These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

EVE General Discussion

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
 

Cov Op Cloak

Author
Pod Panik
Low-Sec Scrubs
#1 - 2015-05-23 16:32:07 UTC
i am starting to experiment with cloaking ship (for upcoming low sec trip/adventure). some questions came up....


When using a cov op cloak, you can travel at full speed and even warp while cloaked. Is it possible to be catched by gate campers?


How close do you need to be from an object to be decloaked?




Many Thanks



Pod
Kashadin
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#2 - 2015-05-23 16:35:54 UTC
All these things are answerd by the item in game.

1. The cov-op cloak lets you move at full speed, but you can not activate a prop mod when it is on.

2. If there is something withing 2km from you, you can not activate the cloak and if it is already on then it will turn off.

3. It depends on the gate camp, where you land, and if you are fast. If you land right next to a instalock tackle, then you are gonna die, if you land 20km from everything and activate your cloak as soon as you start to align you should survive.
Wendrika Hydreiga
#3 - 2015-05-23 17:29:52 UTC
It is possible to be caught in gatecamps if there are bubbles. Only if you lose your cloak though, so it's based on your evasive maneuvers and a bit of luck.

Bubbles aside, almost every Cov Ops capable ship is agile enough to be out of harms way as soon as you activate your cloak. It takes just a bit of practice to master the gate cloakimg dance, which you can get by experimenting with the cloak in your daily travels.
TigerXtrm
KarmaFleet
Goonswarm Federation
#4 - 2015-05-23 18:00:59 UTC
In Low-Sec you should be virtually uncatchable by any conventional means if you use the cloak right. Only an insta-locking fleet or a pipe bomber might ruin your day, but those are rare enough not to be of concern.

In Null-Sec bubbles and interdictors are your worst enemies. Warping into a bubble usually means you're still cloaked so you can quietly sneak away. However, jumping into a system and getting caught by a bubble camp on the other side is a different story. Especially if it's an interdictor, your chances of survival become very low. With the MWD cloak trick you still have a chance to make it out if you know what you're doing, but it also takes a healthy dose of luck.

My YouTube Channel - EVE Tutorials & other game related things!

My Website - Blogs, Livestreams & Forums

Jenshae Chiroptera
#5 - 2015-05-23 18:38:41 UTC  |  Edited by: Jenshae Chiroptera
Watch out for drone ships that align toward you.
If you are trying to be slippery then poly rigs and nano fibers help as they improve your cloaked speed and overall align time helping to go to warp.

Oh and look up the MWD + cloak trick it is described well on EVE's wiki.

CCP - Building ant hills and magnifying glasses for fat kids

Not even once

EVE is becoming shallow and puerile; it will satisfy neither the veteran nor the "WoW" type crowd in the transition.

ChaseTheLasers
Ekchuah's Shrine Comporium
#6 - 2015-05-23 18:51:13 UTC
No one has mentioned it yet - you can get caught by gate campers through the use of smartbombs still. They don't need a lock to activate so the first you'll often know about it is when you go pop :)
Ralph King-Griffin
New Eden Tech Support
#7 - 2015-05-23 21:49:24 UTC
Anything closer than 2000m to you will decloak you.

When passing through a gatecamp the most common reason cloakys get cought is pilot error
By this I mean if you activate your cloak within the same server tic (one second) as you have another command like "warp" or "align" it will not activate and you get a little pop-up stating something about unable to process the command.
If you hesitate too long to re click the cloak when there's an interceptor or a legion present then you may get nailed.

Also when you activate the module there's a slight delay between your command input and the ui feedback (you know, the little green pulse on the icon) when you're feeling a little tense it's surprisingly easy to mistakenly click the icon a second time and actually doom yourself for no reason more than being jumpy.
most of the time it's fine but combine both scenarios here and you can see a silly story beginning to unfold.

