New console Id like to see: Cloak Modification Console

meldrithpw · May 2014

Cloak Modification Console
(Science Consoleseems more fitting than a universal)

Equipping this console on a ship that has an inherent cloak or that is equipped with the Console Universal Cloaking Device changes the normal cloak ability to ability: Battle Cloak.

Equipping this console on a ship that has an inherent battle cloak changes the Ability: Battle Cloak to Ability: Enhanced Battle Cloak.

This console has no effect on Voth Cloak, Voth Battle Cloak, nor other subspace or phased cloak variants.

kjwashington · May 2014

This idea has been proposed before, and was shot down by klinks not wanting feds to have battlecloak and feds not wanting to have to use two consoles for battlecloak. Personally, I like the idea, but I don't see Cryptic doing this.

meldrithpw · May 2014

I really see only two major problems with the universal console cloaking device.

First of all, it's only equippable on a very limited number of ships, and secondly its only available on tier 5 fed ships, meaning that there is no incentive for a rom to ally fed~all the (player) rom cloak bonuses (and the reman infiltrator bonuses) are unusable with any fed ship. Of course, the tier 5 ship lockout is something I've been whining about forever, but I suppose that's something I should really reserve for a different thread.

onyxheart1 · May 2014

i'm gonna put a big fat NO on this idea

Klingons get cloak and carriers

Romulans get battle cloak and singularity powers

Feds get nearly as many ship choices as both other factions combined, better tanking cruisers, better and more science vessels...

and most importantly to those of us in the KDF, oodles and oodles of costume options

we've been wearing the same leathers for YEARS!! and they smell like it too :P

but of course we still get these kinds of threads, where Feddies are always calling for more more more.
when is enough, enough? :rolleyes:

chiyoumiku · May 2014

Yeah... no. Either do the defiant or the gal-x, but we don't need cloaks on feddie ships outside of the Rommie T5 Rep, which isn't even a true cloak.

bitemepwe · May 2014

and see Molly Ringwald in "The Feds beat dead horses" :P

centersolace · May 2014

*inaudible groaning*

jockey1979 · May 2014

Why not just scrap factions all together, and we all fly the same ship with the same gear and same skills.

As THIS ^^^ is what you UFP lot have been asking for since day 1.

One and a half factions with cloaking / battle cloaking is quite enough.

jestersage · May 2014

Actually if everyone look carefully this may be workable... provide it is applied to EVERYONE.

Klinks will get the battlecloak for all ships, minus one console.
Fed will get the battlecloak they want, minus TWO console.

It will be Rom that get the short stick... oh wait, all consoles. Unless they give raider bonus to romulans.

bluegeek · May 2014

Argh... what is with this obsession over cloaks?

I blame DS9. If they hadn't put that friggin cloaking device on the Defiant, we wouldn't be having these arguments over and over again.

Let's just state the facts.

First, Cloaking is cool. No arguments there.

Second, Enhanced Battle Cloak is great... if you like flying a Torpedo Boat build. And if you're really patient, because it tends to take longer to blow stuff up unless you catch their shields down. Because you can't shoot anything but torps when you're cloaked.

EBC is also a Premium feature. It's on exactly two C-Store ships, and only two ships. The B'rel and T'varo retrofits. The Scimitar has Cloaked Barrage if you've invested in that, but unlike EBC it has a duration and a cooldown.

Occasionally, even with EBC, you take a hit with your shields down, when somebody shot a torp at you while you were decloaked, or when you get hit with an AoE aimed at somebody else, or when you hit a mine. That's a bummer when it happens.

Third, Battle Cloak is only available on BoP's and Warbirds. It lets you cloak while you're at Red Alert. It's also overrated. If you time it wrong, you're going to take a hit with your shields down and it's going to hurt. Smart captains will decloak, unload their alpha strike, and then hit every defensive buff they've got and hope nothing gets them. Then you use BC to let your cooldowns expire and position yourself for the next run. It is NOT by itself a good defense.

Fourth, most Klingon ships that aren't BoP's and a short list of Fed ships get the standard cloak. It's mainly for setting up your initial strike. The best thing about standard cloak is that you AREN'T tempted to try to cloak while somebody's shooting torpedoes at you.

