(lost my thread with the new forums?)
I had an idea of actually making the heat mechanics work as advertised.
The heat output generated by your ship actually radiates from your ship by it being measured in "Radius" and not just some internal and binary "percentage".
The ships are visible in two measures
EM signature
Heat signature
"Silent running" straddles both of those. Currently, ships can run cold and hard to track, but not be in silent running, so you are hard to track with your transponder on......
So surely this should be the other way round.
Silent running Shuts of the EM and heat output so you can only be detected by the "heat" radiating from your ship.
Since all bodies radiate heat when "lit", then other ships also have their own "heat" radius. (Cheat if you must, use a second hitbox that you can scale up and down per heat-percentage)
If your ship is inside the other ships heat signature, you become masked.
So Chaffs and heat sinks also have this heat-hit box.
Scans must also be tiered up and visibly explained to players who are scanning and how far along they have come.
1) Passive EM scan. Ship and pilots name, shield - active at all times unless in "silent running".
2) Active EM scan. Ships systems, hard-points open/closed and hull status.
3) Interogartive scan - manifest, kill warrant, datalink, hacking. (Passenger start reacting now, & smuggling cargo)
I had an idea of actually making the heat mechanics work as advertised.
The heat output generated by your ship actually radiates from your ship by it being measured in "Radius" and not just some internal and binary "percentage".
The ships are visible in two measures
EM signature
Heat signature
"Silent running" straddles both of those. Currently, ships can run cold and hard to track, but not be in silent running, so you are hard to track with your transponder on......
So surely this should be the other way round.
Silent running Shuts of the EM and heat output so you can only be detected by the "heat" radiating from your ship.
Since all bodies radiate heat when "lit", then other ships also have their own "heat" radius. (Cheat if you must, use a second hitbox that you can scale up and down per heat-percentage)
If your ship is inside the other ships heat signature, you become masked.
So Chaffs and heat sinks also have this heat-hit box.
Scans must also be tiered up and visibly explained to players who are scanning and how far along they have come.
1) Passive EM scan. Ship and pilots name, shield - active at all times unless in "silent running".
2) Active EM scan. Ships systems, hard-points open/closed and hull status.
3) Interogartive scan - manifest, kill warrant, datalink, hacking. (Passenger start reacting now, & smuggling cargo)