Jorus Merrill
is mek bote
[SIZE=9pt]OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Strengths[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]DESCRIPTION[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The Nerf Herder’s Guide to Beating a a Cloak is a specialized and kind of messy ship modification manual written by Jorus Merrill and the outlaw techs of the Wretched Hive. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The first chapter is about gravity. Key points:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The second chapter is about drive emissions. Key points:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The third chapter is about magnetism. Key points:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The fourth chapter is about dust. Key points:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The fifth chapter is about comscan systems and not being dumb. Key points:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The sixth chapter is likewise about not being dumb, this time in the context of weapons fire. Key points:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The seventh chapter also addresses hibridium vs stygium cloaks. It focuses on hyperspace. Key points:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The eighth chapter speaks to the standard ‘comprehensive stealth loadout’ developed by the Echani/Mandalorian inventor Rel Connory, and since imitated directly or indirectly by countless shipwrights through various iterations. Key points:[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Intent:[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] A handy guide on how to detect a ship with a cloaking device, and how to make your ship less likely to be detected. Also, to compile information on Legends/Canon stealth technologies as a resource for budding shipwrights.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Image Source: [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]N/A[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Canon Link: [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]N/A[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Restricted Missions:[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] N/A[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Primary Source: [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Edge of Victory: Rebirth[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Crucible[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Dark Disciple[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt], [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Heir to the Empire[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Dark Force Rising[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]The Last Command[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Age of Rebellion: Strongholds of Resistance[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]The Clone Wars: “Cat and Mouse”[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Agents of Chaos II: Jedi Eclipse[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Manufacturer:[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]The Wretched Hive[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Model:[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] The Nerf Herder’s Guide to Beating a Cloak[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Affiliation:[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Closed-Market[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], Outer Rim Coalition (ask first)[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Modularity:[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] You could write in the margins. In fact, it’s encouraged.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Production[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]: [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Semi-Unique[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Material: [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Flimsiplast[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]spacer’s leather[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Describes seven key ways to detect a cloaked ship, and how to compensate for them, all in the context of starship modifications.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Mass-detectors, crystal gravfield traps, and gravitic modulators[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Drive emissions, thrust trace dampers, and multi-ship environments[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Magnetic sensors, their limitations, and non-magnetic hull options[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Dust, debris, nebular matter, and pressor fields[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Scanning and communications[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Hibridium vs stygium - weapons fire [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Hibridium vs stygium - hyperspace activity; Cronau radiation[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Strengths[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]:[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Pretty darn comprehensive.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]It’s a book. It can be ripped, burned, lost, folded, bent, spindled, and mutilated.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Jorus isn’t a professional writer, and didn’t consult an editor (apart from proofreading and contributions by [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Alna Merrill[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Mara D’Lessio Merrill[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Dingo Darr[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], and [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Shenna’vala[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]), so the book isn’t well organized or formatted. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]You need to know a thing or two about ship modification yourself - the book assumes a certain level of knowledge. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]It’s as much about marketing as it is about informing. Think of the book like a catalogue: read it, realize you’re not quite sure how to pull off modification package X, come talk to the Wretched Hive and they’ll be more than happy to accommodate you.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]DESCRIPTION[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The Nerf Herder’s Guide to Beating a a Cloak is a specialized and kind of messy ship modification manual written by Jorus Merrill and the outlaw techs of the Wretched Hive. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The first chapter is about gravity. Key points:[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Every ship has mass and thus distorts spacetime; it has its own gravity. This applies to cloaked ships as well.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Specialized sensors called [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]mass-detectors[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], the most powerful and notable of which is the rare and bulky [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]crystal gravfield trap[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] (CGT), can detect a cloaked ship…[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]...unless that ship is EXTREMELY small/lightweight, or has a [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]gravitic modulator[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]. A ship with a gravitic modulator cannot be detected by mass detectors/GCTs.