There have been some complaints on this forum concerning the prevalence of cloaking devices present on the ships of certain races (namely the Klingons) and how this may unbalance the game.
See specifically,
viewtopic.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1968
While the onscreen evidence is strong concerning their presence on first some, and then all ships in the Klingon fleet, the question of balance is one that does need to be answered, in the interests of game playability and to put players minds at ease.
While I personally don't think cloaking Klingons are an unbalancing factor, others seem to disagree. The Klingons are singled out, presumably because the high firepower of their ships, coupled with a cloak seemingly gives them an unfair advantage. Yet this charge is never levelled at the Romulans, whose ships also have respectable firepower and are ALL cloakable. Instead, players develop specific tactics and game plays to deal with the cloak. Cannot the same be done for cloaking Klingons?
If there are still concerns, the game can be modded to provide a balance for the cloaking advantage. There is onscreen support for giving Birds Of Prey lower hull figures than comparable ship types. In ST ‘Generations', TNG ‘Yesterdays Enterprise' and TNG ‘Redemption', Birds of Prey held up well to enemy fire while their shields were intact. But once the shields were gone, they were dispatched fairly easily, indicating very good shields but a low hull figure. So, while a Bird of Prey might have a free high initial attack against non cloak adversaries, it cannot take as much return fire as a comparable enemy ship. Later Klingon ships like the Vorcha and Negvar have greater hull strengths, but by this time all other players ships will be at their peak as well.
Onscreen evidence also supplies certain races with specific anti cloak technology that effectively nullifies the cloak. Depending on whether these can be implemented using the current BOTF game engine, players have a choice of the following.
Federation Anti Cloak
The most famous and well known Federation counter to the cloak is the tachyon grid.
TNG ‘Redemption' Stardate: 45020.4
SHANTHI: But how would you overcome the Romulan cloaking device?
PICARD: My Chief Engineer has developed a system that should nullify that advantage. Each ship will send out an active tachyon beam to the other blockading ships. Now, in theory, any cloaked vessel that attempts to pass between our ships must cross that beam and be detected.
http://www.chakoteya.net/NextGen/201.htm
RIKER: Starfleet is stretched pretty thin across the quadrant. There are only about twelve ships within a day's travel of this position.
LAFORGE: The only other ships available are either in spacedock for repairs or still under construction. Most of them don't even have full crews yet.
RIKER: We could probably scare up seven, maybe eight, more ships.
PICARD: Mister La Forge, can you implement your tachyon detection grid with twenty ships?
LAFORGE: It's possible, but the more ships, the bigger the net we can throw.
http://www.chakoteya.net/NextGen/201.htm
Going by the above dialogue, the tachyon grid will only work if more than one ship is involved. So, in a game, when this technology becomes available, it can only be utilised by fleets rather than just one ship (I don't know whether this can be done in BOTF).
Onscreen evidence shows that this can be countered however.
TNG ‘Redemption' Stardate: 45020.4
SELA: You mean they were caught unprepared and now they're crying for help. Have the science sections found a way to circumvent the detection grid yet?
MOVAR: We think so. Just before we cross the border, we'll send out a massive tachyon pulse. A burst that large should cause enough interference to disable a part of their network.
http://www.chakoteya.net/NextGen/201.htm
A Romulan player has the chance to develop the Tachyon Burst to counter the Grid (again, I don't know if this is possible in current BOTF). So, even though the Federation has a counter to the cloak, it is effectively neutralised in a short time. But then, given the Federation ships excellent shields and sensors, the grid really doesn't make a difference to Federation gameplay.
Cardassian Anti Cloak
The Cardassians are depicted onscreen as gaining the anti proton beam to detect cloaked ships.
DS9 ‘The Defiant' Stardate: 48467.3
DUKAT: Well, your Lieutenant Riker isn't likely to respect that agreement with the Romulans. And there's no way to locate a ship under cloak.
SISKO: There is one possibility. The Dominion managed to penetrate the cloak by using some kind of anti-proton beam.
DUKAT: Can you give us the specifications of that beam?
SISKO: Not precisely, but I can give you everything we've learned from our sensor logs. It'll give you a chance to find the Defiant before she attacks.
http://www.chakoteya.net/DS9/455.htm
SOLDIER: Sir, another perimeter alert. Outpost forty seven has detected a cloaked ship with their anti-proton beam
http://www.chakoteya.net/DS9/455.htm
KALITA: We're past the security perimeter, out of their sensor range.
RIKER: They're using anti-proton beams to scan for us. Adjust the cloak's resonance frequency so they can't detect us again
http://www.chakoteya.net/DS9/455.htm
SISKO: Fifteen outposts have checked in. No sign of the Defiant. Twenty-six warships have scanned fourteen cubic light years of space with anti-proton beams. No Defiant. What are the possibilities?
http://www.chakoteya.net/DS9/455.htm
SOLDIER: There's an incoming message from the warship Kraxon. They say they've found an unusual neutrino signature in their sector. It looks like radiation from a damaged warp plasma relay.
DUKAT: Is this signature moving?
SOLDIER: No. But they're scanning the area with their anti-proton beams.
DUKAT: Where is the Kraxon?
