Difference between revisions of "Cloaking"

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'''Cloaking''' allows a ship to become completely invisible to almost all forms of detection. The ability to disappear from view offers many obvious tactical advantages allowing you to observe whithout being seen, launch suprise attacks or to slip away from dangers.
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'''Cloaking''' allows a ship to become completely invisible to almost all forms of detection. The ability to disappear from view offers many obvious tactical advantages allowing you to observe without being seen, launch surprise attacks or to slip away from dangers.
  
 
== Cloaking devices ==
 
== Cloaking devices ==
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* While the cloak is active the ship is unable to warp.
 
* While the cloak is active the ship is unable to warp.
 
* While the cloak is active the ship cannot target anything.
 
* While the cloak is active the ship cannot target anything.
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* After a ship uncloaks it is unable to target anything while the sensors are calibrated (up to 27 seconds on most basic cloak).
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* After a ship uncloaks it is unable to target anything while the sensors are being calibrated (up to 27 seconds on most basic cloak and skill).
  
 
|-
 
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|{{Template:TechCornerSmall|2}}[[File:Cloak.png|link=|]]
 
|{{Template:TechCornerSmall|2}}[[File:Cloak.png|link=|]]
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|'''{{co|wheat|Covert ops cloaking device}}''' can only be used by certain T2 and faction ships. Most notable covert ops capable ships are covert-ops frigates, stealth bombers, force recon ships, blockade runners and T3 cruisers with covert ops configuration though a number of faction and limited edition ships can use covert ops cloaks too.
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|'''{{co|wheat|Covert ops cloaking device}}''' can only be used by certain T2 ships, faction ships and T3 cruisers with a specific subsystem.  
  
 
The covert ops cloaking device has drastically less severe penalties compared  to the normal cloak:
 
The covert ops cloaking device has drastically less severe penalties compared  to the normal cloak:
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* Ship is able to warp while cloaked.
 
* Ship is able to warp while cloaked.
 
* While the cloak is active the ship cannot target anything.
 
* While the cloak is active the ship cannot target anything.
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* After a ship uncloaks it is unable to target anything while the sensors are calibrated (up to 9 seconds).
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* After a ship uncloaks it is unable to target anything while the sensors are being calibrated (up to 6 seconds).
 
|}
 
|}
  
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Cloaking is a nuanced mechanic and knowing the exact way it interacts with other aspects of the game is important.
 
Cloaking is a nuanced mechanic and knowing the exact way it interacts with other aspects of the game is important.
  
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Once the cloaking module is activated the ship will turn invisible immediately. You will see the cloaking animation on your own ship but other players will just see your ship disappear. Equally when you uncloak your ship becomes visible instantly when the cloaking module is deactivated.
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Once the cloaking module is activated the ship is immediately considered to be cloaked. The cloaking animation itself will take a few seconds to play, during which time the cloaking ship is visible in space and on the overview, and can be selected, but cannot be targeted. Once the cloaking module is deactivated, the ship will immediately appear on the overview and be targetable, even though the decloaking animation also takes a few seconds to play.
  
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While active the cloak will prevent activation of all modules. However you can activate non-offensive modules during the first 5 seconds of being cloaked. Modules that are active before cloaking will also finish their cycles normally. But some modules, such as MJD, will decloak the ship if they cycle while the ship is cloaked. You are also unable to set modules to overheated state while you are cloaked.
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While active the cloak will prevent activation of all modules, including reloading them or moving items between containers in inventory. However, non-offensive modules can still be activated during the first 5 seconds of being cloaked. Modules that are active before cloaking will also finish their cycles normally, however some modules such as the [[Propulsion equipment#Micro Jump Drives|micro jump drive]] will decloak the ship if their cycle completes while the ship is cloaked. While cloaked, modules also cannot be set to Overheat.
  
