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Battle cloak totally broken. Any workarounds?

bmcd73bmcd73 Member Posts: 263 Arc User
With a huge part of this KDF event cloaking this is a rather irritating issue. It's taking me 2-4 times as long to complete missions because I get stuck in permanent-cloak mode. None of my skills seem to break it. Most are grayed out. Is there a workaround for this? I see old threads and chats on reddit that are 4+ years old asking the same questions. This seems kinda like a big deal. The only way I know around this currently is to abandon mission and restart...not the best solution and so far my KDF recruit experience is not good. I'm flying the Rom tact command warbird. I can't stand raiders and a regular cloak makes no sense for this event especially when I have an arsenal of battle cloak enabled ships. Do we know if this is a bug tied to a ship or just to battle/enhanced battle cloaks?
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Comments

  • eladonwarps#6040 eladonwarps Member Posts: 231 Arc User
    It seems to be Battle and Enhanced Battle Cloaks, tied to the timing of the Decloaking. Some ships will show a 5 second-ish countdown when you activate cloak. If you try to decloak at just the wrong spot before that 5 seconds is complete, that's when you usually get stuck. I think it's after the fade-out, right at when your ship starts to "reappear" with the transparent visual.

    So the best advice I've seen is try to avoid decloaking before the full animation or cooldown completes. The other things that are often pointed out is that Looting or interacting with most things or dialogues will break cloak, so if you can force it, you'll Unstick the cloak. The only Skills I found that reliably force the cloak-breaking is Sensor Analysis and Gather Intel. This makes Science and/or Intel ships somewhat better for those having trouble. Less reliable: enemies killing you via AoE, or enemies using Charged Particle Burst or Scattering Field. Sometimes I fly right on top of them and hope they can hit me hard enough.

    I was able to get the 2500 mostly in a DHC setup on the Temer, but the Leosa Warbird and Somerville/Balth Sci-Intel ships were also nice since I had them.
    Call me "El," she/her only. I love my wife and I don't care who knows it!
  • szerontzurszerontzur Member Posts: 2,723 Arc User
    There are harvest nodes most of the space maps, you can fly over scan one of them to break the cloak.

    Ran into the issue recently as well, it's a pretty bad oversight to not be able to manually break cloak(via a chat /command or the like).
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,512 Arc User
    This was really annoying when playing the synthwave TFO. I'd cloak to rescue engineers then be stuck cloaked. For that one I could at least fly out of the safe zone and get blown up.
  • annemarie30annemarie30 Member Posts: 2,596 Arc User
    I have the opposite happening, the unnecessary decloak because some idjit NPC decides I need to be hailed.
    Um, Lt tactical officer? the bozo hailing is IS THE ENEMY why did you decloak?
    awkward.jpg
    We Want Vic Fontaine
  • bmcd73bmcd73 Member Posts: 263 Arc User
    as a side note, I decided to try something different. I have the legendary defiant with stealth fighter set which gives you battle cloak. I have yet to see his break at all. I'm actually trying to break it but the noticeable difference is that there is no CD when you initially cloak.
  • spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,263 Arc User
    I have the opposite happening, the unnecessary decloak because some idjit NPC decides I need to be hailed.
    Um, Lt tactical officer? the bozo hailing is IS THE ENEMY why did you decloak?

    I like to joke that officer in question is constantly pressing the "decloak" button by accident but yeah it's something Cryptic really needs to fix as it's one of the major reasons why cloaks are such a pain to use in PvE.
  • millefune#8468 millefune Member Posts: 310 Arc User
    It's been like six months since I posted this thread: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1257080/suliban-silik-carrier-battle-cloak-bugged-video

    It never got fixed, so I gave up on it, and I just avoid battle cloaks.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    It's been like six months since I posted this thread: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1257080/suliban-silik-carrier-battle-cloak-bugged-video

    It never got fixed, so I gave up on it, and I just avoid battle cloaks.

