[FT] Cloaking Device. was: Sub systems

I think this idea can be simplified down more. (and possibly be used for the
"Looking Glass" mode from LOS' Rot Hafen Saga).

Cloaking systems cost/mass as per FTFB1.

Each Cloaking system has a reserve battery power equal to the mass of the ship
(ie: a 200 mass ship with 2 cloaks has 400 battery power). Batteries can be
recharged while uncloaked by diverting power from the unused MD mass to the
batteries (ie: MD4 for this ship recharges at 40 power per turn if drifting).

While under cloak, a ship expends battery power as follows: Drive power equal
to the mass of the drives used (ie: 5% per MD thrust used) Weapons use power
equal to the mass of the weapon fired (including ammo for missiles etc). Each
other system uses power equal to it's mass while in use.

Deep Diving (full cloak): The ship drops off sensors and uses the full
Cloaking rules from MT (# turns under cloak declared etc). No power
expenditure except for MD is allowed (and must be prewritten as per MT rules)

Periscope Depth ("Looking Glass"): The ship moves on the table as normal,
expending power as above. It can be targetted by ships with Enhanced or
Superior Sensors as normal. Ships with only firecontrols active can only
launch ordinance weapons (SML/Plasmabolts etc), unless the cloaked ship
has
fired non-ordinance weapons itself this turn.

Changing from one mode to another: Ships changing from Periscope depth to Deep
Diving are treated as Periscope depth for the remainder of the turn (and
cannot fire that turn) they declare so in their written orders and then drop
from sensors to use the MT cloak rules. When changing from Deep Diving to
Periscope depth, the cloaked ship cannot fire on the turn it changes mode. Any
change of mode takes 5% of the ships mass in battery power. If the battery
runs out, the ship automatically drops out of cloak and cannot fire weapons on
that turn due to the unplanned status change.

*****
This shouldn't require any extra tables or specials to be learned. All
figures are based on normal FT masses/percentages.

'Neath Southern Skies - http://home.pacific.net.au/~southernskies/
[sstrike] Raider Fleet of War Leader Kel'em'all

> Deep Diving (full cloak): The ship drops off sensors and uses the

My current iteration on the rules is similar.

Keeping the Mass and Cost as FB.

Full Cloak (or Deep Cloak): As per MT.

Lurking (or Half-Cloak): Can See and Fire all weapons. However: Each
Turn all opposing ships can roll 1d6. On a 6, the lurking ship can be spotted
and
fired upon *that turn only*. The ship is -1 to hit per die with all
weapons unless Active Sensors are used (save for MT missiles or fighters of
course,
<g>)

Mods to Roll to Detect:

+1 Enhanced Sensors
+2 Superior Sensors
+1 per weapon system fired that turn by the Lurking ship.
+1 per Thrust Point used by Lurking ship (Includes Thrusters!).
+1 Active Sensors Used by Lurking Ship

When moving from Normal to Lurk it is fired at with a -1 per die, when
in a turn that it is going from Lurk to Full Cloak it has an x2 range effect
when fired at.

A ship has to change to Lurk mode before changing to Full Cloak mode. (Thus
Full Cloak takes 2 rounds to achieve)

A ship can fire on the turn that it comes out of Deep mode.

Going from Lurk to Full Cloak or from Normal to Lurk is a firing action. I
have generally let the ship use an extra Firecon for "Cloaking operations"
and thus be able to pop-up, fire, and then sink back down into Full
Cloak mode and getting the double range bonus on being hit for the turn (and
possibly a further -1 if no active sensors are used). Moving to Full
Cloak has to be declared at the start of the turn (or as soon as they "come
up")

Ships come out of Full Cloak and/or Lurk at the beginning of turns.

Yes they are nasty, but it seems to work out in play.