[Barnacle Bill]

You would have to have a memory effect, so that if you "ping" during your turn anybody in range to detect that gets a message or something at the beginning of their next turn. This could be like the message you get when somebody hits your minefield, telling you where it happened. For example "active scanner emmission from sysyem x, sector y,z".

Logically, the faster you go during the turn (i.e. the more MP's you expend), the more detectable you should be as well.

Probably a lot of coding changes, but it would make things interesting.

In Starfire, you can't just see everything in the system. There is an interaction between your sensors, what "it" is, "it's" ECM, etc... that determines at what range you can detect "it". Starfire does not get into active/passive, though.

Of course, that is exactly how it works in real life. Active sensors are like using a flashlight. You can see farther in the dark with one than without it, but everyone within a much greater distance than you can see with it knows where you are as soon as you turn it on.