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There are multiple factors that prevent ships from cloaking, cause a cloaked ship to decloak or apply to cloaked ships.
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There are multiple factors which can prevent ships from cloaking or forcibly cause a cloaked ship to decloak.
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* Being within 2000 m from any object will cause cloaked ships to decloak and prevents cloaking. This includes often ignored objects such as jettisoned cans, corpses, drones, and gas clouds.
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* Being within 2000 m from any object will prevent ships from cloaking and cause cloaked ships to decloak. This includes often ignored objects such as jettisoned cans, corpses, collidable structures, drones, and gas clouds.
 
** Missiles '''will decloak''' cloaked ships.
 
** Missiles '''will decloak''' cloaked ships.
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** Exceptions: Cloaked ships and scanner probes do not decloak cloaked ships.
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** Exceptions: Cloaked ships and scanner probes do not decloak cloaked ships. As a side-effect of this, multiple cloaked ships in the same spot will not collide with one another, however if one of them decloaks they will all forcibly decloak and potentially be sent bouncing away from each other. Also, snowballs and fireworks will not decloak.
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* Being targeted will prevent ship from cloaking. This includes being targeted by an NPC or a passive targeting module which does not show as yellow box.
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* Being targeted will prevent a ship from cloaking. This includes being targeted by an NPC or a passive targeting module which does not show as yellow box.
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** Someone trying to target you will not prevent cloaking. The targeting attempt will fail.
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** However, only completed target locks will prevent cloaking. If the cloaking device activates before a target lock is established, the targeting attempt will fail.
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* If you are already cloaked you cannot cloak. This may seem like a non problem but this will force you to break the gate cloak before you can activate your cloaking module and in the process reveal yourself.
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* If you are already cloaked you cannot cloak. This may seem like a non-problem but this will force you to break the gate cloak (see below) before you can activate your cloaking module, and in the process briefly reveal yourself.
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* Faction police and CONCORD ships are able to locate cloaked ships. If you are being chased by either of them due to low standing or criminal action they will warp to you even if you are cloaked.
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* Faction police and CONCORD ships can locate cloaked ships. If you are being chased by either of them due to low standing or criminal action they will warp to you even if you are cloaked.
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* Offensive area of effect modules such as bombs and smartbombs will damage cloaked ships but will not decloak them.
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* Offensive area-of-effect modules such as [[Bombs]] and [[Smartbombs]] will ''damage'' cloaked ships but will ''not'' decloak them.
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* Command bursts do not apply to cloaked ships.
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* [[Command Bursts]] do not apply to cloaked ships.
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* In lowsec and nullsec (but not highsec, wormhole space, Pochven, or deadspace including Abyssal deadspace) it is possible to deploy a [[Mobile_structures#Mobile_Observatory|Mobile Observatory]], which has a 40% chance to decloak a cloaked ship in its system every 10 minutes.
 +
** Cloaked ships are immune to Mobile Observatories for the first 15 minutes that they are cloaked: this time is represented by the "cloak stabilization" timer visible above the circular capacitor / hit points / heat indicator in the bottom-centre of your screen. Stabilized cloak duration can be increased by up to three times by the use of the [[Medical_boosters#Other_boosters|Strong Veilguard Booster]].
 +
** Observatories were added to the game to discourage players from leaving their characters cloaked up in a system for hours without even being present at their computers.
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* It is impossible to cloak in all systems affected by an [[Metaliminal_Storms#Electric|Electric metaliminal storm]].
  
 
=== Skills ===
 
=== Skills ===
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{{sk|Cloaking}} is the only cloaking related skill. This skill allows you to use cloaking devices and also reduces the duration of recalibration delay that comes after decloaking by 10% per level.
 
{{sk|Cloaking}} is the only cloaking related skill. This skill allows you to use cloaking devices and also reduces the duration of recalibration delay that comes after decloaking by 10% per level.
  
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=== MWD cloak trick ===
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=== Covert Ops Ships ===
  
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This is a technique that enables pilots to be cloaked while aligning after jumping through a gate. When done properly, this allows the pilot to almost instantly warp the second they decloak.
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There is a limited set of ships allowed to fit and use the Covert Ops Cloaking Device, all of them either Frigate or Cruiser sized (except the [[Tholos]] & the [[Cenotaph]]). As noted on the page on [[Jump drives#Covert Cynosural Fields|Jump Drives]], this is also the set of ships allowed to use Covert Jump Bridges, and (except for the [[Astero]], [[Stratios]], [[Tholos]] and [[Cenotaph]]) fit Covert Cynosural Field Generators.
  
