Cloak Detection Systems

posted on July 31st, 2010, 10:32 pm

What systems are available for me to be able to detect cloaked vessels?  Right now, I can only do it with the Borg, but I've never had to use it with the Borg.

posted on July 31st, 2010, 10:37 pm

You can build sensor stations or use your scouts to detect cloaked ships. Ships with advanced cloak like the Bortas might still slip through your detection grid though.

posted on July 31st, 2010, 10:43 pm

All vessel-based anti-cloak systems are described in the guide - either in the database or in the unit analysis. Additional forms of cloak-detect also appear sporadically in sections such as General Strategies if you are interested

posted on July 31st, 2010, 10:59 pm

What systems are available for me to be able to detect cloaked vessels?  Right now, I can only do it with the Borg, but I've never had to use it with the Borg.

i would suggest reading the guide, it lists all the main types of cloak detect. maybe they could all be put in a faq entry.

but there are many of them.

Here is a quick overview:

Firstly there are two types of cloak (time it takes to cloak is irrelevant):

- Normal cloak, most ships that can cloak have these.

- Advanced cloak, only three ships have these, Talon (not Talon refits), Bortas and Tavara.

There are several types of decloak in FO:

- Tachyon Pings, these are blue circles that emit from the unit with the ping. Any cloaked ships in range will be detected, as long as they have a normal cloak and not an advanced cloak. These vessels will remain visible for several seconds, allowing ships on red alert to eat them. Different units have different ranged pings. Units equipped with these: Fed Sensor station, Klingon Scout station, Any ship that received the remote tachyon ping from the Dominion sensor station, Dominion Perimeters, Borg realy/vinculum dodecahedra (which have been made into turrets).

- Tachyon-Graviton pings, these are green circles that behave in the same way as Tachyon pings, with the exception that they also decloak vessels with advanced cloak. Units equipped with these: Venture class Progressive scan emites 3, Talon refit, Dominion Sensor station, Dominion Hyperspace sensor station.

- Borg Em field, the passive ability of only 1 Borg unit, the scout cube built with an EM module. Whenever an EM scube is firing on the enemy it will cause all cloaked vessels to remain visible. This applies to basic or advanced cloaks.

- Klingon Manual Targetting, certain Klingon ships have the manual targetting passive, the brel has it from the start, other ships get manual targetting when they become veteran. If a ship is cloaking, and any ship with manual targetting is firing on it then it will remain visible for around 6 or 7 seconds. Only applies to the one vessel, applies to both normal and advanced cloak.

- Klingon Mass Seeking Missiles, the special weapon of the Vutpa which has been refitted with call to arms. The ship will fire several missiles which seek cloaked ships and decloaks them (they will restore shields after decloaking), also sometimes disables weapons i believe. Only hits cloaked vessels.

- Romulan intel centre, not technically only for decloak, but if u get a spy on a cloaked ship you obviously get its line of sight and will keep it visible. Only affects the one ship with the spy.

- Anything that disables subsystems and hits cloaked vessels. The cloak is disabled if the weapons subsystem is disabled. So anything that disables weapons while a ship is cloaking (ie a lucky shot from normal weapons or a special weapon like critical shot) will force the ship to decloak. Certain specials lend themselves to this use, Shrikes will disable the weapons of destroyers sometimes. Polaron field and nanites work on cloaked ships, I dont know if sensor jammer works on cloaked ships, if it does then sometimes it will disable weapons and decloak. Ion storms will deal direct hull damage and destroy most cloaked ships, any it doesnt destroy may be unlucky and lose weapons subsystem. Any weapon that can target an area can be used to decloak a fleet if you know its there, so Hyperspace Artillery, Serkas torps and plasma coil may work.

Thats all i can think of.

posted on August 1st, 2010, 6:28 am

When playing against Roms and Klingons it can be quite important to know what your earliest forms of cloak detection are so you can aim for them quickly so you don't get caught with your pants down 

(off the top of my head here so may need some correction).

Fed: Sensor Turret
Rom: Scout can be refitted.  A bit expensive but early on (and later?) no other real options for cloak detection.  No turrets so keep the scout safe but near enough important objects to actually detect stuff.
Dom: Sensor turrets (early) and Perimeters (later when you have the cash)
Borg: EM Scout Cube
Klingon: Erm, forget... think they have a sensor turret as well.

posted on August 1st, 2010, 9:32 am

fed early cloak detect also includes venture with progressive scan, which is more useful than sensor station as it is mobile. combine a venture with a norway and u have amazing decloak ability.

klinks have both the scout station and the brel, the brel has manual targetting.

the romulan cloak detect is based around the talon refit. it may seem a lot of money, but it definitely pays off any time u get a decloak.

dominion cloak detect is numerous, but early on it is not easy as the sensor station is rather costly, but when built and combined with its special weapon it is awesome.

[Nebula_Class_Ftw]

posted on August 1st, 2010, 4:01 pm

Last edited by Nebula_Class_Ftw on August 1st, 2010, 4:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Klinks have Manual Targeting on the Vutpa and B'rel, but also the Vetern rank Vorcha and Veteran rank LuSpet. One disadvatange of Manual Targeting is that if you fire on a ship and it disappears before the shots hit it, it won't stay visible.
Mass-seeking missiles on the Vutpa troopship refit disables weapons systems of up to three cloaked vessels, which decloaks them and gives you the strategic advantage of them not being able to fire back for a time (I forget the exact time the weapons subsystem is disabled, but I think it's rather small like  seconds.) Mass-seeking missiles is medium ranged.

Borg Dodecahedron Relay ping is medium-ranged, Venture long, Talon medium, Dom sensor station medium, Perimeter long, HSS long, remote tachyon beacon medium. Borg also have nanites that can disable subsystems on cloaked vessels (just make sure you put them in the right spot.) Nanites are medium ranged.

Roms also have the Serkas, just force-fire on areas you think there are cloaked ships and wait for something to explode. It's artillery range.

posted on August 1st, 2010, 4:43 pm

dom sensor station ping is long range, same as HSS range exactly.

posted on August 2nd, 2010, 1:54 pm

Plus Dom sensor station gets remote ping if researched. Turns every ship into a mobile cloak detection for one ping. Great stuff!!

posted on August 6th, 2010, 12:08 am

borg have costly detection when not in combat compared to other races... 

you either spend 15 cc for an area of cloak detection or 90cc for movement cloak detection...

i think dode station should give some cc's back when successfully constructed...

posted on August 6th, 2010, 3:54 pm

Yeah Borg cloak detect is crap atm. Dominion has the best, Romulans and Feds about tied for second best and Klingons have ok cloak detect once they finally get to Vutpas, but they suck before then.

posted on August 6th, 2010, 9:04 pm

At least the Klingon sensor stations are cheap, and have cloak detect.

Putting a few of them down isn't a crippling venture, though they aren't very tough.

posted on August 8th, 2010, 8:48 pm

borg will gain some new cloak detection next patch