Starstations are still sitting ducks for cloak raids.

[PegasusJF]

Hello, it's been awhile.

When I played BCM before, I noticed what was in my eyes a critical flaw in the gameplay of BCM. The "Cloak raid" ie. Cloaking you ship before you jump in to attack a starstation (in my tests, Tulon) and firing away without fear of retaliation. Having seen responses in earlier posts that showed that the problem was noted. I put BCM aside and kept an eye on the VCF for fixes that addressed this problem and waited for the full release of 1.08.

Now it seems that 1.08 RC38 is that release (no further issues to be looked at in the VCF), and steps have been taken for this problem in 1.06 (stronger shields/armor), and 1.08 RC5 (ships decloak briefly when firing).

However, when I installed 1.08 RC36 and conducted tests, the results were discouraging)

I took a BC MKIII to Arima, waited until I had full engine power, cloaked and went to the Tulon Base. I did note that when I fired as cloacked there was a visual effect (neat looking!) around my ship. Unfortunately when I approached within PTA range of Tulon and the PTAs fired, no reaction from Tulon (and no graphic effect in the external view), when I approached within 2km from Tulon and opened up with my main guns. I got no reaction from Tulon and fired until Tulon was destroyed. I do note however that when I uncloaked during the first test I was plastered.

This is a critical flaw to me. I suppose I should just ignore the fact that I can cloak if I wish to balance the game. But I think that this ship system shouldn't be the end-all/surefire-kill tactic that always works.

Perhaps the station (or any other enemy warship/fighter/marine) should have a percentage chance to see the visual distortion of a firing cloaked ship, target that distortion and fire until it obvious that the attacker is no longer there and search for further attacks or the regular distortions when cloaking, repeating attacks as necessary (a cat a mouse game)

I ask that this be remedied at the nearest convience.

Thank you.

PegasusJF

ps...I searched BCM General Discussion, tips and tricks, and the newbie forum under "cloak" to see if this has been brought up since the two previous patches that I noted. None were found since 1.08 RC5. I do apologize if this is a repeat

[Supreme Cmdr]

quote:

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Originally posted by PegasusJF:

Having seen responses in earlier posts that showed that the problem was noted. I put BCM aside and kept an eye on the VCF for fixes that addressed this problem and waited for the full release of 1.08.

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1. It was never a problem
   
2. It was never reported nor acknowledged as such
   
3. There is nothing wrong with it. Hence nothing to fix.
   
4. It works as designed and is not subject to revision - at least not in BCM or BCMG.
   
5. If you feel you so bad about it, don't cloak. Make your own difficulty level. Easy enough I think. No?
   

[Tyrn]

quote:

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Originally posted by PegasusJF:

Hello, it's been awhile.

When I played BCM before, I noticed what was in my eyes a critical flaw in the gameplay of BCM. The "Cloak raid" ie.

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I don't see this as a flaw. Cloaked ships are the "ultimate weapon" but they are still vulnerable. This will be more evident during MP. If you think that taking out a station with a cloaked ship is too easy, try it with something other than a carrier class ship. (Nothing is impossible).

[PegasusJF]

Thank you for the prompt reply Mr. Smart. I'm saddened to hear this won't be adjusted, but that's your call.

I'll just try to ignore that I have a cloaking device when I attack bases.

Thanks

PegasusJF

[Kalshion]

PegasusJF

There is nothing wrong with the stations, they work as designed.. personaly I don't see WHY you have a problem, I like how its set up, however I've foudn if you fire a missle the stations WILL lock on to you and fire.. cause I remember when I fired one my ship DECLOAKED and then RECLOAKED giving the station time to lock on to me and.... well.. lets just say my poor Astrom was left with very little room to work. Poor thing took me awhile to repair her to *Thank god I had over 90+ Million Credits*

However this will change in MP, Cause for starters your not going up against the AI most of the time, you'll be up against Experinced players who know how to reconize a cloaking sig.

[PegasusJF]

In the situation I presented, I only attacked with the main beam weapons, and there was no response from Tulon.

I admit its a fairly minor point in SP and a non-issue in MP (I don't MP much though), and doesn't destroy the many other aspects of playability of a fine game. IMO, there should not be any easy/no-fail means to accomplish any task in a game.

My 2 cents.

PegasusJF

[OvermindDL1]

Out of curiosity, how could you "not multiplayer much" or even at all since multiplayer has not been made for any of the released BC games?

Just a quick question, not insinuating anything, I just want to know whether it was worded incorrectly or if you do not actually play this game very much.

EDIT: I am sorry if I sounded in any way mean, no disrespect intended, I am just a little... off today, go read what happened if you want.

[ 03-24-2003, 09:45 PM: Message edited by: Overmind ]

[PegasusJF]

I was referring that I don't really use the MP aspect of any game I own because I have a slow modem.

