Stealth tech

[AceTriggerhappy]

I had an idea on stealth Tech and did not see any in-depth posts about it so I felt like sharing my idea.

So I was thinking if it was possible to balance and support with game mechanics to have some kind of stealth drive tech that used up an aux slot, and for simplicity sake covers the full spectrum (Bending light, hiding emissions, jamming Sensors, ect) And to give it a little bit of balance I thought it would be interesting to split it up into kind of a research tier like how some techs are now (Normal, rare and dangerous/ reversed engineered.)

So tech 1 would just be your good old run of the mill stealth drive, but it only works on Corvettes and destroyer at a heavy energy cost that would leave you reducing shield strength or fire power if you are not making an unarmed spy-ship.

Tech 2 would be a bit harder to get, but would allow you to cloak your cruisers and battleships at the same high cost and maybe even using both Aux slots. Or something different completely

And tech 3 would be the hardest to get and would be almost like tech one in regards to being only corvette/ destroyer, but it uses less energy and upon being uncloaked you would gain an evasion bonus as the drive works by making your ship fluctuate in and out of existence of your dimension or something along those lines.

And on countering something like this I figured it would be based of sensors, your own and the enemies. So say if you had just had Gravitic Sensors, you could fake or jam you gravitational signature some how so those with Gravitic Sensors would have to get closer to detect you and those with the basic radar would have to be right on top of you. But those with something better like Tachyon Sensors could easily see that you have a much larger fleet than what is physically seen out the window.

Well that was the quick idea that came to me this morning, Feel free to add to it or point out flaws.

 

[LordMagus]

DAMN, IT'S THE KLINGONS. But yeah, I'd be keen for stealth ships that aren't as strong in an engagement, but get to pick their fights. But that's not that useful as long as the AI uses doomstacks, but if they split their fleet up, you could go around ambushing them.

 

[Cordane]

What kind of uses are you envisioning for a stealth ship? The two of the big reasons you see stealth ships in science fiction are for espionage and attacking an enemy while their defenses are still down. But we don't have an espionage system yet, and defensive systems are always up (unless you're just exiting a battle).

The other two are for being able to move past defenses without being spotted or responded to, and for having a different type of defense while in a battle (assuming stealth fields aren't incompatible with firing weapons or having shields up). Being able to move around stealthily might be useful for running around behind the lines and attacking soft targets during war, or for slipping through closed borders. I would design a new module type for each hull size that has a fixed stealth field generator slot with a large Power demand - probably the Stern position with little to nothing else for slots, although Corvettes would need a specialized module which would still include some few weapon and utility slots.

The tricks would be how to officiate how close a stealth ship could get to a given sensor before it got spotted, or would multiple sensors (e.g., a fleet) have a better chance of finding a stealth ship at range, or would an FTL snare work on them (dependent on the attached sensor system). If you were to really try to bring this to fruition, I would also look to add espionage and ECM/ECCM systems at the same time - I'd also love to see civilian trade and then Q-ships added around the same time.

 

[Lothmar]

Maybe if the stealth was a baffle on a one to one exchange vs sensors on ships/planets I'd go for it.

Ex: If you had stealth 3 ships/planets would need sensors 3 to detect you in the same system and you would get a slight evasion vs them. If they had sensor 4 then they could detect you entirely in the same system with no bonus to evasion and could detect you one jump away as well but with limited accuracy.

Though depending on the level difference in stealth to sensors there should be a point where you blow your viel so it's not just - 'I have higher stealth, prepare to get chipped to death one shot at a time', like at only one higher it's a 50% chance with each shot you decloak and can be fired upon, at 2 higher it's a 25%, at 3 it's 5%, at 4 its 1%. Then if you want to recloak you need to get a certain distance away or jump first and even if you did cloak if they dont leave a certain distance they have a rough idea of where you are after that and can take shots at you with heightened evasion bonus.

Also a module for stations or battleships where they could project a stealth field for the fleet in their perimeter or in the same might not be bad.

 

[terrycloth]

What kind of uses are you envisioning for a stealth ship? The two of the big reasons you see stealth ships in science fiction are for espionage and attacking an enemy while their defenses are still down. But we don't have an espionage system yet, and defensive systems are always up (unless you're just exiting a battle).

The other two are for being able to move past defenses without being spotted or responded to, and for having a different type of defense while in a battle (assuming stealth fields aren't incompatible with firing weapons or having shields up). Being able to move around stealthily might be useful for running around behind the lines and attacking soft targets during war, or for slipping through closed borders. I would design a new module type for each hull size that has a fixed stealth field generator slot with a large Power demand - probably the Stern position with little to nothing else for slots, although Corvettes would need a specialized module which would still include some few weapon and utility slots.

The tricks would be how to officiate how close a stealth ship could get to a given sensor before it got spotted, or would multiple sensors (e.g., a fleet) have a better chance of finding a stealth ship at range, or would an FTL snare work on them (dependent on the attached sensor system). If you were to really try to bring this to fruition, I would also look to add espionage and ECM/ECCM systems at the same time - I'd also love to see civilian trade and then Q-ships added around the same time.

For espionage, you want a ship that can cross closed borders and not show up on radar. Probably a science ship, actually, so that it can survey planets and let you see their pops and buildings.

Once you had that you could add missions to do things to inhabited planets in secret. Of course if they were spotted they'd probably get killed really quickly, but that's appropriate.

For ambushes, you could give them powerful short-range weapons (possibly, single-shot weapons?) and let stealth keep them from entering combat until they were in range. Or maybe until you specifically ordered them to attack. So they could fly right past the magnet station and blow up the starbase directly.

Wow, that would be annoying.

For detection I'd just go with a percent chance per month of losing stealth, modified by stealth tech level, sensor tech level, and what they were doing. If they actually attack they should automatically be decloaked, but with the right kind of weapons (high burst damage) that could still be an efficient tactic even if they didn't usually live long enough to e-warp out.

 

[dying0d]

Or...

Just make stealth a + evasion auxiliary item.

That's the only thing that works given the current state of the game