Rule 5P3c Cloaked (vs Direct Fire Weapons)

[Patrick Doyle]

I haven't seen this question yet.

When firing at cloaked ships, Direct fire weapons have 4 added to the range and the damage is halved (rounded down).

Is the total damage from the volley halved, or is each individual weapon halved then added to other weapons?

If each individual weapon is halved before being totalled, then cloaking devices are even more powerful. Phaser-IIIs would be completely useless (firing at range 4 they can only do one point of damage, halved rounded down = zero).

By the way, Mike West, thanks for answering all these questions in such a timely manner, you clearly spend a lot of time doing this and we appreciate it.

[mjwest]

Based on how it is worded, I have to say it appears to be weapon by weapon. Yes, this hurts some weapons pretty badly, but appears to be how it is supposed to work.

You are quite welcome. And thank you for the compliment.

[Patrick Doyle]

Thanks Mike,

That is the sad conclusion I came to with another opponent a while back. I just didn't like the conclusion so I thought I'd ask. This really hurts races that use disruptors and phaser-3s. Phaser-IIIs cannot cause any damage to a cloaked ship. Standard load disruptors are nearly useless as well.

[DrFaustus]

Ouch wished I had relized that I have just reduced total damage.

[Wolverin61]

I don't think it's right that a photon torpedo that hits only does half damage. imho if it hits, it should do full damage.

Guess I'm just old fashioned

[Kang]

I don't think it's right that a photon torpedo that hits only does half damage. imho if it hits, it should do full damage.

I remember asking this one about photons in SFB, too, and it would have the same answer for that game - the warhead is halved. I rationalised it by thinking of it as a 'near miss'. If you have the rule for one DF weapon, you have to play them all by the same rule.

[terryoc]

Thanks to patrick doyle for raising the question... I had always assumed it was on a volley basis, not weapon by weapon. Perhaps adding this to the CRUL as a clarification would be in order.

[Requete]

I don't think it's right that a photon torpedo that hits only does half damage. imho if it hits, it should do full damage.

I remember asking this one about photons in SFB, too, and it would have the same answer for that game - the warhead is halved. I rationalised it by thinking of it as a 'near miss'. If you have the rule for one DF weapon, you have to play them all by the same rule.

Perhaps the photon torp's warhead goes off at a suboptimal distance because it is fooled by the cloaking device.

[Paul B]

Perhaps the photon torp's warhead goes off at a suboptimal distance because it is fooled by the cloaking device.

Well based on Balance of Terror I'd say that the direct fire weapons are being used on proximity fuses, because while the sensor officer knows the general area of the the ship they do not know the precise location. Thus a certain amount of guesswork is required which affords the cloaker some protection. (ie think Depth Charges).

[Davec_24]

I think of it as something like that, where (for whichever reason) the weapon does not score a direct hit on the target because the cloaking device prevents the firer from seeing exactly where the cloaked ship is, though the target is known to be in a certain general area. In this respect, it is similar to hunting a U-Boat in that you don't necessarily know exactly where he is but you have some idea where he might be.

[junior]

If you think what happens to photons is bad, you should see what happens to disruptors...

Remember that the damage is rounded down, and is rounded on a PER WEAPON basis.

[Wolverin61]

Never thought of the cloak fooling the torpedo into detonating. That makes sense. Always thought of it in the terms of, it would either hit and go off, or it wouldn't and wouldn't.

Guess that's why I'm not a game designer