What does each type of equipment do?

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Wonks
Quiet One
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2002 9:06 pm

What does each type of equipment do?

Post by Wonks »

The 4 equipment types are Scanners, Cloaking Devices, Illusion Generators (IG), and Jump Drives (JD). Scanners are the most common, found on almost every ship. See another category for how scanners work. Cloaks, IGs, and JDs are found on only certain ships. To change your equipment options (activate cloak, change IG settings), click on the option on the right menu bar that says "CIJS :".

Cloaking devices keeps your ship from being detected by anyone that has the same level as you or lower. This only works if the cloak is active and they are in the same sector as you. Cloak will not keep you from being detected on scans with a scanner or if you fly over a scout drone. Any combat you participate in will deactivate your cloak (including hitting mines). Although you cannot actually "see" a cloaked ship if it is in the same sector with you, if there are no other ships in the sector at all, you will see what is referred to as a "shadow". There will be the normal bar that says "Trader | Option" but underneath you will not see any ships. Also note that you cannot even see an ally who has a higher level than you and is cloaked, although you will fire with him. All of the Smugglers ships and nearly all of the WQ Humans' ships are able to use a cloaking device.

Illusion Generators allow you to make your ship look like any other ship of your choosing. Think of it as a type of camouflage. If someone examines your ship and has a scanner, they will see your fake ship type followed by the true stats of your ship. IG does not affect scan readings either. A common tactic for pilots of hunting ships with an IG is to make themselves look like a trade ship and sit around busy ports waiting for a real trader to wander into their sights. Illusion Generators are found almost exclusively on Salvene ships.

Jump Drives allow you to jump to any sector in the game using only 15 turns. But be warned that jumping more than 15 sectors or into another galaxy causes you to misjump about 75% of the time. When jumping to another galaxy, you can land as many as 8 turns away from your destination. Also, you cannot jump with enemy mines in a sector, so if you land in the middle of a minefield, there may not be a way out. Jump drives can be put on all federal ships and many Human ships.
The jump drive is currently more powerful than it was in SM. In SM you could only jump to adjacent galaxies. Many argue it is too powerful in SMR and should be changed.
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