And Fifth, the big cloaked elephant in the room, it is possible to spot cloaked ships and/or force them to decloak by various means and with your shields down AoE attacks can ruin your day really fast. The Feds are going to ruin a lot of Romulans' days with that Nadion carpet bomb the Tempest's got.

KDF players have been trying to point all of this out for years now, and some people don't want to listen. Because cloaks are a cool gimmick, and it sounds like fun to play the Silent Hunter. But if everybody can cloak, then it isn't cool anymore. And it's not necessary... because anybody can play KDF or Republic if they really want to do that.

Federation -- and I play this predominantly -- has a distinct advantage over the KDF in the number of toys they get to play with that are exclusive to them. It's fine to say, "give the toys to the KDF too". But not everybody wants that. Heck, some of the KDF players don't want that.

What they do want, is to preserve their identity as being distinctly Klingon. Homogenizing the factions sucks, in my opinion, and I think the distinctions are important. Cloak is one of the KDF distinctions, and also for Romulans. It is not a distinctive for Starfleet. I don't think it should be.

The OP has floated this idea of a Cloak Modification Console. One of the features would be to essentially give every single Romulan ship and every single Klingon Bird of Prey an enhanced battle cloak, whether the ship is designed around that or not.

I think that's a bad idea.

I am somewhat in favor of allowing Battle Cloak to all KDF ships that have a cloaking device, but Battle Cloaking a battlecruiser is still probably not the best idea ever. Still, if a starship captain wants to go out in a kaboom, who am I to say he can't? That includes the Fed cloakers, too, even though I'd rather we Feds didn't get that.

bitemepwe · May 2014

jestersage wrote: »

Actually if everyone look carefully this may be workable... provide it is applied to EVERYONE.

Klinks will get the battlecloak for all ships, minus one console.
Fed will get the battlecloak they want, minus TWO console.

It will be Rom that get the short stick... oh wait, all consoles. Unless they give raider bonus to romulans.

The OP's idea would work fairly for all but would not last as the second said consoles where released the " One & Two consoles for fed cloaking is unfair because we feds don't innate cloak detection capability" threads would begin on the forums.

Frankly, I will pass on this idea.

oldravenman3025 · May 2014

meldrithpw wrote: »

Cloak Modification Console
(Science Consoleseems more fitting than a universal)

Equipping this console on a ship that has an inherent cloak or that is equipped with the Console Universal Cloaking Device changes the normal cloak ability to ability: Battle Cloak.

Equipping this console on a ship that has an inherent battle cloak changes the Ability: Battle Cloak to Ability: Enhanced Battle Cloak.

This console has no effect on Voth Cloak, Voth Battle Cloak, nor other subspace or phased cloak variants.

For what the Federation uses cloaking technology for, tactically, standard cloaks are good enough.

The KDF faction already has innate cloaking, which is basically standard cloak tech in it's maturity.

Leave the battle cloaks to the Romulans.

wintiemintie · May 2014

bluegeek wrote: »

Argh... what is with this obsession over cloaks?

I blame DS9. If they hadn't put that friggin cloaking device on the Defiant, we wouldn't be having these arguments over and over again.

Let's just state the facts.

First, Cloaking is cool. No arguments there.

Second, Enhanced Battle Cloak is great... if you like flying a Torpedo Boat build. And if you're really patient, because it tends to take longer to blow stuff up unless you catch their shields down. Because you can't shoot anything but torps when you're cloaked.

EBC is also a Premium feature. It's on exactly two C-Store ships, and only two ships. The B'rel and T'varo retrofits. The Scimitar has Cloaked Barrage if you've invested in that, but unlike EBC it has a duration and a cooldown.

Occasionally, even with EBC, you take a hit with your shields down, when somebody shot a torp at you while you were decloaked, or when you get hit with an AoE aimed at somebody else, or when you hit a mine. That's a bummer when it happens.

Third, Battle Cloak is only available on BoP's and Warbirds. It lets you cloak while you're at Red Alert. It's also overrated. If you time it wrong, you're going to take a hit with your shields down and it's going to hurt. Smart captains will decloak, unload their alpha strike, and then hit every defensive buff they've got and hope nothing gets them. Then you use BC to let your cooldowns expire and position yourself for the next run. It is NOT by itself a good defense.

