This isn't the full faction of TEC not to mention the other 2 faction that isn't in the beta yet. They may already have cloak for all we know. As for hiding in same gravity well I think there may be no cloak. But for jumping to other gravity well you MAY maybe hide your fleet to make a surprise attack. Plus you can't see other ship jumping from other galaxy just by being around the sun at the moment until they come very close.

Just found out from gamespot interview:In particular, the Vasari's advanced manipulation of "phase space" and gravity is put to great use for stealth, misinformation, hit-and-run tactics, and all-out engagements.

If one looks at the buffs there are some interesting names that are stealth related.

Things like: far sight, illusion, spying attack, blink and others....

One thing that I think would be cool would be to actually have to use patrols inside a gravity well to ensure your kept up to date on enemies within that gravity well.

I don't want just a cloaking device available on ships. The point of my post was about having a whole "stealth" mechanic in the game, in which "cloaking devices" would simply sky-rocket the stealth value of a said-ship.

But having a stealth mechanic would ask for highly-developped sensor-ships to prevent any sneak attack. It would allow small hit-and-run strike forces moving around the ennemy territory. It would give a purpose to have patrols (since range is a big factor, if you disperce the sensor efficiency with a proportion of the increase of the sphere surface made by your range).

I guess "detection" would have a continuous death rate probability function (Actuaries and mathematicians, hear this). (Meaning the probability of being discovered in every nano-second being u). The probability of being discovered between time 0 and T would be equal to F(T) = 1 - e^-(T*u), and the average discovered time being 1/u

Off course, u would depend on a lot of factor: I was thinking on the proportion of the sensor power / stealth value of a ship.

Stealth value of a ship (SVS) = Basic Stealth Value (BSV) * (1+Temporary Bonuses(%))

BSV : I guess it is based on ship design. Where a super capital ship have a BSV of about 3, a primitive fighter have something along 100, and a highly-advanced stealth scout have 5000

Temporary Bonuses: Cloaking device actived (400%), asteroid field cover (25%), Nebulae(50%), moving at speed (-X) (X being the % of maximum speed your ship uses)

I still wonder if the temporary bonuses should be coumpounded, or simply added in term of % (like Dungeon and Dragon does with multipliers). I like more the idea of adding the multipliers..

Not to forget, you could try to design ships as banalised cargo ships, giving it a % of chance of being mis-detected

I thougt a classical function about the Stealth Value of a fleet (SVF), it involves that the bigger number you have, the easier you are to see. However, if you disperce your fleet in many isolated ships, each one of them has their own probability function of being discovered (I'll have to mash the numbers, to check if is more profitable to have 1 group of many, or many groups of 1)

1/SVF = Summation of (1/SVS)


And the Sensor power would be a classic function based on the range between the target and the ship. So the closer you get, the easier you can see everything.
I don't remember the formulae of the surface of a sphere... anyway: SS (Surface of Sphere)

Sensor power: = Basic Sensor Power of the Ship * (1/SS)


The whole thing make it, if you keep a sensor ship close to a hidden stealth ship for quite some time, you'll always end up detecting it. It's just a question of time. (The time can range from 5 seconds to the whole game if the stealth ship gets lucky)

Please Comment about this kind of idea?