=+>-(Ignore this thread, it was a bad and incorrect idea)-<+=

[FunnyBunny14]

Cloaks and jammers aren't realistic. Why? Let me explain:
First you need to understand how a real life cloak would work. It would deflect light around an object. The key word here is around. This states that not the mass, but the surface area of the ship would matter.
Same with jamming.. The definition of jamming basically is that you block the radar signal of another ship, this isn't based in mass but on surface area. So some of you will be thinking: why not half of the surface area? Because when you look at a ship, you only see half of the surface area of that ship. And doesn't radar work the same way? Well, it does, but if you have another ship on the exact opposite side, the whole surface area has to be invisible to radar. And mass also doesn't effect shields, the surface area (again) does.
So here is my idea:

As you probably guessed after reading the introduction, the energy consumption of jamming, cloaking and shields should not be based on mass at all, rather on the surface area of a ship and with a curve favoring smaller ships, much like engines do now.
And no good thread on the topic of cloaking and jamming, aka complete stealth, should pass without mentioning the ridiculous amount of energy used. It really is a lot, and should be made less to start with, after which the diminishing curve would ensure that capital ships won't be able to cloak indefinitely.

What I mean by surface area (for starmade that is): surface area would be the amount of blocks on the outer layer. Opened doors, for simplicity purposes, should not make the surface area be increased by the area behind them if that area would be sealed off when all doors are closed. I don't know exactly how this would be done, although I would like to make a suggestion: create a scan. How it works: before you can exit build mode after an alteration to that ship (which obviously also means after you create a new ship), you have to close all the doors, and then the scan would go from the front of the ship and back, from the top of the ship and back and from the side of the ship and back (or station). After the scan has determined the surface area, the energy usage for the shields, cloak and jammer would be calculated and displayed.

This would create an extra element that has to be thought of and it should make ship building more realistic. The curve would also prevent capital ships from exploiting this.

 

[starhaiden]

but cubes ships will be even more powerful

 

[FunnyBunny14]

Depends how big it is. I dis say that there would be a curve, by which I meant that bigger = not better. And don't mock the cube ships! They exist for a reason, I'm convinced of that (other than the easy symmetry and the not waisting of mass). I only build cube ships. But you can also build nice looking ships, as long as you make sure that you don't do crazy things with the surface area. And this was meant to improve realism, and cube ships being powerful (I'm assuming you mean that the ships are stuffed with only useful things) is very realistic. Nice looking ships are fine and all, but in real life less weight and practicality will often outweigh looks.

 

[Hamsta]

I like the idea that in some cases the energyconsumption should be based on the surface. I do however see a problem with your way of calculating the surface. As far as i am aware of "scanning" the surface is far to intensive on your ram. It would be easier if the game would just check if a block has air next to it or not. If yes, it is a surface-block and adds to the calculation.
Additionally i share the viewpoint of starhaiden. Yes cubeships are the most efficient ones but ugly as hell. And in contrast to your statement, in real life most of the time looks outweigh efficiency. Any marketing director in the world confirm this. Pretty much for the same reason why most of the playserbase don't like cubeships.

By the way. If you think from a realisic point of view jammers don't work the way you described. Jammers send an intensified white noise signal in every or (if enemy location ist known) a specific location which causes the enemy radars to go blank and stop them from seeing anything at all. So Jamming has no relation neither mass nor surface. The only thing it does depend on, is how strong your jammer and how good the enemys radar is.

 

[ToyotaSupra]

This game isn't intended to be realistic, and I hope they keep it that way.

 

[AURAvulpes]

Hmm.. Wouldn't the "surface area" be the amount of faces on the outside rather than the blocks on the outside themselves?
This would make cubic ships slightly less efficient, as a ship with wedges and other partial blocks will have less faces.. and thus less surface area

As far as i am aware of "scanning" the surface is far to intensive on your ram. It would be easier if the game would just check if a block has air next to it or not. If yes, it is a surface-block and adds to the calculation.

True, but if it's checking if an air block is next to it, then that would mean any hollow parts of the ship (the inside) are also checked as a surface block, because the inside is filled with air :/ and only the outside should be cloaked.. no reason to cloak inside xD

 

[mrsinister]

servers can set the amount of power used for cloaking in the blockBehaviorConfig. I know set mine fairly low and people still can not stay perma-cloaked but at least we can cloak for a decent amount of time.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

I just came to the conclusion that this idea won't work. Placing blocks diagonally from each other would increase the volume of the ship more than placing them in a cubic way (so no diagonals). It would allow for overpowered ships, I'll edit this thread accordingly (huge stripe through the whole thing).