Cloak command
The CLOAK command activates or deactivates an installed cloaking system. A cloak takes time to conceal the ship and draws neutron flux while active. Its visibility and combat effects are described on Cloaking.
Syntax
CLOAK ON
CLOAK OFF
The command may be abbreviated to CLO. It is not a toggle: the player must specify ON or OFF. A ship whose class does not support cloaking cannot use it; HELP CLASS lists class capabilities. CLOAK is disabled in ge-arena regardless of ship-class settings.
Turning the cloak on
CLOAK ON starts a two-ship-update activation sequence. The ship remains visible until the second update completes, normally about 6–12 seconds after the command, but its affected weapons and countermeasures are blocked as soon as activation starts. The player is notified when the ship becomes fully concealed. See activation and recovery for the internal states.
The command cannot be used in hyperspace; entering hyperspace later forces an active or charging cloak off. A damaged cloaking system also cannot be activated until Damage Control repairs it. Classic requires the current flux pile to contain more than one configured cloak draw before activation, and the command does not itself load a carried flux pod. ge-next checks the actual cost through its common flux-management routine and can load a pod immediately if one is available. The default cost is 7,500 per update in classic 3.2e and 5,000 in ge-next; see flux use for the continuing cost and classic autoreload behavior.
ge-next adds guards absent from classic: a ship cannot begin cloaking during a self-destruct countdown or while fatally damaged. It also cannot normally activate cloak while maintenance is underway, except when orbiting a planet owned by its commander. Beginning activation can notify observers whose enhanced locking equipment is tracking the ship.
Turning the cloak off
CLOAK OFF during the charging sequence cancels it. In classic, switching off is immediate: affected weapons become available and a nearby decloaking message is broadcast even if the ship had not yet become invisible. In ge-next, affected systems remain unavailable for a recovery period ending at the next ship-state update, no more than about six seconds later; the player receives a notice when they are back online. This gives others a small window between seeing an uncloaking message and the uncloaking ship being able to fire. ge-next broadcasts a nearby decloaking warning and a visible-ship appearance only if the cloak had reached full concealment. Entering hyperspace or losing cloak power also triggers ge-next's recovery state.
See also
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