Fourth, most Klingon ships that aren't BoP's and a short list of Fed ships get the standard cloak. It's mainly for setting up your initial strike. The best thing about standard cloak is that you AREN'T tempted to try to cloak while somebody's shooting torpedoes at you.

And Fifth, the big cloaked elephant in the room, it is possible to spot cloaked ships and/or force them to decloak by various means and with your shields down AoE attacks can ruin your day really fast. The Feds are going to ruin a lot of Romulans' days with that Nadion carpet bomb the Tempest's got.

KDF players have been trying to point all of this out for years now, and some people don't want to listen. Because cloaks are a cool gimmick, and it sounds like fun to play the Silent Hunter. But if everybody can cloak, then it isn't cool anymore. And it's not necessary... because anybody can play KDF or Republic if they really want to do that.

Federation -- and I play this predominantly -- has a distinct advantage over the KDF in the number of toys they get to play with that are exclusive to them. It's fine to say, "give the toys to the KDF too". But not everybody wants that. Heck, some of the KDF players don't want that.

What they do want, is to preserve their identity as being distinctly Klingon. Homogenizing the factions sucks, in my opinion, and I think the distinctions are important. Cloak is one of the KDF distinctions, and also for Romulans. It is not a distinctive for Starfleet. I don't think it should be.

The OP has floated this idea of a Cloak Modification Console. One of the features would be to essentially give every single Romulan ship and every single Klingon Bird of Prey an enhanced battle cloak, whether the ship is designed around that or not.

I think that's a bad idea.

I am somewhat in favor of allowing Battle Cloak to all KDF ships that have a cloaking device, but Battle Cloaking a battlecruiser is still probably not the best idea ever. Still, if a starship captain wants to go out in a kaboom, who am I to say he can't? That includes the Fed cloakers, too, even though I'd rather we Feds didn't get that.

^ So much this.

http://i.imgur.com/8HhL3M5.gif

terongray · May 2014

The obsession stems a lot from PvP no doubt. I was in Ker'rat with a friend, we were on Skype, and he mused how Feds don't really seem to do much but be there. I pointed out it is because of the skewed nature of the factions' builds. Starfleet's tactical options are limited to "Sit around and wait to be ambushed" in PvP. KDF and Roms are given the upper hand of being able to choose when and where to strike in surprise.

Given this doesn't warrant an absurd battlecloaks for all approach, I'm sorry. I do think they need to nuke the existing cloak console for innate on the whopping three flavors of ships Starfleet has that can cloak. But most certainly not add the need for another. Not in this day, with more useful consoles than you can feasibly slot.

bitemepwe · May 2014

bluegeek wrote: »

Argh... what is with this obsession over cloaks?

I blame DS9. If they hadn't put that friggin cloaking device on the Defiant, we wouldn't be having these arguments over and over again.

Let's just state the facts.

First, Cloaking is cool. No arguments there.

Second, Enhanced Battle Cloak is great... if you like flying a Torpedo Boat build. And if you're really patient, because it tends to take longer to blow stuff up unless you catch their shields down. Because you can't shoot anything but torps when you're cloaked.

EBC is also a Premium feature. It's on exactly two C-Store ships, and only two ships. The B'rel and T'varo retrofits. The Scimitar has Cloaked Barrage if you've invested in that, but unlike EBC it has a duration and a cooldown.

Occasionally, even with EBC, you take a hit with your shields down, when somebody shot a torp at you while you were decloaked, or when you get hit with an AoE aimed at somebody else, or when you hit a mine. That's a bummer when it happens.

Third, Battle Cloak is only available on BoP's and Warbirds. It lets you cloak while you're at Red Alert. It's also overrated. If you time it wrong, you're going to take a hit with your shields down and it's going to hurt. Smart captains will decloak, unload their alpha strike, and then hit every defensive buff they've got and hope nothing gets them. Then you use BC to let your cooldowns expire and position yourself for the next run. It is NOT by itself a good defense.