I have learned both of these things the hard way as a lot of us have, they're easy mistakes to make and knowing about it in advance likely will not help Much but at least you know.
Bagrat Skalski
Koinuun Kotei
#8 - 2015-05-23 22:13:59 UTC  |  Edited by: Bagrat Skalski
Pod Panik wrote:
Is it possible to be catched by gate campers?

Campers set up dirty gates, a lot of abandoned drones and cargo cans, wrecks of victims, corpses, then they wait on the gate, hoping this stuff will prohibit cloaking so they can insta lock you. If you did not catch a dirt, they will try to decloak you and bump you out of alignement. sometimes they succeed. You better use scout in some fairly often dirt camped routes, like the route to high sec islands in low sec space.
Jenshae Chiroptera
#9 - 2015-05-24 00:54:27 UTC
Bagrat Skalski wrote:
Pod Panik wrote:
Is it possible to be catched by gate campers?

Campers set up dirty gates, a lot of abandoned drones and cargo cans, wrecks of victims, corpses, then they wait on the gate, hoping this stuff will prohibit cloaking so they can insta lock you. If you did not catch a dirt, they will try to decloak you and bump you out of alignement. sometimes they succeed. You better use scout in some fairly often dirt camped routes, like the route to high sec islands in low sec space.
You can also park, store medical clone, then just send your pod through the gate to have a look if it is empty, since it is now free intel. Blink

CCP - Building ant hills and magnifying glasses for fat kids

Not even once

EVE is becoming shallow and puerile; it will satisfy neither the veteran nor the "WoW" type crowd in the transition.

Violet Crumble
Weaponised Vegemite
Flying Dangerous
#10 - 2015-05-24 01:09:47 UTC  |  Edited by: Violet Crumble
Bagrat Skalski wrote:
Pod Panik wrote:
Is it possible to be catched by gate campers?

Campers set up dirty gates, a lot of abandoned drones and cargo cans, wrecks of victims, corpses, then they wait on the gate, hoping this stuff will prohibit cloaking so they can insta lock you. If you did not catch a dirt, they will try to decloak you and bump you out of alignement. sometimes they succeed. You better use scout in some fairly often dirt camped routes, like the route to high sec islands in low sec space.

In Tama on the Nourvakaiken gate that often happens. It's a good gate to avoid, even with a covops cloak fitted.

Funtime Factory - We put the fun back in funtime

Nevil Oscillator
#11 - 2015-05-24 02:18:33 UTC
Ralph King-Griffin wrote:
Anything closer than 2000m to you will decloak you.

When passing through a gatecamp the most common reason cloakys get cought is pilot error
By this I mean if you activate your cloak within the same server tic (one second) as you have another command like "warp" or "align" it will not activate and you get a little pop-up stating something about unable to process the command.
If you hesitate too long to re click the cloak when there's an interceptor or a legion present then you may get nailed.

.


Are you saying the safest way is to wait out the 60 seconds ?
Ralph King-Griffin
New Eden Tech Support
#12 - 2015-05-24 02:59:29 UTC
Scipio Artelius
Weaponised Vegemite
Flying Dangerous
#13 - 2015-05-24 03:06:58 UTC  |  Edited by: Scipio Artelius
Nevil Oscillator wrote:
Are you saying the safest way is to wait out the 60 seconds ?

If you have a covops cloak and are in lowsec, for the most part you can ignore gate camps and carry on as normal.


