MWD Cloak Help

I don’t understand your question. Are you trying to do it as described in the UniWiki article provided in another post above, or are you trying to do something else?

And any command you issue has to wait for the next server tick to be processed, yes, but that doesn’t mean they may target lock you during that time. They also have to wait for the server to send the data to the client every server tick…

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The question is really just what routine should we perfect to ensure we engage the cloak every time it is possible?

I’ve somewhat settled on thumb-button (jump) + triple click gate then cloak immediately. It works most of the time, but every once in a while I get the “interference from the cloaking you are doing” message and I have to hit it again immediately or I’m out to dry. I wish there were some way to precisely time commands you send to the server short of something shady like a mouse clicker app.

In general, the best way to issue commands in rapid succession is using keyboard shortcuts for them.

In this case the sequence I use is single click the next gate (or whatever you want to warp to) first. IME you have to do this even if it was already automatically selected by AP after jumping gate, in order for the keyboard shortcuts applying to it to take effect next.

Once you’ve ensured the object you want to warp to has been properly selected and keyboard shortcuts issued to it will be recognised, hit the keyboard shortcut for aligning, then the cloak, the MWD, and the hardeners just in case. You need to be careful not to hit cloak and MWD too soon after hitting align, though, to avoid those commands being ignored because the system thinks you’re still under gate cloak, indeed, but you may check the gate cloak timer at the top left of the screen to see when you may issue those commands.

Wait a second, KM…

I thought you had to hold down the shortcut key and then click the next gate in the overview with the shortcut key held down. I could never find any other way to do it, even though it made no sense to me why the interface was built like that.

Are you telling me that there is a way to “align to currently selected object”? Because that would be a huge game changer.

Yes, you may align first and warp to or jump later with keyboard shortcuts, provided the object has been properly selected first.

The issue here, which is what may have made you believe that didn’t work, is that the object may appear to be selected in overview, but keyboard shortcuts issued to it still not be recognised. It’s often the case that you have to click the object in overview (even if it appears to be already selected), in order for commands issued to it to be recognised.

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try this in game : click something on the overview, then press and release the “align to” button.

Then use the arrow keys and align to the new selected thing.

Yes, you can press align once as long as you have selected the target in the overview and not in space but I feel it’s more reliable to hold align and double/triple click. I didn’t mean to confuse by saying “jump;” the proper command would be: hold align shortcut + triple click gate on overview, then cloak & MWD at the same time (just as long as cloak isn’t pressed an entire tick before MWD I believe).

The way you describe it is correct, Knowledgeminer, but as you mention, the trick is not doing it too quickly. Because of this, I actually have more luck using the mouse to click everything because moving from overview to modules on a large monitor ends up being almost exactly one tick.

It’s frustrating that in a 3 dimensional chess-like game of calculation there are arbitrary aspects that require click-finesse and even worse, that it requires luck, since every player is in the blind when it comes to when the ticks are happening. Unless… maybe we have some way of visualizing the ticks? We need a server metronome haha

You can activate the cloak well before the MWD. This was a programming error by CCP, apparently, that they decided not to fix. You shouldn’t be able to activate any modules once the cloak is active, but there is a substantial margin for error - something like 3 seconds.

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Thanks for the clarity… it does feel like several ticks.

The clincher is how you can send an align command 500ms before your MWD/cloak command and you’re still “under gate cloak”.

[Impel, Haul]

Damage Control II
True Sansha Multispectrum Energized Membrane
Corpum C-Type EM Energized Membrane
Corpum C-Type Kinetic Energized Membrane
Corpum B-Type Thermal Energized Membrane
Inertial Stabilizers II
Federation Navy 800mm Steel Plates

50MN Microwarpdrive II

Improved Cloaking Device II

Medium Trimark Armor Pump II
Medium Trimark Armor Pump II

Try this fit OP.

Hi all

I’m a cloak+MWD fanatic, but I got killed yesterday. I still don’t know what happened, but it seems a Phobos managed to lock me when I did the decloak/jump action. It never happened before, and I survived dozens of LS gate camps (only smalls :smiley: ), and did hundreds of LS jumps with my badger.
My question is. If I decrease the velocity that makes any sense? Like using a wreathe. I think not, because the MWD cycle is still 10s. I will use 3 stabs on my build next time.
Do you have any experience with small velocity MWD+cloak ships?

The most common issue is that some object decloaked you.

I didn’t see any message in the logs about that. But maybe that was the reason. So It doesn’t make any sense to use a hauler with smaller velocity then?

Does that show up in the logs? I don’t think so.

It does.
[ 2020.10.11 18:42:33 ] (notify) Your cloaking systems are unable to activate due to your ship being within 2000 meters of the nearby Refinery.