Fourth, most Klingon ships that aren't BoP's and a short list of Fed ships get the standard cloak. It's mainly for setting up your initial strike. The best thing about standard cloak is that you AREN'T tempted to try to cloak while somebody's shooting torpedoes at you.

And Fifth, the big cloaked elephant in the room, it is possible to spot cloaked ships and/or force them to decloak by various means and with your shields down AoE attacks can ruin your day really fast. The Feds are going to ruin a lot of Romulans' days with that Nadion carpet bomb the Tempest's got.

KDF players have been trying to point all of this out for years now, and some people don't want to listen. Because cloaks are a cool gimmick, and it sounds like fun to play the Silent Hunter. But if everybody can cloak, then it isn't cool anymore. And it's not necessary... because anybody can play KDF or Republic if they really want to do that.

Federation -- and I play this predominantly -- has a distinct advantage over the KDF in the number of toys they get to play with that are exclusive to them. It's fine to say, "give the toys to the KDF too". But not everybody wants that. Heck, some of the KDF players don't want that.

What they do want, is to preserve their identity as being distinctly Klingon. Homogenizing the factions sucks, in my opinion, and I think the distinctions are important. Cloak is one of the KDF distinctions, and also for Romulans. It is not a distinctive for Starfleet. I don't think it should be.

The OP has floated this idea of a Cloak Modification Console. One of the features would be to essentially give every single Romulan ship and every single Klingon Bird of Prey an enhanced battle cloak, whether the ship is designed around that or not.

I think that's a bad idea.

I am somewhat in favor of allowing Battle Cloak to all KDF ships that have a cloaking device, but Battle Cloaking a battlecruiser is still probably not the best idea ever. Still, if a starship captain wants to go out in a kaboom, who am I to say he can't? That includes the Fed cloakers, too, even though I'd rather we Feds didn't get that.

Hear hear, well said.

foundrelic · May 2014

If they're going to do anything to the Federation cloaks I jsut want the phasing cloak that the Federation developed.

centersolace · May 2014

foundrelic wrote: »

If they're going to do anything to the Federation cloaks I jsut want the phasing cloak that the Federation developed.

T5 Oberth FTW.

nightken · May 2014

bluegeek wrote: »

Argh... what is with this obsession over cloaks?

I blame DS9. If they hadn't put that friggin cloaking device on the Defiant, we wouldn't be having these arguments over and over again.

Let's just state the facts.

First, Cloaking is cool. No arguments there.

Second, Enhanced Battle Cloak is great... if you like flying a Torpedo Boat build. And if you're really patient, because it tends to take longer to blow stuff up unless you catch their shields down. Because you can't shoot anything but torps when you're cloaked.

EBC is also a Premium feature. It's on exactly two C-Store ships, and only two ships. The B'rel and T'varo retrofits. The Scimitar has Cloaked Barrage if you've invested in that, but unlike EBC it has a duration and a cooldown.

Occasionally, even with EBC, you take a hit with your shields down, when somebody shot a torp at you while you were decloaked, or when you get hit with an AoE aimed at somebody else, or when you hit a mine. That's a bummer when it happens.

Third, Battle Cloak is only available on BoP's and Warbirds. It lets you cloak while you're at Red Alert. It's also overrated. If you time it wrong, you're going to take a hit with your shields down and it's going to hurt. Smart captains will decloak, unload their alpha strike, and then hit every defensive buff they've got and hope nothing gets them. Then you use BC to let your cooldowns expire and position yourself for the next run. It is NOT by itself a good defense.

Fourth, most Klingon ships that aren't BoP's and a short list of Fed ships get the standard cloak. It's mainly for setting up your initial strike. The best thing about standard cloak is that you AREN'T tempted to try to cloak while somebody's shooting torpedoes at you.

And Fifth, the big cloaked elephant in the room, it is possible to spot cloaked ships and/or force them to decloak by various means and with your shields down AoE attacks can ruin your day really fast. The Feds are going to ruin a lot of Romulans' days with that Nadion carpet bomb the Tempest's got.

KDF players have been trying to point all of this out for years now, and some people don't want to listen. Because cloaks are a cool gimmick, and it sounds like fun to play the Silent Hunter. But if everybody can cloak, then it isn't cool anymore. And it's not necessary... because anybody can play KDF or Republic if they really want to do that.