But otherwise, making good use of that minute is one of the best things you can do if you jump into a gate camp:

1. Don't panic
2. Look around.
3. Identify the camp ships that can lock fast and see where they are in comparison to you
4. Decide whether to attempt to burn back to gate or warp out
5. If warping out, look for a celestial that will move you away from them when you begin to move
6. Decide if you need to pull range quickly with your prop mod or if you want faster align without
7. Select the object you are going to try to head to (ie. gate, celestial or bookmark)
8. Wait...wait...wait.... Some other person might jump in or warp in and be chased instead, giving you time to escape
9. Wait until their tackle is at it furthest point from you if they are moving around
10. Align, prop mod (if using), pray, warp/jump



e. If worried about killboard efficiency:

7a. Open cargo so you can jettison quickly if caught
7b. Open character sheet augmentation tab, so you can unplug implants if necessary
...
...
...
11. If caught, jettison cargo
12. If pod likely to be caught (eg. in bubble) or caught, unplug all the things when ship dies or pod tackled
permion
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#14 - 2015-05-24 05:43:34 UTC
Just remember that most explorers die with their cloak down...
Tipa Riot
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#15 - 2015-05-24 07:37:59 UTC
Not mentioned yet, watch your cloak re-activation timer when travelling. With cov-ops explorers this is short so you can activate cloak again immediately after jumping through the gate. Other cov-ops like bombers have a longer timer, so it is good practice to deactivate the cloak a couple of seconds before you land on gate to start the timer. Also this prevents some unwanted jump delays / slowboating when you get decloaked by the gate itself.

... and finally, always cloak!

I'm my own NPC alt.

Stacy Lone
Nirakura Inc
Decisions of Truth
#16 - 2015-05-24 21:45:34 UTC
A covert ops cloak is not a guarantee to get through gate camps.

Having a covops cloak is good for low sec, but still it doesn#t mean you are safe.

- You can not cloak when there is something 2000m nearby
- You can nt cloak when you are locked by someone else
- You can move at 100% speed, but you can not activate any module, so no prop mod

This means that you can get caught, even in low sec. All the gate camp has to bring is either a instalocking stiletto (with lock times below 1s and ideally playing from europe), or any fast locking frif that gets remote sensor boosts, and you won't be able to cloak because EVE runs on a 1 HZ tick, called the "Destiny" tick.

Once you can not lock, it is just a question of wether the enemy can get enough points viascrams/disruptors on you. If you have a ship that aligns and warps in below 2s, you can not be caught by a low sec gate camp either way, because the moment the scrams/disruptors activate you are already in warp. This means for a fast aligning ship (below 2s), a covert ops cloak isn't necessary at all.

In null sec, things are different. A proper gate camp will bring bubbles. An MWD sabre can go above 6km/s, and a good pilot will spot the direction in which you are trying to escape his bubble and decloak you, especially if you have no experience with getting away. If the gate camp not only brings bubbles, but also has an insta locking stiletto, they WILL get you.

The most secure way of traveling through 0.0 is a fast aligning interceptor since it is immune to bubbles.

If you want the best of both worls, take the Victorieux Luxury Yacht. It's both nullified and can fit an covert ops cloak, and if you buy some faction mods for it, it even aligns in under 2s, und is thus literally uncatchable unless pilot error.

Nevil Oscillator
#17 - 2015-05-25 01:29:10 UTC
Ralph King-Griffin wrote:
be quiet nevil



Fixed
Nevil Oscillator
#18 - 2015-05-25 02:02:36 UTC
Stacy Lone wrote:

If you have a ship that aligns and warps in below 2s, you can not be caught by a low sec gate camp either way, because the moment the scrams/disruptors activate you are already in warp. This means for a fast aligning ship (below 2s), a covert ops cloak isn't necessary at all.





Not sure where the 2s comes from but it is possible for an instalock to catch a frigate that is already aligned to destination before it begins to decloak, I have yet to see it do the same thing with a shuttle.
Ashlar Maidstone
MoonFyre BattleGroup Holdings
#19 - 2015-05-25 02:53:06 UTC
Hi, my little trick I use is probably a standard used by any Covops ship, that is when leaving a station to go to losec for example once you jump in then hit jump to next gate, as soon as it appears on screen "Warp Drive Active" then I hit cloak at literally the same time within a fraction of a second. I haven't tried some of the other tricks used but thats the one I been using even in hisec.