Ideas for how to find cloaked ships.....

posted on January 7th, 2013, 5:49 pm

Wouldn't they go through the cloaking field and attach to the hull of the ship, making them also become invisible because they're now hidden behind the cloak?

posted on January 7th, 2013, 8:02 pm

Wouldn't they go through the cloaking field and attach to the hull of the ship, making them also become invisible because they're now hidden behind the cloak?

several points here:

1) matter passing through a cloaking field: we've never seen this happen to a standard cloak afaik, i doubt the cloak is designed to account for such an occurrence, so the cloak may be disrupted.

2) liquid that emits a specific radiation: the radiation would still be detectable, as cloaked ships always apply effort to prevent outgoing radiation (eg communications).

3) the lack of liquid in itself would give away the position of a cloaked ship. sensors could track an expanding sphere of liquid, this sphere shouldn't be broken, any point that is broken would be either matched up with a visible object (eg asteroid) or cloaked.

posted on January 7th, 2013, 9:37 pm

1) Weapons pass through cloak unopposed, since it doesn't act like a shield. Though they never explained if the cloak failure was because the field was disrupted, because the ship was blowing up or the field didn't cover the explosions.

2) If it's strong enough to be detected, I could see it working. A signal too weak, a cloak too advanced or a crew too smart (and probably Romulan) can still be a problem, though.

3) The 'Tachyon Net' approach?

posted on January 7th, 2013, 10:58 pm

1) that's usually energy weapons, which you'd expect to pass through easily due to their high energy. but that reminds me of st6 where a photon torp passes through a cloak before detonation, but as you said, the ship becoming visible could have been for many reasons.

3) pretty much, but cheaper, only effective on a per use basis, not needing several ships to deploy.

posted on January 7th, 2013, 11:31 pm

What about just launching a bunch of those little probes in all directions to form a temporary net like Data did in TNG. The cloaked ship couldn't fire on them without giving up their location. It would actually be fairly cheap as well since you could just recover and reuse the probes after you destroyed the three Romulan Warbirds with your Defiant.

Or just drop a bunch of mine cloaked mines all over the place. At least a chance that the cloaked ship would run right into one of them.

posted on January 7th, 2013, 11:34 pm

What about just launching a bunch of those little probes in all directions to form a temporary net like Data did in TNG. The cloaked ship couldn't fire on them without giving up their location. It would actually be fairly cheap as well since you could just recover and reuse the probes after you destroyed the three Romulan Warbirds with your Defiant.

probes are more expensive than paint.

also starships were used to make a tachyon grid, there's no guarantee that a probe would be capable of doing the tachyon grid.

posted on January 8th, 2013, 5:07 am

Same thing with mines. They're more expensive. Also, the cloaked mines may not be able to detect and move towards cloaked ships, and relying on random collisions in space (which is pretty big) is really unreliable. Also, mines are a purely defensive measure. You can't just deploy them in an encounter.

I'd bet the tachyon grid is the best cloak detection Starfleet has.

posted on January 8th, 2013, 11:11 am

I suppose it's unethical for Starfleet to just put pure betazoids on every ship. They launch a bunch of betazoids inside those torpedo casings which are large enough to hold a human form.....they could form a sort of telepathic net and pinpoint the exact location. Then after the battle you just pick up whichever ones managed to survive and you can reused them next time.

I am assuming that Troy was able to do it in the movie so accurately only because she had a special connection with the one guy. Since she wasn't able to detect any other ships in the TV show.

The mines is mostly a gamble and you can still pick up the ones that don't detonate and reuse them.

posted on January 8th, 2013, 12:26 pm

I couldn't see any reason Betazoids couldn't find cloaked ships, though they sure ain't launching them at the enemy like a Simpsons episode. I wonder why they never had the Betazoid Vs Cloak thing in the show?

posted on January 8th, 2013, 2:38 pm

I wonder why they never had the Betazoid Vs Cloak thing in the show?

because it's incredibly moronic. sensing the presence of another telepath is ok, but sensing their exact position/bearing is just stupid. especially since that viceroy monster was moving at the time.

posted on January 8th, 2013, 4:40 pm

I concur Myles Most humans can hear with no difficulty, but you try pinpointing exactly where that sound came from, especially if the source is moving... Betazoid empathy/telepathy is no different. It's another sense, but it doesn't make it some kind of super "sight-beyond-sight" ability