Federation -- and I play this predominantly -- has a distinct advantage over the KDF in the number of toys they get to play with that are exclusive to them. It's fine to say, "give the toys to the KDF too". But not everybody wants that. Heck, some of the KDF players don't want that.

What they do want, is to preserve their identity as being distinctly Klingon. Homogenizing the factions sucks, in my opinion, and I think the distinctions are important. Cloak is one of the KDF distinctions, and also for Romulans. It is not a distinctive for Starfleet. I don't think it should be.

The OP has floated this idea of a Cloak Modification Console. One of the features would be to essentially give every single Romulan ship and every single Klingon Bird of Prey an enhanced battle cloak, whether the ship is designed around that or not.

I think that's a bad idea.

I am somewhat in favor of allowing Battle Cloak to all KDF ships that have a cloaking device, but Battle Cloaking a battlecruiser is still probably not the best idea ever. Still, if a starship captain wants to go out in a kaboom, who am I to say he can't? That includes the Fed cloakers, too, even though I'd rather we Feds didn't get that.

why does this forum not have a like button. thank you

jockey1979 · May 2014

bluegeek wrote: »

Argh... what is with this obsession over cloaks?

I blame DS9. If they hadn't put that friggin cloaking device on the Defiant, we wouldn't be having these arguments over and over again.

Let's just state the facts.

First, Cloaking is cool. No arguments there.

Second, Enhanced Battle Cloak is great... if you like flying a Torpedo Boat build. And if you're really patient, because it tends to take longer to blow stuff up unless you catch their shields down. Because you can't shoot anything but torps when you're cloaked.

EBC is also a Premium feature. It's on exactly two C-Store ships, and only two ships. The B'rel and T'varo retrofits. The Scimitar has Cloaked Barrage if you've invested in that, but unlike EBC it has a duration and a cooldown.

Occasionally, even with EBC, you take a hit with your shields down, when somebody shot a torp at you while you were decloaked, or when you get hit with an AoE aimed at somebody else, or when you hit a mine. That's a bummer when it happens.

Third, Battle Cloak is only available on BoP's and Warbirds. It lets you cloak while you're at Red Alert. It's also overrated. If you time it wrong, you're going to take a hit with your shields down and it's going to hurt. Smart captains will decloak, unload their alpha strike, and then hit every defensive buff they've got and hope nothing gets them. Then you use BC to let your cooldowns expire and position yourself for the next run. It is NOT by itself a good defense.

Fourth, most Klingon ships that aren't BoP's and a short list of Fed ships get the standard cloak. It's mainly for setting up your initial strike. The best thing about standard cloak is that you AREN'T tempted to try to cloak while somebody's shooting torpedoes at you.

And Fifth, the big cloaked elephant in the room, it is possible to spot cloaked ships and/or force them to decloak by various means and with your shields down AoE attacks can ruin your day really fast. The Feds are going to ruin a lot of Romulans' days with that Nadion carpet bomb the Tempest's got.

KDF players have been trying to point all of this out for years now, and some people don't want to listen. Because cloaks are a cool gimmick, and it sounds like fun to play the Silent Hunter. But if everybody can cloak, then it isn't cool anymore. And it's not necessary... because anybody can play KDF or Republic if they really want to do that.

Federation -- and I play this predominantly -- has a distinct advantage over the KDF in the number of toys they get to play with that are exclusive to them. It's fine to say, "give the toys to the KDF too". But not everybody wants that. Heck, some of the KDF players don't want that.

What they do want, is to preserve their identity as being distinctly Klingon. Homogenizing the factions sucks, in my opinion, and I think the distinctions are important. Cloak is one of the KDF distinctions, and also for Romulans. It is not a distinctive for Starfleet. I don't think it should be.

The OP has floated this idea of a Cloak Modification Console. One of the features would be to essentially give every single Romulan ship and every single Klingon Bird of Prey an enhanced battle cloak, whether the ship is designed around that or not.

I think that's a bad idea.

I am somewhat in favor of allowing Battle Cloak to all KDF ships that have a cloaking device, but Battle Cloaking a battlecruiser is still probably not the best idea ever. Still, if a starship captain wants to go out in a kaboom, who am I to say he can't? That includes the Fed cloakers, too, even though I'd rather we Feds didn't get that.

