Posts: 2,817
Threads: 171
Joined: Nov 2009
Staff roles: Systems Developer
Changes to Light Cloaking Device
We're altering the following:
-Cargo limitation increased from 120 to 480
-Battery consumption halved from 8 to 4 per second
-Charge time increased from 3 seconds to 10 seconds
The changes will hit after the next server restart.
Edit: Nomad & Nomad Hybrid light cloaks only got their cargo limit increased to 480 since the other two stats are fine already.
Hello. We're changing the Light Cloak mechanic a bit to open it up for new ship classes and adjust the stats accordingly. Basically, all fighters, bombers, gunboats and freighters below the cargo limit cap will be able to mount it from this point onwards. Because of how low the cargo limitation was, some fighters (read: all super heavy fighters) couldn't mount it or any cloak at all, making them neglected in that area. Gunboats are getting access to it as a result of the gunboat/cruiser cloak (Mk2) taking 200 cargo space, which made them sacrifice ther capital armor upgrade for an universal one and significantly reduce their PvP potential. On top of that, they are far less efficient at utilizing it than the cruisers. Oh and you can still use the mk2 version if you really want to, we're not taking that away. Freighters below the cap are getting it because of cargo they sacrifice compared to others, so we're giving them something in return.
As for the halved battery consumption, it means the cloak has double the duration than before. Together with increased charge time (let's be honest, 3 seconds was a joke) they are a result of balancing towards the new ship classes that can use them (a gunboat wouldn't make much use of a 2 minute cloak, and you don't want it to cloak away in 3 seconds) as well as the current ones, such as fighters being able to escape a fight in 99% cases with 0 effort. The charge time is still less than any shield rebuild time mentioned classes use, so you're still not giving anything away that you're charging the thing.