NightRychune wrote:QUOTE (NightRychune @ Aug 22 2011, 11:51 AM) there's also kind of a fundamental problem with this particular design of rix SR scouts because of the way cloaks work in allegiance (which is why I threw it out as a possibility fairly quickly)
as cloaks continue to "consume" energy after they are disabled until they are fully off and the ship is returned to its base signature, you can just constantly toggle it on/off and permanently keep your sig between 5-15% of the base value while receiving the full energy regen benefit, which completely defeats the purpose
Bunnywabbit wrote:QUOTE (Bunnywabbit @ Aug 22 2011, 01:01 PM) So the cloak still works while it shuts down, but costs no energy?
Isn't that a game bug that needs to be fixed, rather than a problem with the core?
I'm pretty sure the problem only applies to reverse cloaks (e.g. GT Solar Inverter, and I presume whatever's being added right now). Basically when you cloak with a normal cloak it immediately starts consuming energy while the signature reduction % increases to its maximum value over a period of time (if you run out of energy, cloak % decreases to a value based on energy regen:consumption ratio). When you uncloak, signature reduction % decreases over time to 0 while energy is still consumed at the full rate as if cloaked until the cloak is fully disengaged (signature reduction % reaches 0).
The system works the same with reverse cloaks, only the signature reduction % and energy consumption when cloaked are both
negative. Basically, when you cloak, your energy starts regenerating as your signature increases over several seconds to the maximum. When you uncloak, your signature starts decreasing again but your energy continues to regenerate at the full rate until your signature is back at base sig. So as explained by others, as long as you keep sig even slightly above the base (by toggling cloak on and off), you get full energy bonus with only minimal sig increase.
A simple change that would not require a code change is to reverse the function of the new generator, such that when uncloaked you get normal energy regen with increased sig, and when cloaked you get the reduced regen with reduced sig.
EDIT: Or just change activation/release durations, if those are functional. Not sure if they are actually durations or "rates" though (cc currently has all cloaks with these values set to 0.25)
