Recognized Cloak, Jam, and Scan. System Revamp

[Madman198237]

1. What do you mean quantum mechanics? I don't see where you need quantum mechanics, only a system that takes the EFFECTS of quantum mechanics into, well, effect. So you know that according to quantum physics x will happen, write up some algebra that makes x happen, skipping the quantum physics necessary to discover that x will happen rather than y.

2. Yes, because we aren't saying complete invisibility, because that's physically harder to do. While absorbing every bit of visible radiation is not practical on Earth (A moving black space is, well, not common on Earth) but in space it'd be nearly impossible to see that. And the "stars" pattern I suggested is also possible-just allow some light to reflect/shine through, and you have a relatively bright location.

3. Yes, but the blocks can't technically be placed BEHIND the engines, as that just means you're projecting ions into the back wall of your spaceship, which zeroes your thrust. Not very useful. Also, the idea is that if you want to reach superb stealth, you don't move, because moving, no matter what you do, leaves a trail of ions behind, and emits EME like crazy, even if you have absorbing blocks behind, because of how a thruster works: It pushes something out the back of your spaceship, and therefore makes the spaceship move forward.

4. Well, that's the idea behind the stealth blocks. The absorb EME at high efficiency, possibly at cost in mass, definitely at a cost in armor and materials, because these stealth materials should be RARE. This also helps prevent you from cloaking a UNSC Infinity size ship and just wrecking everything.

5. Yes! It's a wonderfully self-balancing, SCIENCE-fiction method of implementing stealth. Especially when I realized that shields would be basically impossible to use with a stealthy ship.


I just realized one problem: You can accomplish a cloaker-like effect with black hull blocks, because I'm proposing that the cloaker make the ship invisible.... The only thing a cloaking mechanism would really give you then is complete coverage, allowing you to hide external blocks that are necessary, like dockers....

Perhaps, in answer to this: Black hull variants (Hull, standard armor, adv. armor) become more reflective, the stealth blocks less reflective than those, and an active cloaking device completely matte-black invisible, with an added background if you're immobile.
That seems to me to be more workable.

 

[Theodore_William]

Simple talk versus nerd talk.

Here's the issue with thrusters. I design ships a specific way. I put ice crystals behind my thrusters. I do not like the plums, and I love the glow of the crystals. So I already have those blocking the thrust.

So, 1: I'm assuming that crystals would have natural EME resistance? Or would they give off more?

2: A specifically thruster EME block. It has to be placed adjacent to thrusters. That way you can only have one layers and can't stack the mega absorbing power.

My other thought is that large engines with lots of exposed thrusters would have the same thrust as an equal sized engine with only one exposed block. It's just a thought. It's partly design concerns, cause I know many people make their engines colorful rather than use the plumes. Aaaaaand I don't want lose my thrust because I have no exposed thrusters.

 

[Blodge]

Perhaps they can be overwhelmed near stars (As in, if you're melting your ship, your scanning system is down as well.)

Oh my, this is a great idea. Add in the radar at the top right of your screen going offline and losing your ability to target anything, i.e. everything is permanently radar-jammed. Then you have a reason to go near a star as a trade-off for the heat damage

 

[Madman198237]

Well, once heat-damage-nerfing systems are implemented, flying out of a star will be a viable ambush tactic.



Yes, present designs do make that thruster idea problematic.
So instead, leave the designs, and say that the ONLY thing that is detected in a trail of ions (That does not show up as a trail---this is a space game, not a virtual hunting game), that cannot be absorbed by blocks, so you need to have a real good stealth ship that can compensate for the amount of EME from thrusters.

The ice crystals, if they glow, would emit EME. Visible light is EM radiation. If they don't glow, then they would absorb EME from everything BUT thrusters. Make sense? I'm trying to balance that point of the stealth idea---even the shields idea is self-balancing, almost, but thrusters are a problem, as you so kindly pointed out (Insert grumbling here).

And to be perfectly fair, my newest ship has black crystal armor shielding the engines, while still allowing for the glow from the engines. So that idea's not great...

 

[Theodore_William]

I've been thinking about lighting. To be honest, I feel like throwing in EME from lighting and crystal glow would make it quite brutal, when you take into consideration the current state of the game and our proposed overhaul. I'm sure that, with all that we're proposing, we could compromise on glowing rocks and light bulbs.

When it comes down to it, our changes(at least so far), wouldn't have a massive impact on the majority of current ships. Ya, we'd see tons of ships utilizing the EME Overhaul, but our current ships wouldn't be made null, like with the weapons and shields overhauls.

With that being said, integrating lighting into the overhaul WOULD affect any ship, stealth or not. I say, lights and crystals are given a minor EME resistant coating during processing. Magical excuse? Yes. *shrug* Not like I'm saying that sound can travel in space. Which it can't. End of story there. Moving on.

An innate ion trail no matter your the design would be good. I think at this point, we should deviate from realism and move into magical game logic. Your ships could have an overall EME rating. The ion trail would of course be powerful. The trail rating would be derived from the overal emissions of the ship. The greater the EME of the ship, the more detectable the trail. The shielding blocks would reduce the overall value of this ship and in turn reduce the trail.

Trying to have dynamic placement of EME blocks would end up being extremely complicated.

Later on, once we have a more stable game, we could have dynamic placement. I say that they need to be placed within a certain number of blocks from the outer hull AND need to be in between open space and any system blocks for maximum effect. But that's later. Right now, we just need the basics.

EDIT:
We do NOT need a hunting style tracking system, although I wouldn't be opposed to one later on. It would be interesting to have cat and mouse gameplay. We gotta find the Red October at some point. But for now, instead of a trail, it's just a moving signature. Think a blip on sonar(just for a visual representation).

 

[Madman198237]

Yes, I agree. I'd love to say "Glowy ship? You're obvious! Die, glowing fools! Muahahaha!" and so on, but you're right. No reason to break your fancy illuminated ships just so my EME system can be more science than fiction.

I agree, we need to find a balance between science and fiction. And yes, dynamic placement tracking would probably make the game engine panic and die. Not necessarily in that order. However, groups of these blocks might get some sort of benefits, so as to encourage the use of a layer right under the outer hull, or even making the outer hull out of these blocks, because of the maximum group size you get from that configuration. Also, if these stealth blocks/modules are a nice matte black, they'd be worth more as a hull plating for stealth ships, to avoid the need for constant cloaking.

We're basically saying the same things to each other, over and over, refining them every time.

We need some other people to pay attention to these ideas, give their own feedback.

 

[Theodore_William]

I apologize for my absence. Life getting in the way. Reality is such a drag.

You're right, I do believe we've come to an impasse. I guess to summarize, we're looking for a stealth and sensory overhaul that would encourage dynamic ship building while maintaining scalability, as well as bring an entirely new and diverse system into the game.

Nit picky details can be considered along the way.