Cloaking Device, Re-looked at.

[Eternal]

Actually the best thing to do is to actually add a fully workable cloaking device that would render the ship invisible. But making it ONLY admin aproved and given. I see absolutly no harm in such a thing , in the hands of the right people it would severly aid RP.

Also , the abcence of a cloaking generator removes the cherry from the top of the ice-cream , methaporicly speaking , on the Osiris Battleship and the Order as a whole.

I have no idea why a person like Igiss would be so much against such an improvement.

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[Linkus]

It can be hard to balance such things and generally even if it is balanced, people whine about it. No one likes being surprised it seems.

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.

[Turkish]

If we had admin issuer cloaking devices, it would be something might fierce. Likewise though... I wouldn't want to see the Phantoms with them, I already have enough gripes there as it is..

I'm sure its possible, but you would need some form of countermeasure. Maybe a mine with a specialised damaged type and a wide blast radius?

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I have a fetish for all things Norse.

[Eppy]

Here's a question for the masses:

What do we actually get out of cloaking devices?

It doesn't present any significant improvement like a bank command or custom hitboxes, in fact it doesn't really seem to do anything but present a balance nightmare (balance is already a nightmare. Don't make it worse). What are we actually gaining when we put in a Cloaking device? All I see when I look at player cloaks is a cute gimmick and a myriad of problems.

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Quick comment - we thought that Panzer was the Leader, Swift. -Agmen

Which Dreadnought was that?

One of your nine.

[Eternal]

Am ... well .. no

They represent a SIGNIFICANT part of some individuals RP and like I suggested an admin given device cannot unbalance the game play of other as it will not be used by the "random Jo".

No matter how hard I try I realy can't seem to think of ANY reason why the cloak isn't into the mod as a "given via admin item".

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[Drake]

With the exception of Terrorist IDs, I am completely against the idea of any equipment or ship which is admin-approved-only.

Edit: And with regards to the sensor jammer, if something could be made which, say, halved the range at which your ship could be detected, rather than made it completely invisible to sensors, then that might be balanced. No use in combat, but a big help to smugglers. And if it used up the armor slot, generally only the smugglers would bother with it.

[Markus_Janus]

And of course most traders.... and anyone not looking to start a fight.... and maybe most fighters as well.

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Samura Omotai Zaibatsu.

[Eppy]

The cloaking device you're talking about would completely destabilize balance. The Osiris used to be the most whored ship in the game; it hasn't been since the nerf but if we gave it a cloak, what could it do? Slip right up behind sitting fighters, uncloak, and pump two Mortars into them. They instantly explode. It can do this over and over and over. How are you going to get around THAT, hm? Allowing a cloak will produce DOZENS of situations like this. Hell, I RP my Bretonian Battleship (Outcast aligned) with a cloaking device (albeit, it rarely works, because cloaking devices are essentially metagaming). What do you think would happen if we actually implemented it? There wouldn't be ANY skill left (albeit, there's too much involved at the moment, but this isn't the way to reduce it), it'd simply be a game of Cloak, No Cloak. Where's the joy in that? Cloaks are currently restricted to RP, and that's what they SHOULD be: RP-only.

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Quick comment - we thought that Panzer was the Leader, Swift. -Agmen

Which Dreadnought was that?

One of your nine.

[Turkish]

You're very self-righteous, you know that?

If the Phantoms are allowed extraordinary equipment based on superior RP and ability of the members, with admin intervention being the only way to gain these items, why couldn't we implement a significantly nerfed cloak for nothing more than an RP item?

Using server-side software there are ways of disabling the abilities of a ship. Example being disabling weapons for the first thirty seconds after deactivating your cloaking device. I'm not saying that's what we should do, I'm just saying your argument is moot when there are ample ways of creating balance with cloaks.

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I have a fetish for all things Norse.

[Eppy]

And your argument is incredibly idealistic. You think a universal balance can be achieved for every single ship through a couple of restrictions? Um...no. You are talking about creating something that will completely change the way the game is played, which Igiss understands and has accounted for. You'll notice he has dismissed the idea of cloaking devices in the mod permanently. No matter what you do, it'll all start to revolve around cloaking devices. Concentrate on something more immediate, down to earth, and less difficult, like restructuring capship weapons and balancing bombers, and I think we'll see a much more worthwhile result.

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Quick comment - we thought that Panzer was the Leader, Swift. -Agmen

Which Dreadnought was that?

One of your nine.