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Thread: detecting cloaked ships

  1. #1

    Lightbulb detecting cloaked ships

    Nice one Steve... I like the book, now all I need to do is print it.

    Anyway I noticed that there seemed to be a method of finding cloaked ships missing from the list you stated, and wondered on the possibilities of my 'pet' method...

    A starship uses its deflector array to push spatial debris from its path, and avoid damage to the ship. It strikes me that this function becomes even more important if you use the cloak = no shields rule... but either way the effect is the same.

    The debris is pushed around a cloaked ship. So all that is really needed is to detect the 'wake' of the cloaked ship as it passes...

    As a narrator I had perfect technology, after all theres not a lot of room for plot when everythings perfect, so when I come up with something I always add a downside.

    So here it is. This 'wake' is made up of tiny particles, and so a ships strongest scanners, possibly the array in the deflector dish...

    This would mean that a ship would have to be pointed directly at the cloaked ship for it to work... Hard in 3D combat. I also reckon it would be more difficult if the cloaked ship remained motionless.

    note: Developed by Starfleet Commander Hauq Tranatas (A Bajoran) during an Orb Experience with the Orb of Wisdom...

    Any thoughts anyone?


    ------------------
    Dan.

    "A couple of thoughts froma random mind!"

  2. #2
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    Exclamation

    Hm, I thought about the wake thing a while back. I think it would have worked in TOS, but unlikely to work in STNG and up. Why? An inventive TOS captain would have figured on the same basic tactic. Once the Romulans or Klingons figured out what was going on, all they would have to do is have an attractor system on the aft of their vessel to close the wake behind them.

    I believe this logical upgrage would be a part of the basic cloak designs of STNG and up, which have a higher cloaking device rating than the TOS ships.

    Kim Quintin

  3. #3

    Post

    Originally posted by kimq:
    Hm, I thought about the wake thing a while back. I think it would have worked in TOS, but unlikely to work in STNG and up. Why? An inventive TOS captain would have figured on the same basic tactic. Once the Romulans or Klingons figured out what was going on, all they would have to do is have an attractor system on the aft of their vessel to close the wake behind them.

    I believe this logical upgrage would be a part of the basic cloak designs of STNG and up, which have a higher cloaking device rating than the TOS ships.

    Kim Quintin

    Not too logical... I had considered this myself... Now all your looking for as a complete 'hole' in spatial debris... I do agree that it can be abused, hence the major draw back built into the system...

    Maybe this should be one of those 'courage point' maneuvres...

    But how would it be possible to attract micro-metiorites and dust particles back together seamlessly behind the ship?


    ------------------
    Dan.

    "A couple of thoughts froma random mind!"

  4. #4
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    Dan, what you suggest is certainly intriguing. My main objection is that, for me at least, it founders on the rock of canon reality (or at least implied reality ). Your approach is so obvious that it would completely invalidate the use of the cloak a lot of the time. Since we know ships can travel under cloak at warp speeds and remain hidden, it seems to me that the "deflected matter" problem has been addressed and overcome by cloaking device technicians.

    Just thinking off the top of my head here, perhaps the cloak somehow uses the navigational deflector to disrupt spatial matter over an enormous irregularly-shaped area, one much larger than the ship's path, so as to foil any detection in this fashion.

    Alternately, as you'll note, page 163 of SD discusses the problems of flying at warp speed while cloaked. While the deflected matter issue hasn't ever come up on the show, maybe that problem plays into, or is a part of, the listed problems.

    Glad to see people thinking about these sorts of things, though!

    Steve Long

  5. #5
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    A further, more general/design philosophical sort of reply:

    Typically, when writing SD, I preferred to restrict myself to tactics and maneuvers from the canon. There was so much to work with that I really didn't have to make much up! So, I saved myself time and didn't engage in speculation about other ways to defeat shields, or detect cloaked ships, or what have you. I figure that sort of "deep thought" is better for these discussion boards or a supplement.

    Here's an idea I'll toss out along those lines. While I don't agree with the "deflected matter" issue you raised, we do know that cloaked ships passing through physical substances (e.g., clouds of magnesite ore dust; cf. SD, p. 163) are briefly revealed. How about tuning your deflector field to gather up a bunch of matter and dump it into the possible path of a cloaked ship? If you guessed right on where the ship is, bingo, instant detection.

    You could also project deuterium or gases from the Bussard ramscoops for the same effect.

    Steve Long

  6. #6
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    Just occured to me that if you're ever going to use phase-cloak with any regularity, you'd have to come up with a way to keep from clogging up your intestines with alot of space-dust.

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