Cloak

Alert

Control

Resource

Invasion

Type

Power of Stealth

Makes Covert Changes

During any clash, when both drivers add up to 20 or more might, you may use this power to enter “stealth mode”. All aspects become invisible to every alien but you for 15 seconds. During this time, you may make a “cloaked change”. Either move one ship, move one pod, both, or neither. After the 15 seconds expire, shuffle all caches and exit stealth mode. Then, each other alien has 15 more seconds to type one message in the text channel that correctly guesses either the origin or destination of all your changes. If the first alien to guess is completely correct, that alien may either revert your changes or leave them as-is and receive a boon for each change. If the first alien to guess is incorrect, your changes remain and you gain a boon.

While this power is active, all UI indicators of base count, pod count and ship count are disabled.

Legacy: At the start of each orientation, the invader enters stealth mode and make and make a cloaked change. If the first message in the text channel correctly guesses the change, it is reverted and the invader loses one fuel. Otherwise, the invader gains one fuel. All UI indicators of base count, pod count and ship count are disabled.

The Cloaks are a race shrouded in mystery, rumored to be manipulating many key events from behind the scenes. Who knows how many alien races have risen and fallen as a result of their gentle nudging? Perhaps we are better off not knowing.

Any: Combat

Optional

Wild Flare

As an actor, after arrival, you may discharge this flare to force every alien to simultaneously gift their left neighbor a pod from their cache. If they do not have any pods, they must gift the pod they receive from this flare.

Actor: Arrival

Super Flare

If a negotiation occurs, you may discharge this flare to use your power.

Any: Negotiation

Modifications

Originally the power to “act unseen”. Changed to fit my one-word rule since there isn’t another alien with the power of stealth.
Original FFG Cloak was designed to work with the physical board game, so it allows the user to slightly nudge pods and ships to confuse its adversaries. Mine could potentially utilize this option if it had a working physics engine like TTS, but currently this is not feasible.
Original FFG Cloak prevents other aliens from communicating when guessing and only counts the first alien to guess. Since my version uses the text channel instead, I adapted the power to only count the first message in the text channel, since it is the only means aliens have to communicate outside of the voice channel. In the same way another alien could purposely guess wrong in the original game, an alien could purposely type gibberish in the chat to guarantee Cloak will get its boon and the change will stick.
I added a clause to disable UI displays that automatically calculate pod count and ship count, as these features will make it trivial to see changes just by checking these numbers.
I added the clause to shuffle all caches after the 15 seconds expire to make identifying pod changes a little more complex, as a tradeoff for removing the ability to subtly nudge ships and pods.
I slightly changed the incentive structure to allow the guesser to gain two boons if guessing two changes, since it is more difficult to guess two changes than one and the guessing phase is all-or-nothing.
I made Cloak’s legacy into a risk/reward mechanic that will ensure each invader has either one fuel or three fuel. Aliens are not forced to move anything, but they are incentivized to make as sneaky of a move as possible to avoid losing fuel. Invader-only aliens may either love or hate this legacy depending on how perceptive their opponents are. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Pods can be more difficult to get away with moving, since they have unique identifiers on them in comparison to ships. When moving pods, aliens with a large cache are the best targets for snatching pods or pruning your cache.
Cloak cannot look at the pods it snatches from other aliens, since it doesn’t gain any information from its power.
For Cloak, the 20, 23, 30, and 40 pods are incredibly valuable, since these pods will allow Cloak to use its power on their own.
Making multiple changes can potentially grant more boons to other aliens, but the increase in complexity also increases Cloak’s odds of getting away with a more obvious change. Making no change might trick opponents into making a guess for a free boon.
Cloak can either prioritize making small changes that are difficult to identify or big changes in the hopes of having a big impact on the match. Opponents will likely be most wary against Cloak using the power to gain dominion, making those changes difficult to accomplish.
Remember that only complete guesses will be considered correct. If making a guess, ensure that you don’t overlook any small changes Cloak might have made.
If you identify Cloak’s change and like it, you can intentionally and quickly guess wrong to make sure the change(s) stick.

Development Notes

To my knowledge, Cloak is the alien with more text than any other in all of FFG Cosmic. Mechanically, it is the most complex alien that requires the most words to explain. I was able to simplify its power using some keywords, such that there are wordier aliens in my Cosmic, though it is still quite a bit of text. The amount of text alone justifies this alien power being red alert. I wouldn’t recommend introducing someone to Cosmic with this power in the match.
For Cloak’s power, it is important that the number of pods in an alien’s cache is not visibly displayed anywhere in the UI. While this would be a handy feature most of the time to see how many pods, free ships, foreign bases, ships in the warp, etc. you have at any given time, it would at least need to be disabled while Cloak’s power is active. It would be too easy for each player to quickly check their cache size, free ships, and warp ships and determine afterwards if these numbers have changed. While this wouldn’t immediately inform the user how they changed, it would trivialize the power a bit too much in comparison to the FFG version, which doesn’t offer any such help.
Cloak was such a unique idea to introduce to the Eon Galaxy that really fits well with the physical board game. However, even in a digital context, it can effectively confuse opponents who are either not prepared for it or not the best at memorization. The way I imagine it in working in my Cosmic is that as soon as two drivers are revealed with 20+ might, Cloak receives the prompt to use its power. As soon as Cloak clicks the button, everyone’s vision of the board is immediately cut off. With the physical board game, everyone has to physically close their eyes and look away, which gives them a bit more leeway to observe the board first.
While it might seem trivial to remember at least your own ships and pods to catch anything Cloak does, it is the element of surprise that gives Cloak an edge. After three encounters go by without Cloak using its power, aliens won’t be as on-guard against it. When the 20 might suddenly drops and everything goes dark, it can easily become confusing when such a minor change is made.
One big potential issue behind this power is preventing bad actors from lying about the change they made. With most powers, there could be a programmatic solution that reveals the answer afterwards, allowing everyone to know for sure that Cloak wasn’t lying. However, in Cloak’s case, it is much more thematic if the true answer isn’t revealed. FFG Cosmic Encounter generally operates on the honor system for many such mechanics, where only the user has the answer. In the FFG version, no one can really stop Cloak from cheating by looking at the pods or other private information, since no one else can use the board. In a tournament setting, you can have an unbiased moderator resolve such issues, but another solution would be to programmatically store the change information during the match and reveal it at the end of the match for everyone to view. Also, I can programmatically control what Cloak can see during stealth mode and limit its changes to one pod and one ship.
One aspect I appreciate about this power is the chaos caused by the text channel clause. Even if you know that Cloak stole one of your pods, you still need to know if that was the only change Cloak made. The 15-second time limit puts pressure on every alien to guess first, and an alien who sees one of their pods is missing and quickly types it in the text channel will cause everyone to miss out if they didn’t notice Cloak also moved one of its ships into the yellow system. Partial answers don’t count for anything, and one wrong answer ends the guessing phase. It can turn the simple task of identifying one small change into a much more troublesome job.
Though it is not stated anywhere in the alien bio, Cloak is a lowkey invasion power, allowing it to potentially gain a free foreign base if the opponents can’t see through its tricks. A common strategy with Cloak is to make an obvious move and a less obvious one, such as adding the next pod from the forge to its cache, to bait another alien into quickly guessing the obvious move, resulting in the whole guess failing.
Mechanically, there is no other alien who occupies Cloak’s design space. The idea seems to take inspiration from people who sneakily move pieces around on a chessboard when their opponent isn’t looking in hopes that they won’t notice. Since alien powers are meant to be different means of a player cheating in a game, it feels like a natural choice for a power despite its wordiness.