This is a version of an article I originally wrote that appeared in SE.net's May 2005 Newsletter. You can find SE.net's newsletter archive HERE.

Making Cloaking More Interesting

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One of the least developed areas in the default game is cloaking and cloak detection. With a paltry 3 levels of Cloaking Devices and easy to come by cloak detecting sensors, this potentially exciting and strategic part of the game is rarely seen. Fortunately, there are plenty of options that are easy to implement in even the most basic of mods, but first let's start with understanding how cloaking works in Space Empires IV.

The Basics

To start, there are 5 different types of sensor types hard coded in the game: EM Active, EM Passive, Gravitic, Psychic, and Temporal. A typical sensor entry from components.txt is listed below:

          Name                 := Gravitic Scanner I
	  Description          := Scanner designed to detect gravitic distortions emitted by cloaked ships.
	  Pic Num              := 39
	  Tonnage Space Taken  := 40
	  Tonnage Structure    := 20
	  Cost Minerals        := 800
	  Cost Organics        := 50
	  Cost Radioactives    := 450
	  Vehicle Type         := Ship\Base\Sat\Drone
	  Supply Amount Used   := 0
	  Restrictions         := None
	  General Group        := Cloaking & Detection
	  Family               := 35
	  Roman Numeral        := 1
	  Custom Group         := 0
	  Number of Tech Req   := 1
	  Tech Area Req 1      := Gravitic Scanning
	  Tech Level Req 1     := 1
	  Number of Abilities  := 1
	  Ability 1 Type       := Sensor Level
	  Ability 1 Descr      := Peforms Level 2 gravitic scans.
	  Ability 1 Val 1      := Gravitic
	  Ability 1 Val 2      := 2
	  Weapon Type          := None

The most important part of the entry is the Sensor Level ability. The Val 1 entry corresponds to one of the above mentioned sensor types, and Val 2 corresponds to the sensor level. In this example, the scanner will perform scans at level 2, detecting any object that does not have a gravitic cloak level greater than level 2. By default, all objects with the exception of mines are given Level 1 'sight' in EM Passive and EM Active sensors - for consistency we'll also assume that objects recieve Level 1 sight for the other 3 sensor types, although this is not true.

An entry for a cloaking device is quite similar to those for detecting sensors, but with a few minor differences as described below:

          Name                 := Cloaking Device III
	  Description          := Renders a ship invisible to most types of detection sensors.
	  Pic Num              := 38
	  Tonnage Space Taken  := 20
	  Tonnage Structure    := 20
	  Cost Minerals        := 600
	  Cost Organics        := 90
	  Cost Radioactives    := 450
	  Vehicle Type         := Ship\Base
	  Supply Amount Used   := 30
	  Restrictions         := None
	  General Group        := Cloaking & Detection
	  Family               := 36
	  Roman Numeral        := 3
	  Custom Group         := 0
	  Number of Tech Req   := 1
	  Tech Area Req 1      := Cloaking Device
	  Tech Level Req 1     := 3
	  Number of Abilities  := 5
	  Ability 1 Type       := Cloak Level
	  Ability 1 Descr      := Prevents Level 3 Gravitic scans.
	  Ability 1 Val 1      := Gravitic
	  Ability 1 Val 2      := 4
	  Ability 2 Type       := Cloak Level
	  Ability 2 Descr      := Prevents Level 3 EM Active scans.
	  Ability 2 Val 1      := EM Active
	  Ability 2 Val 2      := 4
	  Ability 3 Type       := Cloak Level
	  Ability 3 Descr      := Prevents Level 3 EM Passive scans.
	  Ability 3 Val 1      := EM Passive
	  Ability 3 Val 2      := 4
	  Ability 4 Type       := Cloak Level
	  Ability 4 Descr      := Prevents Level 3 Psychic scans.
	  Ability 4 Val 1      := Psychic
	  Ability 4 Val 2      := 4
	  Ability 5 Type       := Cloak Level
	  Ability 5 Descr      := Prevents Level 3 Temporal scans.
	  Ability 5 Val 1      := Temporal
	  Ability 5 Val 2      := 4
	  Weapon Type          := None

Note that the cloak level needs to be 1 greater than the 'sight' level of the sensor types it is effective against, so a cloaking device with a cloak level of 1 would be useless. Another difference is that cloaking devices can use supplies. The supply amount listed is per turn when the cloaking device is active. If the cloaking component does not have an entry for one of the sensor types, then the cloak level for that sensor type will be 0.

