LRS vs. Planets
 

It's always irked me that I can't see the defenses of planets I want to attack without actually attacking them or using an intelligence operation. Any chance that Long Range Scanners will be changed in the next patch so they will give details of enemy-held planets as well as ships? (If they have the resolution to scan individual ship components, certainly they can scan planets...) Of course then we'd need a Scanner Jammer facility too...

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

I agree this would be a nice addition and only makes sense. It can be bothersome to lose a couple of ships to a planet defended by many fighters just to find out it is defended by many fighters.

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

Emm... LRS will be too powerful if you let it scan planets. Besides, aren't the surprises of the unknown part of the fun?

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

How is it too powerful?

The planetary psychic scanner allows you to scan ALL ships that come into your system where it is built.

That's a bit too powerful in my view.

Long range scanners should NOT allow the scan of facilities, but Cargo.

That way you can make enough preperations to strike that colony/homeworld with pricision.

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

So you mean you couln't see massive facilities that are miles in dimension?

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

I'm not speaking realistically; I'm just speaking what would be best (IMHO) for the game.

But if you are talking about facilities, it already kind of shows you the facilities, as it shows you the construction queue of the planet/ship and how long it will take.

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

It would be nice to see the cargo ...

But if you do not want to loose your entire fleet you can send in a small scout!
The scut will be destroyed in most of the times but you "see" the defense of that planet.

Seik

[ June 30, 2002, 02:05: Message edited by: seik ]

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

That's a Intel project called
"Cargo Maintenance Problem"
I'm not sure how did it work, maybe that will help to destory some fighters/WPs store in planet.

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

I have to agree that you should be able to scan the planets, if you can scan scout ships! And of course the Surface Scan Jammer would make sense as a preventitive option.
I'm new here and am wondering if Shrapnel, MM, or whoever would be involved in actually considering these suggestions read the forums on a regular basis? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif If not, how does one propose such things to the games designer(s)?

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Send him an email. People use various ones.
Info@malfador.com SE4@malfador.com

It does make a difference when people speak up. He has lots of ideas to work on, and if many people want something in particular it gets bumped up the priority list.

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

If you attack the planet with one single drone or the smallest group of fighters, you will get all the information you want. IMHO this is easy enough, so I do not want a long range scanner for planets,

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Consider the price difference between the ship-mount sensor and a facility, not to mention the production loss the planetary psychic scanner causes by taking up a slot. A 20kT ship-board sensor will give you a range of 5, that's every square except the outer most rows and columns if you put it in the centre on a cheap 2000 minerals satellite! I think the planetary psychic scanner do too little for the cost and never use it!

If you want intel on a planet, just send in a fighter or something equally worthless. Letting you see everything with a simple and cheap sensor makes dull, boring and predictable game play. As I said before, I consider surprises part of the fun.

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

Of course minefields prevent sending in expendable ships/fighters to see what's at a planet.

I've never used the ship scanners thou. I always attack big fleets with expendable ships to see what's there (only to see the levels of ECM and Sensors)

Scanners for planets seems oddly useful. Might convince players to watch out for their ally's ships as well, and give paranoid border protectionists like me another advantage.

Put it in I say.

Askan

[ July 01, 2002, 04:12: Message edited by: Askan Nightbringer ]

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

Askan's idea gave me an idea:

How about make it into a race tech?

This way, people that want the surprises can use the points into something more to what they have in mind, and people who does want the scanners can take the... *Surveillance Experts* racial tech.

Re: LRS vs. Planets
 

The 'Psychic Scanner' Facility is a Psychic Facility by default, even if the power it uses is called 'Long Range Scanner - System'. Think what this means. There is some sort of 'Psychic Technology' for viewing the contents of ships anywhere in the system. This might have other uses, you know. Intelligence related uses. I have modded the Psychic Scanner in my game to have another power. It makes Psychic races more resistant to intelligence attacks, which you'd expect them to be anyway. This makes it much more worthwhile and less of a 'lost' facility slot.

Name := Remote Viewer Facility I
Description := Psychic intelligence complex which can detect enemy agents in the system and perform a detailed scan of enemy ships within the system.
Facility Group := Psychic
Facility Family := 97
Roman Numeral := 1
Restrictions := None
Pic Num := 42
Cost Minerals := 20000
Cost Organics := 10000
Cost Radioactives := 20000
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Psychic Technology
Tech Level Req 1 := 3
Number of Abilities := 2
Ability 1 Type := Long Range Scanner - System
Ability 1 Descr := Any ship within the system can be scanned in detail.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 0
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 2 Type := Change Bad Intelligence Chance - System
Ability 2 Descr := Decreases the chance of successful sabotage activities in this system (Only one facility per system effective).
Ability 2 Val 1 := -10
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0

Name := Remote Viewer Facility II
Description := Psychic intelligence complex which can detect enemy agents in the system and perform detailed scans of any ships within the system.
Facility Group := Psychic
Facility Family := 97
Roman Numeral := 2
Restrictions := None
Pic Num := 42
Cost Minerals := 10000
Cost Organics := 5000
Cost Radioactives := 10000
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Psychic Technology
Tech Level Req 1 := 4
Number of Abilities := 2
Ability 1 Type := Long Range Scanner - System
Ability 1 Descr := Any ship within the system can be scanned in detail.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 0
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 2 Type := Change Bad Intelligence Chance - System
Ability 2 Descr := Decreases the chance of successful sabotage activities in this system (Only one facility per system effective).
Ability 2 Val 1 := -20
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0

Name := Remote Viewer Facility III
Description := Psychic intelligence complex which can detect enemy agents in the system and perform detailed scans of any ships within the system.
Facility Group := Psychic
Facility Family := 97
Roman Numeral := 3
Restrictions := None
Pic Num := 42
Cost Minerals := 5000
Cost Organics := 2500
Cost Radioactives := 5000
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Psychic Technology
Tech Level Req 1 := 5
Number of Abilities := 2
Ability 1 Type := Long Range Scanner - System
Ability 1 Descr := Any ship within the system can be scanned in detail.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 0
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 2 Type := Change Bad Intelligence Chance - System
Ability 2 Descr := Decreases the chance of successful sabotage activities in this system (Only one facility per system effective).
Ability 2 Val 1 := -30
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0

[ July 01, 2002, 19:47: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]