point in time that cloaking devices were supposed to get the ability to update, so once the opponent has researched a detection grid you can update your cloak to the next level to avoid being detected.

I like that idea very much, and looking at the very first episode that introduced Romulans and their cloak I got an idea how to display a low-level cloak:

The sensors of the Enterprise picked up something, but it was too blurry to lock phasers on, so they knew the area where the enemy ship is, but not the exact location.

In the game maybe you can have the ship visible in the MINI MAP, BUT NOT on the big screen or tactical view. This would allow you to know when an enemy vessel with an unsophisticated cloak enters your base, but the only way to attack would be to use some special weapon that can be fired to detonate in empty space approximately at the guessed location of the enemy.

So different levels of cloak might look like this:

cloak level 1: visible on mini map by normal sensors, yet not on the big screen
detection level 1: having cloak level 1 visible on both screens to lock on target without problem

cloak level 2: invisible to normal sensors on any screen
detection level 1: can detect cloak level 2 only on mini map
detection level 2: can detect cloak level 2 on both screens

... and so on

Having a science station research something like "Cloak Counter Measures" (or something like that) could unlock both the detection grid and the special weapons to target cloaked ships without seeing them, something you otherwise wouldn't need.

What do you guys think? Is this something that could be implemented in NX?

posted on November 18th, 2016, 4:02 pm

The engine supports this, by the way. Each cloak detect ability can have a whitelist (or a blacklist).

So right now, the blue cloak detect pings are coded to not work on the Talon, Tavara refits with advanced cloak, and 1-2 other ships with advanced cloak. To give another ship advanced cloak you just have to add them to the exception list of all the blue pings.

Unfortunately, if you want to let the entire race upgrade their cloak through level 1 -> level 2 etc, you would need alternate files for every single Romulan ship, and entries in all the weapon files in the game. Without the Fleet Ops devs' ODF generation script, this is impossible.

posted on November 18th, 2016, 4:47 pm

This news post from four years ago shows what the devs were thinking for the abandoned 4.0 release, and may be indicative of what they'll be doing for NX:

https://www.fleetops.net/news/item/236- ... lth-rhienn

posted on November 18th, 2016, 6:52 pm

Yes, our v4 features list largely stands in NX. However, because we have the opportunity to work outside the much less flexible A2-FO engine, we can now include things like.... stealthed ships causing distortions to the starmap...

Detection of stealthed ships favors the keen eye...

We like the idea of having each faction have its own stealth style.

posted on November 19th, 2016, 9:30 am

Yes, our v4 features list largely stands in NX. However, because we have the opportunity to work outside the much less flexible A2-FO engine, we can now include things like.... stealthed ships causing distortions to the starmap...

Detection of stealthed ships favors the keen eye...

We like the idea of having each faction have its own stealth style.

V4 release date?

posted on November 21st, 2016, 9:02 pm

V4 release date?

V4 on A2 was abandoned by the devs 2.5 years ago. See https://www.fleetops.net/news/item/246- ... operations.

As for cloak vs detect mechanics, it'll be interesting to see if there'll be some way for the non-cloak races to actually take part in that gameplay rather than just passively dropping sensor stations or random scout pings. I know you mentioned shimmers in space, but for that to be a useful clue NX will need to be much less visually noisy than 3.2.7 is.

posted on November 27th, 2016, 8:48 pm

It would make for an interesting mechanic:

Map with lots of stars/background nebula = slightly easier visual cloak detect
Map like the Void with no stars = no visual cloak detect XD

I am now very, very interested in that idea of limited range minimap pings. In 3.2.7 we have the global minimap ping, but if a station could cause minimap pings for cloaked ships in an area around it without revealing those ships, that would make for an awesome mechanic.