(The location is brought up on the viewscreen)
SISKO: If it is the Defiant, they're in position to make a run for the Orias system.
http://www.chakoteya.net/DS9/455.htm
SOLDIER: The Kraxon reports that the neutrino signature has just phase-shifted, and is moving now at warp speed directly toward the Orias system.
DUKAT: Order the Kraxon to pursue at maximum warp. Order all other ships in the sector to follow.
http://www.chakoteya.net/DS9/455.htm
Going by the above passages, the antiproton cloak can be fitted to Galor class warships (which particular type is up to the modder). But, the beam can ALSO be fitted to Cardassian outposts. Cloaked fleets no longer get a free shot when attacking outposts, at least Cardassian ones.
A counter to the anti proton beam is mentioned, in the form of adjusting the cloak's resonance. Since the Cardassian ships still seem to detect the Defiant after this is implemented, this counter seems to be of limited value.
The anti proton beam was originally used by the Dominion (see below). Since the Cardassian version is based on extrapolated data from Sisko, the Cardassian anti proton beam could be an inferior version of the Dominion original, with lower stats.
The anti cloak specialists in the tv series, however, have to be the Dominion.
Dominion Anti Cloak Tech
The Search, part 1
Stardate: 48212.4
O'BRIEN: Commander, they're sweeping the area with some kind of anti-proton scan and they're being very thorough about it.
SISKO: Will an anti-proton scan penetrate the cloak?
O'BRIEN: That's a good question.
T'RUL: I'm not sure.
T'RUL: Direct hit on the port nacelle.
BASHIR: How did they see through the cloaking device?
T'RUL: They might have analysed the sensor information from the anti-proton scan and found a way to penetrate the cloak.
SISKO: We'll have to save the speculation for later. Disengage the cloak, raise the shields, and fire on my command.
http://www.chakoteya.net/DS9/447.htm
The Dominion version of the anti proton beam seems to have no trouble penetrating a Romulan cloak (generally acknowledged as being the best of the cloaks). While it may be argued that the version in the Defiant is not a top of the line Romulan model (who gives their best equipment to a potential enemy?), the beams effectiveness still seems to be very high.
But this is not the only Dominion cloak counter.
Once More Unto The Breach
Stardate: Unknown
MARTOK: Where are they?
KOLANA: Their warp signatures are bearing directly astern. They're Jem'Hadar fighters and they appear to be pursuing us.
MARTOK: How can that be?
WORF: The lead ship is using some kind of long range tachyon scanner to penetrate our cloaks.
SYNON: Does the Dominion possess such a device?
MARTOK: They do now.
WORF: How many ships?
KOLANA: I've identified ten vessels so far, and they're gaining on us.
WORF: How long before we are within their weapons range?
KOLANA: Two hours, twelve minutes.
http://www.chakoteya.net/DS9/557.htm
The long range tachyon scanner has no trouble following Klingon cloaks at great ranges. And both the anti proton beam and tachyon scanner can be fitted to individual ships. They in fact seem to compliment each other - the anti proton beam handles short range encounters while the tachyon scanner detects cloaks at distance. Since we only see them depicted on Dominion fighters and attack ships, we cannot say for certain whether any other Dominion ship class also has them. It is also unknown whether Dominion outposts and Starbases are also similarly equipped. That will be up to the mod developer.
Perhaps in the interests of game balance, these should be limited to just fighters and attack ships.
The following could be adopted;
Early Dominion Fighter - Anti Proton beam, short range (tactical) cloak detection
Later Dominion Attack ship - Tachyon Beam Scanner, longer detection range, maybe sector wide?
This also provides an incentive to keep building these small ships in the later game.
These are just a few suggestions for balancing cloaking effectiveness in the game. As to how all this could be implemented in the current game version, I'll let the experts work out. Perhaps it could be something like an arms race between scanner values and cloak values.
A final word for those dedicated cloak users. All is not lost. The final development of the cloaking system, the phase cloak, appears to be unaffected by all these counters. So this is a strong argument for leaving the Galaxy X for the Federation (but perhaps making it hideously expensive to limit the numbers).
And of course, the latest Romulan vessels would also have the phase cloak.
During TNG ‘The Next Phase' Stardate: 45092.4, the Romulans were experimenting with their own version of the phase cloak. By ST ‘Nemesis' Stardate: 56844.9, Romulan Valdores are undetectable by the Scimitar. Could this indicate mature Phase Cloaks on these ships? And if not the Valdores, perhaps its successor, whatever that will be.
This would produce the interesting game effect of non cloak players using anti cloak game play and tactics for the earlier game periods, then utilising the anti cloak technologies, for those races who have them, forcing the cloaking players to develop new tactics and game play of their own to counter these, while coming full circle with the anti cloak game plays when the phase cloaks appear.
Again, I don't know how the current game engine would be able to simulate all this. One day, perhaps it will all be possible. The bottom line to all this is that if you feel one side has an unfair and destabilising advantage, you can institute changes via the editor that you feel even out the odds. Before crying foul at the thought of all Klingon ships cloaking make them invincible, play the mod and see if that is indeed the case, or if good tactics provide the balance you thought wasn't there.
If the mod developer bases his or her mod on the onscreen depictions of the ship and race, then accept this and enjoy their efforts or develop your own mod based on your ideas, and let the community enjoy that as well.
Regards
Geon
Cloaks & Play Balance
Moderator: thunderchero
