Add Stealth Chamber to hide Shield/Power/Faction

[OfficialCoding]

So what I was thinking was "I want to have an asteroid base that looks to the standard observer to be just a regular asteroid". Meaning if you Highlight it it won't display the shielding, the power, or the faction. You would need a new stealth chamber for this. IDK what to call it, but that's what it would do. It would not hide your entity in any way, just mask the power and shields.

Also, to prevent everyone from putting this on their ships, maybe make it an asteroid-only chamber.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

To me, the simplest solution is allow stealth chambers to work on stations.

 

[OfficialCoding]

To me, the simplest solution is allow stealth chambers to work on stations.

Well the point of this is not to conceal the asteroid, just to make it so the asteroid looks like every other asteroid.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Well the point of this is not to conceal the asteroid, just to make it so the asteroid looks like every other asteroid.

True. I was thinking from a custom made asteroid perspective.

You could try using a docked ship with permajam as a base. Sadly, i don't think the fleet order for jamming/cloaking is working at the moment.
To dock a ship you would need a shipyard anchor. I've used this method to dock turrets to asteroids. Oh and automated mining machines.

 

[OfficialCoding]

True. I was thinking from a custom made asteroid perspective.

You could try using a docked ship with permajam as a base. Sadly, i don't think the fleet order for jamming/cloaking is working at the moment.
To dock a ship you would need a shipyard anchor. I've used this method to dock turrets to asteroids. Oh and automated mining machines.

Yes you could just dock a ship to an asteroid but that really wouldn't accomplish much. You would still need power on the asteroid to power the ship.
If you made a custom asteroid that was really a ship and jammed it that would also defeat the purpose since the point is to hide in plain sight.
Now i also have docked a ship-asteroids to a planet to make a moon. It was fun.

 

[NeonSturm]

It would require a downside.

Your base can be pushed around? LOLz.

It would be nice if the server says that there is a base in this system, but not exactly where.
Like local rumors and peoples talk.
EDIT because Dr. Whammy: Try to mine every asteriod to find where the station is. And don't forget the planets could be big stations.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Yes... YES!!! Must OBFUSCATE!!! Must... Hide!!! ...in plain sight!!!

I think it would be awesome to have a stealth chamber upgrade that is usable on stations, planets and asteroids to obscure it's true nature and make it appear as something else. The chamber should be able to be set to always-on.
- No body here but us asteroids...
- That's no "moon" (or planet). It's a space station!
- "Sensors detect an uninhabited planet in this sector". Shows up to find Star Base 12 from Star Trek.

I think it would also be interesting to see this kind of chamber available for ships but for as high an energy cost and level cost as cloaking.
- An "asteroid" mining other asteroids?
- Wait! Did that asteroid just move?
- Now, witness the power of this fully armed and operational asteroid!
- Surprise! That station is actually a ship and it's now following you!
- "Sensors detect an uninhabited planet in this sector". Shows up to to find the Death Star. ...Operational.

Lastly, I'd be cool with a chamber that can be set on any kind of structure that will make it look like space debris; which for the purpose of the game mechanics will look like an asteroid if under a certain mass or a planet if above that mass. You could place a defense fleet in your system with their nav signatures set to look like an "asteroid belt" so that when intruders come to mine, they meet the "welcoming committee".
The resource types shown on the "belt" would either be randomly generated, set as a default type by the player or determined by distance from a star.

I do not agree with the server revealing the presence of the base or revealing that any kind of obfuscation is taking place; as it defeats the purpose of the chamber and gives an intruder an unfair and unrealistic advantage. You already get a notification of territory ownership and of intrusion. Making it harder to locate your opponent's forces adds a new dimension of strategy that is currently absent in the game. Likewise, I think NPCs should also have these abilities to a certain degree.

 

[3than2021]

I personally think that this is a great idea, it would certainly add more interesting things into the game. Perhaps it could have levels, and the higher level of scanner you have the more likely you are to detect the true nature of things, and the higher level of said cloak then there would be less of a chance of that happening. They could also add something along the lines of: the closer you are, the more likely that you see the real thing.

 

[MacThule]

I don't think it should be asteroid only. I think a natural function of stealth should be to hide faction or to hide things like the fact an object has power and shields.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

I don't think it should be asteroid only. I think a natural function of stealth should be to hide faction or to hide things like the fact an object has power and shields.

Agreed.

To expand on this, I think the functions of this kind of stealth system should be determined by your chamber level and how high your stealth strength is, in comparison to enemy recon strength.

Example:
- Stealth chamber set for obfuscation - "Transponder Suppression": Effect; Pilot name, structure name, owner and faction are not detectable regardless of own stealth strength or enemy recon strength.

