There are many threads outlining the problems with cloaking so, I’ll just jump right into the changes I suggest.
Cloaks would require scripts to work.
There would be 2 main type of cloaks.
One is a permanent script that isn’t consumed This would be a camouflage cloak. It would make a ship appear as another type of object to all intents and purposes until that object is locked up. At which point it would decloak and everyone on grid would see it for what it was.
For example: a nemesis is cloaked up in an asteroid belt and has an asteroid script in the cloak and appears to all sensors, the overview and in space as a rock. Until, an unsuspecting rorqual locks up the rock and discovers to his dismay that it this nemesis also has a cynosural field generator. Queue, ominous music.
There would likely be several camouflage cloak scripts. Asteroids, beacons, and other ship types would all have uses. I could also see a script that merely gives the same effect as the recons ships hiding the ship from d-scan only. This gives several interesting gameplay options that feel a lot better but preserve a strong ability for ships to hide in system and camp enemies (or friends as the case may be).
The second main type of cloaking script would be invisibility cloaks that work basically as the current system does but consumes charges much like the command burst modules do and I would think that the timeline for reloading would be similar. Allowing for combat cloaking to continue largely unaffected and keeping the compelling gameplay of stealth bombers and cloaky recons etc…
Maybe capital ships could also use different scripts also, it always felt odd that capital ships used the same device to cloak that frigates do.
Also, this change would feel good because it can be sold, lore wise, as an upgrade and not a loss of tech for gameplay.