Surface Ship Cloaking Module

[KrautSlayer]

Discussed it a bit with some friends as we do a ton of surface missions.
We'd love to see a utility module that would cloak a ship that has landed on the surface and decloak on takeoff. The ship could still be targeted by players (unless too cold, or disguised by other normal means) but would hide it from npcs outside a specific 'aggro' range based on the grade of the cloak.
At the moment, we're forced to use super tanky ships, park 1/5km away, or to dismiss our ships to do ground content without them being destroyed by npcs - which is a bummer when I want to drag out my srv or go back for more ebreaches.
Even if the module required an optional slot to be filled as a 'battery' to keep it powered over long durations, it'd be sweet to see a distorted shimmering ship outline and know that my ride is safe while I massacre innocent scientists.

 

[Screemonster]

Define "super tanky" for me - sure, with G5 weapons I can take out a sidewinder with a couple of shotgun blasts to take out the shields and a rocket to finish off the hull, but as soon as you get into anything with more hull hardness the amount of punishment a ship can take from foot weapons becomes insane.

My exploration-fit DBX with d-rated undersized shields and lightweight alloys, admittedly engineered but not a tanky ship by any means and would die in approximately two seconds to a gankboat, is tough enough that even in my CZ loadout I can't kill the thing before I run out of ammunition.

The point stands though - yeah, if you're going to park your ship in a hot zone, expect it to get shot at and outfit accordingly. If some scavs arrive and start shooting it then... if it's a settlement then just dismiss it and summon it back when you've dealt with them.

If you're just wading into a settlement with all guns blazing and the alarms are going off and you can't keep the guards from swarming your ship while you disable them, then that sounds like a problem with your approach to the mission.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

I typically park my ship right next to the settlement and I've not really see this be a problem.

But yeah, as mentioned above, by the time it gets to the stage of full on fire fight, alarms are switched off and base defences are disabled (and that's even going back to the days of no silenced weapons and having to properly think about my approach).

The only time I'd rethink that idea is with military settlements, but there's nothing making you go to those and I, for one, enjoy the fact that optionally there are places where a little more care is needed.

 

[SteveWW57]

When I were a lad (in Odyssey terms) and knew no better, I would land on the pad, start taking fire from the scavs and do an immediate deploy of the SRV and drive away and dismiss the ship. Then turn around and shoot the scavs. Happy times.

Being a bit older and wiser, I land about 3-500m from the settlement, drive the SRV to the pad and start shooting (apart from the active mil ones with Goliaths, and then it is stealth mode).

Scavs do not live ling enough to get close to the ship.

Steve

 

[tolm]

I typically park my ship right next to the settlement and I've not really see this be a problem.

But yeah, as mentioned above, by the time it gets to the stage of full on fire fight, alarms are switched off and base defences are disabled (and that's even going back to the days of no silenced weapons and having to properly think about my approach).

The only time I'd rethink that idea is with military settlements, but there's nothing making you go to those and I, for one, enjoy the fact that optionally there are places where a little more care is needed.

Oh man … I took a mission to take someone out at a military settlement … it wasn’t pretty!

So. Many. Commandos.

Seriously? Where do they keep all the reinforcements?!!

I got my target (technically they were caught in the crossfire but it still counted!) but I had to dismiss my ship to save it and I lost an SRV escaping … they sent ships after me, dagnammit?!! Ships with missiles?!!

Was really quite stressful …

 

[aRJay]

The bit I don’t like the most about the idea is that it works differently against players than NPCs.
If it hides the ship from one it should hide the ship from the other.

 

[Felix DiCestria]