A Star Control Cloaking Device?

from StarControl Forums

I have no idea what ship designs are in the game, but am fairly confident they have the initial designs for them already.  There would be many ways of making a cloaking device work in Star Control as a permanent secondary system.  I personally think the best and most fun way would be a cloak that only lasted for 2-4 seconds or so.  The ship would have a fairly powerful but short ranged weapon.  The cloak would then have two uses, offensive and defensive.  Against faster more maneuverable ships it would be used defensively to make a turn the enemy cannot see.  The cloak ship disappears, then re-appears a few seconds later still nearby but heading in an unexpected direction.  Against ships with powerful or medium range weapons it would be used offensively to close the gap between medium and short range to use it's weapon.

This is simple enough to work in this type of game and provides real, easy to understand uses for it while the short duration prevents it from being a god-like ability.  You can use it to evade, or you can use it for a brief moment of protection on an attack run and these abilities are probably in-line with the secondary abilities that exist with the ships you have.

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Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

I like the possibilities of this if it's well balanced. One of the things that worked really well as part of the balancing of weapons and systems on the existing Starcon games was the use of energy. I imagine any cloak would steadily drain the battery - it would run out after a while and you'd decloak, or you'd be left with no energy for your attack.

Of course, the Ilwrath, who match the description of a cloaking enemy with a short range weapon, didn't have such a restriction but you were able to see just where they were fairly well anyway by the way the camera moved and switched distances. And I think you could just make out stars being blocked from view too?

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

Yes, doing a cloak isn't easy.   For example you don't want the non-cloaking player sitting alone on the map waiting for the "god cloak" player to show himself.  The version of the cloak I am talking about was specifically designed for this type of fast paced action game.  It only last a couple seconds, enough to make a single turn that is not seen by the enemy or close a short gap on an attack run.  It would take a good chuck of your energy when you used it.  Its a good way to do a cloak in this type of game, if they want a cloak.  The SC ships are unique designs and if they have good fun unique designs without a cloaking ship there is no reason to add one just for the sake of adding one.

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