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You will need:
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* [[Covert Ops]] Frigates
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* Improved Cloaking Device II. Prototype cloaking device has too big speed penalty preventing you from reaching the required velocity.
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* [[Stealth Bombers]]
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* [[Microwarpdrive]] of the correct size for your ship. That is: 5MN for frigates and destroyers, 50MN for cruisers, battlecruisers and industrials, and 500MN for battleships.
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* [[Recon Ships|Force Recon Ships]] (but not Combat Recon Ships)
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* If the ship is slow to align it may need inertia reducing modules such as nanofiber internal structures or inertia stabilizers.
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* [[Blockade Runners]]
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* [[Strategic Cruisers]] fitted with the Covert Reconfiguration subsystem
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Do these things in this order while you are under the effects of gate cloak after jumping through a stargate or wormhole.
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** Strategic Cruisers not fitted with Covert Reconfiguration can fit the Covert Ops Cloaking Device, but cannot activate it. (The module will be set to consume 10,100 CPU and is forced offline.)
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# Hit align to the object you want to warp to.
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* The [[Sisters of EVE|SoE]] [[Astero]] and [[Stratios]]
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# Immediately hit the cloak.
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* The [[Deathless Circle]] [[Tholos]] and [[Cenotaph]]
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# Immediately after you hit cloak hit your MWD ''(this '''does''' work, you can activate non-offensive modules for 5 seconds after you activate a cloaking device).''
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* The [[Outer Ring Excavations|ORE]] [[Prospect]]
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# When your MWD cycle is about 90-95% complete, deactivate your cloak and spam warp to your point of interest.
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* The Special-Edition Covert Ops, Logistics, and Recon ships
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# The MWD will deactivate automatically, and when it does you will instantly enter warp.
 
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Although you can do MWD then cloak (or do both at once), it is not recommended as having your MWD active before your cloak is a bad idea due to the signature radius bloom and the likelihood of spending more time uncloaked.
 
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While you are cloaked the cloak will apply 75% speed penalty but at the same time the MWD boosts your speed by 500%. As a result your ship is able to reach at minimum 75% of its unmodified top speed in the ten seconds of single MWD cycle while cloaked. And since you hit align before the cloak you will be aligned and at warp speed when the cloak drops. So when you deactivate the cloak (right before the MWD cycle is complete) the ship is able to enter warp immediately. This equals near insta-warp. With practice, you can be uncloaked for literally less than a second total on a gate. Practice in high-sec and you will find this is actually pretty easy and effective.
 
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Part of the requirement to make the the microwarpdrive + cloak trick work is to have a size-appropriate microwwarpdrive, 5MN for a frigate, 50MN for a cruiser, 500MN for a battleship etc. Ships like the {{sh|Orca}} or the {{sh|Bowhead}} are technically capital-class sized but can only fit 500MN microwarpdrives due to fitting restraints. As such {{co|crimson|they can not use the microwarpdrive + cloak trick}}.
 
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For normal capital ships (carriers, dreadnoughts, force auxiliaries, supercarriers, titans and the {{sh|Rorqual}}) there are capital sized 50,000MN microwarpdrives, that can allow them to do the same microwarpdrive + cloak trick, although they have a cycle-time of 20 seconds (instead of the usual 10 seconds) and might require additional agility modules to ensure they get the speed up in time.
 