+1 to this

I love how Blue read my post then expanded on it

questerius · May 2014

centersolace wrote: »

T5 Oberth FTW.

I would totally buy and use that.

arcangelslay · May 2014

bluegeek wrote: »

Argh... what is with this obsession over cloaks?

I blame DS9. If they hadn't put that friggin cloaking device on the Defiant, we wouldn't be having these arguments over and over again.

Let's just state the facts.

First, Cloaking is cool. No arguments there.

Second, Enhanced Battle Cloak is great... if you like flying a Torpedo Boat build. And if you're really patient, because it tends to take longer to blow stuff up unless you catch their shields down. Because you can't shoot anything but torps when you're cloaked.

EBC is also a Premium feature. It's on exactly two C-Store ships, and only two ships. The B'rel and T'varo retrofits. The Scimitar has Cloaked Barrage if you've invested in that, but unlike EBC it has a duration and a cooldown.

Occasionally, even with EBC, you take a hit with your shields down, when somebody shot a torp at you while you were decloaked, or when you get hit with an AoE aimed at somebody else, or when you hit a mine. That's a bummer when it happens.

Third, Battle Cloak is only available on BoP's and Warbirds. It lets you cloak while you're at Red Alert. It's also overrated. If you time it wrong, you're going to take a hit with your shields down and it's going to hurt. Smart captains will decloak, unload their alpha strike, and then hit every defensive buff they've got and hope nothing gets them. Then you use BC to let your cooldowns expire and position yourself for the next run. It is NOT by itself a good defense.

Fourth, most Klingon ships that aren't BoP's and a short list of Fed ships get the standard cloak. It's mainly for setting up your initial strike. The best thing about standard cloak is that you AREN'T tempted to try to cloak while somebody's shooting torpedoes at you.

And Fifth, the big cloaked elephant in the room, it is possible to spot cloaked ships and/or force them to decloak by various means and with your shields down AoE attacks can ruin your day really fast. The Feds are going to ruin a lot of Romulans' days with that Nadion carpet bomb the Tempest's got.

KDF players have been trying to point all of this out for years now, and some people don't want to listen. Because cloaks are a cool gimmick, and it sounds like fun to play the Silent Hunter. But if everybody can cloak, then it isn't cool anymore. And it's not necessary... because anybody can play KDF or Republic if they really want to do that.

Federation -- and I play this predominantly -- has a distinct advantage over the KDF in the number of toys they get to play with that are exclusive to them. It's fine to say, "give the toys to the KDF too". But not everybody wants that. Heck, some of the KDF players don't want that.

What they do want, is to preserve their identity as being distinctly Klingon. Homogenizing the factions sucks, in my opinion, and I think the distinctions are important. Cloak is one of the KDF distinctions, and also for Romulans. It is not a distinctive for Starfleet. I don't think it should be.

The OP has floated this idea of a Cloak Modification Console. One of the features would be to essentially give every single Romulan ship and every single Klingon Bird of Prey an enhanced battle cloak, whether the ship is designed around that or not.

I think that's a bad idea.

I am somewhat in favor of allowing Battle Cloak to all KDF ships that have a cloaking device, but Battle Cloaking a battlecruiser is still probably not the best idea ever. Still, if a starship captain wants to go out in a kaboom, who am I to say he can't? That includes the Fed cloakers, too, even though I'd rather we Feds didn't get that.

Agreed!, there are factions for a reason!

shpoks · May 2014

bluegeek wrote: »

Argh... what is with this obsession over cloaks?

I blame DS9. If they hadn't put that friggin cloaking device on the Defiant, we wouldn't be having these arguments over and over again.

Let's just state the facts.

First, Cloaking is cool. No arguments there.

Second, Enhanced Battle Cloak is great... if you like flying a Torpedo Boat build. And if you're really patient, because it tends to take longer to blow stuff up unless you catch their shields down. Because you can't shoot anything but torps when you're cloaked.

EBC is also a Premium feature. It's on exactly two C-Store ships, and only two ships. The B'rel and T'varo retrofits. The Scimitar has Cloaked Barrage if you've invested in that, but unlike EBC it has a duration and a cooldown.

