I was flying threw space and got my first 'Incoming pirates to sector 4, 3, 1' message, and thought to myself 'that is so cool! I would love to be able to get messages like that more often!'
An idea that I has been fermenting in my brain is the 'Blip'. Now stop me if this sounds dumb, but I believe it would be cool to detect larger ships from farther away, while being unable to notice smaller ships until they were upon you, so I have thought of some really simple ideas to make a 'detection combat system' as I like to call it, here is how it go's.
Blip Core Mechanics
A blip is the 'foot print' of a space ship or other large vehicle(if/when they get implemented). It is a number, the bigger, more powerful your ship the bigger the 'blip' you make on the radar. When you enter build mode you should be able to see your own blip, and when a ship approaches their blip should become visible, the higher the blip, the sooner they appear on your radar. For simplicity's sake docked ships shouldn't have blip, but turrets should add theirs to their parent ship. When a ship has no pilot in it, its Blip should be decimated(10% of the original amount.) That way you can still hide your parked ships and your big death cube can sit and hide in a corner of the universe without being automatically found.
Additionally. blips are not accurate. A blip shows a incoming ship from... that way. you can't use a blip to target an opponent, all it says is 'there is something big coming from that direction!' or 'Lots of big things over there, and one of them just vanished. Head for the hills!'
Example Time: Stew makes a Death Cube, entering build mode he sees that his death cube has a blip of 10,000. Getting into flight mode he looks in a general direction, and sees somewhere in a neighboring zone of space, a blip. It has a maker saying its approaching(maybe its flashing or something). He doesn't know how far away it is, or how large it is, all he knows is some one is coming from that way.
Too long didn't read: It gives a general direction and existence of large vessels.
Detection / Deception
Okay, now you know that blip is a number, and the bigger your ship, the farther away they can see your 'blip', so what dos this mean for you, the ship builder? Well any system of play should be at least open to some form of counter play. The blip counter play/ normal play comes in the form of Long Range Scanners as well as Long Range Jammers(could make radar jammers into these[or vice versa], I don't know the jammers current viability all that well.)
Long Range Scanners:When turned on they counter the effects of Jammers, as well as allow you to detect smaller blips more easily. They should work when attached to a station, allowing 'watch towers' to locate oncoming ships, and communicate their findings to their allies.
Long Range Jammers: When turned on they 'mask' you blip(ignoring a certain amount of blip, making allowing you to get closer.), allowing you to get closer to a target before being detected(their short range scanners will still find you, but this will allow you to get in close without them running off.) Should be able to be turned on when you are not in the core, allowing you to 'stash' a ship in the corner of the universe without it being found by Long Distance Scanners.
Example Time: Stew Flips on his Jammers, they mask 3,000 blip, making his blip effectively 7,000(its still 10,000, but while the Jammers are on, anyone who can't see past them will see him as if he were only 7,000 blip). The approaching blip on the map is still approaching, so he readies his weapons and turns to face the incoming threat.
Meanwhile Gary is on a mission of revenge, he wants to destroy Strew, and burn everything he loves. He notices that the blip in Stews corner of space vanished, meaning Stew either was destroyed, left his ship, or is hiding from him. He flips on his Long Range Scanners, if stew is going to run, Gary wants to know where. The scanners lower the mask caused by Jammers by 2,000, making any and all ships nearby that are using Jammers be treated as if the they were protected up to 2,000 points less. Stew's blip reappears on the radar, and Gary continues his hunt for revenge.
too long didn't read: Counter play good.
The Jist of it
A early warning system present in all ships that would help warn you of approaching large ships, or if your going into a heavily populated section of space. The Jammers would need to have moderate energy costs, so they could be used by anyone, but lack massive efficiency, so it would be pretty hard to hid a massive war ship without making a third(or more) of the blocks in it jammers.
The idea of putting out lookout points attached to stations and planets popped into my head while writing this, I think it would be cool if you got a message from your nearby station telling you 'a large group of blips is coming in your direction and you need to get back in your ship' would be cool.
Anyway blips should have no bearing what so ever on short range dog fights, missile locks or anything else, its really long range detection, it doesn't say what sector of space your in, all it says is 'wow there is a blip in that direction'. It doesn't load the ship, all it dos in acknowledge the blip number and the mask number(if any.) and the general direction something is in. It see's larger ships from father away, making small ships effectivly stealth ships to long ranger scanning, even more so if they have Jammers.
An idea I had to expand on this was having larger blips 'cover up' smaller ones, meaning that having a large ship lead a group of fighters, the long range scanners would only see the big ship, not the tiny ones running around it.
