[Some Saturday coffee talk]
A ships best weapon and defence should be its scanners- so why are they often "just D rate it and forget"? They should be your eyes and ears into supercruise, just as the full spectrum scanner is to explorer types as well as being a window into real space travel.
So:
A scan of a ship should be valuable information- why not show the players recent criminal history (i.e. how many counts of player / Pilot Fed murder, NPC murder, and assaults)? Its like the rap sheets of old Elite games. From this you can judge if this person is safe / treat with caution.
This should also be expressed as an inline string around the target in the HUD in a simple ratio like PF:10 M:10 A:50 so that without having to dip into the target panel you can see the behaviour of this person. This could reset each day maybe, or perhaps be in categories (so a player killer would be a 'high' threat over time but would fade if they stopped killing).
This information is important, because it can tell apart play-styles. Pirates don't really want to blow up targets, so they will have a high number of assaults but low player / NPC kill count. A player killer will have an almost uniform kill / assault ratio (since each kill will be an assault then murder charge).
It would be a fun tool in Powerplay to see merits held by the opposition, and make them a priority target.
Link a scan to this idea: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...-npc-player-scan-spawns-an-atr-vessel.533172/ that way, a scan in real space is useful.
(Not my idea but fits here): make it so that if you scan a criminal you can cash that sighting for a payout and marks that player in that system (until they leave it via HW). If that criminal is in SC, security (if any) focus on interdicting them (regardless of faction rep) for a security scan and further action (such as the ATR at notoriety 10 idea).
What this would do: it would make a traders scanner like a herd immunity to attack; traders and miners could then be proxy spotters as they go about play and protect each other in an active and passive way generating gameplay and lose teamplay.
In multicrew a gunner could become a spotter allowing 360 scanning, identification and tagging of targets. For mining this might be useful as you are stationary, and able to act as a spotter for SLFs for example, or know when to pack up and run.
Make scanner engineering more than lightweight- wide angle and long range then becoming useful, almost vital.
It would make avoiding scans also important, because one scan from a player can set off a chain of investigation, and action separately to the trader. It would also allow you to plan ahead of time and know who wants to kill you, or rob you.
Bring in silent running to break scans or stall them. Piratical grandmas footsteps?
Once a murderer or person of high enough rating is in that system, have an on screen security announcement like "Attention traders! Known felon CMDR X has been sighted! Do not approach and act with caution!" to being it all in universe emershun.
For attackers, have a line of sight jammer laser that if painting a target blinds them (but eats up WEP energy to use) in real space.
Create a new class of armour- stealth. Makes you much harder to target (and reduces SC visibility by half visually and in the RADAR via range) at the expense of protection (it grants very little).
A ships best weapon and defence should be its scanners- so why are they often "just D rate it and forget"? They should be your eyes and ears into supercruise, just as the full spectrum scanner is to explorer types as well as being a window into real space travel.
So:
A scan of a ship should be valuable information- why not show the players recent criminal history (i.e. how many counts of player / Pilot Fed murder, NPC murder, and assaults)? Its like the rap sheets of old Elite games. From this you can judge if this person is safe / treat with caution.
This should also be expressed as an inline string around the target in the HUD in a simple ratio like PF:10 M:10 A:50 so that without having to dip into the target panel you can see the behaviour of this person. This could reset each day maybe, or perhaps be in categories (so a player killer would be a 'high' threat over time but would fade if they stopped killing).
This information is important, because it can tell apart play-styles. Pirates don't really want to blow up targets, so they will have a high number of assaults but low player / NPC kill count. A player killer will have an almost uniform kill / assault ratio (since each kill will be an assault then murder charge).
It would be a fun tool in Powerplay to see merits held by the opposition, and make them a priority target.
Link a scan to this idea: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...-npc-player-scan-spawns-an-atr-vessel.533172/ that way, a scan in real space is useful.
(Not my idea but fits here): make it so that if you scan a criminal you can cash that sighting for a payout and marks that player in that system (until they leave it via HW). If that criminal is in SC, security (if any) focus on interdicting them (regardless of faction rep) for a security scan and further action (such as the ATR at notoriety 10 idea).
What this would do: it would make a traders scanner like a herd immunity to attack; traders and miners could then be proxy spotters as they go about play and protect each other in an active and passive way generating gameplay and lose teamplay.
In multicrew a gunner could become a spotter allowing 360 scanning, identification and tagging of targets. For mining this might be useful as you are stationary, and able to act as a spotter for SLFs for example, or know when to pack up and run.
Make scanner engineering more than lightweight- wide angle and long range then becoming useful, almost vital.
It would make avoiding scans also important, because one scan from a player can set off a chain of investigation, and action separately to the trader. It would also allow you to plan ahead of time and know who wants to kill you, or rob you.
Bring in silent running to break scans or stall them. Piratical grandmas footsteps?
Once a murderer or person of high enough rating is in that system, have an on screen security announcement like "Attention traders! Known felon CMDR X has been sighted! Do not approach and act with caution!" to being it all in universe emershun.
For attackers, have a line of sight jammer laser that if painting a target blinds them (but eats up WEP energy to use) in real space.
Create a new class of armour- stealth. Makes you much harder to target (and reduces SC visibility by half visually and in the RADAR via range) at the expense of protection (it grants very little).
