Gunboat Cloaks

[Biggles]

As one who have gunboat+cloak , i can say it perfumes very well , even without CAU6 (i have CAU5 on it , but it would be only slightly weaker with HAU ) . It has sufficient armor , and even in heavy combat i manage to cloak and confuse opponents with that fast 20 second cloak activation , just to move away a little , and attack again . It don't need lighter cloak , it is fine as it is .
Besides , it leaves some advantage to people who decide not to equip cloak and go for heavy CAU instead !

You are lucky that you have one of the three gunboats that allow you too do this then. As I said in the first post the vast majority of gunboats are unable to do this which is why I think it ought to be changed.

People keep coming up with ways that a cloak gives you a PvP advantage on a gunboat to justify the limitation while ignoring the fact that cruisers and battleships can mount cloaks with CAUs no problem, despite the fact a cloak gives them a considerably greater tactical advantage due to their burst damage as Spazzy said. There is inequality even within the gunboat class, since three factional (no civilian option) gunboats are able to use CAU 5. This is why I would like a dev response because it seems irrational and unfair. Either all caps should be able to mount CAUs with their cloaks, or none of them should.

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Aurora — Wingman — Forumlancer — ALG

[sasapinjic]

As one who have gunboat+cloak , i can say it perfumes very well , even without CAU6 (i have CAU5 on it , but it would be only slightly weaker with HAU ) . It has sufficient armor , and even in heavy combat i manage to cloak and confuse opponents with that fast 20 second cloak activation , just to move away a little , and attack again . It don't need lighter cloak , it is fine as it is .
Besides , it leaves some advantage to people who decide not to equip cloak and go for heavy CAU instead !

You are lucky that you have one of the three gunboats that allow you too do this then. As I said in the first post the vast majority of gunboats are unable to do this which is why I think it ought to be changed.

CAU 5 has x3.3 , while HAU have from x2.5 to x3.0 , not a big difference , and every gunboat can equip at least HAU2+cloak .

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Spoiler

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^ where you can get Freelancer ISO , in emergency

These two spoilers were too big so now they're both one ~Champ

[Biggles]

It is a big difference - mounting a HAU 2 instead of a CAU 5 means a loss of ~100k armour on a heavy gunboat.

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Aurora — Wingman — Forumlancer — ALG

[sasapinjic]

It is a big difference - mounting a HAU 2 instead of a CAU 5 means a loss of ~100k armour on a heavy gunboat.

^ i did say at least HAU2 , many of them can equip x3.0 to , and there is no big difference between x3.0 and x3.3 .
On Bretonia gunboat simple math says 155.000 x 3.0 =465.000 and x3.3 =511.500 not even 10% , even less difference on smaller ones ,and don't forget , smaller means more agile and harder to hit to .

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Spoiler

welcome to Loberty
^ where you can get Freelancer ISO , in emergency

These two spoilers were too big so now they're both one ~Champ

[Biggles]

Yes the difference is small for the three gunboats which are able to mount the HAU 4 (which can all mount a CAU 5 anyway so I'm not even sure what your point is). You conveniently ignore the others like the Perilous (at the other extreme), which isn't even able to mount a HAU 2. Having to fly that with a HAU 1 rather than a CAU 6 is a massive disadvantage (a loss of 132000 armour).

This is beside the point however:

People keep coming up with ways that a cloak gives you a PvP advantage on a gunboat to justify the limitation while ignoring the fact that cruisers and battleships can mount cloaks with CAUs no problem, despite the fact a cloak gives them a considerably greater tactical advantage due to their burst damage as Spazzy said. There is inequality even within the gunboat class, since three factional (no civilian option) gunboats are able to use CAU 5. This is why I would like a dev response because it seems irrational and unfair. Either all caps should be able to mount CAUs with their cloaks, or none of them should.

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Aurora — Wingman — Forumlancer — ALG

[SnakeLancerHaven]

We already know how long it takes for a gunboat to take out a shield from another Gunboat. By uncloaking with just a HAU 4 or CAU 5 behind a CAU 6 - 8 Gunboat, you realy don't have a big advantage, in fact, you have a disadvantage which is realy stupid to consider that this mechanic was fitted in to be ballanced, noone will use a GB cloak, is everyone happy now? No, the GBs should be given a slightly more chance to survive against another GB to consider it being useful. At its current state, nope.

What else you gonna say? "Ooooh but you can use it as Recon Gunboat RP smmsms and minismsmsm" so does this mean we should now implement more stuff for just RP, I can do that on the forums why bother buying it in game. So all in all, the GB Cloak aint ballance compared to other Cloaks, Metal Gear.

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R.I.P Tabris...
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[Oldum]

We already know how long it takes for a gunboat to take out a shield from another Gunboat. By uncloaking with just a HAU 4 or CAU 5 behind a CAU 6 - 8 Gunboat, you realy don't have a big advantage, in fact, you have a disadvantage which is realy stupid to consider that this mechanic was fitted in to be ballanced, noone will use a GB cloak, is everyone happy now? No, the GBs should be given a slightly more chance to survive against another GB to consider it being useful. At its current state, nope.

What else you gonna say? "Ooooh but you can use it as Recon Gunboat RP smmsms and minismsmsm" so does this mean we should now implement more stuff for just RP, I can do that on the forums why bother buying it in game. So all in all, the GB Cloak aint ballance compared to other Cloaks, Metal Gear.

Nothing is balanced against anything , so... The only cloak I found useful is the snub one, cause I can stay alive for 4 seconds till it kicks in even if I'm in a pretty crossfire

[Epo]

Well, battleships and even cruisers are much bigger than funboats. If you compare a few funboats, well there have always been heavy and light ones. If it's somehow uncomfortable for you just invest in cloak disruptors to avoid being buttcloaked to death. Really, a few cloak disruptors and they can ruin cloaker's day, like it was proven in Omicron Zeta and Magellan 's pew while either Marduks or Valors got decloaked and then wiped to dust. And still, gunboat decloaking on snubs with lets say missiles/razors and gatling turrets could be problematic, even if it's HAU1ed Perilous. Cloaking device gives you some possibilities, eg. to strike in the weakest spots. It's just a weapon and it depends on you how you're going to use it. I personally think that the policy that's present in current days is the proper one.
There should be stronger and weaker things, lets mention the Liberty-Bretonnian alliance, LB brings light Defiants and Dessies while Brets give massive Dunkirk and their funboat. That's another story that in FL smaller most likely means better, tho.

To sum up: Make a good use of your pros, try to cover your cons. Get a proper ship to face the hostile vessel and it should be fine.