How do Stealth and Phase/Cloaking systems work?

[Kyle]

I tried searching for this, but no matter how I worded my search it always yelled at me using common words... so after going through a few pages (ten) and not finding what I was actually looking for - well - here's my question.

How do the Stealth systems work within the Star Army Universe? And how do cloaking devices (or Cloaking Drives as I sometimes refer to them as) operate? Do they actually cloak the ship, or do they operate along the lines of just hiding it from sensors?

And last, but not least, how viable is a 'phase cloak' in this universe? Can it be accomplished or do the powers at be pervent such a technology from being put into practice?

 

[mizunoyoroko]

Well, cloaking is done in many ways in the Star Army universe. I'd encourage you to look at the individual cloaking systems (of which I can only think of one at the moment). The form of cloaking the SAoY uses involves putting the ship in a different universe (which I'll assume is similar to 'phase' technology).

 

[Kyle]

Example: Phased technology works differently in both the ST and SW universes.

In the ST Universe, phased cloak shifted the ship out of reality but only enough so that it could pass through solid matter (but it was restricted to only passing through things with little to no gravity, or asteriod belts. Planets, suns and anything with a lot of gravity would destroy a phased ship)

In the SW Universe, Phased Cloak was never fullly developed. Unless I take into account the fan-universes, in that case, it would be based off the ST Cloak.

Phased cloak can be obtained and maintained a multitude of ways, it can be done by phasing the ship into another dimensional - but then we are kind of talking about dimensional travel here. As there are an infinite number of possible dimensions, you phase out of one dimension and into another, even briefly, and you might say howdy to that dimensions inhabitants.

Within the Star Army Universe, could a ship phase out of reality for a few moments to avoid being hit by weapons fire? Such as from the Ke-S3-W3020 Main Weapon Array?

 

[Nashoba]

Here is the Stealth information for the Combined Field System (CFS) used by most Star Army of Yamatai vessels.

The ship can also be rendered invisible to scalar radar, aetheric-energy sensors, other forms of detection by using the shield bubble to keep the ship in its own alternate plane of existence. It can also use its scalar fields to simulate that photons and other sensory forms pass through the "empty space" and thus its presence is hidden. When the ship is fully it its bubble plane, it may only use its RDD sensor to monitor normal space; all other sensors will be useless.

The Ke-S3-W3020 "An aether shock array works by releasing an incredibly intense scalar interference pulse that causes a tear in the fabric of space-time."

While the CFS would keep the ship from being 'directly' targeted, my opinion is that the tear in space-time would probably affect the ship.

 

[Zack]

It is against site policy to use things from other settings like SW, and trans-dimensional technology is being phased out IE: It is frowned upon to use.

You should figure out what your idea of ‘phasing’ is first instead of giving a nebulous question about a vague topic. I can tell you the SW and ST versions are both not viable in this setting but the SMX have their own version of the tech.

 

[Fred]

If Wes implements Yamatai's new hyperspace drive (sans distorsion flight, making the Combined Field System effectively to provide a ship with shielding only) then the ability to use CFS cloaking will be gone. Seeing that Yamatai has a precedent in phasing technology (the experimental phasing drive the Asamoya used) I could see it as the thing that can replace the role CFS stealth held before.

The question more of less becomes an issue of how stealth should be done in SARP - actual silent running and clever use of terrain, or hiding away in a pocket universe? Once that preference is determined, we can determine how much a phase cloak is a viable concept for this setting.

 

[Zack]

Phasing, as a concept and what as what it does, is not really well defined here. Phasing, when used in different areas across the site such as in various ‘phased’ weapons and in the ghost type SMX seems to have different rules and different results. Even between the examples we’re using here the SW device is different from the ST device which is also different from the oscillation over thruster (The BB device).

Also, neither the ‘silent running’ or the pocket universe method are really viable in this setting. Ships trying silent running like U-boats have plenty of ways of getting detected because it is impossible for them to be as cold as the background space (A topic which has been done to death, and thermal stealth never becomes a viable option in any of those discussions) and of course there is no terrain to hide behind in space unless you are on a planet. As for pocket universes… well, the hole in the universe they detect is a pretty good indication as to where the cloaked ship is.

In summery, cloaking devices in this setting will only be as effective as the level of incompetence of the enemy’s science officer.

 

[Kyle]

Or within an asteroid belt; which is a perfect hiding spot actually.

But I see your point; I'll give this some additional thought.

 

[Zack]

Keep in mind asteroids are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of miles apart, and are fairly small. If you are standing on one of the asteroids in our asteroid belt, you wouldn't be able to see any of the others. The asteroid will do nothing to hide your engine turning on and off, so people will spot you going to hide behind the asteroid and then leaving. You also would require very precise flying to put the asteroid between yourself and your enemy's sensor. Of course the enemy having a second senor (or a second ship with a sensor) makes hiding behind an asteroid impossible.

The only place with asteroid density like you would see in the movies would be saturn's rings. Unfortunately those can be paper thin and wouldn't obscure your ship enough to be viable.

So, I wouldn't count on asteroids making great hiding places.