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Cloak wish list
foxxblitz
Member Posts: 13 Arc User
Since my first cloak-able ship, there have been many things that I've wanted fixed that really ruin the cloaking experience and usability. This is list is organized from most to least important.
1) All enemy torpedoes will follow your fully cloaked ship no matter how far away you are. Being >10KM away does not matter. This is extremely lowers the usability of cloak because:
- You lose you 75% resistance to kinetic damage from your shields being down, making you more vulnerable.
- (Non-EBC) You lose your ability to heal.
- You lose your ability to destroy destructible torpedoes that are following you.
- Your position is revealed to enemies in PvP, especially with destructible torpedoes..
The only torpedo that should have the ability to follow cloaked ships is the Emissions Seeking Torpedo. I don't understand why this hasn't been fixed. I can't imagine the fix being more than a few lines of code. IE: "if(TargetStatus.includes("Cloaked")){FollowNextTargetInOwnerThreatList();}"
2) Certain interactions and events will decloak your ship. Most annoyingly, the 'screeching message' from the Tholians in the beginning of Tholian Red Alert. This is extremely annoying because it happens usually when you're moving into weapons range of your first targets; You're not lined up or ready for your alpha strike and suddenly you're decloaked for no reason.
3) (New bug) Omega Kinetic Shearing will cause the Enhanced Battle Cloak to "blip" (Temporarily decloak) when your torpedoes or mines strike their targets.
1) All enemy torpedoes will follow your fully cloaked ship no matter how far away you are. Being >10KM away does not matter. This is extremely lowers the usability of cloak because:
- You lose you 75% resistance to kinetic damage from your shields being down, making you more vulnerable.
- (Non-EBC) You lose your ability to heal.
- You lose your ability to destroy destructible torpedoes that are following you.
- Your position is revealed to enemies in PvP, especially with destructible torpedoes..
The only torpedo that should have the ability to follow cloaked ships is the Emissions Seeking Torpedo. I don't understand why this hasn't been fixed. I can't imagine the fix being more than a few lines of code. IE: "if(TargetStatus.includes("Cloaked")){FollowNextTargetInOwnerThreatList();}"
2) Certain interactions and events will decloak your ship. Most annoyingly, the 'screeching message' from the Tholians in the beginning of Tholian Red Alert. This is extremely annoying because it happens usually when you're moving into weapons range of your first targets; You're not lined up or ready for your alpha strike and suddenly you're decloaked for no reason.
3) (New bug) Omega Kinetic Shearing will cause the Enhanced Battle Cloak to "blip" (Temporarily decloak) when your torpedoes or mines strike their targets.
Post edited by foxxblitz on
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Comments
Firing cycles are problematic in general and with special regard to Battle Cloaks. There's a 1s activation on the cloak and then a 3s period where the shields have dropped before the cloak kicks in. If somebody starts a firing cycle during even part of that last second before the cloak kicks in, the entire cycle continues to hit the cloaker. Instead of 3s with no shields and taking hits, you can be looking at up to 7s of no shields and taking hits. Cycles are problematic in general though, as they can fudge the arcs - if you start certain cycles in arc, they will continue while out of arc. Firing cycles should work like Tachyon Beam...out of arc, no more shots and no target, no more pulses.
Wiggling is problematic. Hrmm, the best example I can give of what I mean by wiggling is to take a KDF or KDF allied Rom to the Undine SBZ and hit up one of the Fed nodes. Fly away from the node at an angle and wiggle - steer left and right as if you were wiggling...heck, you don't even have to wiggle - just turn in a direction. Notice the dark orange text showing up on either side of your screen showing a "Federation Supply Crate"...? Turn to face where it is. It's gone! Look away and turn again. It's back! By wiggling, a player can see cloaked/hidden objects as long as they're not looking at them - they'll show off to the sides. It's problematic both ways, mind you - if the cloaker is doing it - it's also possible for them to appear to somebody not looking at them. It's tied into some weird recalculation based on turning to the left or right (first noticed it with some speed issues where after using certain speed buffs one would have to wiggle to get back to their normal speed instead of a slower speed).
Certain "attacks" which aren't attacks will cause somebody to enter combat - for a Standard Cloak it drops them out of Cloak, while for a BC it puts them in combat, and for an EBC it causes them to "blip" - appear briefly. A Grav Well aftershock? Isn't it triggered by the initial Grav Well? Why is it causing the player to enter combat? The same goes for Tyken's Rifts with their aftershocks. We've got the new Omega Kinetic Shearing which is causing the same thing. A Mine could be 30km+ away from the player when it hits a target and shears...putting the player that dropped it into combat. Plasma Mines don't do this when they apply their DoTs, why is OKS functioning this way?
EPtA does not provide its +Stealth bonus. The Romulan/Reman Deflectors do not provide their +Stealth bonuses.
On two, yes it is a pain when that happens. I wish they would sort it out, but Klinks have been saying the same thing for a long time now.
I haven't seen number three yet, so can't comment on it.
The idiocy behind this mechanic, is when the torpedo launches, and had determined it is a positive hit no matter what, than it should not apply the extra damage of someone who is now cloaking.
In other words if it is pre-determined a hit while shields are up, than cloaking should not allow it to inflict damage as though shields are down, when cloaking while it is trailing you.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
No doubt firing torps can be...funny.
Say you fire a Spread of Gravs with Intimidating Strikes at somebody zippy...
1) They sparkle in confusion from the Intimidating Strikes before the torps even appear on your screen.
2) At some point before the torps visually catch up to the target, they apply their damage.
3) Before the torps visually catch up to the target, the Grav Rift will appear from having hit the target - even though visually they have not yet.
4) Long after the damage has been forgotten, the torps will visually hit the target.
The thing is though - if one is talking about targetable projectiles - it gets a little more complicated in how things aren't quite working, eh?
Fire a HY targetable at a target. Destroy the target before the torp gets there. The targetable torp will acquire a new target. Thus, shouldn't said targetable acquire a new target when its current target has cloaked rather than continuing to follow it? The target is no longer there - cloaked rather than destroyed - but no longer visible...shouldn't it acquire a new target?
I'd also really like to be able to pick up loot without loosing cloak...
"Communications" is part of interactions as I mentioned in my first post. Talking to NPC's, receiving bridge officer messages, doing a simple scan, etc.
I don't really have much of an issue with picking up loot causing decloak. It would probably be very easy for sensors to detect a transport beam. It certainly is annoying though; You want to pick up loot but you also don't want to wait for the recloak cool-down.
I read a post from a Cryptic employee describing the targetable torpedo behavior. The torpedoes will only choose another target if the original target is completely untargetable (Dead/left game) or is >10km away. The latter is not true (Or at least not anymore).
As a programmer, I know it can't be hard to add another perception condition to the torpedo scripts. Not unless the code is so convoluted that it's impossible; In which case the code should be rewritten. Either way, this needs to be fixed.
While I agree it is stupid I would think that the shape of your shields is not determined when the hit is only that it will hit. As going into cloak lowers shields except for the Scimmy with the console then it going to hit hard on the hull as that is what torps are meant to do.