    Cloak has been broken since the game first went live.. I wouldn’t count on it ever being fixed.

    I found it surprising that they had a cloak related objective for the Klingon Recruits, you would think they would want to remove attention from something that’s been broken for so long. Instead they put it under a spotlight. :lol:
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • foxrockssocksfoxrockssocks Member Posts: 2,482 Arc User
    I have never seen this problem myself. As others have mentioned, looting, scanning crafting nodes, and hailing should force decloak you.

    If you have none of those, try opening up your doff window and select one of the department options that have your BOFFs as the department head, like Marauding or Engineering. This interaction closes other dialogues and the bank and so forth as I believe it counts as a dialogue box itself, thus may decloak you.
  • leemwatsonleemwatson Member Posts: 5,343 Arc User
    I brought this up with Kael after he told me to email about him last week.....the bug has been round since the game came to console.
    "You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
  • alcyoneserenealcyoneserene Member Posts: 2,412 Arc User
    Very strange, getting stuck in battle cloak or any type of cloak has never once happened to me. If anything, I get decloaked by enemies if my aux power is low and I'm too close to them, or the highly annoying NPC hails.

    On a side note, really annoying to see them buff Klingon battlecloaks so that you can quickly cloak and recloak in less than 5 seconds to acquire ambush bonuses, but romulan battle cloaks and probably all other types of cloaks still require waiting the 5 seconds cool-down before decloaking for the bonus. They should have applied this fast CD to all cloaks!
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  • garaffegaraffe Member Posts: 1,353 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    Very strange, getting stuck in battle cloak or any type of cloak has never once happened to me. If anything, I get decloaked by enemies if my aux power is low and I'm too close to them, or the highly annoying NPC hails.

    On a side note, really annoying to see them buff Klingon battlecloaks so that you can quickly cloak and recloak in less than 5 seconds to acquire ambush bonuses, but romulan battle cloaks and probably all other types of cloaks still require waiting the 5 seconds cool-down before decloaking for the bonus. They should have applied this fast CD to all cloaks!

    What are you talking about? It's not like the Romulans are the ones who invented the cloak and that all other cloaking devices in the Alpha and Beta quadrants are cheap rip-offs. Why should Romulans have the best cloaks?
  • kiralynkiralyn Member Posts: 1,576 Arc User
    I've had it happen maybe half a dozen times with my recruit. Didn't think about scanning a mineral, so I've just let enemies destroy my ship and respawn to break the infinite cloak.

    (oh, wait - it was during one of the anniversary Patrols that it happened the first couple times, so there likely weren't any harvest options.)
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    On a side note, really annoying to see them buff Klingon battlecloaks so that you can quickly cloak and recloak in less than 5 seconds to acquire ambush bonuses, but romulan battle cloaks and probably all other types of cloaks still require waiting the 5 seconds cool-down before decloaking for the bonus. They should have applied this fast CD to all cloaks!

    Not sure what you're seeing, but Klingon Battle Cloaks have the same 20 second cooldown as every other cloak in the game including Romulan. Klingons cannot immediately re-cloak.

    Only the bug where you get stuck in Battle Cloak is new. All other bugs like randomly uncloaking, uncloaking when hailed, enemies sometimes just shooting at you anyway.. none of that is new, it's been broken from day one. I am at the point where I just rarely use cloak at all anymore, I just consider it a horribly bugged mechanic that will likely never be fixed.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • warmaker001bwarmaker001b Member Posts: 9,205 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    It's been like six months since I posted this thread: https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1257080/suliban-silik-carrier-battle-cloak-bugged-video

    It never got fixed, so I gave up on it, and I just avoid battle cloaks.

    Cloak has been broken since the game first went live.. I wouldn’t count on it ever being fixed.