- Obfuscation Level 1 - "Emissions Dampening": Effect; Reactor HP, reactor percentage use, shield capacity, and cargo are not detectable if own stealth strength is greater than enemy recon strength. Stations with this effect do not appear on the galaxy map. Power consumption is similar to a radar jammer and can be left turned on after exiting the structure.

- Obfuscation Level 2 - "Mimetic Signature": Effect; Gain the ability to broadcast misleading radar signatures and galaxy map icons if own stealth strength is greater than enemy recon strength. Power consumption is similar to a cloaker and can be left turned on after exiting the structure.

What do you think?

 

[Sachys]

I don't think it should be asteroid only. I think a natural function of stealth should be to hide faction or to hide things like the fact an object has power and shields.

or just not have your HB listed under factions unless you choose to share your FOW details, or somebody tracks it down, meaning only they and you have it.

and to the OP, dont frubbing build on asteroids - EVER!

 

[OfficialCoding]

and to the OP, dont frubbing build on asteroids - EVER!

What's wrong with building on asteroids? They are a great cheap way to build crap.

 

[Sachys]

What's wrong with building on asteroids? They are a great cheap way to build crap.

Has a habit of causing issues within the game

 

[OfficialCoding]

Has a habit of causing issues within the game

Then they should fix the issue, not discourage asteroid bases

 

[Dr. Whammy]

Then they should fix the issue, not discourage asteroid bases

...or you could build a station in the shape of an asteroid. I'm doing that for my sister when I start my server.

As for using actual asteroids as a base, I find that it's a good way to gather resources with a nice bonus. Basically, you build a reactor, factory and storage depot and mine everything by hand.

Pros:
- No gravity (unless you place a gravity block). You can't fall off the edge or fall into lava.
- Small and easy to manage. You'll never get lost on something so small.
- You can set your storage depot to "personal cargo" and mine directly into it, regardless of where you are on the asteroid.

Cons:
- Your base will start to "shrink" as you mine it away.
- Asteroids can be glitchy at times. Asteroid respawns may cause issues if it respawns on top of the existing one.
- Two words "Dynamic Physics".

 

[Sachys]

.
Cons:
- Your base will start to "shrink" as you mine it away.
- Asteroids can be glitchy at times. Asteroid respawns may cause issues if it respawns on top of the existing one.
- Two words "Dynamic Physics".

other cons:

• null pointers,
• serverwide lag,
  
• server crashes,
• other people being really dicked of with you for building on a roid against all common sense,
  trust me, the list goes on.

theres no amount of "but i havent had any issue" to combat the long known issues with building on roids - they arent ships, they arent stations (derelict stations are no different now), just dont do it for the good of other players on any server.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

other cons:

• null pointers,
• serverwide lag,
  
• server crashes,
• other people being really dicked of with you for building on a roid against all common sense,
  trust me, the list goes on.

theres no amount of "but i havent had any issue" to combat the long known issues with building on roids - they arent ships, they arent stations (derelict stations are no different now), just dont do it for the good of other players on any server.

Perhaps the word "glitchy" was too polite of a euphemism...

To be fair; when I used to do this in multi-player, it was because building on planets wasn't allowed and you didn't get enough starting credits to build a station. Several admins specifically told me to build on an asteroid because they didn't want any planet builders; though, this was some time ago.

In those cases, I would build on an asteroid, just to mine it out of existance, build a rudimentary mining/cargo ship, sell the roid materials for credits then build a station with said credits before logging off for the night. Later, the reduction in the default cost for stations combined with the ridiculous mining bonuses found on "name-any-StarMade-server" rendered this startegy unnecessary.

In any case, I'm waiting for the day when Schine fixes this game so we can build ANY kind of base without wrecking servers.

 

[MacThule]

Yeah... placing factories on roids commonly causes an exception that spams errors to everyone on server. Needs fixing. It was my very first attempt at a base the first time I played SM for sure. It's intuitive - hide in the random debris and mine the valuable bits. Then people yell at you because it's broken... so you fly over and land on one of the many large, brightly-colored planets to explore and ask "why is my ship having a seizure every time i land it?" and everyone screams some more.

It's about then that you realize that you can't really touch anything in SM except your own ship.

 

[Sachys]

...and everyone screams some more.

Aye, unfortunately a bunch of youtubers (especially going back a few years) had a bad habit of showing off things that would break the game for others and never mentioning it. For new players seeing all that cool stuff, of course they'll do it the second they jump on a server.

 

[3than2021]

I love how this thread went from stealth systems to glitches with 'roids