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Video demonstrations:
 
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*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uBcK_c8Gy4 MWD Cloak Video 1, Basic Instruction] (5:44)
 
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*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrlUMiRL1jU MWD Cloak Video 2, Detailed Instruction] (15:52)
 
  
 
== Jump cloak ==
 
== Jump cloak ==
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[[File:Jump cloak timer.png|thumb|301px|The jup cloak timer]]
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[[File:Jump cloak timer.png|thumb|301px|The jump cloak timer indicator]]
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Jump cloak, also known as gate cloak, is effect every ship gets when they jump thrpugh a stargate or a wormhole. Every time you jump your ship will be cloaked when it lands on the other side.  
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To prevent situations where a ship is vulnerable to instant death before its client finishes loading into a new system, Jump Cloak (or Gate Cloak) is an effect automatically applied to every ship that jumps through a stargate or wormhole. Jump Cloak renders the ship invisible, and invulnerable, until it expires. A ship protected by Jump Cloak cannot be decloaked, damaged, or displaced by any outside means. Jump Cloak lasts for 60 seconds, starting when the server registers the jump completing, or until the cloaked ship attempts to move or enter warp. The time remaining is visible via a blue icon in the top left, as shown in the image.
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The jump cloak beahavior is different from cloaking modules. The jump cloak, unlike cloak from modules, is completely immune to everything and can not be broken by outside effects. While under the effects of jump cloak your ship is completely immune to every single possible offensive effect including area of effect. You can not be uncloaked, hit by area of effect weapons such as smarbombs or be bumped by ships. Effectively your ship does not exist while under effects of jump cloak.
 
  
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The jump cloak will last for 60 seconds or until you move (including warping and fleet warping) with your ship. As soon as the jump cloak is broken by the timer running out or by ship actions the ship will immediately become visible. The 60 second jump cloak timer is visible on the upper left corner.
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It is often a good idea to take full advantage of the 60 seconds of protection to look at the other ships on grid, player names in Local chat, or objects visible on [[Directional scan]], and assess the best course of action. Be advised however, that while a ship protected by jump cloak is invisible and invulnerable, its pilot's name ''will'' still appear in Local chat, potentially alerting enemies to its arrival.
  
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It is often best to take full advantage of the 60 second jump cloak and assess the situation you jumped in very carefully. Look at the ships on grid, player names in local, objects in directional scan and decide what actions you will take before you break the jump cloak.
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==See also==
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*[[Cloak trick]]
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*[[Exploration]]
  
 
[[Category:Fitting]]
 
[[Category:Fitting]]

Latest revision as of 14:20, 19 November 2024

Cloaking allows a ship to become completely invisible to almost all forms of detection. The ability to disappear from view offers many obvious tactical advantages allowing you to observe without being seen, launch surprise attacks or to slip away from dangers.

Cloaking devices

A cloaked ship as seen by its pilot. Other players can not see the ship at all.

Cloaking devices are high slot modules that allow ships to turn invisible.

Cloak.png Cloaking device works on any ship and allows them to cloak up. The prototype cloaking device, improved cloaking device and almost all of the faction/storyline/officer cloaking devices count as standard cloaking devices.

This type of cloaking device comes with severe penalties:

  • Installed cloaking device will apply scan resolution penalties at all times even if the cloak is offline.
  • While the cloak is active the ship suffers massive speed penalty. -90% on prototype cloak and -75% on improved cloak.
  • While the cloak is active the ship is unable to warp.
  • While the cloak is active the ship cannot target anything.
  • After a ship uncloaks it is unable to target anything while the sensors are being calibrated (up to 27 seconds on most basic cloak and skill).
CornerT2s.png
Cloak.png 		Covert ops cloaking device can only be used by certain T2 ships, faction ships and T3 cruisers with a specific subsystem.

The covert ops cloaking device has drastically less severe penalties compared to the normal cloak:

  • No scan resolution penalty.
  • No speed penalty while active.
  • Ship is able to warp while cloaked.
  • While the cloak is active the ship cannot target anything.
  • After a ship uncloaks it is unable to target anything while the sensors are being calibrated (up to 6 seconds).

Cloaking mechanics

Cloaking is a nuanced mechanic and knowing the exact way it interacts with other aspects of the game is important.

Once the cloaking module is activated the ship is immediately considered to be cloaked. The cloaking animation itself will take a few seconds to play, during which time the cloaking ship is visible in space and on the overview, and can be selected, but cannot be targeted. Once the cloaking module is deactivated, the ship will immediately appear on the overview and be targetable, even though the decloaking animation also takes a few seconds to play.

