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Norrec
Norrec
Join Date 03/2006
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Phasic Cloaking, not working right or just useless?

March 11, 2008 5:50:55 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

So the other day I was doing really well in a 2v2 and eventualy won. Or, it was a technical win because the other two guys gave up and quit. Since I didn't have to fight them anymore, I started spending my resources on techs that I don't normally get. One of these was phasic cloaking. The description of phasic cloaking is that the scout can switch between real and phase space at will, basically it can use the Marauders "Phase Out Hull" ability on itself. I figured that would be cool. Fly a scout into someones planet and make it invulnerable for a while.

The problem arrises in the fact that even on autocast when the scotu is attacked, it doesn't seem to use the ability. When clicking to activate the ability, it turns on for about 5 seconds and then turns off. What good is 5 seconds of invulnerability during which you lose anti-matter and have no hull regeneration? Is Phasic Cloaking perhaps bugged? It just seems completely useless right now. The only use I can really think of is if you see a bunch of LRM missles coming at you, you could activate it... but whats a scout doing fighting LRMs? What if the LRMs arn't all firing their missles at one time?

Was I just not activating the ability right or something?

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Norrec
SoundReason
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #1 March 11, 2008 6:25:23 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Um, maybe your scout is fighting LRM's because it does 200% damage to lightly armoured targets (i.e. LRMs).

I've been reading all the complaints about LRM spam in the meta-game right now, and how unbeatable it is. I was looking at the armor type chart found here, and I couldn't help but notice that, particularly at their price, scouts seem to be an effective counter to LRM's? Especially because you'll be able to mass them (far more cost effectively) than they will be able to tech to their LRM spam. Also, if you're rushing scouts, then you'll be able to scout their systems frequently, to check what they really are teching, and where they're trying to expand.

Just food for thought. As for phasic cloaking, I play Vasari and I don't even use it . I'll try to look into it. This was just a random associated thought... maybe I should've posted it somewhere else. Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts? I think that with maybe Carrier support (as a Vasari player), the added fighters and AOE nanobot heal should let a group of scouts tear through some LRMs.
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Norrec
Norrec
Join Date 03/2006
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Reply #2 March 11, 2008 6:48:14 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Lets keep the post focused on Phasic Cloaking, there are plenty of other posts around talking about various spam tactics and counters to them. Seems to me though, that scouts would not be a good option against lrms. They would die easily, and even at 200%, twice of 2 is only 4. Twice of 4 is only 8. Twice of 5 is only 10, which Assliants still do more than(13). As well assliants can fight other ships and remain effective.
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Norrec
Rhedd_V
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #3 March 11, 2008 6:48:27 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Scouts make pretty good cannon fodder/anti LRM units, en-masse, but I'm not going to hijack this thread with that conversation.

I played around with cloaking yesterday, and it didn't seem all that useful to me, either.

I never play Vasari, though, so I'll let someone else give you a valid opinion.
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Norrec
martyr3810
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #4 March 11, 2008 7:07:20 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
The phasic cloaking on scouting is supposed to be used for scouting, not battle. Lol. That 5 seconds of invulnerability makes ships turn away and go back to their positions giving the faster scout time to escape afterwards.

My problem with the phasic thing is that buildings don't seem to EVER turn it off once they've turned it on.
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Norrec
Norrec
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Reply #5 March 11, 2008 8:22:22 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Buildings don't have Phasic Cloaking, only scouts do. Thats Phasic Barrier or something which you are thinking of. I guess agaisnt the AI that might be usefull, but agaisnt a player he's just going to sit there and blow it away when it comes back. As well, if it doesn't auto-cast it to do that, then I'm having to sit there and watch it. One of the great things about scouting is that after its done you can just mouse over the planet and see the report. You don't have to sit there constantly watching it...

It seems like it'd be better just to let my scout out run all defenses, than actually spend time/resources researching Phasic Cloaking.
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Norrec
abjourne
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #6 March 11, 2008 9:15:26 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Norrec is right auto cast doesn't work and invuln makes the ship "stand still" this ability is useless.
The ability should turn the ship invisable when activated (until am runs out)so the scout can continue to move.
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Norrec
SoundReason
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Reply #7 March 11, 2008 9:27:22 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
The phasic cloaking on scouting is supposed to be used for scouting, not battle. Lol. That 5 seconds of invulnerability makes ships turn away and go back to their positions giving the faster scout time to escape afterwards.


...what? How is a tier 4 tech ability going to help at all with this kind of thing? You'll have pretty much all available systems scouted out by the time you're hitting this level of tech, and you'll probably have cleared out the neutral units in those systems. Against a human opponent they'll just leave their units sitting there for you to come out of phasing. I can't see this being a legitimate use of this skill.
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Norrec
djuice
Join Date 03/2008
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Reply #8 March 11, 2008 9:32:53 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Just to let you all know, its a useless ability, dont waste your $$ and time researching it..

In multiplayer it's even worse..
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Norrec
Advalary
Join Date 10/2006
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Reply #9 March 11, 2008 9:34:37 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I was able to get it to work once when it was orbiting a sun, the sun would regenerate more am than the scout would use up, I figured now I can see when an invasion happens, the problem is that the cloaking slowed the game down to being nearly unplayable, the only ability or effect to do that. But I did get it to be permanant, don't remember how though.
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Norrec
PeskyFly
Join Date 08/2007
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Reply #10 March 12, 2008 2:51:04 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
The biggest problem with Phasic Cloaking is it's cost, at Tier 4. If it was Tier 1, it would be fine since, on larger(multi-star) maps at least, neutrals would still be around and there would still be places to search and free asteroids to capture. On Tier 4, it's useless.

So the Jikara Navigator costs 25 cash, 25 metal and 1 supply point more than the other scouts, and doesn't have any special attack like the Arcova's time bombs and the Seeker's suicide ram. Instead it can capture neutral extractors, it has slightly more firepower, and it has a useless and overpriced ability.

Buildings don't have Phasic Cloaking, only scouts do. Thats Phasic Barrier or something which you are thinking of. I guess agaisnt the AI that might be usefull, but agaisnt a player he's just going to sit there and blow it away when it comes back. As well, if it doesn't auto-cast it to do that, then I'm having to sit there and watch it. One of the great things about scouting is that after its done you can just mouse over the planet and see the report. You don't have to sit there constantly watching it... It seems like it'd be better just to let my scout out run all defenses, than actually spend time/resources researching Phasic Cloaking.


The Vasari Empire tech tree is filled with weird stuff. Raider Xenophobia, the Volcanic population upgrades, Phasic Barrier, Phasic Cloaking, the Nano Weapon Jammer, and the Jammer's upgrade tech are all of questionable usefulness.

As for letting the scout outrun the defenses, Gravity Tolerance is better for that. At least it affects all ships, but it's also kind of overpriced at Tier 5 when you're getting Phase Stabilizers.
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Norrec
homefleet
Join Date 02/2008
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Reply #11 March 13, 2008 3:32:35 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I'm with PeskyFly on this one. Some of the Vasari Empire tech is very questionable(and some are very useful). To me the Phasic Cloaking is use less and a waste of resources. If it just clocked the scout and just removed the shield, while allowing the ship to move, it could be useful. But as it stands right now, it is a useful as Raider Xenophobia. They should fix it in 1.04.
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