Quick lore question

[Absalom]

So downloaded the mod and been having a real blasty-blast but I have a question about the lore. 

I fully read the starting bootypedia when I began, and the readme included with the game.  So I got that, in-game, we are escaped mutants trying to survive as pirates and rebuild knowledge starting from the ground up.  However, while researching various things and gradually building knowledge back from bows and arrows to apples and wine trying to get the technology for a workshop when a research topic for "Cloaking Device" was unlocked.  Even more, once researched, the entry assumed I already knew about the cloaking devices "we" were using, or used, or something.  While I can infer that apparently we are using a cloaking device on all our ships to not be caught, and that it's an explanation for the gameplay limitation of not having OUR craft be intercepted, my question is what exactly are we, the player, supposed to know about our gal's "Cloaking" when we start out?

[Dioxine]

I reworked the text to be more in-line with the current version of the game (it comes from a time when cloaking devices were available to buy from the get-go) :
THESE DEVICES RENDER CRAFTS INVISIBLE TO ALL FORMS OF LONG-RANGE DETECTION. BY INSTALLING THEM, WE CAN APPARENTLY MAKE EVEN A WARSHIP DISSAPPEAR, REMOVING THE LIMITATION OF USING ONLY CIVILIAN CRAFT. THE REAL MYSTERY IS, WHO MANUFACTURES AND SELLS THEM? WHY? HOW?

[Starving Poet]

So, to add - you used to start with the Bonaventura - which is a proper warship - and we sorted needed a lore item to explain why we weren't getting intercepted by the AI.

You still need to buy a cloaking device when you make a craft in your workshop, but now that we start with civilian vessels, I can understand where the confusion came from.

[Absalom]

I reworked the text to be more in-line with the current version of the game (it comes from a time when cloaking devices were available to buy from the get-go) :
THESE DEVICES RENDER CRAFTS INVISIBLE TO ALL FORMS OF LONG-RANGE DETECTION. BY INSTALLING THEM, WE CAN APPARENTLY MAKE EVEN A WARSHIP DISSAPPEAR, REMOVING THE LIMITATION OF USING ONLY CIVILIAN CRAFT. THE REAL MYSTERY IS, WHO MANUFACTURES AND SELLS THEM? WHY? HOW?

Ja but it's still quite the tech jump from interrogating hookers and crafting bows to suddenly cloaking devices.  I would update the "Our Origins" or "Our Fight," or even better, rename the text and entry from "Cloaking Devices" to be "Craft Interception" or something suitably piratey such as "Making her Flush" (the pirate term for converting a captured merchant vessel into a warship suitable for their needs.)

So, to add - you used to start with the Bonaventura - which is a proper warship - and we sorted needed a lore item to explain why we weren't getting intercepted by the AI.

You still need to buy a cloaking device when you make a craft in your workshop, but now that we start with civilian vessels, I can understand where the confusion came from.

So it's a engine limitation question.  Which is a shame since real life mariners in the golden age of piracy would utilize all sorts of subterfuge to avoid interception such as carrying multiple nations' flags and ships papers (registrations,) which evolved into a high stakes game wherein the boarded ship captain had to guess which nationality the boarding warship was and whom he was legally allowed to capture and present the correct papers to prevent seizure of goods etc.

Obviously this is far beyond the scope of the game but I'm just trying to justify my History minor somehow.

[CaptainCorkscrew]

It makes sense. I had the idea to do something along those lines. Enemy ships could fly under a false flag, turning on lights to look like local government ships, something like that. I guess that should be possible. Such ideas need to be fleshed out though.

[Solarius Scorch]

It makes sense. I had the idea to do something along those lines. Enemy ships could fly under a false flag, turning on lights to look like local government ships, something like that. I guess that should be possible. Such ideas need to be fleshed out though.

Well, it wouldn't be very efficient this day and age, with Hyper-Wave Decoders added to every Big Mac.

Without sabotaging/subversing the entire defense grid, I think a cloaking device is the only way not to get blasted off the skies.

[Dioxine]

Ja but it's still quite the tech jump from interrogating hookers and crafting bows to suddenly cloaking devices. 

What tech jump? You don't have any idea how they work, much less how to manufacture them. Nobody does, as this text is meant to convey.

[Martin]

Not related to the cloaking device, but I have to ask and don't feel like making another thread for this one.

How come floaters and snakemen don't ever show up?

[tylor]

Snakemen (aka lamias) appear as civilians on terror missions, though

[Dioxine]

Snakemen on Earth, being shock troops and little else, served their purpose and died off for the most part. Floaters will appear at some point (as part of the Space Rangers).

[Premier]

Snakemen (aka lamias) appear as civilians on terror missions, though

Up to this moment I always thought they were some sort of slug-DNA-combined mutants, because that's a lot more pathetic and fits with the squalor and misery.

Well, you always learn something.

[Solarius Scorch]

Up to this moment I always thought they were some sort of slug-DNA-combined mutants, because that's a lot more pathetic and fits with the squalor and misery.

I'm not aware of any actual lore that would invalidate your theory, so feel free to keep thinking so.

[khade]

The lamias are either implied or outright stated to be pretty stupid and very awkward.

[Solarius Scorch]

The lamias are either implied or outright stated to be pretty stupid and very awkward.

So what's new

[khade]

I ran out of time to say it, but they're also supposed to have a mostly human skeleton.  They might be related to the snakemen, but they're still mutants.

What I'd like to see is some snakeman colonies, as the Star Gods apparently just ignore whatever isn't actively useful to them anymore, the ones they used for conquest are just allowed to do whatever, as long as it doesn't get in the way of their betters.