Cloak Comparison

frostytheplebe

Seventh Part of the Seal
I just finished playing WC4 on the PSP and noticed something unusual. The cloaking device used by the arrow and the one on the Dragon seem quite different.

When the arrow cloaks, it disappears completely, you can still shoot it down, but you can't see it at all. It's pretty effective.

The Dragon on the other hand disappears for a few seconds and then flashes bright for a moment before returning to its original shade of gray... but it does not disappear. It fools the targeting systems and radar, but you can still get a visual on it. Personally, this would be more effective if, instead of a cloak, it was a radar dampener. That way, the Dragon could still shoot.

The other odd thing is that on the Intrepid's fight deck, the ship did indeed fully disappear.
 
This depends entirely on what you are flying IIRC. If you are flying a Dragon, it has something that lets you see cloaked ships even though you can't target them specifically.
 
to its original shade of gray

Dragons are thesame color as copper(the metal)

I also believe that the cloak in the arrow, which was based on the cloaking device used in the excalibur during the kilrah bombing run, was a pure confed design. The dragon clearly has some kilrathi influances, and possibly using their cloaking tech.

In WC3/4 you can still get a visual on a cloaked ship, you'll notice that when you have damaged a ship it starts "leaking"(this also happens in wing2, but in Wing3/4 you can actually "see" the outlines of the ship if your screen setting is bright enough), but this is purely a limitation of the game engine AFAIK.
 
As far as I remember, when I was fighting 2 Dragons with a Vindicator they were disappearing completly. When I was fighting Dragons with a Dragon, when they cloacked I could still see their shape.

I always thought that Dragons have some special systems to see through cloack. Am I right guys?
 
Yes, the Dragon has anti-cloak optics that let you see an outline of cloaked ships. It's not enough for ITTS targeting assistance, but with that fat back end once you get behind it missing is kinda difficult if you have even passable aim. :p
 
I am a fan of Dragons. IMHO No other fighter is as good as 'em.
I just finished playing Wing4, it was my first time of the HQ DVD version.

Killing anything; fighters, capships is relatively easy with a Dragon. It outperforms everything in the game and still it can be quite fragile. One has to know how to use it with deadly effect.
 
I don't totally agree, I mean the Dragon isn't really all that great...It's rather sluggish as far as maneuvering is concerned, although is fairly quick... The Weapons are definitely overpowered I mean 2 plasma, 2 tachyon, & 2 FISSION!..... Of coarse it does have a cloaking device and is heavily armored... according to wcnews database.. it has the shielding and armor of a longbow bomber... I would think that there is limited knowledge on the Fission Cannons... That perhaps they were unstable (We don't see them after WC4). But still 2 plasma and 2 tachyon will mess anything up. But for it's time (WC4) it was top notch.
 
That perhaps they were unstable (We don't see them after WC4).

Those kind of assumptions are generally unfounded. Maybe lots of ships had Fission Cannons after the Dragon, but we just didn't happen to see them (yet). Maybe it turns out the Charging Mass Driver is just as effective and cheaper to produce/easier to maintain/etc.
 
In comparing the Dragon and Arrow cloaks, I could still see the Dragon, but it did at least make it a bit harder to see them. I think even with the Arrow's advantage of totally disappearing, the Dragon could still be strategically better because of it's ability to destroy large capships.
 
I think you misunderstand. There is no comparison. You were not able to see the Arrows because you were flying standard Border Worlds fighters - the Dragons were only (marginally) visible because the advanced optics available in your own Dragon/Lance fighter are able to partially counter the cloaking ability.
 
Yes, I misunderstood. I didn't believe the programming went into that much detail for such a minor element. That's really cool.
 
I think you misunderstand. There is no comparison. You were not able to see the Arrows because you were flying standard Border Worlds fighters - the Dragons were only (marginally) visible because the advanced optics available in your own Dragon/Lance fighter are able to partially counter the cloaking ability.

Don't you actually encounter cloaking Arrows while flying a Dragon, once? In the final mission (the same one where you face Seether). I know most people don't bother with them...they just cloak and fly past...but if you do stop to dogfight, can't those Arrows cloak?

Anyone recall if they do? And if they do, could you still see them with the Dragon's advanced optics?
 
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