So I've been looking into perma-cloaking my planets as it seems the best way to keep them safe. That is, if they are found, they will be stolen.

But it seems the trade-off for Arti production is quite a drawback.
In 17 space I can get it into unscannable territory, that is:

3892 Passive Max
2 x Adumbrate Stations
Isolation Bureau
Litheor Core-Tunnel
Meta-Tuned Jammer
Ergosphere Filter
Dark Null Beacon
and a 50% Upgraded Inverse Flux Satellites thanks to some Stryll Confinement Protocols.

But those 17 spaces usually end up costing me around 200 ap/hr on a vl 15x and weakens what defense there is on the planet (although that's mostly useless anyway).

Is the trade worth it?

eww why would you ever upgrade a Inverse-Flux Satelitte?

What else would you upgrade with the confinement protocols? Obviators?



Thats the part of the problem right there. its really hard to completely cloak or defend a VL

but that being said. Inverse Flux Satellites are really only efficient cloak / space when at 100% and even then there are better NPC drop or CTL cloak artis
Specifically look for ones that give prod as well as cloak

for example, if you swap the inverse flux for:
2 Resonance Inhibitors
2 Quantum Accelerators
1 Silthion Hybrid Vesticle ( if you have 2 rifts a Crimson Rift Aperture is a better option)

That same space gives 1100 cloak vs 1200, but now gives 5 arti prod, 3 research prod and some invasion defense

In my opinion, in the long term, this is a mistake. You, at some point, will have 100+ planets you want to be invisible. Having all of the % cloak on one planet makes that much harder. Sure you can buy/steal them but rarely at the rate you will need them.

In my opinion, 200 AP/hr is less valuable than the safety of the planet, and the remaining production that it gives.

This is true but the spreading them out means adding another cloak structure that may cost more artifact generating space.



Lowering the cloak amount requires all of the % modifiers as above, though if it were 100% then perhaps I could take 1 or 2 off - but then again, it would take more of the Protocols for each of my planets (and I'm looking to perma-cloak 25. - so 50 protocols...)

The Accelerators aren't a bad idea, but most of my dark badges have gone to MCs and I don't know if you ever have more of those than you need (anyone?)

The Inhibitors don't offer any AP but do have a better ratio so I may have to go ahead with them (even though I've been enjoying selling the pyramids at a rate of around 3.5 per).

I've also been trying to get a Dyson for my 2nd Rift, but so far my Subspace Fissuron is just rusting in Cargo.

I work off the principle that I would rather have a little less AP and have MORE planets that are completely invisible so over all, more production.

I make no judgement on using multiple ones, I have a couple of planets like that because I want maximum output, I just wanted people to be aware that it is a long term problem waiting to happen.

You can always extract and rebuild later.

After you find them...

This has been quite a problem for me because with a repeatable build (there are only so many +% cloak items and the +50% upgrade for 800 cloak buildings is rare) and tons of CT Lab items, dark badge items that yield AP + cloak, I can only reach 12-14k cloak without a significant sacrifice to production. By the time I am done with solid 20k cloak (again, not using +% items and it generally would take 2 of those) the output is not all that different from a 3x planet. For like a MC ocean there is ample room, but for a multitude of VL planets space is the problem. VL 15x uprade is about 12 terraformers, while a plasma AP upgrade is more like 25 but the difference of 57 v 75 spaces is a couple of extra +800s. Tough call. I am talking about repeatable build like 50-100 planets you want that 'unscannable core AP'. I can tell you with only 12-16k cloak and about 50 maxed planets I was losing 1-2 a week and I got tired of the whole struggle. I do believe that plasma are superior for reaching the required cloak and having a decent output. What killed the whole thing was the broken cloak reports, I started to doubt that it was doing any good and lost a few under suspicious circumstance where I think the scan was not above the cloak or the player's equipment seemed not to support the amount of scan.

3892 Passive Max
2 x Adumbrate Stations
Isolation Bureau
Litheor Core-Tunnel
2 Resonance
2 - klorvis
Dark Null Beacon W/ UPgrade
100% Upgraded Inverse Flux Satellites
1xQA
bioship
22440 Cloak with legion bonus
VM 15x - 670 as excavator..

Far from ideal but decent for only 1 % modifier (and there arti structures I could replace/upgrade just being lazy) .. I agree with the other posters.. don't do vl.. its relatively easy to find VM Metallics or Oceanics
Most of my vm15x I will do 2 % modifiers and I usually end up with 900-1k .. I only have one planet that is <vm at 15x arti or above and that was a mistake and I don't buy quasis.. so IMHO project planets <vm are a mistake..

A VL 3x terra takes 12 terraformers to max but it's too small.

A sparse gas (v.sparse exist but not being generated anymore I guess) takes about twice as many but has many more spaces when made to plasma. It seems worth it but I'd like to see the colossal build patterns you guys come up with.

dont forget to account the ap the terra could make with no modifications,

I have over 100 planets with % cloak mods on them and over 20k cloak; I have 3 planets on scan with them I can take whenever I want. I have a CSR, meta tune jammer and ergo sphere in my cargo atm. Is it really that difficult for people to find an ergosphere?

Guess it depends on who you are. In the last 2,000 scans, I have found 2 % cloak items; 1 owned by a friendly so it got purged and 1 owned by an enemy. 90% fails on an active player so shared it for the legion.

For me, it is really that difficult to find them.

Yaint the only one Ben. Finding a Massive 5x AP Crystal not owned by an ally is good fortune for me. Never mind decent arti structures.