|
Post by robertthedamned on Sept 20, 2010 8:01:23 GMT -5
Hi everyone,
I've been thinking of trying to implement a cloaking system for larger ships that wont require millions of markers or a lot of book keeping, here's what I've come up with:
A ship equipped with a cloaking device may activate it at the beginning of their turn, put a marker on the ships base to designate it as a 'sensor ghost'. The sensor ghost will move just like the original ship but with -1 to its delta, representing the power drain of the cloaking device. The sensor ghost may not shoot or be shot at and will not trigger ASGMs if it moves through them. Ships that are cloaked may de-cloak at the beginning of their turn. When the ship decides to de-cloak remove the sensor ghost counter, the ship may be moved up to one hex per turn it has been cloaked, it may also change its facing to any it wishes.
Not sure how to cost this special system, perhaps it should be a role rather than a special system. In any case what do people think to the rules? I wanted something that needed minimal bookkeeping and thought using the idea of a sensor ghost so both sides know roughly where the ship is until it de-cloaks when it seemingly jumps to a nearby location which can be more distant the longer its been cloaked. I can see fleet's with these being particularly dangerous to fleets equipped with a lot of ASGMs. I'm tempted to allow players to 'blind fire' at the sensor ghost with penalties that go up for each turn spent cloaked.
|
|
|
Post by kenh01 on Sept 20, 2010 9:50:34 GMT -5
I like the idea, lets see what the boss thinks?
Ken
|
|
|
Post by TheDreadnought on Sept 20, 2010 10:15:12 GMT -5
Thats a fantastic idea!
I was looking for some more cloaking device ideas. If you don't mind I'm going to steal that one and see what I can do with it.
|
|
|
Post by kenh01 on Sept 20, 2010 11:50:13 GMT -5
For firing at a cloaked ship, how about +1 to range for each turn cloaked to a max of +5 (to give D6 weapons a chance!)
Ken
|
|
|
Post by TheDreadnought on Sept 20, 2010 12:34:25 GMT -5
I think that still makes it too easy to hit. Might make it a roll on a d10 under their fire control to get a lock, and THEN apply the +1 modifier per turn
|
|
|
Post by kenh01 on Sept 20, 2010 13:41:48 GMT -5
Yea, that sounds a little better.
Ken
|
|
|
Post by warchariot on Sept 20, 2010 19:36:34 GMT -5
The one issue I want to avoid with Cloaking is a ship poping in behind , firing, and then cloaking again. Just to do it again in a turn or two. I wonder about having the ship build up to cloak, something along the lines of FTL jumps or maube a limit to cloaking or even lossing points to cloak. Anyway, I don't want a game were I'm not playing, but waiting for a ship to uncloak.
|
|
|
Post by TheDreadnought on Sept 20, 2010 19:39:42 GMT -5
Yeah, thats a legit concern and a good reason for the ability to shoot at ships that are currently cloaked also, even if it is hard.
|
|
|
Post by robertthedamned on Sept 20, 2010 20:45:25 GMT -5
Thats a fantastic idea! I was looking for some more cloaking device ideas. If you don't mind I'm going to steal that one and see what I can do with it. Chris if you want to steal this idea then go ahead, I didn't post it up here to keep it to myself! ;D I like the ideas suggested for firing on a cloaked ship, I'll have to try and find time to playtest it this week. I might cost it as a 'role' I think it combined with say Battleline could create ships that could well disappear for a turn or two quite damaged and come back as new.
|
|
|
Post by TheDreadnought on Sept 20, 2010 22:40:45 GMT -5
I was thinking a role also. and it's Harry.
|
|
|
Post by lordhawkins on Sept 21, 2010 12:51:14 GMT -5
I could see making a tech tree in which your level of cloaking tech = size ship that can take on the "cloaker" role. Might even have different modifiers to hit them based on tech level.
|
|
|
Post by TheDreadnought on Sept 21, 2010 13:48:44 GMT -5
Yeah, that would make sense to tie ship size to tech level for cloaking device availability.
|
|
|
Post by robertthedamned on Sept 21, 2010 16:09:49 GMT -5
and it's Harry. :-/Woops sorry of course it is. I wonder why I wrote that Time to go shopping for a new brain As for tech maybe add it to Quantum manipulation? Its already quite a powerful tech line its the one it probably fits most background wise.
|
|
|
Post by warchariot on Sept 22, 2010 19:02:32 GMT -5
and it's Harry. :-/Woops sorry of course it is. I wonder why I wrote that Time to go shopping for a new brain As for tech maybe add it to Quantum manipulation? Its already quite a powerful tech line its the one it probably fits most background wise. I agree this is where it fits best.
|
|
|
Post by TheDreadnought on Sept 23, 2010 11:25:48 GMT -5
Yeah that's what I'm thinking.
|
|
|
Post by fastgit on Oct 9, 2010 6:46:45 GMT -5
One of the things I loved about the Starfire universe was that cloaking tech was an outgrowth/refinement/improvement of ECM tech. Lower levels/techs of ECM would hinder opposing firecon and allow units to disguise their class, while the highest techs would permit invisibility to sensors.
This gave a purpose for dedicated ECCM suites.
|
|