- Joined
- Dec 3, 2013
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While playing starmade and exploring space I have (like most of you) used waypoints and the Nav Tab to search for stations, avoid rival faction ships (or hunt them), and plot a direct course home. During all that traveling I couldn't help but feel that the system could be better than it is now. After thinking about this for a while I came up with the idea of a long range sensor array.
The array could be placed in a similar fashion to weapon arrays. It would have a sensor computer and sensor blocks. There would be two types of sensor arrays. The first type of array would be active continually and consume power. The second type would only function when the player activates it. Much like the way cloaking/jamming works. While activated the second type would consume more energy but would also allow a longer range of scanning and would provide more information than the first type.
All ships will have a default sensor that works similar to our current navigation. Within a radius of about 1km (or whatever visual range is) it would detect objects (ships, planets, asteroids, etc.) and would provide basic info for each object. It would tell you the distance the object is from you, the mass of the object, and if it is an enemy, ally, or neutral. It would also tell you what the object was.
Now the long range sensors would do a few things. First they would increase the overall range that objects are detected depends on the number of sensor blocks in the array (they should have diminishing returns). The outer reaches of the sensors say the last 20% would only tell you that there is an object there, how far it is, and its mass. Once an object got closer than that say the next 20% of the radius you would also get info about what type of object it is and for planets you could tell what type it was, such as ice or desert. Then once it gets to 60% of your range you can also detect weather its enemy, neutral or ally, you could tell if its a pirate station or a normal one. I just used 20% increments as an example and this is also assuming this is for the first type. I am sure that this would need balancing done and I am not the one to do it.
Here is an example of how the system could possibly work.
Example
Using sensor type one lets say you have a max scan range of 3.5km. Using the numbers from above when an object is within 2.1km you get all the info about it possible. When its 2101m to 2800m you would only know what type of object it was, its mass, and its distance from you. Also in a planets case you would tell what type it was. Then from 2801m to 3.5km you would only know that there is an object, how far it was and its mass.
Another point to be made is it would allow players to attempt to size up their opponants before they actually engage, OR allow some of the really long range ships to shoot in the rough direction of a target without having a visual on it. This could potentially add to combat. It would also allow players to avoid combat if they had a better sensor array. Jamming would still be useful for smaller ships to avoid getting shot at at long range from “sniper” capitals. I think exploring could also benefit from this system. If your looking for a certain planet type (and like me cant remember what color means what) you can tell what it is before you reach it.
A final pint I want to mention is that when we get auto pilot(I heard it was planed but I may be wrong. If so ignore this) is that by default a ship could have a limited auto pilot range say somewhere in between 10km – 20km. But with better sensor array's you could increase it dramatically. But this is just sort of a side thought.
looking forward to hearing everyones thoughts on this !
The array could be placed in a similar fashion to weapon arrays. It would have a sensor computer and sensor blocks. There would be two types of sensor arrays. The first type of array would be active continually and consume power. The second type would only function when the player activates it. Much like the way cloaking/jamming works. While activated the second type would consume more energy but would also allow a longer range of scanning and would provide more information than the first type.
All ships will have a default sensor that works similar to our current navigation. Within a radius of about 1km (or whatever visual range is) it would detect objects (ships, planets, asteroids, etc.) and would provide basic info for each object. It would tell you the distance the object is from you, the mass of the object, and if it is an enemy, ally, or neutral. It would also tell you what the object was.
Now the long range sensors would do a few things. First they would increase the overall range that objects are detected depends on the number of sensor blocks in the array (they should have diminishing returns). The outer reaches of the sensors say the last 20% would only tell you that there is an object there, how far it is, and its mass. Once an object got closer than that say the next 20% of the radius you would also get info about what type of object it is and for planets you could tell what type it was, such as ice or desert. Then once it gets to 60% of your range you can also detect weather its enemy, neutral or ally, you could tell if its a pirate station or a normal one. I just used 20% increments as an example and this is also assuming this is for the first type. I am sure that this would need balancing done and I am not the one to do it.
Here is an example of how the system could possibly work.
Example
Using sensor type one lets say you have a max scan range of 3.5km. Using the numbers from above when an object is within 2.1km you get all the info about it possible. When its 2101m to 2800m you would only know what type of object it was, its mass, and its distance from you. Also in a planets case you would tell what type it was. Then from 2801m to 3.5km you would only know that there is an object, how far it was and its mass.
Another point to be made is it would allow players to attempt to size up their opponants before they actually engage, OR allow some of the really long range ships to shoot in the rough direction of a target without having a visual on it. This could potentially add to combat. It would also allow players to avoid combat if they had a better sensor array. Jamming would still be useful for smaller ships to avoid getting shot at at long range from “sniper” capitals. I think exploring could also benefit from this system. If your looking for a certain planet type (and like me cant remember what color means what) you can tell what it is before you reach it.
A final pint I want to mention is that when we get auto pilot(I heard it was planed but I may be wrong. If so ignore this) is that by default a ship could have a limited auto pilot range say somewhere in between 10km – 20km. But with better sensor array's you could increase it dramatically. But this is just sort of a side thought.
looking forward to hearing everyones thoughts on this !
, etc.
