Cloaking Shields?

What different types are there?
First, there was the one on Maul's ship that used some sort of crystal.
Second, there was Thrawn's/Emperor's.
What are the differences between the two? And why weren't they used in the rebellion?

 

They were two seperate technologies. Maul's shielding system was a very rare bit of technology. I'm not sure if it was Sith in orgin. The technology was lost during the clone wars, and was either found or re-discovered through research after that. I think Thrawn talked about it later on in the Thrawn Trilogy. Thrawn's was more primitive, and a ship couldn't call or send anything from inside, but you were fully protected. I think that Maul's was permiable from the inside, meaning he could send messages. I'm not a hundred precent sure though.

 

The ones Thrawn used were a kind of double blind, in that while you couldn't see them, they couldn't see you either. At Sluis Van, his ships came in undetected, making for major confusion. In Hand of Thrawn, several Imperial vessels made the entire trip to Bothawui while cleaked, and revealed themselves in time for the fight.

 

Also Thrawn used them to sneak a ship under a planetare sheild, how they were able to navigate to the right spots I can't remember cause they were blind from the inside as well

I think the technology for Maul's was lost cause the crystals used to make the cloaking device only came from one planet in the galaxy, and the planet was mined out or something like that

 

Also Thrawn used them to sneak a ship under a planetare sheild, how they were able to navigate to the right spots I can't remember cause they were blind from the inside as well

C'Baoth did it.

 

Joruus CBoath was how they got to the right spot.

 

And the targeting.

 

The Dark Side Sourcebook says that Maul's cloaking device wasn't 100% effective, i.e. at close ranges it could be detected. Targeting rolls made against the Infiltrator are made as if it's 3/4 invisible.

 

Ahem... I love cloaking shields.

Stygium-based cloaking devices were expensive but originally attainable. Unfortunately, the technology was lost somehow during the Clone Wars.

Under the Empire, a program headed by Grand Admiral Batch was tasked with developing a functioning cloaking device. Batch first developed the hibridium-based cloaking device, which problematically made the ship it cloaked blind as well as invisible. He then blew up Aeten II, which had an abundant supply of stygium crystals. Subsequently, Batch was able to recreate the stygium-based cloaking device. Judging from what Alion_Sangre said, I'd infer he also improved upon it, because he was able to fully cloak the SSD Terror.


Maul - Pre-Clone Wars Stygium
Thrawn - Hibridium

 

Irridium, eh? Have you heard of any of its pros/cons? Just wondering how it compares to stygium.

I could have sworn Insider said that the Terror had a stygium-based cloaking shield. Maybe I misread it...

 

So did Maul's cloak have the double blind effect as well?

 

Maul's ship wasn't double blind.


Two things I can think of:
- Perhaps irridium-based cloaking devices were used for small, low powered spacecraft (sa. V-38s), and/or they were safer for the pilot.

- Irridium was a component of Batch's stygium-based cloaking device but not the pre-Clone Wars type, which might explain why his is seemingly superior.

It'd be interesting to know for sure, however. (Btw, is it irridium, or iridium like on the Periodic Chart?)

I can't type.

 

There's some info on Maul's cloaking in the Star Wars Episode I: Incredible Cross Sections book. It utilised a rare crystal found on an extremely volcanic and remote world, and was called an Invisibility Cloak, or something like that.

 

but apparently must decloak in order to fire weapons.

Not good, to much like star trek

 

Probably power demand for a starfighter. It couldn't maintain the cloak and fire weapons at the same time.

 

Maul was able to do pretty much anything he wanted while cloaked, although the Stygium-type device had limitations, as Alion_Sangre pointed out. In addition, a hive of Bartokks developed a technique to track cloaked ships, although Darth Maul wiped out that particular hive.

I'm going to recap a little, and add some important stuff: The Stygium-type cloak was expensive, but common. Stygium crystals were only found on the planet Aeten II in the Dreighton Nebula, however, so eventually the mines became depleted. The Old Republic placed restrictions on Stygium mining just before the Clone Wars, but the mines soon ran dry anyway. The Hibridium device was already in the theoretical stages at the time, but further research was apparently interrupted by the Clone Wars, and did not continue until the Empire began working on it years later.

TC

 

The "stygian" crystal mentioned in Shadow Hunter is a play from ancient mythology of stygian mists in the underworld. SW does this a lot, but so what?

 

"Invisibility Cloak" sounds like something out of Harry Potter! (probably because it is.)

Anyway, I think the spelling is Belt of Arah.

I specialise in RA2.

 

In addition, a hive of Bartokks developed a technique to track cloaked ships, although Darth Maul wiped out that particular hive.

Yeah, they had a Crystal Gravity Trap iirc.

 

Bartokk?

The same cranky old timer thankfully a former neighbour I once knew? The typical oldie, shaking fists and canes at youths, adminishing then with prefaces like "Back in my time we never walked like that!"

 

Well, if he was also an insectoid assassin, I'd say that there's a good chance he's one of them.

TC