Too Long didn't read
Long range scanner mechanic. Please add one.
An idea that I has been fermenting in my brain is the 'Blip'. Now stop me if this sounds dumb, but I believe it would be cool to detect larger ships from farther away, while being unable to notice smaller ships until they were upon you, so I have thought of some really simple ideas to make a 'detection combat system' as I like to call it, here is how it go's.
Blip Core Mechanics
A blip is the 'foot print' of a space ship or other large vehicle(if/when they get implemented). It is a number, the bigger, more powerful your ship the bigger the 'blip' you make on the radar. When you enter build mode you should be able to see your own blip, and when a ship approaches their blip should become visible, the higher the blip, the sooner they appear on your radar. For simplicity's sake docked ships shouldn't have blip, but turrets should add theirs to their parent ship. When a ship has no pilot in it, its Blip should be decimated(10% of the original amount.) That way you can still hide your parked ships and your big death cube can sit and hide in a corner of the universe without being automatically found.
Additionally. blips are not accurate. A blip shows a incoming ship from... that way. you can't use a blip to target an opponent, all it says is 'there is something big coming from that direction!' or 'Lots of big things over there, and one of them just vanished. Head for the hills!'
Example Time: Stew makes a Death Cube, entering build mode he sees that his death cube has a blip of 10,000. Getting into flight mode he looks in a general direction, and sees somewhere in a neighboring zone of space, a blip. It has a maker saying its approaching(maybe its flashing or something). He doesn't know how far away it is, or how large it is, all he knows is some one is coming from that way.
Too long didn't read: It gives a general direction and existence of large vessels.
Detection / Deception
Okay, now you know that blip is a number, and the bigger your ship, the farther away they can see your 'blip', so what dos this mean for you, the ship builder? Well any system of play should be at least open to some form of counter play. The blip counter play/ normal play comes in the form of Long Range Scanners as well as Long Range Jammers(could make radar jammers into these[or vice versa], I don't know the jammers current viability all that well.)
Long Range Scanners:When turned on they counter the effects of Jammers, as well as allow you to detect smaller blips more easily. They should work when attached to a station, allowing 'watch towers' to locate oncoming ships, and communicate their findings to their allies.
Long Range Jammers: When turned on they 'mask' you blip(ignoring a certain amount of blip, making allowing you to get closer.), allowing you to get closer to a target before being detected(their short range scanners will still find you, but this will allow you to get in close without them running off.) Should be able to be turned on when you are not in the core, allowing you to 'stash' a ship in the corner of the universe without it being found by Long Distance Scanners.
Example Time: Stew Flips on his Jammers, they mask 3,000 blip, making his blip effectively 7,000(its still 10,000, but while the Jammers are on, anyone who can't see past them will see him as if he were only 7,000 blip). The approaching blip on the map is still approaching, so he readies his weapons and turns to face the incoming threat.
Meanwhile Gary is on a mission of revenge, he wants to destroy Strew, and burn everything he loves. He notices that the blip in Stews corner of space vanished, meaning Stew either was destroyed, left his ship, or is hiding from him. He flips on his Long Range Scanners, if stew is going to run, Gary wants to know where. The scanners lower the mask caused by Jammers by 2,000, making any and all ships nearby that are using Jammers be treated as if the they were protected up to 2,000 points less. Stew's blip reappears on the radar, and Gary continues his hunt for revenge.
too long didn't read: Counter play good.
The Jist of it
A early warning system present in all ships that would help warn you of approaching large ships, or if your going into a heavily populated section of space. The Jammers would need to have moderate energy costs, so they could be used by anyone, but lack massive efficiency, so it would be pretty hard to hid a massive war ship without making a third(or more) of the blocks in it jammers.
The idea of putting out lookout points attached to stations and planets popped into my head while writing this, I think it would be cool if you got a message from your nearby station telling you 'a large group of blips is coming in your direction and you need to get back in your ship' would be cool.
Anyway blips should have no bearing what so ever on short range dog fights, missile locks or anything else, its really long range detection, it doesn't say what sector of space your in, all it says is 'wow there is a blip in that direction'. It doesn't load the ship, all it dos in acknowledge the blip number and the mask number(if any.) and the general direction something is in. It see's larger ships from father away, making small ships effectivly stealth ships to long ranger scanning, even more so if they have Jammers.
An idea I had to expand on this was having larger blips 'cover up' smaller ones, meaning that having a large ship lead a group of fighters, the long range scanners would only see the big ship, not the tiny ones running around it.
Too Long didn't read
Long range scanner mechanic. Please add one.