Occasionally, even with EBC, you take a hit with your shields down, when somebody shot a torp at you while you were decloaked, or when you get hit with an AoE aimed at somebody else, or when you hit a mine. That's a bummer when it happens.

Third, Battle Cloak is only available on BoP's and Warbirds. It lets you cloak while you're at Red Alert. It's also overrated. If you time it wrong, you're going to take a hit with your shields down and it's going to hurt. Smart captains will decloak, unload their alpha strike, and then hit every defensive buff they've got and hope nothing gets them. Then you use BC to let your cooldowns expire and position yourself for the next run. It is NOT by itself a good defense.

Fourth, most Klingon ships that aren't BoP's and a short list of Fed ships get the standard cloak. It's mainly for setting up your initial strike. The best thing about standard cloak is that you AREN'T tempted to try to cloak while somebody's shooting torpedoes at you.

And Fifth, the big cloaked elephant in the room, it is possible to spot cloaked ships and/or force them to decloak by various means and with your shields down AoE attacks can ruin your day really fast. The Feds are going to ruin a lot of Romulans' days with that Nadion carpet bomb the Tempest's got.

KDF players have been trying to point all of this out for years now, and some people don't want to listen. Because cloaks are a cool gimmick, and it sounds like fun to play the Silent Hunter. But if everybody can cloak, then it isn't cool anymore. And it's not necessary... because anybody can play KDF or Republic if they really want to do that.

Federation -- and I play this predominantly -- has a distinct advantage over the KDF in the number of toys they get to play with that are exclusive to them. It's fine to say, "give the toys to the KDF too". But not everybody wants that. Heck, some of the KDF players don't want that.

What they do want, is to preserve their identity as being distinctly Klingon. Homogenizing the factions sucks, in my opinion, and I think the distinctions are important. Cloak is one of the KDF distinctions, and also for Romulans. It is not a distinctive for Starfleet. I don't think it should be.

The OP has floated this idea of a Cloak Modification Console. One of the features would be to essentially give every single Romulan ship and every single Klingon Bird of Prey an enhanced battle cloak, whether the ship is designed around that or not.

I think that's a bad idea.

I am somewhat in favor of allowing Battle Cloak to all KDF ships that have a cloaking device, but Battle Cloaking a battlecruiser is still probably not the best idea ever. Still, if a starship captain wants to go out in a kaboom, who am I to say he can't? That includes the Fed cloakers, too, even though I'd rather we Feds didn't get that.

*Applauds*

You should make this post of yours a sticky, bluegeek.

lowy1 · May 2014

:rolleyes: How about no, cloak on Fed ships is quite frankly stupid. A Fed Cruiser properly built should be able to give an alpha strike the finger and proceed to tickle the cloaker to death.

A stopped escort is a dead escort. If you're an escort in pvp, common sense says to stay moving.

Also, if I'm not mistaken Stealth Detection is borked right now. Fix that for Science ships and now the feds have the Hunter/Killer and it for once isn't a Tac in an Escort.

PvP should be about counters, which this game isn't very good at, like a lot of MMOs.

I would rather that they fix a lot of the other gimmick consoles first. There are only a few that are worthwhile and the rest are junk.

aloishammer · May 2014

bluegeek wrote: »

Argh... what is with this obsession over cloaks?

It's one of those Freudian psychological "feelings of inadequacy" things. See signature.

zipagat · May 2014

bluegeek wrote: »

Argh... what is with this obsession over cloaks?

I blame DS9. If they hadn't put that friggin cloaking device on the Defiant, we wouldn't be having these arguments over and over again.

Let's just state the facts.

First, Cloaking is cool. No arguments there.

Second, Enhanced Battle Cloak is great... if you like flying a Torpedo Boat build. And if you're really patient, because it tends to take longer to blow stuff up unless you catch their shields down. Because you can't shoot anything but torps when you're cloaked.

EBC is also a Premium feature. It's on exactly two C-Store ships, and only two ships. The B'rel and T'varo retrofits. The Scimitar has Cloaked Barrage if you've invested in that, but unlike EBC it has a duration and a cooldown.

