Hi all,
Some of the ideas and concepts below may well have been brought up before, but I thought I would add in my thoughts on why a ships Sensors should be the most important part of the ship and be the limiting factor (regarding range) for weapons lock as well as Scanner ranges.
So to start, a ships Sensors are currently underused by many players as they draw lots of power but only give better range with which to find a target, which of course is limited by the heat being given off by that target (so a ship silent running etc. will reduce this effective range). Many players see this as of little value, so use lower class sensors (usually D) to save that power and use it for larger weapons etc.
To me this seems a bit silly, as Sensors are the eyes and ears of the ship and typically with anything of a military nature more information is better, especially if that information can be gained easier, quicker or from a greater distance.
So how can they become more useful? Well, a seemingly simple code change could allow the Sensors to also be the limiting factor (range wise) for all of the Scanners that can be fitted to a ship (Kill Warrant, Cargo and Wake at the time of writing).
Currently these scanners have varying classes and power requirements that limit their range, but they all require the same amount of time (10 seconds) to actually resolve the scan. The costs, power requirements etc. could all stay the same, but higher classes of Scanner would allow the time of the scan to be reduced (see the example table below).
Scanner----Time to Complete
Class-------Scan (seconds)---Range
-------------------------------------------------------------------
A----------2-----------------Based on the quality of the ship Sensors
B----------4-----------------Based on the quality of the ship Sensors
C----------6-----------------Based on the quality of the ship Sensors
D----------8-----------------Based on the quality of the ship Sensors
E----------10----------------Based on the quality of the ship Sensors
If this were to be implemented then players may well decide that they want to have quicker scan times and so would sacrifice power to that end (more players may end up using higher quality scanners). It also makes sense for some larger and less manoeuvrable ships, as they may have difficulty in keeping a target to their front for 10 seconds to complete a scan, but 2 seconds would be much more doable.
There is also the question of why a scan needs to be initiated separately from when your target another ship. Surely if you have something like a Kill Warrant Scanner installed and powered on your ship, then you would want that scan to imitate every time you target a ship, rather than have to hold down a fire button every time. A toggle at least you should be given to allow this option as this would for instance allow two different weapons to be active on a fire group whilst a scan is automatically in progress, which would be very useful for players that like to use missiles (as they require time to lock), which brings me on to my final point.
Missiles; they are fine as they are (perhaps they could do a bit more hull damage), as they are currently limited by Sensor range anyway, but why do they require nearly as much power, or for the class two more power, than an equivalent class beam laser? It does not make sense to me as they are just pods that make use of the ships Sensors to be able to lock their target. To make them more appealing to players, as they are currently seen as subpar weapons to the majority, change them to have similar power requirements to kinetic weapons such as canons or multi-canons.
So in summary; make a ships Sensors the limiting factor for range for all weapon locks and Scanners, make different classes of Scanners vary the time to complete a scan and make missiles more power efficient to make them more attractive to players.
Regards,
C.
Some of the ideas and concepts below may well have been brought up before, but I thought I would add in my thoughts on why a ships Sensors should be the most important part of the ship and be the limiting factor (regarding range) for weapons lock as well as Scanner ranges.
So to start, a ships Sensors are currently underused by many players as they draw lots of power but only give better range with which to find a target, which of course is limited by the heat being given off by that target (so a ship silent running etc. will reduce this effective range). Many players see this as of little value, so use lower class sensors (usually D) to save that power and use it for larger weapons etc.
To me this seems a bit silly, as Sensors are the eyes and ears of the ship and typically with anything of a military nature more information is better, especially if that information can be gained easier, quicker or from a greater distance.
So how can they become more useful? Well, a seemingly simple code change could allow the Sensors to also be the limiting factor (range wise) for all of the Scanners that can be fitted to a ship (Kill Warrant, Cargo and Wake at the time of writing).
Currently these scanners have varying classes and power requirements that limit their range, but they all require the same amount of time (10 seconds) to actually resolve the scan. The costs, power requirements etc. could all stay the same, but higher classes of Scanner would allow the time of the scan to be reduced (see the example table below).
Scanner----Time to Complete
Class-------Scan (seconds)---Range
-------------------------------------------------------------------
A----------2-----------------Based on the quality of the ship Sensors
B----------4-----------------Based on the quality of the ship Sensors
C----------6-----------------Based on the quality of the ship Sensors
D----------8-----------------Based on the quality of the ship Sensors
E----------10----------------Based on the quality of the ship Sensors
If this were to be implemented then players may well decide that they want to have quicker scan times and so would sacrifice power to that end (more players may end up using higher quality scanners). It also makes sense for some larger and less manoeuvrable ships, as they may have difficulty in keeping a target to their front for 10 seconds to complete a scan, but 2 seconds would be much more doable.
There is also the question of why a scan needs to be initiated separately from when your target another ship. Surely if you have something like a Kill Warrant Scanner installed and powered on your ship, then you would want that scan to imitate every time you target a ship, rather than have to hold down a fire button every time. A toggle at least you should be given to allow this option as this would for instance allow two different weapons to be active on a fire group whilst a scan is automatically in progress, which would be very useful for players that like to use missiles (as they require time to lock), which brings me on to my final point.
Missiles; they are fine as they are (perhaps they could do a bit more hull damage), as they are currently limited by Sensor range anyway, but why do they require nearly as much power, or for the class two more power, than an equivalent class beam laser? It does not make sense to me as they are just pods that make use of the ships Sensors to be able to lock their target. To make them more appealing to players, as they are currently seen as subpar weapons to the majority, change them to have similar power requirements to kinetic weapons such as canons or multi-canons.
So in summary; make a ships Sensors the limiting factor for range for all weapon locks and Scanners, make different classes of Scanners vary the time to complete a scan and make missiles more power efficient to make them more attractive to players.
Regards,
C.
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