Swiftly and Silently

posted on January 27th, 2012, 12:21 pm

Watching Fleetops replays I noticed that sometimes a player with a cloak capable race will send a small group of ships to raid while keeping the majority of his fleet in a position to engage the enemy fleet. This obviously poses some risks as if your raiding group decloaks and is then surprised by the number of enemies they can be destroyed. This is especially true when both races possess cloaking abilities. Retreating in this situation can be difficult because of the cooldown on cloaking devices(15 seconds I think).

How about a special ability that would reduce the cooldown of cloaking devices on nearby allied vessels? This way a group of ships could decloak to attack and then if they are surprised a few seconds later they have the option to cloak out. Balancing could include having the ability only work on a few (3?) ships so that the ability would not be practical for use of your whole fleet. Also, this special could be done so that the all the ships that get the benefits would require a lot of special energy to recloak so quickly. That way having ships decloak, fire specials and recloak immediately would be prevented. Choosing between the damage of specials and the option of retreating would be the goal of this ability.

I think that such a ability would best fit a Romulan play style. I await your comments.

posted on January 27th, 2012, 1:32 pm

I've always thought the roms should have a support ship in the bird yard. Maybe this could be an ability for it. It should be kept late game, and as you say, have a cap. By bird yard time, the enemy can have cloak detect.

I like.

posted on January 27th, 2012, 1:44 pm

Thats true, a big support ship like the Remore or Bortas would certainly value up the bird yard. I'd like if that vessel could also change the cloak-decloak time as a second level and e.g. change the cloak behaviour of other on a third level. Or for exaple, it would be nice if it could carry a cloak detect, thats active while being cloaked ... this should certainly a very very expensive upgrade.

posted on January 27th, 2012, 4:20 pm

The Tavara already has the ability to do this so the cloak only takes a second, i think a support ship with the ability to do this to otthers is good

posted on January 27th, 2012, 4:25 pm

I like all those suggestions, although I still think warbirds need buffs across the board.

One thing I want to see is cooldowns that are "on" by default, so that when a ship ranks up it doesn't have to wait 15 seconds before cloaking (or 45 seconds before phase plates)

posted on January 27th, 2012, 9:58 pm

A Leahval ability like that might be interesting. Certainly less annoying than the current Leahvals specials.

I think it would be implemented as one of the new support passives, with limited amounts of ships getting the cloak cooldown decrease and limited stakking. That, or single-target. Either way would be pretty cool.

posted on January 27th, 2012, 10:14 pm

Thanks for the ideas and feedback. Having a ability that adjusts the cloak and decloak time does sound interesting.

@Drewlew - I double checked just to be sure. The Tavara does get the 1 second cloak after an upgrade, but after it drops cloak you can not recloak for 15 seconds. This is the same for all ships as far as I know.

@Nebula_Class_Ftw - Yeah, as a  support passive would be good, with limits like you suggest. As a special on one ship class would be good too.  I think the biggest issue would come if a ship could decloak, fire a damage special(like Metaphasic Disruptor), and recloak in 3 seconds. Preventing that should be a priority.