Change to scanners and IFF

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    I would like to see some changes to scanners. There are a few issues mainly it doesn't matter how many antenna blocks you use the range is unchanged for forced unlocks, the activate action does nothing etc..

    scan results should show detected ships in the galaxy map
    (perhaps with a filter option and a with a colour tint, ship entries would have a lifetime associated with it for display time boundaries.)
    the activate function rage should be based on the length of the antenna
    the activate function should force an update/scan cycle
    when mounted on a base all players whose affinity is the station should receive updates

    This also could be tied to another idea I thought of: An IFF system. This should be comprised of a few blocks.
    IFF computer and an IFF transponder. It would also require a slight mechanics change.
    The targeting cursors should always be yellow (except only for shops where they would remain purple). The cursor should be green for any faction base. The targeting cursor should no longer display the ship name and occupants.

    The IFF transponder should have two function, request and send. the send function displays an IFF request from the ship targeted, if responded to the icon should now display with ship name and occupant and the data added to a hashtable defined in the blocks class)
    All ships known in your hashtable that are in your faction should be green, and red for antifaction.
    (optional enhancement: the send option has two options, ship name and shipname + player name)

    The IFF computer would be something that when connected to a scanner would change the found ships information displayed in the galaxy map as described above. Changing the label from "Unknown ship- mass:xxxx" to whichever IFF response (if any) the pilot responded with from his transponder if he has one.
    If a ship has no transponder he/she is unable to send identification altogether.

    Perhaps some logic using the above mentioned blocks could be created to send an active pulse if a known faction IFF's a block on a station eg an IFF activator, it would need to be targetable)

    PS:
    The also BobbieAI could use a follow function (a drone should follow the lead ship is set)
     
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    Valiant70

    That crazy cyborg
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    Scanners definitely need improvement, and displaying ships on the galaxy map sounds like a good way to do it.

    No support for IFF though as it adds nothing to gameplay, only a bothersome complication. Right now our ships handle IFF automatically without extra blocks and it should stay that way.
     
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    yeah i personally think that bigger ships should have bigger scan range than small ships.