If they are allowed to move cloaked within the bubble, they will need the speed penalty as well.

I like it, the Black Ops' cloak dictating the scan res speed and locking delay penlaties? Gives them a use beyond bridging cloaky ships...

+1 to this idea.

though maybe make some sort fo limit on how many ships can eb inside it until the cloak collapses on itself from "too much interference" or whatever, and if ANYTHING comes within the claoking bubble that is NOT in-fleet, the whole bubble should deactivate.

i say this because i would REALLY hate to see a 100-man fleet completly cloaked huddled up on the black ops (though if you knew they were there, even if you didn't, an errant Stealth bomber bomb would be gorgeous.)

Will ships within the cloak fields range be able to target ships that are visible?

When you say they get the same penalty as the cloak on the black ops, what does that actually mean ? If they all get the penalty to scan res, how long does that last for ? It couldn't be permanent, because... well... it couldn't. So how long does it last for

On top of that there's the issue that it basically allows fully combat fit ships to sit under the cloaking umbrella. Atm if you want to cloak, you need a hefty 60cpu and at a minimum you lose a utility high, and at most a gun. By FAR the biggest penalty to using cloaks on non-covert ships is actually having to fit the cloak itself.

The scan res penalty can be partially (or even totally) countered balanced by SeBos, and the de-cloak delay just need careful planning (either decloaking before the target arrives or not until the target is thoroughly held down).

What I find particularly problematic is that its such an easy fake out. Now you can not only hide recons and t3's, you can hide ANYTHING at almost no hit to its effectiveness. The most obvious use would be hiding logistics ships or even carriers under the bubble, with your gang just chilling and awaiting a fight, and of course you can't be probed or even d-scanned.

The best approach would be sitting at a 1000km tactical, letting the decloak delay vanish into a short warp, pretty much becoming a non-issue by the time you land.

Add to that the constant uncertainty of stations in system where people often idle, and you have a pretty awesome trap. Double points for doing it in a cyno jammed system and bringing carriers to the fight. It looks like a 10 man gate camp, and theres zero possible information saying otherwise, no matter how well you scout. And then boom, literally as many people are you like (because lets face it, the big alliances have been able to operate at whatever scale is needed... even if you can only cloak one dude per black ops, they'll use it) in fully combat fit ships with carrier backing. Good times for all!

+1

I wil give my 5 cents too. The field should not cloak capital and super-capital ships.

Sooo.. how did the carriers get into a cyno jammed system again?

This ability would not grant ships the ability to use a covert jump bridge, they either can or cannot.

Also, as was already mentioned, this would have an effective limit to the ships that could be cloaked by this effect. I would suggest testing to determine the best balance for the size of the sphere, which will control numbers most obviously.

Add to that, the increasing loss of stability to the cloaked vessels for each person added to the fleet. Assuming they do not leave fleet, or lose connection, becomes riskier as the numbers grow. One ship that drops fleet, will immediately decloak, and take with it any vessels within 2km out of cloak.
This can cause a domino effect chain reaction, which becomes increasingly more likely as you add ships into it.

Then you have the recalibration sensor delay. Unless the pilots all have the same level of Cloaking, they will regain the ability to lock targets at different points in time.

These combined effects make this something best used in a safe or deep safe, to balance out the effects of accidental decloaking and regaining offensive ability after decloaking itself.

Wait so its chance based as to if the whole thing just fails ? Because that'll make it totally useless. Chance based pretty much means 'Will fail when it is least convenient' and people just will not use it.

If its not and the only risk is from DCs, then that equates to that same thing, random chance that is totally outside of the players control.

That is the problem with all of this. You just cannot balance something with random chance because this is not that kind of game. Imagine if Titan bridges had a 90% chance of working.

Even that small percentage of randomness can translate into hilarious **** ups. It SHOULD mean that 1 guy in 10 doesn't come through. In practice it means that one time in however many, half of your fleet doesn't appear and gets hilarious raped. And that doesn't make it balanced, it makes it a liability.

Cloaking bubbles ALWAYS lead to this kind of problem. They are either overpowered to a pretty large degree or they aren't powerful enough to make using them worthwhile over cloaks.

I am particularly concerned at how easily these would break scouting. Its easy enough to trap people these days with capitals all over the place and bridges and such, adding another way to do it just sucks really. And that's all you could use these for really.

What benefit does this give, at all?

You require all ships be cov ops ships with cloaks fitted, why not simply use your own cloak instead, what point is there in having a field that essentially just penalizes you for being in it?

A group of cloaked ships do not decloak each other, how is this different from a cloak field? What purpose will this serve? What role will this fulfill? BO ships fit a cloak as it is, as do all cov ops ships.

If you want to make BO more viable, the answer is simple, give them the cov ops cloak.

The ability to move/warp cloaked is a giant advantage to maneuverability. For ships that cost almost as much as a carrier, there is no excuse for them to be so handicapped and fragile.

What benefit does this give, at all?

You require all ships be cov ops ships with cloaks fitted, why not simply use your own cloak instead, what point is there in having a field that essentially just penalizes you for being in it?

A group of cloaked ships do not decloak each other, how is this different from a cloak field? What purpose will this serve? What role will this fulfill? BO ships fit a cloak as it is, as do all cov ops ships.

If you want to make BO more viable, the answer is simple, give them the cov ops cloak.

The ability to move/warp cloaked is a giant advantage to maneuverability. For ships that cost almost as much as a carrier, there is no excuse for them to be so handicapped and fragile.

+1

I wil give my 5 cents too. The field should not cloak capital and super-capital ships.

Why shouldn't this cloak Capital ships?

Another good idea, and I know that it's been suggested before but this time it has gotten good feedback. My 2 isk is that it can only cloak a certain amount of ships and nothing over the size of a Battleship. I would say 2 ships cloaked for every level in 'Cloaking Sphere' which should be a 10x skill after you get cloaking 5. Yes I know this would add more of a base level to the already skill intensive Black Ops but something this powerful shouldn't be easy to get.

Also as a side note I would love to see an additional feature to the Black Ops, this would be amazing, I also like my idea of having BOPS produce limited Deadspace pockets.

+1