I don't pretend to have played this game in any great amount recently (I've been waiting for the final patch). I've only commented on a specific set of occurances of the game which I saw in the demo and earlier versions of BCM and tested if there was any changes with the most recent patch.

I do plan to start playing since there aren't any known bugs left and I think I'll enjoy this game greatly despite my disagreement over the power of cloaking.

PegasusJF

[OvermindDL1]

I agree with you about modems, I hardly play any multi unless it is at a lan party because, as stated in an earlier post, my inet is 24.4 out here, quite annoying. I have about 4 or so friends that I play over a network quite often, we attempt it at least once a week, one of there computers though is not fast(200mhz), it can barely push along starcraft and quake 2 so that excludes anything new, he keeps saying he is going to get a new one, he has the money, he is just never thinking about it unless he is at one of our houses for networking, he's the one that hasn't ordered BCMG from somewhere yet for... obvious reasons. I think he is just a bit lazy in my opinion but he is fun to play with, gets a little bit tempermental at times, but eh...

I can never seem to do a really short post unless I am in a hurry, can I...

P.S. My I-net provider has been saying for the past year and a half that we will get Wireless out here in about a month or two, so when they finally do get it setup (not there fault they are slow, trouble is getting land to put it on, deals keep falling through... mabye I should offer my land, 30 acres should be enough) I will have 512K upload AND download, can't wait for it but am not expecting it. When it finally does arrive, then one of you fleets better be expecting someone new if I am not with one by that time.

[PegasusJF]

I have a 56k, but after you've had a T1 (when I was at college), you're spoiled!

PegasusJF

[OvermindDL1]

I travel 28 miles everyday to my work and there is a Fiber Connection, I love it, on a good server I can easily get over a megabyte (yes ...BYTE) a sec. I love it, but alas the network is controlled by a rather strict domain level network that I "could" bypass easily enough but I wont risk it, not even though the comps there are Dell's 2.6 ghz, 120 gigs hd, 1 gig ram, geforce 4, which if you look at my computer down in my sig, is far outdone, sooo sooo tempting...

[Tyrn]

quote:

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Originally posted by Overmind:

I travel 28 miles everyday to my work and there is a Fiber Connection, I love it, on a good server I can easily get over a megabyte (yes ...BYTE) a sec. I love it, but alas the network is controlled by a rather strict domain level network that I "could" bypass easily enough but I wont risk it, not even though the comps there are Dell's 2.6 ghz, 120 gigs hd, 1 gig ram, geforce 4, which if you look at my computer down in my sig, is far outdone, sooo sooo tempting...

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I hear you: T-1, hand selected components (1GB RAM jsut for starters) .... a gamer's greatest desire sits before me and while I'm sure a few LAN sessions will happen here, that's as far as it will go from this location. It's just not worth the risk to my job/reputation here.

[Fernando Luis Garcia]

quote:

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Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr:

quote:

---

Originally posted by PegasusJF:

Having seen responses in earlier posts that showed that the problem was noted. I put BCM aside and kept an eye on the VCF for fixes that addressed this problem and waited for the full release of 1.08.

---

1. It was never a problem
   
2. It was never reported nor acknowledged as such
   
3. There is nothing wrong with it. Hence nothing to fix.
   
4. It works as designed and is not subject to revision - at least not in BCM or BCMG.
   
5. If you feel you so bad about it, don't cloak. Make your own difficulty level. Easy enough I think. No?
   

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I agree, I like that system to take out starstations. Also, the menace of irradiation from the cloak makes the attack interesting enough, don't change it!

[SmellyTerror]

I actually agree with the original sentiment regarding cloaking with stations - that which should be a monumental task is rendered trivial by cloaking and leaning on the fire-button for a while.

As suggested by The SC, I simply impose my own handicap by never, 100% never, using my cloak. Hey, that Irridium gives a nice cash boost at the start.

On the other hand I *love* cloaking enemies - scares nine colours of pooh out of me, 'cause I know they'll be high AI once I hear "Something's out there..."

I think it will be a real problem once (drool drool DROOL) a persistant universe comes about, MMOG style. How much will players like the fact that, while they were asleep, every single station on the map was destroyed? 'Cause it could very easily be done, and keep in mind that a depressing proportion of the 'net population are jerks.

Stations should (pfff! "Should"??? What is "should" when the universe is whatever you want? Read it as a kind of "I think it'd be best", for what that's worth...) only be overcome by a strong fleet, or by siege. These options never become an issue - leaving whole lovely funky gameplay elements out in the cold - because cloak kills are so much easier. Once again, I'll tag an "IMO" - I'm not a terribly experienced player - but as a new player it is the most glaring inconsistancy in the gameworld. Why are the borders (in the map and as suggested in the backstory) in any way fixed, and why do stations keep rebuilding when they are so easily destroyed?

Summary - not an issue in SP, but a big issue for a forthcoming persistant universe.