Recognized Offline/Disable Ships "Running Cold"

[Chamberlain]

I think it would be neat to be able to intentionally offline the ships so you lose control of the vessel, but at the same time "run cold" so that radar, missiles or scanners can't find the ship. This would also help clean up a nav menu full of ships that may be "parked" instead of docked at a common hub.

 

[Ixalite]

Make the players wait through the full "boot up" timer before their ship comes back under control.

 

[Megacrafter127]

This is interesting, and I (personally) like it.

 

[Comr4de]

I'm super ok with this too

 

[Jh]

Same

 

[Voldrath]

I think it would be neat to be able to intentionally offline the ships so you lose control of the vessel, but at the same time "run cold" so that radar, missiles or scanners can't find the ship. This would also help clean up a nav menu full of ships that may be "parked" instead of docked at a common hub.

Make the players wait through the full "boot up" timer before their ship comes back under control.

I like this idea as far as missile lock and hiding the signature on the HUD (like jammers), but i don't think it should make the ship immune to active scanners. As well as what Ixalite said about a boot up delay to prevent abuse during combat, or cloak-less ambushes.

 

[Jh]

If your ship was 'offline' surely the only thing scanners could pick up would be astronaut (life signs)

 

[iceman6491]

I really like this idea. Alot

 

[Voldrath]

If your ship was 'offline' surely the only thing scanners could pick up would be astronaut (life signs)

Well... It is still a giant hunk of processed metals. For Active scanners (the computer and antenna blocks) I imagine that would be fairly easy to tell from empty space. I agree without power readings it should definitely reduce the detection range. A player would have to be deliberately looking for it, or get really lucky, to find it that way.
I just don't like the idea of completely impenetrable stealth by just turning your ship off.

I do like the idea in general I'm just thinking game balance.

 

[Zaphord]

I like this idea too. I've had heat seekers travel from my testing area all the way to my dry dock, slamming into docked ships. If those docked ships are running cold or shut down, then the seekers will focus on what I want them to target, mainly my dummy target ship. Luckily, repairs aren't an issue since this all happens at my faction HQ, which is immune to damage along with anything docked to it.

 

[Kaamio]

good idea, scanner detection could be some function of size (both array and target ship) and range. Astronaut markers and navigation tab entries could very well obey line of sight so that they don't give you away so readily.

 

[Zekken1209]

May I also suggest a cooldown time? It would be quite overpowered if you could just turn off your ship the moment you think you're in danger and disappear from the enemy scanners instantly. Maybe increase the time to "get cold" with more power usage.

 

[ltmauve]

It'd also have to take docked ships offline as well.
Would it be a good idea to have a powered-down ship appear as an asteroid on the navmenu?

 

[Planr]

While it sounds like a good idea OP, making it so that there is virtually no way to detect unused ships except by visual confirmation is a VERY bad idea. If people ever lose their ships while they're in an "inactive" state, they will have pretty much 0% chance to find them again. So i'd say they have to be at least detectable by the navigation panel.

 

[Zovc]

My idea of a formula:
Ships Power cap: 200mil
Ships mass: 200k
Ships Thrust 150k

((Mass/PowerCap)*(Mass/Thrust))*1000=1.33=Time to shutdown/start up

Prehaps the actual formula could involve shields and all this, but my example here is to base it off of the ships weight and the systems amount, or prehaps their power cost.
In this example, on that formula, it will take you 80 seconds to shut your ship down and 80 to start it back up. This will balance things like using them like you would a radar jammer or cloaker, to hide during combat.

This "Offline Mode" could also allow stations systems to work on it. Plex lifters (idk, are they added already?), Undeathinators could be working when the ship is offline, same with factory systems.
Prehaps there could be a hidden offline and a stationary offline.
The hidden would shut down everything like you said to hide you, while stationary would just shut down thrusters for prehaps a boost in power generation, shield regen (maybe lose the % loss that you get while in combat), and allow station systems to work.

EDIT: Prehaps you could make them trackable only by a special scanner that detects hulls, so a ship with no hulls would be a little brighter than a space black ship, but would be harder to detect if your not truly looking for them. The same with the current scanner system can just be system scan, and because every ship has a core, it can detect any active ship.

 

[Jh]

My idea: Shields should make the usage time (time before it reboots) shorter.
Also when people are saying its OP because you could shut down as soon as you got into danger. You could still be hit AND you would have no control over the ship. You COULD in fact fly through inertia right into the ship you are hiding from. In that case I wouldn't think it would be OP

 

[Zovc]

It wouldnt be OP at all, as long as there is a scaling timer on shutdown and start up. In my example, that ship has 200k mass, so its fairly large, and takes 80 seconds to shut down. Now, if you were involved in a fight, you would think that in the 80 seconds until your offline you would be tracked and attacked?

 

[kiddan]

+1 Mate! Simple and cool suggestion, you've got my support. Though like a lot of others said, it would be more balanced with a cool-down and startup time, maybe add it to the original thread?

 

[Auriga_Nexus]

I agree with pretty much everything on the thread. I would also like to see this tied in with some kind of spatial anchoring device or "parking brake", if you will, to keep offline ships from floating away when bumped. Basically when a ship is parked and offlined this system would automatically activate if enabled (only enable it if you plan on leaving) and if the ship is moved it will be pulled back to its position via gravity waves or something else.

Of course you should also have the option of not enabling the spatial anchor, this way you can offline your ship and use your existing momentum to travel under the radar (that is assuming true Newtonian physics is active on the server).

This idea of "running cold" actually reminds me a lot of the SR-1 Normandy from Mass Effect. In the case of the ME verse ship detection and targeting was done by detecting the thermal and electromagnetic emissions from ship engines, reactors, et cetera, which compared to the average ambient temperature of space showed up as a big freaking blip on thermal imaging. However, the Normandy had special internal heat sinks that could absorb the heat from the reactor core temporarily and prevent heat from being emitted, which essentially made the ship undetectable. Cold running is essentially the same thing. One could also liken it to "silent running" i.e. shutting off the systems of a submarine and letting it drift so as to avoid detection by surface ships.

 

[Ixalite]

It'd also have to take docked ships offline as well.
Would it be a good idea to have a powered-down ship appear as an asteroid on the navmenu?

I want to see damaged and powered down ships spawning as asteroids on rare occasions!