While active the cloak will prevent activation of all modules, including reloading them or moving items between containers in inventory. However, non-offensive modules can still be activated during the first 5 seconds of being cloaked. Modules that are active before cloaking will also finish their cycles normally, however some modules such as the micro jump drive will decloak the ship if their cycle completes while the ship is cloaked. While cloaked, modules also cannot be set to Overheat.

There are multiple factors which can prevent ships from cloaking or forcibly cause a cloaked ship to decloak.

  • Being within 2000 m from any object will prevent ships from cloaking and cause cloaked ships to decloak. This includes often ignored objects such as jettisoned cans, corpses, collidable structures, drones, and gas clouds.
    • Missiles will decloak cloaked ships.
    • Exceptions: Cloaked ships and scanner probes do not decloak cloaked ships. As a side-effect of this, multiple cloaked ships in the same spot will not collide with one another, however if one of them decloaks they will all forcibly decloak and potentially be sent bouncing away from each other. Also, snowballs and fireworks will not decloak.
  • Being targeted will prevent a ship from cloaking. This includes being targeted by an NPC or a passive targeting module which does not show as yellow box.
    • However, only completed target locks will prevent cloaking. If the cloaking device activates before a target lock is established, the targeting attempt will fail.
  • If you are already cloaked you cannot cloak. This may seem like a non-problem but this will force you to break the gate cloak (see below) before you can activate your cloaking module, and in the process briefly reveal yourself.
  • Faction police and CONCORD ships can locate cloaked ships. If you are being chased by either of them due to low standing or criminal action they will warp to you even if you are cloaked.
  • Offensive area-of-effect modules such as Bombs and Smartbombs will damage cloaked ships but will not decloak them.
  • Command Bursts do not apply to cloaked ships.
  • In lowsec and nullsec (but not highsec, wormhole space, Pochven, or deadspace including Abyssal deadspace) it is possible to deploy a Mobile Observatory, which has a 40% chance to decloak a cloaked ship in its system every 10 minutes.
    • Cloaked ships are immune to Mobile Observatories for the first 15 minutes that they are cloaked: this time is represented by the "cloak stabilization" timer visible above the circular capacitor / hit points / heat indicator in the bottom-centre of your screen. Stabilized cloak duration can be increased by up to three times by the use of the Strong Veilguard Booster.
    • Observatories were added to the game to discourage players from leaving their characters cloaked up in a system for hours without even being present at their computers.
  • It is impossible to cloak in all systems affected by an Electric metaliminal storm.

Skills

Cloaking is the only cloaking related skill. This skill allows you to use cloaking devices and also reduces the duration of recalibration delay that comes after decloaking by 10% per level.

Covert Ops Ships

There is a limited set of ships allowed to fit and use the Covert Ops Cloaking Device, all of them either Frigate or Cruiser sized (except the Tholos & the Cenotaph). As noted on the page on Jump Drives, this is also the set of ships allowed to use Covert Jump Bridges, and (except for the Astero, Stratios, Tholos and Cenotaph) fit Covert Cynosural Field Generators.

Jump cloak

The jump cloak timer indicator

To prevent situations where a ship is vulnerable to instant death before its client finishes loading into a new system, Jump Cloak (or Gate Cloak) is an effect automatically applied to every ship that jumps through a stargate or wormhole. Jump Cloak renders the ship invisible, and invulnerable, until it expires. A ship protected by Jump Cloak cannot be decloaked, damaged, or displaced by any outside means. Jump Cloak lasts for 60 seconds, starting when the server registers the jump completing, or until the cloaked ship attempts to move or enter warp. The time remaining is visible via a blue icon in the top left, as shown in the image.

It is often a good idea to take full advantage of the 60 seconds of protection to look at the other ships on grid, player names in Local chat, or objects visible on Directional scan, and assess the best course of action. Be advised however, that while a ship protected by jump cloak is invisible and invulnerable, its pilot's name will still appear in Local chat, potentially alerting enemies to its arrival.

See also

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