The setup of the cloaking and cloak-detecting sensors in the stock game is straight forward. There are 3 levels of Cloaking Device and 3 levels of 5 different types of sensors, one for each sensor type. There is no real variation with the different types of sensors aside from research costs. Mines are only unit/vehicle in the stock game that have cloaking built into their hull and cannot be made visible by any sensor.

• Cloaking Device I-III (All Types, Cloak Level 2-4)
• Hyper-Optic I-III (EM Passive, Sensor Level 2-4)
• Tachyon Scanners I-III (EM Active, Sensor Level 2-4)
• Gravitic Sensors I-III (Gravitic, Sensor Level 2-4)
• Psychic Receptors I-III (Psychic, Sensor Level 2-4)
• Temporal Sensors I-III (Temporal, Sensor Level 2-4)

Although the default setup is simple with any sensor being capable of detecting a cloaked ship, it has the potential for a lot more intricate and interesting designs. Cloak Level and Sensor Level abilities can be used in Components.txt, Facilities.txt, and VehicleSize.txt.

Let's Make it More Interesting!

The simplest method to make cloaking and detection more extensive is to extend the number of tech levels for both items. This gives players a longer amount of time to try and use cloaking devices before they top out. If pursuing a course of this sort, it might be a good idea to cheapen the cost of cloaking devices or even decrease their size to encourage their use. Remember it only takes one detecting scanner per system to overcome a fleet of cloaked ships.

More interesting design schemes can make use of the various types of sensors. In that case, it can be a good idea to establish a hierachy of cloaks or sensor types from basic to more advance.

Example of a Tiered Cloaking System:

Gravitic - EM Passive - EM Active (Omitting Psychic/Temporal for Simplicity)

• Small Ships (Gravitic Cloak Level 2-4; EM Active/Passive Cloak Level 2)
• Cloaking Device I-VI (EM Passive, Cloak Level 2-7; EM Active Cloak Level 2;
• Prevents all gravitic scans)
• Advanced Cloaking Device I-VI (EM Active, Cloak Level 2-7; Prevents all other scans)

• 'Basic' Sensors I-III (Gravitic, Sensor Level 2-4)
• 'Advanced' Sensors I-VI (EM Passive, Sensor Level 2-7)
• 'More Advanced' Sensors I-VI (EM Active, Sensor Level 2-7)

Using the above scheme, you can make smaller or selected ship hulls (or even other vehicles like mines, fighters etc) have low levels of 'natural' gravitic cloaks while adding basic sensors that are required to detect them. As technology improves, you can have cloaking devices that render ships invisible against more advance sensors in the EM Passive tier while being effective against all lower level scans, and lastly even more advanced sensors to overcome the most advanced cloaking devices. Alternatively, you could create a series of stealth armors in the lower end of the hierachy to serve as pre-cursors to cloaking devices.

On the detection end, if you find it to easy to deploy sensors to catch cloaked ships, you may want to make using sensors more difficult by restricting them to bases or making larger. Remember it takes just once functional sensor in a system to detect cloaked ships, so by making them more difficult to build helps to encourage more active use of cloaking in the game.

Also keep in mind there is no requirement to use each sensor area as it is described, since the actual sensor types are not displayed anywhere, you can call them whatever you want in your mod nor do you have to employ the racial trait ones exclusively with racial traits.

Considering research, the there should be enough levels of cloaking armors/devices plus sensors to stretch through an entire game. A lengthy tech tree helps to keep players engaged as the game goes on and encourages a constant battle between the next generation of cloaking device and it's counterpart sensor. Also with more tech levels, you may also want to consider increasing the obscuration levels of storms and nebula.

Further Ideas to Spice Things Up...

• In a tiered scheme, create some overlap between the tiers
• Create several separate but 'equal' branches of cloaking technology, using each sensor type as a branch
• Reduce research costs and increase number of tech levels to promote a more rapid 'cat and mouse' game
• Create a more extensive system of stealth armors (using different sensor types) to allow more race specialization
• Allow higher level detection sensors to uncover mines

That's it for now and I did skip the area of planet cloaking, but I hope that provides a good start to making your mod's cloaking system a lot more interesting!