How Cloaking Should Work

zordar01

I was very...disappointed...with Dan's answer regarding the cloaking bug (which apparently isn't a bug at all but mostly working as intended).

Here is how I think cloaking should work in STO, taking into consideration that for balance purposes STO cloak won't work exactly like TV show/movie cloak.

1. Communicating with Boffs won't decloak the ship (sad that this needs to be stated, but...)
2. Add an On/Off option to auto-decloak when firing weapons
3. Using Boff abilities on any external target decloaks your ship
4. Scanning anything decloaks your ship
5. Communicating with external friendly/neutral NPC's reduces cloak stealth by half
6. Communicating with external NPC's while hostiles are present reduces cloak stealth by half AND by -X amount over Y time interval as the hostiles narrow down your position.
7. Traveling at full impulse or using Evasive Maneuvers reduces cloak stealth by half
8. Certain ship injuries should either prevent cloaking or impose stacking penalties to cloak stealth
9. Certain environmental conditions should prevent cloaking or impose penalties to cloak stealth, either overall or speed-dependent (traveling over half-impulse reduces cloak stealth in nebula Z, for example)
10. Certain ship conditions should prevent cloaking (ship covered in plasma fire, for example)
11. Add new Attack Patterns or weapon skills that allow "blind" firing of weapons in an effort to scoring a lucky hit and reveal cloaked ships (Torpedo: Magnetometric Charge to fire a torp spread to do low AoE cone damage, or Beam: Zero Elevation Fire at Will from Nemesis, for example [disabled in non-combat areas])

I know this stuff won't happen, but cloaking in STO now is absurd and mostly not worth using (battle cloak excluded). Any improvement in the way cloak currently works would be welcome and help gameplay and player immersion. I don't PvP so I'm not sure how any of this would affect that but none of it seems unbalanced.

What do you guys think?

blunted74

zordar01 wrote: »

I was very...disappointed...with Dan's answer regarding the cloaking bug (which apparently isn't a bug at all but mostly working as intended).

Here is how I think cloaking should work in STO, taking into consideration that for balance purposes STO cloak won't work exactly like TV show/movie cloak.

1. Communicating with Boffs won't decloak the ship (sad that this needs to be stated, but...)
2. Add an On/Off option to auto-decloak when firing weapons
3. Using Boff abilities on any external target decloaks your ship
4. Scanning anything decloaks your ship
5. Communicating with external friendly/neutral NPC's reduces cloak stealth by half
6. Communicating with external NPC's while hostiles are present reduces cloak stealth by half AND by -X amount over Y time interval as the hostiles narrow down your position.
7. Traveling at full impulse or using Evasive Maneuvers reduces cloak stealth by half
8. Certain ship injuries should either prevent cloaking or impose stacking penalties to cloak stealth
9. Certain environmental conditions should prevent cloaking or impose penalties to cloak stealth, either overall or speed-dependent (traveling over half-impulse reduces cloak stealth in nebula Z, for example)
10. Certain ship conditions should prevent cloaking (ship covered in plasma fire, for example)
11. Add new Attack Patterns or weapon skills that allow "blind" firing of weapons in an effort to scoring a lucky hit and reveal cloaked ships (Torpedo: Magnetometric Charge to fire a torp spread to do low AoE cone damage, or Beam: Zero Elevation Fire at Will from Nemesis, for example [disabled in non-combat areas])

I know this stuff won't happen, but cloaking in STO now is absurd and mostly not worth using (battle cloak excluded). Any improvement in the way cloak currently works would be welcome and help gameplay and player immersion. I don't PvP so I'm not sure how any of this would affect that but none of it seems unbalanced.

What do you guys think?

Really the only part of Dan's answer I had a problem with is that talking is supposed to disable your cloak.

Any star trek fan can cite at least a dozen episodes where people on cloaked ships were able to converse with one another, however, I am pretty sure you cannot produce one example where talking broke a cloak.

As I mentioned in one of the other threads the delete-happy mods removed, I suspect the problem is actually deep rooted and it is easier for Cryptic to say that it is "working as intended" rather than actually fixing it.

bloctoad

Since the Cloaking Device is mainly a Klingon feature,
And Dan Stahl admittedly hates Klingons,
Dan Stahl will continue to spout rhetoric rather than fix the problem.

seekerkorhil

bloctoad wrote: »

And Dan Stahl admittedly hates Klingons,

Don't troll.

Stahl has never openly said he hates Klingons because he is not a complete idiot. If he was to make such a statement, considering his position in the company and the uproar it would create on the forums, I suspect his employment would be terminated swiftly.

None of the developers could be that honest on the forums even if it were true.

gstamo01

Should only be to changes to Cloak.

