stealth Stealth - Signature vs Detection

[Umbral Reaver]

I have discussed this on the Discord a few times before, but apparently never posted it in suggestions! So here it is:

SIGNATURE

All ships have a signature. This is determined by the mass of the ship and its current energy usage, including flight control, life support and so on. Firing weapons also adds a significant increase to signature even if those weapons aren't energy-based.

Your signature determines the distance at which you can be detected. Even idle ships will still be detected at reasonable distance due to their mass and passive systems.

Asteroids and non-ship objects are excluded from this mechanic for gameplay reasons.

DETECTION

By default, all ships can detect other ships at a distance proportional to their signature. Sensor system upgrades can increase this distance.

Allied ships share detection. A ship in range to be detected by ship A will also be detected by ship A's ally, ship B, even if ship B is too far for sensors.

STEALTH

In order to engage in stealth, a ship must have a stealth block. A stealth block is an energy-using block that can be toggled on or off, and generates significant negative signature proportional to the size of the block (with efficiency or effectiveness increases per material rank). Active signature (all systems on) and running quiet signature (all systems off, stealth on) are shown as statistics in the ship menu (in metres). A ship's signature can never be reduced below the current signature of its active weapons (your bullets aren't stealthed).

If a ship with a stealth block reduces its signature below zero, it's not only undetectable but actually turns invisible.

UI

A ship with a stealth block should have a UI element that displays how close other ships are to detecting you. This could be a simple bar that fills the closer they are to detecting your signature or a numeric output saying how many metres you are from their detection range for your current signature.

Edited May 28, 2021 by Umbral Reaver

[Guest]

I think the terminology here would be Signature -> stealth and Stealth -> cloaking, but it doesn't really matter, personal preference.
Great suggestion, upvoted.

[Lord Seamus]

This mechanic would even pave a way for new varieties of missions e.g a stealth follow mission or spying task that could come out of military outposts, 

you get my vote

 

[Black®]

On 7/2/2021 at 4:07 PM, Lord Seamus said:

This mechanic would even pave a way for new varieties of missions e.g a stealth follow mission or spying task that could come out of military outposts, 

you get my vote

 

This, along with very interesting mission mechanics i could swear that some sort of "stealth mechanic" was on a roadmap/todolist somewhere.
Upvoted 👍