Occasionally, even with EBC, you take a hit with your shields down, when somebody shot a torp at you while you were decloaked, or when you get hit with an AoE aimed at somebody else, or when you hit a mine. That's a bummer when it happens.

Third, Battle Cloak is only available on BoP's and Warbirds. It lets you cloak while you're at Red Alert. It's also overrated. If you time it wrong, you're going to take a hit with your shields down and it's going to hurt. Smart captains will decloak, unload their alpha strike, and then hit every defensive buff they've got and hope nothing gets them. Then you use BC to let your cooldowns expire and position yourself for the next run. It is NOT by itself a good defense.

Fourth, most Klingon ships that aren't BoP's and a short list of Fed ships get the standard cloak. It's mainly for setting up your initial strike. The best thing about standard cloak is that you AREN'T tempted to try to cloak while somebody's shooting torpedoes at you.

And Fifth, the big cloaked elephant in the room, it is possible to spot cloaked ships and/or force them to decloak by various means and with your shields down AoE attacks can ruin your day really fast. The Feds are going to ruin a lot of Romulans' days with that Nadion carpet bomb the Tempest's got.

KDF players have been trying to point all of this out for years now, and some people don't want to listen. Because cloaks are a cool gimmick, and it sounds like fun to play the Silent Hunter. But if everybody can cloak, then it isn't cool anymore. And it's not necessary... because anybody can play KDF or Republic if they really want to do that.

Federation -- and I play this predominantly -- has a distinct advantage over the KDF in the number of toys they get to play with that are exclusive to them. It's fine to say, "give the toys to the KDF too". But not everybody wants that. Heck, some of the KDF players don't want that.

What they do want, is to preserve their identity as being distinctly Klingon. Homogenizing the factions sucks, in my opinion, and I think the distinctions are important. Cloak is one of the KDF distinctions, and also for Romulans. It is not a distinctive for Starfleet. I don't think it should be.

The OP has floated this idea of a Cloak Modification Console. One of the features would be to essentially give every single Romulan ship and every single Klingon Bird of Prey an enhanced battle cloak, whether the ship is designed around that or not.

I think that's a bad idea.

I am somewhat in favor of allowing Battle Cloak to all KDF ships that have a cloaking device, but Battle Cloaking a battlecruiser is still probably not the best idea ever. Still, if a starship captain wants to go out in a kaboom, who am I to say he can't? That includes the Fed cloakers, too, even though I'd rather we Feds didn't get that.

This, so much this. It puts into a short post what the KDF have been trying to tell people in countless threads now.

jaymclaughlin · May 2014

How about the Fed getting the phased cloak off the Pegasus... complete with a 50% chance of drifting into an asteroid and killing everyone on board?

shaanithegreen · May 2014

If this happened, then I promise Feds would regret giving Romulans access to a Scimitar with an enhanced battle cloak.

warmaker001b · May 2014

jaymclaughlin wrote: »

How about the Fed getting the phased cloak off the Pegasus... complete with a 50% chance of drifting into an asteroid and killing everyone on board?

Only with an 80% chance for a proc on trying to use the device, with Picard coming out of retirement, beaming aboard your bridge, and *****slapping the captain, then beaming back out :cool:

jaymclaughlin · May 2014

warmaker001b wrote: »

Only with an 80% chance for a proc on trying to use the device, with Picard coming out of retirement, beaming aboard your bridge, and *****slapping the captain, then beaming back out :cool:

Something like this?

aloishammer · May 2014

jaymclaughlin wrote: »

Something like this?

Aye, me like. Now tie the forums and game together- and anyone who posts wanting "moar Fed cloak lol!!!1!!" gets an in-game Picard coming to visit their in-game captain and re-enacting that video.

a3001 · May 2014

bluegeek wrote: »

The OP has floated this idea of a Cloak Modification Console. One of the features would be to essentially give every single Romulan ship and every single Klingon Bird of Prey an enhanced battle cloak, whether the ship is designed around that or not.

I think that's a bad idea.

*jaw drops to floor*. Mod has spoken, OP is nuked.

New console Id like to see: Cloak Modification Console

Comments

New console Id like to see: Cloak Modification Console