Thanks for the response to mine. I used the 100 cloak as a base number to make it easier to understand. Based on the Tech rank, it would balance out and relate so that 100 at base tech reacts the same as 300 on a planet at say, tier 6. I honestly think it's better than gimping either or. It's important to scale it, but makes the points in cloak and the money worthwhile for those that want to turtle and mind their own business instead of scan mafias hitting every planet they can and then being given it when it's knocked out... evens the odds imo. I don't think you are going to find a better solution doing scan-cloak ratios or using hard points vs components b/c cloak will always lose hard to a mid lvl + player. Scale up yes? Also I think it balances the play styles as well. Cloak for turtle/defensive style play, and scan heavy for the aggressive types. Lot of birds here if I can get some help refining this.

I think the way that scanning fundamentally works is that if you "find" a cloaked planet (its cloaked more than you can scan), it just picks another random planet to show you, given that it isn't cloaked as well, that is what you get. my only idea is that when you "find" a cloaked planet and go into the scan>cloak subroutine, that there has to be a relatively simple way to balance it for all the levels and for "some" cloaking to have "some" effect. like scan divided by cloak being the odds of finding the planet. something more complex (but not much more demanding) could make it even more fair for a lower level player that just wants to turtle. like (scan-arbitrary #)/(cloak) or scan/cloak minus arbitrary # between 0 and 1 .... or dividing the whole shebang by 2. whatever is the least demanding on whichever resources are the most limited (people, computers, sanity)

I can't program, I just played too much DnD.

Well sense theres alot of ideas floating around and everyones got their opinions, lets have a vote to tell Dan what the ppl want. Everyone gets 5 votes, you can vote for all 3 2 or just one of the ideas.(I do this because these seem like they could easily be combined)

Option1:Cloaking lowers the chance of the planet being found i.e. 10 cloaking will make a planet harder to find then a planet with 0 cloaking but having more then 10 scanning will still make it harder to find.

Option2: ltwarrior's idea, requiring a constant amount of scan to attack, see strucures ect. relative to cloaking on planet.

Option3:What we have now, AKA Cloak>scan=unscanable cloak<scan=equal chance to be scanned no matter how high scanning is.

Option4: All the ideas used together at the same time.

I vote
Option1, 4
Option2, 1

Option 1: Cloak reduces scan chances << 4 VOTES
Option 3: 1 VOTE

Option 1: 3 votes
Option 4: 2 votes

Basically if I had to pick one then #1 is most important. But I think a combination would make cloaking more useful & interesting. #3 would always be in effect, but as scanning rises above cloaking for a planet, #1 would take effect. Option #2 is a neat idea but would need to be carefully balanced.

I thought of another problem with cloaking a planet that should be addressed one way or another. After someone finds your planet not only does the current cloak you have become useless, but further research into cloaking will yield more powerful cloaks that are ... also useless. Seriously why would someone keep or upgrade their cloaks after their planet was found?

And what if someone found the planet before you did? Maybe they didn't colonize it because better planets were available or they didn't have the money or energy or whatever, but in this case the game is over before you even start. Or if you take over a planet cloaking it wouldn't be the best move.

I really like the idea of cloaking always giving some penalty to scan chance, but this by itself isn't enough. I don't mean to be difficult but how would someone vote for all 3 since 1 and 3 contradict each other?

I'll vote:
1: 2 votes
2: 2 votes
5: 1 votes

*option 5 is an idea someone hasn't thought of yet.

Well I kept thinking about it trying to be as objective as possible and I do realize that my idea would be very difficult to balance and could easily be overpowered. So here is an alternative.

Instead of your planet basically being invulnerable when cloak>scan, how about cloaking increases the planet's defense because it makes structures on the planet harder to target. This could be a flat amount of defense increase like every 3 cloak also adds 1 defense, or a dynamic amount based on the attacking ships scan. For flat amount you could also say weapons are installed on the cloaking structures and add 1 attack and defense for ever 4 cloak or something.

The dynamic idea could work something like this. If the planet has 50 cloak and the attacker has 50 scan then you get no defense bonus. If the planet has 50 cloak and the attacker only has 30 scan, then you get 2 points of defense per extra point of cloak for a total bonus of 40 defense. 2(50-30)=40

That only applies for that player and that planet. You're right that if I find your cloaked planet, it's on my list until you flux it. But it's not on Noah's list, or Coth's list, etc. And researching more powerful cloaks will help to KEEP it off their lists. (unless I decide to share the scan.)



Same as above, that player has it on the list but you can still hide it from others. If it's a very good planet, you could always use a flux probe (common artifact) to see if it's been scanned, and maybe flux the planet if you REALLY want to keep it hidden.


All 3 could easily work, I tried to give a quick example in my last post. If your scanning is below the cloak of a planet, forget it, you'll never find it. If your scanis a little higher, you'll have a chance. If your cloak is much higher, you'll have a better chance. (personally, I don't think it should ever be 100% for finding a cloaked planet.)

Another interesting idea, but I like your last one better. But I still believe that option #1 is the most vital to making cloak balanced.

Option 1 says when scan>cloak then cloaking still provides some penalty to the chance to be found.

Option 3 says when scan>cloak then you have no penalty; you have the same chance of finding a planet that has no cloak.

See how you can’t have both at the same time? Anyway I understand what you are saying and I agree completely.

The other problem I was saying is if someone chooses to stack scanning and they have a big legion (like I do, I’m a spy and I like cloak and scan) then they can find your planet and share it then you are screwed especially because you wasted a lot of space on the planet for cloak instead of defenses so it will be easier to take over. I didn’t know about this flux thing you mentioned, how does it work? If it clears your planet from everyone else’s list then the situation isn’t as bad as I thought but it still needs fixing.

I believe if you voted for both 1 and 3 it would be mixed so that cloaking effects scanning to a certain point if scan>cloak, then cloaking has no effect at all.

=) I vote for my idea.

read the rules and revote