[Tanus]

quote:
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Originally posted by Tanus:
I'm sure it's probably been said before, but I'll throw it in anyway.

I'd like the option to set cloaking/detection 'distances' - kind of how long range scanners work.

Eg. Level 3 detectors would be able to see a cloaked ship up to 3 sectors away, level 4, 4 sectors away, etc. This would get more complicated as you add different cloak levels as well, but that's the general idea. System wide detection eliminates pretty much all 'stealthy' options and misdirection
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I proposed an idea like that awhile back. Though I was thinking more of having a scanner level combined with a sensor range, to make the different scanner types in SEIV be a bit different. Scanner level would scan out to the range, and be able to detect lower level cloaks further out.

Essentially, a Lvl 4 scanner w/range 2 would be able to detect cloak lvl 4 and lower at range 2, lvl 3 and lower at range 3, lvl 2 and lower at range 4. It would also detect cloak lvl 5 at range 1 and detect cloak lvl 6 if in the same sector.

Also wanted the cloak levels to stack, but only one particular component (or sector level obscuration) to work. So, you couldn't mount two cloaking devices to stack their cloak levels, but you could stack a cloaking device with stealth armor and hide in a sensor-obscuring nebula system or a sector-sized obscuring storm.

Definitely... I was really tired, and didn't explain clearly what I meant.

My thought (now that I'm awake) was something along these lines.

Detection 1 sees cloak 5 at range 1, cloak 4 at range 2, cloak 3 at range 3, cloak 2 at range 4, cloak 1 at range 5, and uncloaked at range 6

Detection 2 sees cloak 5 at range 2, cloak 4 at range 3... etc

All numbers are just examples of course, but the point is that the better cloaks allow you to get closer without being seen, but not totally invisible - eventually you'll be so close that no matter how good you're able to suppress the signature of your ship, it's just too close to miss.

Also, as you can see, just entering a system does not allow you to see all ships. Planets should show colonies, as that's harder to miss, but in the scale of a star system, a single ship is beyond minute, and a ship with no detection should not be able to 'see' a ship on the far side of the system.

Hope that makes a bit more sense.

Also, having the different types of cloak and detection work properly would be make for a lot of different variations on the theme.