Re: [FT] Cloaked Rules - rewritten

>  >Cloaking functions as per the More
>  >Thrust Rules with the following change:
>  >Ships are no longer required to
>  >declare a length of time in cloak.
>
> So they don't have to preplot movement then?

I'm debating that.  I like and don't like the idea.
>
>  >DETECTION VALUE MODIFIERS
>   > -1 per thrust used by scanning vessel.
>
> So faster moving ships can detect cloaked ships better, why?

No, a -1 to teh detection value means that its harder to roll less than
that
value.	Sorry about the confusion.  The dice roll is not being modified
here, the value to roll under is.

>
>  >  -1 per thrust used by the uncloaked
>  >ship using the most thrust.
>
> Hey?

Example, if a visible ship anywhere on the board uses 5 thrust, then
that is
a -5 to the detection value, if 5 thrust was the most thrust that anyone
visible on the board used.  IN other words, whoever is using the most
thust,
is broadcasting the most "noise" and thus drowning out the "noise" the
scanning ships are trying to hear.

>
>  >If successful roll, immediately move
>  >the cloaked ship closest to the
>  >detecting ship
>
> So are they plotting their movement on a sheet of paper, how do they
tell
> which is closest (OK I'm being picky but I juts know this is going to
come
up).

Trust.

>
>  >Ships may fire dumb weapons at the
>  >DETECTED vessel....
>  >Needle Beams...Basically, if the
>  >weapon is guided, steered, or in any
>  >other way is homing, it cannot be used.
>
> I just always assumed that because you were designating a target
system
> that this counted as the equivalent of homing so to speak.

I'm not sure I follow you on this one.	I was trying to say that weapons
that have to be guided to a target wouldn't work against a cloaked
vessel.
Beams and stuff are bearing-type weapons.  They are fired along a
specific
bearing, which is about how much information one has about a cloaked
ship.

>
>  >FIRE CONTROL SOLUTION.....
>
> Is there any other way you can do this????? Maybe if your detection
roll
> was <half that required (so if a 4 was needed and you rolled a 2 say).
I'd
> avoid book-keeping like the plague!
>
>  >This sounds a lot harder than it is!
>
> It would want to be! ;)
> Seriously if you can think up an easier way of handling this...

The dice system was just a suggestion.	Shoot, just write it down on a
piece
of paper next to the detected cloaked ship.  The idea of detections over
time is meant to simulate being able to get a solid firing solution from
extended tracking of the target.  Its hard to get a good fix on
something if
you've only seen it once, but if you get multiple bearings on it, and
(even
better) from multiple sources, then you can triangulate an exact
position.
Since the cloaking device is originally based on hunting submarines (at
least the Trek cloaking device was), I tried to model the rules for
hunting
cloaked vessels on sub-hunting.  The idea was you'd have to detect a
cloaked
ship a bunch of times before you can shoot him without penalty.

>
>  >A Fire Solution is automatically achieved
>  >for the closest cloaked ship.
>
> Why?
>
>  >For the next closest vessel, if the
>  >lowest remaining dice is a 5 or less.....

This is an optional part of the rule.  I personally do not plan on using
it.

>
> This seems like its awful easy to find at least a few targets per
turn,
but
> the fact the ships can fire cloaked probably makes up for it. I'd be
> tempted to make it harder for scanning ships to find cloaked ships and
make
> it much harder (say add a couple of range bands to the real distance
to
> target) for cloaked ships to fire.
>
>  >If you do not wish to allow cloaked vessels
>  >to fire while cloaked, then consider "jamming"
>  >space for 1d6 turns per ship that actively scanned.
>  >While space is jammed, no passive detection is possible.
>
> For that ship or all ships???
>
> I was playing devil's advocate a bit here, but I do think you need to
ease
> back on the bookkeeping aspect and penalise cloakers and scanners a
bit
> more in the active scanning stuff.

The active scanning part is only for those who want to have a difference
between active and passive scanning.  The idea of an active search is
that
you will most of the time, find whatever is hidden, but whatever is
hidden
can now see you very easily as well.  At least, that's how it works,
oversimplified, in submarine warfare.

Thanks for the comments!

George