If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

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950 days, 16 hours, 6 minutes ago

If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not attack it? Doesn't really make sense to me. I reported it as a bug, but was told it was normal behavior.

950 days, 15 hours, 17 minutes ago

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

Tow it into a protofield.

Then attack it.

950 days, 15 hours, 2 minutes ago

nanning

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

As I read it the protofield infects ship per lightyear flown. Towing would (I suspect) not infect the ship, so it would not get damaged, so no decloak.

950 days, 14 hours, 54 minutes ago

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

Ahh yes- but then they either sit perfectly still- or sweep to escape

Either way thats one cloaker out of the picture.

950 days, 14 hours, 23 minutes ago

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

I'm still not getting the logic behind being able to tow but not attack. It just doesn't make sense that you can get a tractor lock but be unable to blast it. Or am I missing something?

950 days, 14 hours, 20 minutes ago

nanning

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

Host Order.

Tow lock is before cloaking, but does not disable cloaking.

Odd, but that's the way it works.

950 days, 14 hours, 11 minutes ago

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

Snork's playing the logic card!

@Nanning- for 'wasps, they see the vessel even if it's been cloaked for several turns and can tow it regardless of cloak setting.

---------

I'd have to agree that logically if you can tow lock you should be able to weapon lock.

but this is a game- so someone else can spout some made up stuff about sensors and whatnot and it can fly- because none of this is real.

(As much as I might like it to be so)

950 days, 14 hours, 2 minutes ago

nanning

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

Ehh, Issen, /everybody/ can tow a ship that starts cloaking. And nobody can attack it.

And if you want a technical excuse: a tow beam is a cone with a range of X and an angle of Y. Oddly enough that is about the same as the HorWasp detection. So they know a ship is there, and they even can tow it. However, torps and beams need an exact point to attack. Space being BIG, the area covered by the tow-beam (and HorWasp sense) is just to big to actually allow attacking. End Excuse.

950 days, 13 hours, 4 minutes ago

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

This will eventually wind up in the "it's part of the game" file, but the lack of any explanation is going to bug me for a bit.

950 days, 12 hours, 59 minutes ago

nanning

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

@Snork, cloaking is /not/ an enduring ability. It may seem so, but not according to the host. Every turn all ships start uncloaked. Call it a moment to reset their sensors, whatever. In any case, during that moment they are vulnerable to tow-locking. The HorWasp who know in which direction to look can use that moment, the 11 races are just to late.

950 days, 12 hours, 20 minutes ago

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

@nanning I'm not looking at it as a Host issue. The "feature" was either planned, or accidental and deemed OK. For me, it's about how well I see the SciFi meshing with reality. It just doesn't sit well with me, but as I said, I'll get over it.

950 days, 11 hours, 8 minutes ago

mandrake

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

@Snork:

HAPPY NEW YEAR! And don't get your panties all bunched up! :-)

950 days, 10 hours, 31 minutes ago

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

Hmmm. It appears that a details document on Cloaking would be a worthwhile investment of time. We'll look into that.

950 days, 10 hours, 12 minutes ago

emork the lizard king

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

Classic rules explantion: What you can see you can tow, e.g. a cloaked ally, but what is cloaked you can't attack.

Logical explanation: Horwasp can sense cloaked ships but not the excat position within a XY-coordinate. A XY-coordinate in Planets is a square LJ which is pretty big. Tractor beam is like a magnet and can pull a thing which is roughly in it's direction. Fighters, beams and torps need a visible and precise target. For a more detailled explanation ask Mr. Chekov. :)

950 days, 8 hours, 34 minutes ago

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

@Snork anyone can tow a ship they can see. Due to the host order cloak cancels and tow lock is before it reinstates again. So any race can tow a ship that then cloaks. The Horwasp just have the advantage of seeing cloaked ships all the time so they have more opportunity for getting a tow lock but cannot do anything if the ship has then cloaked apart from burn even more fuel moving.

949 days, 20 hours, 11 minutes ago

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

People bring this up in MvsM games often as well since everyone cam see Mentors cloaked ships.

It does allow Horwasp to cooperate with the other races a little bit more at least. All their ships attack non-cloaked ships automatically.

949 days, 8 hours, 38 minutes ago

hays

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

See the Darkwings advancing but cant do anything bout it. Its a additional torture implemented to drive Horwasp players crazy and let those cloaking races have some hope early in game versus horwasps.
Se cloaking ships but cant do anything bout them is a classic lose - lose situation.

949 days, 6 hours, 30 minutes ago

vindicator

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

What if a horwasp protofield could cause some infection just by virtue of being IN the field - think webmine fuel drain without the initial "hit" - chance to dislodge cloaked ship due to damage if it just stays there...

Extend this a bit toif pods destroyed at a planet as well as distributing clans, created a small protofield - horwasp has SOME chance of thencausing damage to ships for their effort - forces repair

948 days, 8 hours, 52 minutes ago

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

Sounds like a good idea.

If they are sitting in the field they take a point of infection. This will cause cloaks to fail.

Possibly not on the first turn the protofield arrives but possibly if they are in it after its first turn.

947 days, 21 hours, 49 minutes ago

hays

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

Birds and Privateers wont have any chance in early game towards horwasp if protofields cause cloaking to fail. Those races need a early game boost towards horwasp early expansion. Stinger bombardment HP mk8 almost without cost let especial Bird have really no chance.

947 days, 21 hours, 2 minutes ago

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

> It appears that a details document on Cloaking would be a worthwhile investment of time.

This is almost done. Based on what I've seen of it, I think the new page helps to clarify the exact reasons for some of the cloaking strangeness that people see.

947 days, 16 hours, 41 minutes ago

vindicator

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

@hays point taken on early game for birds/privateers. Late game where horwasps need to weaken/get carriers move on to stand a chance is more what I was trying to think about.

Sacrificial stingers can help to get weapons discharged before a brood hits I am learning though...

947 days, 11 hours, 3 minutes ago

RE: If the Horwasp can tow a cloaked ship, why can they not...

That's why I am saying not on the turn that protofields are formed. The cloaking ship will notice the protofield and can chose to remain and lose cloak. Or sweep and get out of there.