Federation Commander

Did some cloak playtesting this weekend. Noticed the following...

1) Drones: If the Romulan is paying attention, knocks the drones down fairly good. If not, the Romulan has to slow WAY down before cloaking or take the hit. If the Romulan stops or slows down, it let my Kzinti close the range and overload disruptors. Once I got on his tail, he really couldn't shake me. Even if the Romulan knocks down the drones doing Spd 16, the Kzinti can still close, it just takes a little longer and the Romulan can avoid it. Overall, I think this is a good balance. I usually don't face cloaks because of the drones causing a lot of damage under current rules. With this change, the Romulan actually has a reason to cloak against a Kzinit, and it brings back the "lost lock" that SFB cloaks caused.

2) Voided Cloak: Didn't get a chance to void the cloak, but the playtest rules seem more balanced.

Where can I find these playtest rules ? Are they in CL49 ?

They are in Communique 104
http://www.starfleetgames.com/federatio ... e-C104.pdf

Garrett

They are in CL49 and Comm 104 and here:


special playtest section
(5P) CLOAKING DEVICES
Players of Federation Commander are asked to test the cloaking device rules with these proposed changes and report the results to us. These changes are not official at this time.

(5P3c) Seeking Weapons: At the instant that the ship becomes fully cloaked, seeking weapons may lose tracking. If the cloaked ship is Stopped or Speed Zero, all weapons more than one hex from the ship are removed. If the cloaked ship is moving at Speed 8, all seeking weapons more than four hexes from the ship are removed. If the ship is moving at Speed 16, all weapons more than eight hexes from the ship are removed.

(5P3d) Voided Cloaks: Two key changes are under review here:
1. The cloak is voided for two impulses, not four, assuming that the cloak remains active that long. In cases where the cloak is continually re-voided (e.g., the ship is held in a tractor beam) the cloak is, indeed, continually re-voided.
2. While the ship with a voided cloak loses most of the benefits of being cloaked, damage from seeking and direct-fire weapons is still reduced by 50%.

May I ask why Fed Commander is considering these Cloak Rule changes? The two impulse delay seems to favor the Cloakers, is there a reason for this?

Because 4 impulses is a death sentence for a void. (Or forces the ship out of cloak.) At only two impulses, a voiding is more survivable. Considering that, in the source material (SFB) an attacker typically gets ZERO firing opportunities, two guaranteed opportunities is pretty good. Four is just hard to survive.

The big reason for the proposal is that Romulans are forced to pay 15% of their Point Value for a system that is marginally useful at best, and potentially suicidal at worst.

EDIT: Note that all of these proposed changes strengthen cloak. Most people that I have seen comment (and I am one of them) say that cloak in its current condition just doesn't work right.

Was it the cloak or the plasma torpedo that caused the evasive maneuver sequence to be changed? I forget now.

As one who had been quite vocal about cloaking and plasma in the past I was completely stoked to see these proposed changes. Very moderate changes, but seem to add a degree of usefulness to the cloak that just wasn't there before.

I see. Good to know, might test it out myself some time. Thanks for the input.

I don't need to know you're stoked it was proposed.

I need to know what happened in combat.

Well Steve, I didn't know you were so interested in my personal opinion, but I will get a play report over post haste.

I never EVERYBODY'S personal play report !

Steve Cole wrote:I never EVERYBODY'S personal play report !

<hic....>

Bartender, I'll have what he's having