#1 Speaking to YOUR Bridge Officers that are sitting no five feet away from you should not break cloak.

#2 Cloak should be out of combat toggle making the ship become cloaked as it's default state. This doesn't effect Battle Cloak, as that is a different ability.

palpha2clearance

zordar01 wrote: »

I was very...disappointed...with Dan's answer regarding the cloaking bug (which apparently isn't a bug at all but mostly working as intended).

Here is how I think cloaking should work in STO, taking into consideration that for balance purposes STO cloak won't work exactly like TV show/movie cloak.

1. Communicating with Boffs won't decloak the ship (sad that this needs to be stated, but...)
2. Add an On/Off option to auto-decloak when firing weapons
3. Using Boff abilities on any external target decloaks your ship
4. Scanning anything decloaks your ship
5. Communicating with external friendly/neutral NPC's reduces cloak stealth by half
6. Communicating with external NPC's while hostiles are present reduces cloak stealth by half AND by -X amount over Y time interval as the hostiles narrow down your position.
7. Traveling at full impulse or using Evasive Maneuvers reduces cloak stealth by half
8. Certain ship injuries should either prevent cloaking or impose stacking penalties to cloak stealth
9. Certain environmental conditions should prevent cloaking or impose penalties to cloak stealth, either overall or speed-dependent (traveling over half-impulse reduces cloak stealth in nebula Z, for example)
10. Certain ship conditions should prevent cloaking (ship covered in plasma fire, for example)
11. Add new Attack Patterns or weapon skills that allow "blind" firing of weapons in an effort to scoring a lucky hit and reveal cloaked ships (Torpedo: Magnetometric Charge to fire a torp spread to do low AoE cone damage, or Beam: Zero Elevation Fire at Will from Nemesis, for example [disabled in non-combat areas])

I know this stuff won't happen, but cloaking in STO now is absurd and mostly not worth using (battle cloak excluded). Any improvement in the way cloak currently works would be welcome and help gameplay and player immersion. I don't PvP so I'm not sure how any of this would affect that but none of it seems unbalanced.

What do you guys think?

I agree with the op

tancrediiv

Talking while cloaked disabling cloak is...odd.

In an earth submarine talking, any sound, can be heard by passive or active means. Sound doesn't travel in the vaccuum of space. There is no justifiable reason for talking to cancel cloak.

And what about surprise. If someone has no reason to suspect an invisible enemy is near there is no reason for them to actively attempt to locate said enemy.

The biggest problem I have with cloaking is how Donatra can do so any time with no chance to detect or disable her and get the fight done instead of being force to waste minutes of our lives while waiting for her to come back and fight.

And, of course, the complete uselessness of cloak in regular story missions.

kilemorgan

First let me say I seldom use any cloak.

I was taken a back by the statement that a boff talking to you was supposed to break cloak.
It seems to me that if they were making a game based off of a licensed of a tv series that it would try to emulate the series in question.

And yes the boring in cannon statements now.
While cloaked Officers talked. They did sensor scans of other ships and planets. They TRIBBLE into a planets computer network. Contacted their home world. They contacted other ships.
And so on. I'm sure I am mostly listing things that anyone reading this far can list the exact episode it and other examples occurred in.

They could make it so a BoP can fire a torpedo while cloaked yet they chose to do these other things? I wish i knew what was going through their minds as they designed this. Game balance? Since these things would only occur with players it must be linked directly to PvP. Even if I were one to only use a Fed character I would question those decisions. Why should someone I was playing against decloak because his cook called the bridge to say they ran out of blood wine and that after the battle ask me if I had anything stronger then tea to drink?

I just don't seem to get some of the ideas they come up with around here.

adon333

(First officer turns around and addresses the Captain) - "Hey, Captain! Your Mom called!"
>Accidentally spills coffee on cloak button as he turns around< >Pop fizzle!fizzle! snap!<

(Captain angrily addresses First Officer) - "Blast it Number One! You ruined another cloak console!!! and now the enemy has seen us!! Alas, Alack, and forsooth!"
>Angrily pounds captains chair with fist, shields and warp engines immediately short out as well<

This might not sound like the ST universe we all know, but it sure sounds like a PWE/Cryptic one. :P

bitemepwe

I do not understand Dans statement.
Maybe its easier to say, " working as intended" than fix a bug the Devs once admittedly said would be impossible to repair?

spartangamer

Any other company would fix a major bug like the decloak bug but not Cryptic. So obviously they don't care enough about the playerbase to keep them happy and only care about what color they should paint the next lockbox.

notapwefan

The decloacking bug for battleclock is actually there to please federation players. :P