Yeah, the tech exchange worked out exactly as Skeeter said, Englandbloke.

I can't remember any specific episodes that say when though - it's just one of those things that you know but you don't know how you know it...

Anyways, startrek.com has a brief writeup on the Klingon cloaking device:



The tech exchange is the canon reason why older Klingon and Romulan designs look so similar to each other - they are all of Klingon origin or are Klingon design-based. The real reason is they didn't have a big enough budget to make more models.

In the game, the Klingons will develop Cloaking tech independantly, becuase you can't ensure the Klingons and Romulans will have a tech-sharing alliance in every single game you play, without introducing an unfair imbalance. It would also being extremely boring, since you'd know that they would end up being being allies at some point.

On top of that, it puts a Klingon player at an extreme disadvantage, coz it means they can't open up an entire section of the tech tree without allying themselves with the Romulans - who might even get killed off before you have a chance to trade techs. 8O

So you can see that it makes more sense to have it as an independant tech.

Yes, like the Federation's ban on cloaking tech, the Klingon's access to the technology has shaped every vessel built by them since. If the Klingons were left alone and never developed cloaking tech, who knows what they'd be like!

Matress is right. From a canon standpoint, the Klingons need to have access to cloaking technology from at least the 2260's on. (or the game equivalent). From a gameplay perspective, the Klingons must be able to develop that technology independently, so they aren't reliant on anyone else to get it for them. Especially since there's no guarantee they'd even meet the Romulans, let alone form an alliance with them!

Then again, wouldn't that be interesting.....

Suppose each race were really balanced overall, but had a few technologies other races lacked, such as the cloaking device for the Romulans, fast warp drive for the Federation, etc., etc.

In-game contact between technologies (espionage, alliance, conquest of certain systems), opens up whatever 'special' technology the other race has, and you can develop it further in your own way. So if the Klingons buy, borrow, or steal the cloak from the Romulans, they can develop it too in their own way. So eventually you'd have something like an 'Advanced Romulan Cloak' and 'Advanced Klingon Cloak' which would offer slightly different advantages and stats. Also, perhaps they can never quite be as good as the originating race, but good enough to be a real advantage.

Bear in mind that each race would have one special technology that only it could get, and share with allies or have it taken from them.

The final result would be REALLY weird, you might have Federation starships with cloaking devices and Klingons with Quantum torpedoes and ablative armour, or some other interesting combinations!

This is so complicated it could never get into BotF II, but maybe BotF III (special non-canon edition!)

We should revisit that BoTF 5 thread!