Trunk: Permanent cloaking?!?

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Hi,

since I finally overcame my crash problems and did (as usual) test with a ship flying cloaked around, I found something concerning the cloak that's new to me:

When the cloak drains all energy, it should switch itself off. However, this time the energy suddenly began to rise again without the cloak wearing off!

I already thought "BUG!" and did begin to write when I switched back to Oolite just to see my ship now uncloaked and with full energy?!?

So I did another attempt: Cloak and then quickly drain the energy via ECM. When the energy was too low, the cloak switched itself off.

Next attempt: Cloak and then ECM but not all the way down. Interesting: When the energy is almost empty, it suddenly begins to rise without the cloak switching off. However, it did not rise much, only little more than one bar...and then drop again...and then up again...and so on, until finally the cloak was turned really off and the energy full again.

Now I'm curious as to what's up...my ship got the MASC which also drains power permanently....and switches itself off at low energy - however I recall that it also required pretty much energy to turn itself on again...surely far more than 20% of the ships full power?!? When I did my tests with an energy eating super-laser some months ago, the MASC did not re-activate that quickly!?!

I also did never imagine that an unmodified caduceus recharge rate would be enough for energy recharging while staying cloaked???

So am I observing something really strange going on or does the MASC now activate with such low energy and the Caduceus is really able to recharge while staying cloaked, thus explaining this all? The caduceus has a recharge rate of 5.8 - I know it's higher than plain oolite average and I've even considered changing (player) turrets so that they use up ships energy with each shot, like lasers do. Although I like my MASC, I'd prefer it not being on all the time

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[Cmdr Wyvern]

I don't run a MASC; it's a device that was never meant for the player anyway, and there's likely a damn good reason for that besides it being a blatant cheat.

That said, I ran the same experiment on my Caddy, sans MASC of course, on 1.73.4.
Here's my findings:

- The charge rate on the Caddy is just enough to slowly recharge the banks with cloak on, providing you have a NEU. Without the NEU, the charge rate isn't enough and you will see the cloak drain your banks.
- Running the ECM constantly with cloak on, I saw a slow drain till I had about two bars left, then the cloak automatically shut off.
- The cloak refused to be re-engaged till the energy recharged almost fully.
- Running the docking computer with cloak on will also discharge your banks and cause the cloak to automatically switch off.

Those results were consistent throughout several tries to reproduce this bug.

I think I can safely say that the bug is in the MASC, -or- the MASC interferes with the cloak in some way.

[Kaks]

Ok, this is the last time I'm saying this. The MASC is not meant to be used, and it's not supported.

I can only speak for myself here, but development time is quite a scarce commodity, and I will ignore any further MASC related 'reports'.

In any case, any bug related to MASC use is officially reclassified as 'not a bug'. That's what it actually means when we say "it's not supported".

And to paraphrase what Cmdr Wyvern rightly said already: use MASC, it's your problem, and yours alone. Any future MASC related bugs, they'll be directed to this posting.

Mit freundlichen Gruessen.

Kaks.

[Lestradae]

I suggest that anyone who has an issue with the MAS'C contacts me about it, as I am the one who uses it.

We all have to live with the dev's decision to not actively support it at this stage, I for one accept that and even understand it (I am also happy if the MNSR is ready this century still).

So you don't want the MAS'C and what it does, you don't install the OSE WiP or later full OSE. The MAS'C works fine with a few strangenesses and it's not going to get better than that, see above, take it or leave it.

I hope this is OK for everyone?

L

[Screet]

So you don't want the MAS'C and what it does, you don't install the OSE WiP or later full OSE.

Why? Players do NOT have to buy the MASC, thus OSE doesn't need to be avoided because it makes it available!

Might even be that I toy around to see wether I could make it activateable manually in my development version. I'd prefer that anyway. I like the MASC, but as I said, I don't like it being always on...that's too much. Rather manually switching and increased energy use, similar to the cloak.

However, a OSE tip: I personally would create more ships with the MASC counter for OSE. That would reduce it's effectiveness anyway and might be good for many more surprises

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[Lestradae]

However, a OSE tip: I personally would create more ships with the MASC counter for OSE. That would reduce it's effectiveness anyway and might be good for many more surprises

Hmmm ... nice idea. I like it

Suggestion taken aboard ...