Change cloaking mechanic and make it take less power.

[aceface]

I think that the power to use cloaking should be decreased. Maybe 20-30 e per block, I dunno devs decide, but at least drastically lower than how it is now.

Then I also think that cloaking should not render a ship completely invisible. I think that the cloaker should make it so that the ship becomes transparent. It becomes more tranparent the further you are away from the ship to a point where it becomes almost invisibe (2km from the ship). But when you get closer to the ship the transparency decreases slightly and up close (5-10m away from ship) it is almost as visible as an uncloaked ship.

 

[Dragon2000]

I think that the power to use cloaking should be decreased. Maybe 20-30 e per block, I dunno devs decide, but at least drastically lower than how it is now.

Then I also think that cloaking should not render a ship completely invisible. I think that the cloaker should make it so that the ship becomes transparent. It becomes more tranparent the further you are away from the ship to a point where it becomes almost invisibe (2km from the ship). But when you get closer to the ship the transparency decreases slightly and up close (5-10m away from ship) it is almost as visible as an uncloaked ship.

this is a good idea i too think cloaking needs to take less power since you can not have any good looking ships(klingon) that can cloak maybe another thing that could be cool would be if the admin command invisable_mode true that should also make your ship be transparent it would be good for cinematics from different viewpoints but maybe instead of having a just a system that makes it more invisible as you get further away maybe add slave systems to it that make it more transparent at closer ranges maybe even upto the point where at 100% at around 200 m you would not be able to see it but that would be up to the devs and maybe have a cloaking modules as well that also help . mostly cloaking will not help too much since you would have to have a radar jammer as well to make it work really well for sneak attacks because if you're at war with someone you probably know what they're ships look like so you should be able to hit them or just use missiles to hit them but all in all yes cloaking needs but be much cheaper on power especially for hull since its not easy for good looking ships that should cloak to cloak is near impossible for them.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

If cloaking was to be based on mass, non-hull blocks would eventually have less e/s. Why? The devs said that they decreased the hp of non-hull blocks, which would later be followed be a decrease in mass for those blocks.

And if that isn't enough (probably won't be) cloaking should use less e/s per mass.

 

[jayman38]

Increased translucency by effectiveness is a good idea. I think the devs are making a concerted effort to avoid locking out Intel-video gamers. How is the translucent block preview look to them now? I didn't think it would work. If it does work, does it significantly drop the framerate for computers with intel video? If so, is there something that could be developed that simulates the effect of translucency, such as only rendering x% of the pixels of the cloaking structure?

 

[Megacrafter127]

Increased translucency by effectiveness is a good idea. I think the devs are making a concerted effort to avoid locking out Intel-video gamers. How is the translucent block preview look to them now? I didn't think it would work. If it does work, does it significantly drop the framerate for computers with intel video? If so, is there something that could be developed that simulates the effect of translucency, such as only rendering x% of the pixels of the cloaking structure?

Adding an alpha(transparency) overlay over a whole texture is easier to do for EVERY computer known to humans, than rendering only some pixels of a texture.

 

[Valiant70]

Then I also think that cloaking should not render a ship completely invisible

BIG, RED, ALL-CAPS, BOLD, ITALLICIZED, UNDERLINED "NOPE!"

Spoiler: Disclaimer

This is not intended to be rude, spammy, or otherwise objectionable. It is an highly emphatic and rather humorous expression of disagreement.

I'm okay with it being partially visible close up, but 2km is waaaaaaay too far. 100-200m is more reasonable. If cloaking does not make a ship invisible, it is pointless.

Increased translucency by effectiveness is a good idea. I think the devs are making a concerted effort to avoid locking out Intel-video gamers. How is the translucent block preview look to them now? I didn't think it would work. If it does work, does it significantly drop the framerate for computers with intel video? If so, is there something that could be developed that simulates the effect of translucency, such as only rendering x% of the pixels of the cloaking structure?

Previews work, but atmospheres do not. Only rendering x% of the pixels might make a more interesting effect anyway. Previews are small so they don't impact frame rate much, but a ship bigger than a fighter would probably cause severe frame rate issues.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I've seen other suggestions for cloaking for adding specific stealth hull. I support that idea more than just simply adjusting the power requirements. Also if you lowered the power cost simply for the ability to build pretty ships then that will just make cloaking doom cubes all the more deadly.

 

[Valiant70]

I've seen other suggestions for cloaking for adding specific stealth hull. I support that idea more than just simply adjusting the power requirements. Also if you lowered the power cost simply for the ability to build pretty ships then that will just make cloaking doom cubes all the more deadly.

That's really no different from uncloaked doom-cubes. The Ragnarok Galaxy server despawns such vessels on sight, which I think all servers should do except in battle mode.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

That's really no different from uncloaked doom-cubes. The Ragnarok Galaxy server despawns such vessels on sight, which I think all servers should do except in battle mode.

Totally unrelated but I thought Ragnarok only gave "stink eye" to battle boxes.

Ships below Heavy weight are unregulated, they can look like ugly horrible boxes and we will take no action except to give you the evil eye.

Back on topic sorta: With all these new system changes that have happened I curious how my two perma jam/cloak ships have fared...

 

[aceface]

BIG, RED, ALL-CAPS, BOLD, ITALLICIZED, UNDERLINED "NOPE!"

Spoiler: Disclaimer

This is not intended to be rude, spammy, or otherwise objectionable. It is an highly emphatic and rather humorous expression of disagreement.

I'm okay with it being partially visible close up, but 2km is waaaaaaay too far. 100-200m is more reasonable. If cloaking does not make a ship invisible, it is pointless.



