Posted by: Father Tim
« on: April 21, 2020, 05:43:05 PM »Is there a good explanation on how to use cloaks effectively?
It's not really possible to use cloaks effectively. As mentioned above, the only thing a cloak does is to reduce the apparent size of a ship. This means the maximum range at which it can be detected is lower, but once detected there is no difference. Cloaking is only useful if you're trying to hide and/or run away.
I tried to go with a cloak/cannonade theme in my last game. I invested heavily in all the cloak technologies and didn't use active sensors anywhere near my cloaked ships, but the aliens seemed thoroughly unimpressed and missiled me off the field at 150mil km.
I found a few forum posts that talk about cloaks and detection but I couldn't find anything that really covered how it all works.
With a 90% cloak, your 16,000 ton (320 hull space) ship appears to be (and is detected by active sensors as) 1,600 tons (32 hull spaces). That's it. Versus a resolution 200 active sensor this will reduce the detection range; versus a resolution 20 active sensor it will not.