Oolite Bulletins

I finally started using the cloaking device that I have been carrying for so long and made the following observations:

- When I am being followed by a missile the cloaking device confuses it and makes it explode. This is quite logical as it looses its target.

- The pirates that actually fired the missile and that are in attack mode forget me when I cloak and decloak. They become yellow dots and go about their own business until I attack them again. That seems weird to me, they should realise that the same ship that they were attacking just a few seconds ago is back.

- Sometimes the cloak seems to be imperfect and I get a warning sound as if one of the pirates spotted me and turned to attack mode. This condition only lasts a fraction of a second and can be explained with even just light amounts of handwavium--I guess there simply is no perfect cloak.

Is there a chance that the pirate behaviour can be fixed?

The cloak isn't perfect, no, though close enough.
It hides your scanner shadow well enough, thusly why missiles lose aspect lock and self-destruct. But it does a halfassed job visually. There's a flickering effect around your ship when it's running, a condition you probably noticed in the rogue you had to shoot down to get it.
So the attack warning you get when it's on is when some pirate eyeballs you and tries to get a target lock. The attempt fails, but makes your klaxon yelp all the same.

maik wrote:

- The pirates that actually fired the missile and that are in attack mode forget me when I cloak and decloak. They become yellow dots and go about their own business until I attack them again. That seems weird to me, they should realise that the same ship that they were attacking just a few seconds ago is back.

If you give them a few seconds, they will eventually catch up and re-lock on you. Maybe they were busy hunting other ships after you cloaked, which could explain why they didn't get back to you immediately.

another_commander wrote:

maik wrote:

- The pirates that actually fired the missile and that are in attack mode forget me when I cloak and decloak. They become yellow dots and go about their own business until I attack them again. That seems weird to me, they should realise that the same ship that they were attacking just a few seconds ago is back.

If you give them a few seconds, they will eventually catch up and re-lock on you. Maybe they were busy hunting other ships after you cloaked, which could explain why they didn't get back to you immediately.

Not quite. There were a number of occasions where there were only the pirates and myself and they gave me ample time to recharge my shields and let my laser cool down. I didn't wait forever to attack them again though

You have to give them about ten seconds, then they'll target you again.

Commander McLane wrote:

You have to give them about ten seconds, then they'll target you again.

I just tried three or four times on one group of pirates, always with the exact same result:

There were two ships, one Cobra Mk3 and one Eel Rapier, both rated as offenders, who caused my radar to go red. I didn't provoke them, except with my presence .

I cloaked and uncloaked, they lost interest and turned to yellow blips. Cloaking and uncloaking took less than a second altogether.

Then they went in some direction, at least the Cobra at full speed (I didn't watch the Eel Rapier's radar blip). I followed behind. After ca. 20 seconds the Cobra first reduced speed, within another 5 or 6 seconds it stopped. I stopped, too. Ca. 5 seconds later it picked up speed again and turned. Only then both of them started targeting me again.

maik wrote:

I cloaked and uncloaked, they lost interest and turned to yellow blips. Cloaking and uncloaking took less than a second altogether.

Then they went in some direction, at least the Cobra at full speed (I didn't watch the Eel Rapier's radar blip). I followed behind. After ca. 20 seconds the Cobra first reduced speed, within another 5 or 6 seconds it stopped. I stopped, too. Ca. 5 seconds later it picked up speed again and turned. Only then both of them started targeting me again.

Yes, this is new pirate behaviour in 1.74. In previous Oolite versions, the pirates just lost target when it cloaked. That way the player just could kill it without problem, because the ship became a sitting duck.

That felt wrong. A target that cloaks is potential very dangerous. Specially because in 99% of the cases it will be the player that cloaks. So, pirates now fly away at full speed when their target cloaks. In testing this proofed to be a slightly better tactic against a cloaking ship compared with just ignoring it.

However against a player of elite rank there is only one tactic that works: Always flee at full speed unless you are a group of at least 10 pirates.

Thanks for the explanation, Eric!

Suggestion: I typically cloak when I'm badly hurt. Can pirates find out that I am hurt and then decide not to run away but to finish me off when I uncloak? If they find out that I'm not badly hurt but am about to blast them to smithereens, maybe they should then engage their fuel injectors instead of just cruising at full speed and don't stop after 20 seconds . Or is 20 seconds the length of their attention span?

maik wrote:

Or is 20 seconds the length of their attention span?

It tends to be the length of mine.

Wait, what were we talking about?

caracal wrote:

maik wrote:

Or is 20 seconds the length of their attention span?

It tends to be the length of mine.

Wait, what were we talking about?

Or it could even be the amount of time it took those pirates to be out of scanner range of the last known player position...

By the way, regarding this thread's title I'd like to say that there are no quirks. All features mentioned so far are just that—features. It is what defines the cloaking device.

Commander McLane wrote:

By the way, regarding this thread's title I'd like to say that there are no quirks. All features mentioned so far are just that—features. It is what defines the cloaking device.

Agreed, title changed

Does this qualify as a quirk?

Tonight, I finally gave in to temptation and ‘fixed’ my unrepairable cloaking device… I needed more protection from hardheads. I took Rolling Thunder out, and the first serious firefight I got into, an Asp damaged my cloaking device with its first volley of shots.
Karma or what! Waaaahhh!!

I have a faint impression somewhere in the back of my head that the equipment installed last (and who knows, perhaps "repaired last" qualifies as well) is most likely to take damage. However, I might as well hallucinate that.