Clarification on cloaks

General discussion about the game.
Bedshaped
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 1:14 pm

Clarification on cloaks

Postby Bedshaped » Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:28 pm

I was watching the Beta Gameplay videos again and one thing struck me that isn't very clear by the videos.

On what principals to the cloaking device operate?

The reason I ask is because, from the videos, it looks as if cloaking actually takes the ship out of phase because of how it behaves. If it were just a visual cloak it would behave much differently.

If an enemy ship fires a missile at you and you cloak; it makes sense that it would miss, as a missile tracking the target will have nothing left to track and miss as a result.

But if the enemy ship fires a projectile at your ship; cloaking shouldn't prevent that shot from hitting because those shots have already been fired at your destination trajectory and you can't just pull extra maneuverability out of nowhere.

FTL: Pre-Beta Gameplay #1

If you watch this video you see that cloaking after a shot has been fired misses you for some reason and also asteroids that would normally hit you miss aswell.

Suggestion:
  • You should still be untargetable if you cloak
  • Missiles should miss if they were fired before you cloak (hence you being untargetable)
  • Make it so that projectiles fired before you cloak still hit you
  • Allow asteriods to still hit you if you are cloaked
  • Increase the base cloak time to offset this change
ezryder
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2012 1:20 pm

Re: Clarification on cloaks

Postby ezryder » Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:01 pm

I just took it to mean that the actual movement of the two ships in combat had been abstracted. So while it looks like your slugging it out back and forth with the other ship, you are actually maneuvering around. So when you turn on the cloak, you are also moving and the shot misses because the shots were fired at where you were before you cloaked(or where the other ships tracking computer had predicted your ship to be, but you cloaked and broke hard to the port). :)

edit - wow that was a grammatical mess.
Justin
Site Admin
Posts: 265
Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 9:52 am

Re: Clarification on cloaks

Postby Justin » Thu Apr 26, 2012 4:10 am

When we were making the cloak the gameplay experience was most important to us. We wanted something that would meaningfully change combat strategies and be fun. From a 'lore' perspective... Perhaps we can consider it phasing more than simply being visibly hidden? Weapons are unable to target and therefore cannot prepare to fire on phased targets? Just a random idea.
If you're having hull problems, I feel bad for you son. I've got 99 problems but a breach ain't one.
Gorlom
Posts: 519
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 2:06 am

Re: Clarification on cloaks

Postby Gorlom » Thu Apr 26, 2012 4:38 am

Justin wrote:When we were making the cloak the gameplay experience was most important to us.

This line makes me very happy to hear :D . Gameplay experience first, THEN explain it. Much better then function follwoing after fiction.
soratidus999
Posts: 62
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:18 am

Re: Clarification on cloaks

Postby soratidus999 » Sun Apr 29, 2012 12:49 pm

Gorlom wrote:
Justin wrote:When we were making the cloak the gameplay experience was most important to us.

This line makes me very happy to hear :D . Gameplay experience first, THEN explain it. Much better then function follwoing after fiction.


ditto

who knew, developers putting gameplay experience first!! i love you guys

.... bioware.... you could learn a lot from these guys
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