Question on Cloaking and Sensors

[Enigma]

Do planets automatically detect cloaked ships at the highest your highest tech level or do you need to have sensors on ships or satellites?

Is there a range factor? Or does it just have to be in the same system?

To attack the cloaked vessel does the ship have to be in the same hex with the cloaked ships and your other ships?

Can all ships in a fleet attack a cloaked vessel even if only one ship has the appropriate sensor?

Thanks

[Alneyan]

Planets do not detect cloaking automatically (well, unless using a modded facility to do that). You will need a ship/satellite deployed in space.

There is no range factor involved: if they are in the same system as your sensors, you will see them. All your other ships will also see them, even if the sensor is at the other end of the system, and even your partners will see those cloaked ships (including yours by the way).

So basically, one sensor per system and you will be fine... unless this sensor is destroyed, of course.

[Suicide Junkie]

1) You need to build a sensor. They can be components in sats/ships/bases or even on a facility. But you do need to construct a sensor.

2) Cloaking and detection is system-wide.

3&4) Combat will only start if you are in the same sector AND can see at least one enemy ship. (Or they can see one of yours)
Once combat starts, all vehicles present will decloak and join the battle.

[Alneyan]

Something else on the topic of cloaking: units may *not* uncloak, so your satellites and drones will always be cloaked. There is a button to cloak or uncloak them, but it either does nothing (for satellites) or is switched back to uncloaked every turn (for drones).

If you plan on using cloaked units, make sure the enemy can see you (or keep an uncloaked unit with them, like a fighter), or else the enemy will just slip by.

[Enigma]

Thanks for the answers.

[Atrocities]

In most games players simply build a single recon satellite with either a Tach sensor or hyper optics and launch it into orbit around a planet. This lone satellite is all you need to detect a cloaked ship moving through your space.

[Enigma]

I am building satellites.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Make lots of sats and form them into groups spread randomly throughout the system. Only a few sats per group need to have a sensor, the rest are just "barrage balloons" to soak up damage. If you're really rich and you have a healthy cashflow, park cloaked bases under the sat groups for extra defense. If you're constructing one per group, give it ~50% of its space devoted to fighterbays and cargo storage. If you make multiple, I suggest making four or five - three normal defense bases with good shielding and armor and many weapons, and one or two crammed full with fighter bays and cargo storage.

Alternatively, you could just lay a massive minefield under the sats....

(or a minefield AND bases)

[Arkcon]

Like Atrocities said, what I do is build one sensor sat, in orbit around a well defended planet. If the sat isn't safe there, well, you've got bigger problems.

In enemy territory, I'll place the sat inside a storm. The standard game usually creates one per system. You get a nice system monitor with a fairly long lifespan.

In a nebula, its nice to build a base. Usually at the midpoint of the path between 2 warp points. Its nice if its a shield nullifying nebula, and the base is crammed full of armored fighters.

'Course none of this will fool anyone on Play-By-Web. You just simply expect these sorts of tricks to be in play. In fact, I've seen people just drop an uncloaked sat in enemy territory. You've got eyes for a couple of turns, that's all.