I have to disagree with you on this one Christopher.
Following orders? How many times have we seen Captains bend or disobey orders from an Admiral? If there is a case where the ship could be saved by using a cloak are you telling me that somebody like Picard wouldn't use the option?
He
couldn't. You have to contact the Admiralty and get an authorization code from them.
Besides, it's a myth that starship captains violate orders routinely or cavalierly. No officer who couldn't find solutions within the law and the chain of command would be allowed to remain a captain long, or even get there at all. Captains may interpret regulations flexibly when the situation requires it, but violating direct orders -- let alone falsifying an Admiralty command code -- goes way beyond that. You're talking about something that Picard did when the fate of the Federation was at stake as though it were a precedent for how to behave in a routine crisis, and that's hugely discommensurate.
It would also be a stupid risk to take for something as lame as a cloaking device. Why are you so convinced that a cloaking device is a magic cure to every problem? It's a very limiting technology at best -- a ship under cloak can't use its main shields, its weapons, its active sensors, its communications, etc., nor can it use its engines or other systems at full power without risking signal leakage. It's only useful in certain situations. And we've seen types of cloak that didn't even work perfectly anyway, such as the "Balance of Terror" Romulan cloak which didn't fool motion sensors, the
Search for Spock Klingon cloak that caused a visible distortion in the starfield, the
Undiscovered Country cloak that was betrayed by the ship's engine exhaust, etc. So I don't understand your perception of it as a magic fix for getting a starship out of a life-and-death crisis.
And the idea of all of the ships having these schematics, building a cloaking device when given permission and then disassembling it...I just find it silly. Either give the ships cloaking devices or don't.
Starship computer banks no doubt have the data on the genetic code for the bubonic plague, but do you think that starships should carry it and use it routinely as a bioweapon? You're confusing information with substance, and confusing existence with value.
It really hasn't made much sense for a long time now that Starfleet ships don't use them.
Did you bother to read the entirety of my last post? I already explained why it's impractical for most Starfleet ships to use them. It's a technology whose only practical use is by a stripped-down warship or espionage vessel. It's not magic. Okay, sure, it's still a complete physical impossibility that violates the laws of thermodynamics, but at least ST tries to make some concessions to common sense by establishing that cloaking devices have only a limited capability to mask a ship's energy output, and only when a ship is using very little energy for anything besides the cloak. A high-powered, multifunction starship like the
Enterprise (any one of them) just wouldn't be very well concealed by a cloak.
What kind of maniacs decide to abandon a valuable weapon that one of their main enemies possess because their enemy doesn't like the idea?
Uhh, how does a thing that lets you hide qualify as a "weapon?" It's a strategic asset, yes, but that's not what the word "weapon" means. Besides, what's so valuable about it anyway? How many times have we seen Starfleet figure out how to penetrate one type of cloak, only for a new type to be developed later on and then penetrated in turn? Any given cloaking technology is only going to be useful for a little while until the enemy figures out how to pierce it, and then the whole cycle starts all over again. If you ask me, the Federation was wise to avoid getting trapped into that cycle, saving its resources for other technologies.
We know the real reason for this is Gene's "bad guys don't hide" idea, which was thrown out the window on DS9 anyway.
I think you meant to say "good guys don't hide." Anyway, as I've explained, it makes sense in-universe regardless of the metatextual reasons for it.
..how long are the Romulans going to remain ignorant of the fact that EVERY ship has the ability to make a cloaking device whenever they want to, but just aren't doing so? That should anger the Romulans just as much as them having acting cloaking devices installed. The Romulans aren't stupid. The Feds are violating the treaty already.
I've already explained why this is wrong in every particular. You're not engaging in a dialogue with me, you're just ignoring what I say and restating your original points. So is there any point in actually trying to respond to you?
