Diamonds arn't Forever... (diamond overlay change)

[canadianchuck]

The core Diamond overlay needs to be changed. Currently having the diamond gives away the one point in a ship that needs protection. This is a big problem for big ships. Such ships with low turning speeds are easy pray to stacked laser canons that can cut through hulls like butter. Small ships are even worse since there positions are given sectors away.

Alternative to the current diamond- Friend or Foe Tags
Your in the woods alone with nature. startled by noises you start to take caution. What greates you is a familiar human. Still your filled with a presence of danger untill the other person waves hello. You wave back releaved.
Starmade should have a similar experience.
Friend or Foe tags would be auto off but toggled to on when encountering another ship or AI controlled structure. Player presses a button on keyboard and a little colored overlay pops up. This overlay is seen by anybody in the imediate area and could include a range of info but at most a color aligning them as friend or foe.

Removing the diamond overlay could cause trouble for green missles but it could also intorduce a use for radar blocks.

 

[MrFURB]

I think that you\'re going somewhere. I hope that in the future there are going to be different levels of scanners. Unless you have the scanners, you don\'t get the diamond overlay and can\'t target (Or you get no info when you do target) until you are close to the entity.
In most games there are two different types of scanners:
1. Always on. Has a passive energy drain or a limited range, and is popular in games like Eve or Alliegance.
2. Pinging. You activate the scanner by a hotkey and it pings a radius around you, which is closer to the way a high-powered \'radar\' system would work in space and also reward vigiliant players for pinging and finding things that would normally be hidden.
Maybe even a combination of the two...

 

[Calbiri]

BB missiles can still easily track a core, the diamond overlay is a GUI feature and its remo all shouldn\'t effect the missile tracking

 

[MindSpark]

Makes sense. Sick of ignoring the rest of the ship and going straight for the core. I think though a problem is finding it in god ships maybe a much less acurate way to find the core is what we need. And a bit more of, like he said, a radar system for finding asteroids.

EDIT: I mean the radar idea should be added instead of the diamond overlay. But a less acurate way to find the core.

 

[canadianchuck]

The ping you describe would be pretty sweet.
I know derelect ships and general exploration was talked about a while ago. Having a ping system would make the exploration part very mysterious.

 

[Kracksquatch]

I dont think the odimond overlay is all that bad as far as what it tells you. Though i do wish it didnt just focus on the ship core. I would be happier if it surrounded the entire ship (or object, asteroid etc.) rather the just the core or center of mass. I do like the radar idea though but not as a range thing as much as having an advanced radar that would allow the targeting of specfic systems (ship core, weapon mod, etc.) at closer ranges. For example you could detect a ship at current ranges (without any special system) and know friend or foe etc. but have a better radar that tells you where the important stuff is at a much closer range (dependant on how many you cram on your ship)

 

[CrusaderDeleters]

Perhaps the rest of the ship can be considered the \"core\" until you actually hit the core at least once, even with 0 damage.