Re: cloaking device rules

>A few of my friends and I were designing a few ship recently when we
>started tossing around the idea of using cloaking devices on some of
the
>new ships.  When we referred to the MT rules on cloaking devices.
>
>None of us were very impressed with the fact that you have no contact
>with the outside playing area.  The idea that we came up with was that
a
>ship that is cloaked can act just like any other ship except that none
[...]
>
>So what do you all think?  I would love to hear any ideas to make these
>rules better as well as any other cloaking rules that may exist.

Just recently (a couple months ago) Scott Field ran a small
Trek-oriented PBeM
FT scenario for myself and one other netter (hey, monty!). He had
cloaked ships
in it (mine! :) and the way we handled it was that the uncloaked ships
could
feed telemetry data to the cloaked ships, so the cloaked ships had a
clue about
what was going on in the playing field. But the cloak-capable ships
could not
actively fire or anything like that while being cloaked. They merely
used the
cloak as a means of maneuvering close to an opponent, and then
uncloaking to
surprise and blow said opponent ship outta the water (this tactic was
tried by
the Klinks, but apparently the Klink Gunnery Officer was surprised
himself by
the suddenly close Freddie ship and faltered at the controls; I trust
that he
had been executed and banished as appropriate to one of his fallen
rank).

Now, Scott had more extensive rules to govern other situations that may
have
arisen (but didn't while I was playing; granted, I was unable to finish
do to
interference of a vacation ;), but you'd prolly have to ask him for
those
details (I don't remember them off-hand). What we did with the cloak
seemed to
work okay.

My $0.02, for what it's worth...
Mk
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
If the conquest of a great peak brings moments of exultation and bliss,
which in the monotonous, materialistic existence of modern times nothing
else can approach, it also presents great dangers.  It is not the goal
of
*grand alpinisme* to face peril, but it is one of the tests one must 
undergo to deserve the joy of rising for an instant above the state of 
crawling grubs.
				       -Lionel Terray, 1965