Because engine power needed to achieve the same speed grows exponentially to weight, Dodge is never worth it for cruisers. So engines are only there to get in range.
Naturally, this means the fastest Cruiser is the Utopia. Because they can cheap out on armors/shields, their reduced weight give them more speed than the speed bonus given by other race. No other race can practically pack 6 Cruiser Lasers and still moves at 0.36 speed.
Until we have smarter AI that knows how to both engage and keep distances with it’s target (and play a run away missile game), a cruiser should never exceed 0.4 speed. Any more speed than that and they get slaughtered by Anti Rushes and slower Rushes due to lack of firepower.
Correct. Cloak seems to have the effect of playing with targeting, rather than actually avoiding damage. And since it’s on a time-limit, I’ve tossed it in favor of EMP Shield for Rush. I had early successes with them combined with Missile Spam. But I’m now of the opinion that the slot’s better spent on repairs.
Cloak also reduces the opponents accuracy on you though, which I think has some good advantages and with some work form experts, (People more adept than me), it could be useful in closing in on a long range fleet…
The reason I don’t use it though is because it never cloaks at the right time for me…If I put my ship close it never cloaks unless it’s going to die anyways…if I put it farther away then the cloak runs out before they even get close enough for the cloak to serve its purpose…