And this is my logs from the mentioned encounter:
[ 2020.10.10 11:21:53 ] (None) Jumping from Cleyd to Vecamia
[ 2020.10.10 11:22:11 ] (notify) AEPOQ: You have foolishly engaged in criminal activity within sight of sentry guns and must suffer the consequences.
[ 2020.10.10 11:22:12 ] (combat) <color=0xffffffff>Warp scramble attempt <color=0x77ffffff>from <color=0xffffffff><fontsize=12><color=0xFFFEBB64> Phobos<fontsize=12><color=0xFFFEFF6F> [W.SKY] <fontsize=10>[DNCKD]
<fontsize=10> [AEPOQ]<color=0xFFFFFFFF> - <color=0x77ffffff>to <color=0xffffffff>you!
[ 2020.10.10 11:22:12 ] (combat) <color=0xffffffff>Warp scramble attempt <color=0x77ffffff>from <color=0xffffffff><fontsize=12><color=0xFFFEBB64> Phobos<fontsize=12><color=0xFFFEFF6F> [W.SKY] <fontsize=10>[DNCKD]
<fontsize=10> [AEPOQ]<color=0xFFFFFFFF> - <color=0x77ffffff>to <color=0xffffffff>you!
[ 2020.10.10 11:22:12 ] (combat) <color=0xffffffff>Warp disruption attempt <color=0x77ffffff>from <color=0xffffffff><fontsize=12><color=0xFFFEBB64> Phobos<fontsize=12><color=0xFFFEFF6F> [W.SKY] <fontsize=10>[DNCKD]
<fontsize=10> [AEPOQ]<color=0xFFFFFFFF> - <color=0x77ffffff>to <color=0xffffffff>you!
[ 2020.10.10 11:22:12 ] (notify) Improved Cloaking Device II fails to activate as it is still recovering from its last period of operation and will be for the next 26 seconds.

You can imagine what happened next :smiley:

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I have been having all of these problems too recently. Including getting dead.

The main problem appears to be my not understanding precisely when my ship is decloaked and when it is invulnerable from scram, simply because it is actually warping. I never realized this until recently, when using a wreathe.

Part of the issue appears to be my past adherence to the rule of reaching 75% of base speed, prior to hitting decloak + warp. Works well in a miasmos, the ship I have done hundreds of LS jumps in.

However, my recent experimentation suggests that this % of base speed is largely incidental for quick align ships like the wreathe ie it is absolutely to do with MWD cycle time. Try this. Put a wreathe in space, do the MWD cloak at ~75% speed (say 130 m/s) and I’m guessing you will see the “warp vector” line along with a notification of warp. This is the bit I now realize I didn’t understand. Does this mean I am not in fact warping but am still uncloaked and therefore vulnerable to someone with a long enough point/ quick enough locking skills?

Then take that same wreathe and run the MWD cloaked to about 230/240 m/s (which is more than base speed). Not only will you not see the white warp vector line, there is a good chance you will see your ship move instantly. I rather suspect I have not therefore been “insta-warping” all this time, but have also been “quick enough” with slower align ships to simply get off with it in the past.

Part three of the experiment is fit your wreathe with five expanded holds. To basic ally slow it up. I think you’ll find that the “go speed” is back to around the 130/ 140 m/s.

Bottom line, I think yes, the cloak + MWD does still work, but you have to work out for yourself what the correct speed is for each ship/ fit that you use. I have also been caught out with this in Vecamia, and they have been either bad enough and/or solo for three warp stabs to work. In better camps, not so much.

“Unable to activate” is not the same as “deactivates because of…”

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I have been getting a tad paranoid about this part as a result too. You know this but … with extended use of cloak+MWD during each jump, it is possible to get caught out by short jumps. So, you jump and automatically cloak+MWD but the cloak fails because it has yet to recover from the previous use. In this case, that seems unlikely, because 26 secs is too long. Maybe just fat fingers ie you inadvertently turned your cloak on and off, before hitting MWD?

Nah, I succesfully cloaked with MWD. That message is my panic, when I tried to recloak, or burn back to gate when I didn’t warped out.
Interesting what you wrote. Basically I see the Warp message popping up, then I’m in warp. I decloak at 80-90% of the MWD cycle, that’t the fastest with my Badger. But I will check that, and make some tests with that. Is it possible, the russian guys use some hack there? I see a bunch of kills from there. And they got dozens of cloak+mwd, or blockade runner ships too.

Unlikely. It’s much more likely that they know the uncloak mechanics better than their victims and have set up an efficient uncloaking and locking gatecamp.

While I am not an expert on MWD+cloaking and have rarely used it, I do know that your ship needs to be agile enough to get your ship within align speed before you uncloak.
If you align too slow, you may spend tic(s) uncloaked and not in warp yet, which can get you locked, pointed and killed.

Let’s take your Badger as an example, with a cloaking device 2 and meta 50mn MWD.

I don’t know your skills, so I’ll assume worst case and they’re all 0.

  • Max speed is 127
  • Base align speed required for warp is 75% of that, which is 95m/s
  • Speed with both cloak and MWD online is 185m/s
  • Align speed with cloak and MWD online is 75% of that, which is 139m/s
  • Align time with (cloak and) MWD online is 20.4s

Let’s make the assumption that velocity goes up linearly with time (probably bad assumption, so results may not be entirely accurate).
With cloak and MWD running, your Badger can reach base align speed within 95/139 * 20.4 = 13.9s. Your MWD cycle stops after 10s, so you’re uncloaking within 10s, which means you spend some time uncloaked while not yet in warp!

Your skills will likely be higher than 0, so I expect you align a little faster and perhaps in time to reach align speed before your MWD decycles. But keep this in mind. If you want to be on the safe side: make your ship more agile. :wink:

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