Stealth Mechanic (Not cloaking)

[Black_Disciple]

So I got an interesting idea to make the scanner upgrade more useful by adding a stealth mechanic. no not cloaking lol but the icons to tell friend from foe removed up until a certain range say the base range is 10km to detect NPC/PLAYER objects you would only see that ship/station in the distance and wouldn't know what it was till within that 10km threshold. now the scanner upgrade could increase this by an amount of km with its other scanning buffs. perhaps even once perma installed for higher tires you can send out a ping wave that is either double or triple the range and maybe even range of the sector which will highlight all objects in the sector within that range basically gathering intel. Now here's the other kicker a counter scanning upgrade a stealth system that would reduce your signature range to other vessels say you have one that reduces your signature by 5km so then a ship with the base 10km wouldn't be able to detect your ship until your 5km away from it in the detection threshold. now to keep this from being abused you could limit the scanner and stealth systems to one per ship. NPC ships would not engage with you until you are in their detection zone or you fire at them giving you a surprise attack. this can also be useful for avoiding unwanted attention especially if you are smuggling or trying to evade enemies. you can also have specific NPCs that have a stealth ship or intelligence vessel that takes into account these new changes. i think a cool way to tell these ships apart from one another would be to have their hulls in a night grey color with their factions colors. i feel since the xsotan detect energy signatures they would be immune to the scanner and stealth mechanics. i do think this would be an amazing addition to avorion and that people would really love it. i dont think it would be to hard to implement either? it would also give the expansion a little more bang for the buck. (Can also be done with percentage instead of a base number)

[AvorionCraft]

honestly, this would give people a reason to use scanners....

set a base detection range based on ship size (assumption of multiple scanning arrays) with a max of 10km
That's well within lightning gun range.

Obviously when something shoots at you your scanners can see it now, but SUPRISE!
Adding scanners like, legendary grade (which I think go up to 400%) would increase your scanning range out to 50km.

 

I like the idea. Adds depth.

[synxs]

Hi Disciple

Great to see others having similar idea.

I looked into this earlier in the year although i had to put a pause on looking to develop it.

The idea was very similar although i was experimenting with making it as a mod:
The idea was that all ships had a signiture - the stealth part of it was based on colour, material of outer shell, size, head signiture, lights ect. similar to realistic stealth
THen additional properties would effect the distance of HUD visibility EG: base distance is 10km = X

Examples of modifiers to visibility

Mass size : X km * (1.05 * Mass KT)
Blocks : Xkm * ( Blocks / 1000)
Length : X km * (length in km)
Current power use: X km * (MW/1000)
Radar reach (you scan us we scan you): X km * (Radar reach /10)

Then system stats can decrease the scanning distance

THe problem i ran into is as a mod this would apply to players but not NPC's so you wouldnt see a npc but they could target you

Cons :
makes material choice viable
ship design advantage
Ship placement vs enviroment advantages
additional care when flying (use your eyes)

Hope this helps the idea