A Doom using its phase cloak.
| Temporarily moves the ship into an alternate dimension known as p-space. The ship can still be detected by its phase coil emissions, but can not be hit by any weapons. Flux can not be dissipated in p-space, resulting in a constant buildup that forces the ship to come back to normal space eventually. Subjective time passes more quickly for the ship and its crew while in p-space. The phase cloak generator is large and has significant power requirements, and so generally replaces shields as a ship's primary means of defense. |
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–In-Game Description | ||
The Phase Cloak is used by certain ships instead of shields to avoid damage or quickly reposition. It is known to be used on the following ships:
Mechanics[]
Phase Cloak allow ships to enter phase space, or p-space for short. While in p-space, ships can neither fire, nor be hit by enemy weapons, nor be impacted by most ship systems with the notable exception of the Quantum Disruptor. They can pass through solid objects (including ships in normal space), but will not be able to drop out of p-space there.
Phasing ships experience time 3x faster than normal: ship speed, weapon/ship system reload speed, flux dissipation/accumulation, combat readiness degradation and other such stats are all hastened. This makes phase ships extremely dangerous while they last but they soon wear out and have to withdraw from combat. When the player ship is phasing the rest of the universe appears to slow down in a "bullet time" effect while their own ship behaves at normal speed.[1]
At the same time, phase ships have a speed penalty in phase space based on their hard flux, scaling from full speed at zero hard flux to 1/3rd speed at 50% hard flux (increasing to 75% with the Adaptive Phase Coils hullmod). This translates to the ship's effective speed falling from 3x that of an equivalent ship in normal space, to 1x.
After unphasing a ship has a two second cooldown before it can phase again. This is visually represented by the phase coils still glowing while in normal space.[1]
Phase cloaking produces a small amount of hard flux upon activation and continuously generates hard flux while active. Running out of flux capacity will force it out of p-space. Phase ships move more slowly in phase space as hard flux accumulates, to a minimum of 33% speed at 50% hard flux. The Adaptive Phase Coils hullmod raises the hard flux threshold to 75%.
Contrary to the in-game description, soft flux can be dissipated while in p-space.
Activating phase cloak will cause some missiles targeting the ship to seek another target, while others will continue on current trajectories but regain tracking if the phase ship surfaces.
Notes[]
Fighting phase ships[]
Phase ships can be effectively countered by applying consistent pressure. Denying them good firing positions is also effective, due to their generally low CR & burning through it at an increased rate while phasing. A non-exhaustive list of ways to do this;
- Assigning fast fighters to harry them
- Keeping the fleet together to reduce gaps in weapon arc coverage
- Hardened Subsystems to increase the CR of your own fleet
- Take fights near Solar Corona to deplete their CR even faster
- Assigning multiple frigates to harry each phase ship
- Build a more efficient phase ship, stalk them until they unphase and put an Antimatter Blaster right in their cockpit
- High Explosive weapons are particularly effective as phase ships lack a shield & tend to have lower amounts of hull
Fighting as phase ships[]
Phase ships can potentially generate huge rates of effective weapons fire soft flux dissipation relative to normal space by using the time acceleration of phase space to passively vent soft flux so don't be afraid to use a higher rate of weapon flux than would otherwise be sane. The time acceleration will also accelerate the reloading of weapons which encourages the use of burst fire weaponry such as the Burst PD Laser, Ion Pulser or Autopulse Laser. With enough maneuverability such as from Auxiliary Thrusters it is possible to phase, charge through an enemy ship while spinning around and return to normal space behind & facing them. These factors can be combined to output true prodigious amounts of firepower in a slippery package.
References[]
Change History[]
0.95.1a
- Phase cloak reduces top speed as hard flux goes up, down to 33% speed at 50% hard flux while phased
- New hullmods:
- Adaptive Phase Coils: increases hard flux level for minimum speed to 75%
- Phase Anchor:
- Reduces phase cloak activation flux cost to 0
- Increases soft flux dissipation and weapon cooldown/charge regen by 2x while phased
- One ship *per battle* can execute an "emergency dive" maneuver instead of being destroyed
- Counts as retreated instead and loses an extra deployment's worth of CR
- High ordnance point cost and can not be built in
- Fixed AI issue that could cause phase ships to perform their attack runs suboptimally
- And could occasionally cause them to hover inside the target ship
- Increased durability (hull and/or armor) of phase ships significantly, especially smaller ones
- (Phase capital ship stats unchanged)
0.8a
- New D hullmod Phase Coil Instability, applicable only to ships with a Phase Cloak
Only up to date for version 0.95.1. It is likely still broadly correct but not verified for the most up to date data yet. Please double check the Version History.