Previews work, but atmospheres do not. Only rendering x% of the pixels might make a more interesting effect anyway. Previews are small so they don't impact frame rate much, but a ship bigger than a fighter would probably cause severe frame rate issues.

whatever, the balancing part i am not concerned about, it is the idea i am focusing on.

 

[Lord Daro]

I just experimented a bit with cloacking and actually got a working Perma Cloack/Jam test ship with resonable blockcount (about 24000 blcoks, 306 x 30 x 15m), by using external reactors from another project.
It consists of a lot standard armor and works pretty well, as far as i can tell (Altoutgh the logic gates operating the reactors are rather sensitive toward lags).

This should be enough to have a fully functioning ship that looks kinda neat. But still, it has to be a build of limited proportions, wich excludes recreations (Bird of Prey and such).
So ultimately the cloacking mechanics should be changed.
If the stealth systems become effects with computers and modules wich get more efficient (full stealth effect at smaller distances) with higher modules/ship ratios, then the overal power usage could go down, since modulecounts would also go into consideration.
(Partly this has been already suggested, but i don't know if this exact combination also has been talked about)

 

[Qweesdy]

I've fallen into the habit of building a perma-cloaker whenever I join a new server. In general; it's not hard to have a perma-cloaker with a bunch of salvagers (enough for asteroid gobbling while you're collecting resources for a larger ship or station), and lock-on missiles capable of killing pirates in one shot, and a decent amount of thrust, and a jump drive.

They are ugly (no hulls or decoration), but I'm not sure this is a relevant complaint for a ship that's supposed to be invisible anyway.

They also have very bad defence (poor shields, no armour), but if anyone ever actually shoots at you then you're doing everything wrong to begin with (e.g. not sneaking up behind your enemy while cloaked before you fire, and not cloaking again immediately after you fire).

 

[philthy mcnasty]

I think one way to fix this, is to make cloaking devices require another block to work, like either an armor, or an emitter block. I think an emitter block would both be fair, and balanced if it was priced right.


Now, a good drawback, would be have emitter blocks add to the power drain of weapons, and slow the ship down too. So that way a cloaked ship does not have too much advantage over a non-cloaked one.

Right now, all my pirate stations are cloaked, i am not sure if this is by design or a bug, but it is damn annoying, considering that they seem to not have enough power to support cloaking something that big.

 

[Magrim]

If cloaking was to be based on mass, non-hull blocks would eventually have less e/s. Why? The devs said that they decreased the hp of non-hull blocks, which would later be followed be a decrease in mass for those blocks.

My dream of a cloaking ship covered in yholes could finally be realized.

Reducing the power consumption could work if another system block was added. One of the things that bothered me with cloaking was that the computer was responsible for the cloak, it doesnt really make sense to me. I like the idea of hull that aids the cloak, pehaps it would need to be energized or something. An emitter block could also be a thing. I feel it should have some sort of dimensional like mechanic similar to the power reactors. Efficiency would be gained through building spheres or even rings. The bigger the ring the more power it consumes but the more blocks it can cloak.

 

[Blakpik]

I think that Cloaking should use the Traditional System of a computer and Modules, like the Warp Drive. And that the ship becomes more invisible as the Cloak Module to mass ratio goes up or something, so you can have small and large cloaked ships. This way in order for larger ship to cloak it only needs more modules not an Über amount of power.

 

[philthy mcnasty]

Cloaking has the potential to become stupid dangerous in the future. I am waiting for some means for disintergrator blocks to be triggered by touch. That way, I can leave permacloaked mineships out in the middle of space for some poor sap to stumble upon.

 

[questorhank]

Cloaking has the potential to become stupid dangerous in the future. I am waiting for some means for disintergrator blocks to be triggered by touch. That way, I can leave permacloaked mineships out in the middle of space for some poor sap to stumble upon.

Last i checked, disintegrators are triggered by touch...

 

[philthy mcnasty]

Last i checked, disintegrators are triggered by touch...

really? I need to play with them some more than.
Right now, i have been preoccupied with my guns shooting backwards, despite my weapons computers being pointed forward.

also, for some reason, all the pirate stations in my game are cloaked too....

I thought it was normal, because i raised the AI difficulty, but people are telling me it isn't.

 

[Glutton]

I'd like to see the energy usage for cloak ships be configurable via server configs. That way RP related servers as well as ones that just like cloaking (like myself) can adjust the requirements needed. Permanent change would negatively affect players and servers that want what others don't. The more we can regulate the better, in my opinion.

 

[philthy mcnasty]

I'd like to see the energy usage for cloak ships be configurable via server configs. That way RP related servers as well as ones that just like cloaking (like myself) can adjust the requirements needed. Permanent change would negatively affect players and servers that want what others don't. The more we can regulate the better, in my opinion.

I am wondering if the power blocks are going to be the only form of energy generation. I notice that the crystals seem to glow. I am hoping that in the future, with the higher tiered factories, we can make higher tiered power plants.

This seems to be hinted at, as block configuration affects power, so perhaps in the future, we will be building reactors out of several different types of blocks to power our ships more efficiently.

Lets face it, we can't really have a conversation about cloaking without discussing power. Right now, it seems that a huge part of the ships will be made of blue and green power blocks. These blocks take up more room than everything else.

What we really need, is a more powerful power block, and wire blocks. Technically we do have a wire block now, but it only serves as decoration. I would love in the future to have a better power system in place, one that requires us to wire our ships.

This also adds a lot more fun to the ships too(fun being the ONLY goal that is important), as we can now shoot parts of a ship, and potentially disable a weapons system by destroying its wiring.

TL/DR

Maybe the cloaking is not broken, but the power system. Perhaps the game needs a power system similar to what is in the minecraft modpacks, or something better.