EDIT: Took in feedback and decided that cloaking in supercruise won’t work well, so in this suggestion it’s now restricted to normal space only.
The idea of having cloaking devices on ships has been suggested and discussed before. I'd like to put my own idea for its implementation forward for review.
I've also read from some forum members that Frontier have previously considered and rejected the idea of cloaking, but I don't consider that etched in stone, as player support for a feature can sometimes cause developers to reconsider, and having a good implementation can't hurt.
How it works
Cloaking technology works by refracting the light that bounces off a ship's hull, rendering the ship invisible. It also scrambles ship data, so other ships cannot get a reading on ship name, commander name, ship type, modules, cargo, bounty etc. As a result, the ship cannot be targeted while cloaked, and only appears as "Unknown Signal Source" under Contacts in the UI, and cannot be selected.
Cloaking technology however has no effect on the ship's heat signature, and so the ship's relative location will still be fully visible on the radar, though due to the scrambling effect, it won't be identifiable as a player ship, and so will not show up as hollow on the radar. Further to this, and as suggested by
@Witcher 7, pilots won't be able to initiate docking requests or docking attempts while cloaked. This differentiates the use of cloaking from the use of silent running.
In game requirements
For a ship to gain the ability to cloak itself, it requires two items from outfitting.
1. Metamaterial Ship Hull / Armour, which has a low refractive index.
Alternatively, the existing Mirrored Surface Composite could be used to negate the need for an additional type. The cloaking armour should weigh 1.5 times as much as the Military Grade Composite, to somewhat reduce manoeuvrability (as per suggestion by
@J.States).
2. A Cloak Generator module, the effectiveness of which varies per size and class, such that larger and higher grade modules will have a longer duration time, as well as variances in power draw, integrity, thermal load, etc. The cloaking module should have the same power draw as a Prismatic Shield Generator of the same size and class, which will limit the use of Shield Boosters and Shield Cell Banks on a Cloak build (as per suggestion by
@J.States).
The Cloak Generator requires charging time when being activated, and also has a cooldown timer. These can be improved via engineering.
Duration of time in a cloaked state will depend on the size and quality of the module, but eventually the cloaking will wear off, and cannot be activated again until the cooldown period has finished.
Cloaking cannot be activated whilst weapons are deployed.
Certain events will trigger the cloaking device to fail. These include:
1. Deploying any weapon.
2. Colliding with any object.
3. Being hit by any weapon, even if your shields are up.
4. Engaging your FSD, so you will be visible as soon you begin charging the drive.
Deliberately deactivating the cloaking or leaving it to finish its duration will result in less cooldown time than if it was deactivated by any of the above triggers.
Costs
Both the required Metamaterial hull armour and the Cloak Generator module should be considerably expensive.
Vulnerabilities
The vulnerabilities for this mechanic come in the form of the numerous events that can trigger its failure, as well as in the charging and cooldown times.
Any mistakes by the pilot can expose their cloaked ship, but more than that, because other pilots can still follow a cloaked ship by radar, shots can be fired in its general direction, and if any shot lands, the cloaking mechanism fails, revealing the ship. This places a skill requirement on the pilot for evasive tactics, and increases the importance of manoeuvrability of the cloaked ship. Also, being hit by any stray shots in a combat zone will have the same effect of revealing the cloaked ship.
As an additional vulnerability suggested by
@CMDR Cosmic Spacehead, night vision will allow you to pick up artifacts or blur indicating the presence of a cloaked ship if you’re paying close attention. This is useful as it leverages an existing mechanic to act as a sort of cloaked ship detection device.
Advantages
Cloaking devices will make avoiding scans easier, which is beneficial for smuggling, and for escaping the attention of bounty hunters.
Even though the cloaked ship is still fully visible on radar, it cannot be locked as a target, so if there are a good number of other ships in the vicinity, it will be hard to single out and track the cloaked ship, particularly since it doesn't show up as a hollow icon indicating the presence of a human player.
Thoughts?
Do you think the built-in vulnerabilities are enough to balance out the advantage of temporary invisibility, or do you think they reduce the effectiveness and usability of cloaking too much, and should be scaled back?