    I found it surprising that they had a cloak related objective for the Klingon Recruits, you would think they would want to remove attention from something that’s been broken for so long. Instead they put it under a spotlight. :lol:

    It's like Carrier Pets. They've been borked since the game went Live. Because for so long the only faction with Carriers was KDF, the devs just pretended the issue didn't exist.

    Fast forward years later of Cryptic pretending there were no Hangar Pet problems, they release the Fed Jupiter Carrier. The hilarious part was they made the special frigates for it heavily focused on narrow firing arc weapons. 'Lo and behold Fed players had problems with them and Cryptic only then tried to fix it, and failed several times.

    The funny part with the Jupiter's Frigate problem was that it's exactly the same issue KDF players made many threads about since Launch. The BOP pets of the Vo'Quv never really used their fancy DHCs and Torpedoes much because they're too busy flying around in circles with very little time on target for those narrow arc weapons.

    In March 3, 2021, the same problems exist.

    When the recent C-Store pack of T6 Fed, Rom, Dominion, KDF Carriers came out, what did the T6 Vo'Quv BOPs have? BEAM ARRAYS, because they'll never use DHCs anyways, since they're never pointed the right direction most of the time.

    On paper, these "Frigates" with such a focus on narrow firing arc weapons would be doing strafing runs, turn around, and strafe again. Kind of like in my signature gif below. But that's not how hangar pet AI works.
    XzRTofz.gif
  • alcyoneserenealcyoneserene Member Posts: 2,412 Arc User
    I should have specified, on the free leveling BoPs on Klingon recruits, when battle cloak is available, I noticed after some patch, it is possible to cloak, wait ~2 sec, decloak, without a mandatory 5 sec cool-down and without breaking ambush bonuses if toggling it too early. This has made it much more convenient to make use of ambush bonus very frequently without waiting the full 5 seconds every time. I hope this super quick mechanic gets implemented on all cloaks.
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  • husanakxhusanakx Member Posts: 1,593 Arc User
    I stopped cloaking 'in battle' even though I can. The ambush bonus is nice, but it's not nice enough warrant getting stuck in a quasi-cloaked state. So I treat it more like a normal cloak that I don't have to wait for the 'engaged' state to end first -- pop it after my current group of enemies are gone but not while I'm still fighting anything. Kinda defeats having a battle cloak, but oh well.

    Well its a perma +50% cat 2 dmg bound if you build a raider properly. So its not really an option to skip it... if you can't use ambush why fly a raider at all ?
  • husanakxhusanakx Member Posts: 1,593 Arc User
    The easiest work around....

    Don't pick up your loot. If you get stuck just pick up any loot and you will decloak. So if your cloak cycling in combat just ignore your loot till the mission is over.
  • millefune#8468 millefune Member Posts: 310 Arc User
    husanakx wrote: »
    The easiest work around....

    Don't pick up your loot. If you get stuck just pick up any loot and you will decloak. So if your cloak cycling in combat just ignore your loot till the mission is over.

    That may work for PC, but I know it doesn't on PlayStation. :-(
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,504 Arc User
    The green DSC cloaks seem to be less prone to the bug than the Romulan shimmer type for some reason, I was having trouble with the new ship from the last event but the Balth had very little trouble on the same captain.
  • husanakxhusanakx Member Posts: 1,593 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    husanakx wrote: »
    I stopped cloaking 'in battle' even though I can. The ambush bonus is nice, but it's not nice enough warrant getting stuck in a quasi-cloaked state. So I treat it more like a normal cloak that I don't have to wait for the 'engaged' state to end first -- pop it after my current group of enemies are gone but not while I'm still fighting anything. Kinda defeats having a battle cloak, but oh well.

    Well its a perma +50% cat 2 dmg bound if you build a raider properly. So its not really an option to skip it... if you can't use ambush why fly a raider at all ?

    Maybe because it's not 50%?

