Cloaking (Advanced)

Cloaking technology is not widely available in Near Space, but scientists have developed several systems that enable starships to avoid detection by other starships. Activating a cloaking device takes one action by an engineer while the starship is neither in motion nor engaged in combat. The ship vanishes from view, and based on the cloaking device’s level, another ship must have sensors of a minimum level to detect it.

Cloaking technology is named for the maximum quality of sensors that can’t detect the cloaked ship. Cut-rate cloaking technology fools only cut-rate sensors; budget cloaking technology fools only cut-rate and budget sensors, and so on. Sensors capable of detecting a cloaked starship can do so only when the cloaked starship has entered the sensor’s first range increment. Engaging a Drift engine or thrusters or beginning starship combat immediately negates the cloaking ability, whereupon the ship reappears and can be detected normally.