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]It can, however, be detected at ultra-short range by a rare [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Angel Eye[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] sensor suite. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The second chapter is about drive emissions. Key points:[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]All ships (except solar sailers) leave behind a trail of invisible drive exhaust. Advanced sensors can detect and track exhaust…[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]...unless the stealth ship is flying through an area where many ships are or have been flying, making a single trail impossible to pick out…[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]...or unless the ship is equipped with [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]thrust trace dampers[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], sometimes called efflux diffusion baffles, which slow the ship considerably while in use. Thrust trace dampers also mask drive glow, making an uncloaked ship harder to detect visually.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The third chapter is about magnetism. Key points:[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Pretty much every ship ever built has some ferromagnetic metals in it, and most ship hulls show up just fine on magnetic sensors. Magnetic sensors can detect cloaked ships…[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]...if the ship is fairly close…[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]...unless the ship has a very very low magnetic permeability. A ship whose hull is fiberplast, duraplast, ceramic, titanium, ultrachrome, etc. won’t show up as much of a blip on magnetic sensors, if at all. The normal tradeoff for most of those materials is durability. Most of them just aren’t as strong as normal-strength ship hull materials like durasteel, doonium, and havod. It takes a lot of work to strip down and rebuild a ship out of substances that don’t show up on magnetic sensors. Even then, an accumulation of little things - transparisteel/glasteel viewports, droids, electronics, virtually every kind of starship weapon - can show up as a mild blip on magnetic sensors at close range. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Instead, in some circumstances, Jorus suggests disguising a ship as another ship, a drifting cargo container, or an asteroid: something that would have a reason for a magnetic signature.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]It’s also worth noting that all Jorus’ advice exists in the context of small ships. A capital ship is a whole ‘nother story.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The fourth chapter is about dust. Key points:[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]A cloaked ship flying through dust, debris, especially dense nebular matter, clouds, comet tails, etc. will leave a wake which can be detected by advanced sensors - and even, sometimes, by the naked eye. Your best option at this point is to avoid circumstances like that. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Alternately, if you need to detect a cloaked ship, you could do worse than carrying, accumulating, or dumping a whole lot of dust or other particles. Venting various fluid tanks, for example, would be a serious gamble but could probably achieve the desired effect at short range. A ship has all kinds of fluids aboard, most of them crucial and some of them hilarious. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]As a countermeasure, Jorus recommends using a dedicated [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]pressor field[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] and then moving quickly away from the source of the growing particle-free zone. He does not, however, recommend using a standard tractor/pressor to try and disperse the particles: the targeting mechanism on any model is basically guaranteed to lock up from the effort of trying to identify and track thousands of tiny objects. That’s true even of military tractor/pressors on command ships.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The fifth chapter is about comscan systems and not being dumb. Key points:[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]No stealth ship can actively scan something or chat over comm systems and remain totally undetected. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Jorus strongly recommends high-gain passive sensors (such as the passive modes of standard directed energy receptors, or wider-angle systems) and dedicated tightbeam communications gear. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]He also strongly recommends not being a derp by scanning or transmitting while cloaked. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The sixth chapter is likewise about not being dumb, this time in the context of weapons fire. Key points:[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of cloaking devices, one based on hibridium and one based on stygium. A hibridium cloak is double-blind (a hibridium-cloaked ship is in darkness and cannot scan/transmit out except by protruding detectable sensors/comm gear through the cloaking bubble). A stygium cloak is single-blind, meaning it can see out just fine. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]However, hibridium cloaks have one major advantage: you can fire your weapons (blind). Stygium-cloaked vessels need to decloak to fire. Thus, any time a cloaked ship fires at you, it has either decloaked briefly (stygium) or is probably firing inaccurately (hibridium). Either way, you can see where the weapons fire came from. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Bottom line: don’t use weapons while cloaked.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The seventh chapter also addresses hibridium vs stygium cloaks. It focuses on hyperspace. Key points:[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]If a hibridium-cloaked ship attempts to jump to hyperspace, it will fail and suffer catastrophic damage. It must decloak before jumping and re-cloak after decanting to realspace. In that brief window, specialized sensors (often found on key worlds/defensive installations/major warships) can detect [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Cronau radiation[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt], which notifies them that a ship has reverted from hyperspace ‘thattaway.’ [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]A stygium-cloaked ship can jump to hyperspace and revert to realspace while cloaked, preventing detection by Cronau radiation. This requires preparation and presence of mind on the part of the ship’s commander.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The eighth chapter speaks to the standard ‘comprehensive stealth loadout’ developed by the Echani/Mandalorian inventor Rel Connory, and since imitated directly or indirectly by countless shipwrights through various iterations. Key points:[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]If a small ship has a cloaking device, a gravitic modulator, and thrust trace dampers, it will be undetectable…[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]...as long as you don’t do anything dumb, like:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Flying close enough to the enemy for magnetic sensors to pick you up;[/SIZE] - [SIZE=9pt]Flying through dust/debris fields or clouds;[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Dropping out of hyperspace within detection range or uncloaked;[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Scanning or chatting on comms;[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Firing weapons;[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=9pt]Etc.[/SIZE]