    Ahh but it is.
    https://sto.gamepedia.com/Trait:_Maquis_Tactics
    + Superior Subterfuge (if you don't have a paid source... you can always run a holo Leck)
    https://sto.gamepedia.com/Holographic_Deep_Space_Nine_Bridge_Officers

    There ya go 50% decloak bonus on a raider (40% on a non raider)... and if you have the recruit reward boff. Its a 15s ambush. There are ways to drop your decloak cool down to around 16s. So perma 50% cat 2 dmg bonus if you cycle your cloak properly.
  • leemwatsonleemwatson Member Posts: 5,343 Arc User
    @darkbladejk @ambassadorkael#6946 Puuuuuulease can you chase this up. I've looooooads of folk on console complaining about this now. Email sent to Kael on February 18th detailing this issues.
    "You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
  • fred26291#2759 fred26291 Member Posts: 1,265 Arc User
    Despite issues with the battle cloak I have managed to get 160 strikes in 5 days.
    BUT I have also noted that I do not beleave that every strike is counting like its supposed to.
  • vorwodavorwoda Member Posts: 694 Arc User
    spiritborn wrote: »
    I have the opposite happening, the unnecessary decloak because some idjit NPC decides I need to be hailed.
    Um, Lt tactical officer? the bozo hailing is IS THE ENEMY why did you decloak?

    I like to joke that officer in question is constantly pressing the "decloak" button by accident but yeah it's something Cryptic really needs to fix as it's one of the major reasons why cloaks are such a pain to use in PvE.

    That's what happens when shipwrights place the "ANSWER HAIL" and "DECLOAK" buttons right next to each other on the fat-fingered BOFF's console! :)

    Seriously, that is my most hated bug, too. But I must say, I have noticed that with my new KDF Recruit, I 've got through most of the first 3 campaigns' dialogues without being forced out of cloak. By a friendly or an enemy.

    Then again, I've also not been stuck in cloak. Possibly because my video card is so old I can't use Lighting 2.0. I wonder if that's the issue. Are you guys who are getting stuck in cloak all on Lighting 2.0? I wonder if it could be linked to specific graphics hardware or software settings. I keep Bloom and Lens Flare off at all times.

    I have 4 characters who cloak VERY frequently (Recruit in the new free ship, KDF Rom and FED Rom both in Fleet T'Varo's and an old KDF character in a Fleet T5-U K'tinga), and none of them have been hit by this.
  • behrtekkbehrtekk Member Posts: 9 Arc User
    husanakx wrote: »
    The easiest work around....

    Don't pick up your loot. If you get stuck just pick up any loot and you will decloak. So if your cloak cycling in combat just ignore your loot till the mission is over.

    That may work for PC, but I know it doesn't on PlayStation. :-(

    Or XBOX.. and not all space battles have a scan-able objective or resource to harvest. I have tried to find some console or ability that might disengage the cloak, but so far, nothing I am aware of.
  • genemorphgenemorph Member Posts: 404 Arc User
    This happened a lot to me in the free T6 Bird of Prey. You can cancel stealth by picking up any item left over from blowing something up, which was suggested to me when I created a thread about it. It works.
  • bmcd73bmcd73 Member Posts: 263 Arc User
    I believe I have found a permanent workaround on the xbox. I have been flying the defiant with the stealth fighter set. There is no CD after the cloak and a 15s CD on decloak. I have been able to cloak and decloak whenever. In the middle of battle or not. The ONLY time I have seen an issue with cloak is if I am actively shooting at something and I cloak. That seems to lock me into cloak BUT it appears to be all in the targeting.

    On the console, if you click down on the right stick the default action is to target something and track it. Your camera follows that target. If you click again, it goes into free camera mode. I ALWAYS click twice to go into free camera targeting. When you do that none of your abilities are enabled and you are stuck in cloak. BUT, if I target and let the camera follow, I am able to come out of cloak because my shooting abilities are enabled. I have tested this 3 or 4 times now and it always breaks cloak for me.

    The PC may be a bit different how it targets, etc. This is what I am experiencing on xbox.
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