Stealth Sheathing
- Thread starter Bloodsign
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Yeah, the percentage of radar reduction would definitely have to be balanced.
We don't have radar.
Sensors in ED are passive and thermal, so to fit within the current lore, any 'stealth' equipment would have to be described in such terms. Maybe a set of insulation and radiators that direct virtually all heat dissipation in a particular direction, dramatically reducing thermal signature from others angles?
Nightvision is a bit harder, as it's mechanism is not well explained in game. It currently isn't tied to sensor signature at all...but maybe it should be.
Sensors in ED are passive and thermal, so to fit within the current lore, any 'stealth' equipment would have to be described in such terms. Maybe a set of insulation and radiators that direct virtually all heat dissipation in a particular direction, dramatically reducing thermal signature from others angles?
Nightvision is a bit harder, as it's mechanism is not well explained in game. It currently isn't tied to sensor signature at all...but maybe it should be.
Interesting, thanks for the clarifications! I guess I just assumed with the huge sizes and power consumption of sensor modules that they had to be active radar.
What sort of corrosion are you talking about?
I'm very much against the idea of mandatory counters and would rather see effects like corrosive correctly balanced in the first place than everyone who expects to take hull damage having to run the same armor.
Yeah, that's an example of an effect that is overly potent and thus mandatory in many situations (nearly all of my ships have a corrosive weapon and fighting anything with significant hull without it puts one at a major disadvantage). I'd much rather see the effect changed than more overly specialized counters to overly potent effects.
If everyone uses it, something is wrong with it.
Is that corrosion or caustic resistance you talk about?
Caustic resistance can already be increased by meta-alloy HRPs and Guardian HRPs. It is currently only used in Thargoid hunting, unless those enzyme missiles from the tech broker that nobody uses are also affected by it. That being said, I could see use for a Meta Alloy bulkhead from the tech broker to supplement the HRPs.
On the main topic, I don't feel that stealth effects should be lumped in with a ship's main bulkheads as they are fundamentally different things. The parts of enemy ships that our scanners lock onto are the heat vents, not the hull plates themselves. This is also how silent running works, it closes said heat vents to prevent enemies locking onto them and traps the heat inside the ship.
If anything, that's something I'd like to see would be an entirely new core module adding - heat radiation systems. There would obviously be the default version, but alternatives such as lightweight, high-dissipation, stealth, high-capacity etc would be available. Heat and thermals in general I do feel are underutilised in the game to a fair degree.
On the main topic, I don't feel that stealth effects should be lumped in with a ship's main bulkheads as they are fundamentally different things. The parts of enemy ships that our scanners lock onto are the heat vents, not the hull plates themselves. This is also how silent running works, it closes said heat vents to prevent enemies locking onto them and traps the heat inside the ship.
If anything, that's something I'd like to see would be an entirely new core module adding - heat radiation systems. There would obviously be the default version, but alternatives such as lightweight, high-dissipation, stealth, high-capacity etc would be available. Heat and thermals in general I do feel are underutilised in the game to a fair degree.
The problem is since the night vision function is emulated from the ship sensors and not actual night vision, stealth ships shouldnt even be showing up on night vision at all.
the "night vision" function clearly is not using actual infared NV technology especialy since when you activate it, the NV kinda "pings" outwards which is not something real NV would do. Frontier has decided to ignore this for whatever reason and not revert the way NV detects stealth vessels when its not real NV.
I definitely agree.
Though the "stealth" aspects of this game need a total overhaul.
Though the "stealth" aspects of this game need a total overhaul.
So essentially having corrosion removed then? Coz if were talking about balance that one of the chief reasons hull tanks tend to suffer so much vs their shield tanked counterparts.
I'd be happy if they reworked current stealth in ED. Instead of some "blinky blink blink" on the radar (sorry, "sensors"), I'd prefer not showing up at all when I'm cold or in silent running. As for NV, at the very least remove the Battlezone wireframe outline on ships that are cold. Also, firing weapons should reveal a non-moving blip where the weapon fire came from, not completely negate stealth altogether.
Now if Frontier wants to add a proper cloaking device, like Elite 1984, I'd be all for that!
BTW, how does "radar" work in Supercruise? It's obviously a very different mechanic than real space, and I wish there was a way to go stealth (or at least reduce the range of detection) in SC.
Now if Frontier wants to add a proper cloaking device, like Elite 1984, I'd be all for that!
BTW, how does "radar" work in Supercruise? It's obviously a very different mechanic than real space, and I wish there was a way to go stealth (or at least reduce the range of detection) in SC.
I think there is a lot that could be done to the corrosive effect short of removal.
Currently it significantly reduces hull hardness and applies a significant flat damage bonus to hulls in addition to that. Having it apply only to the weapon that had the effect; having it scale with weapon damage; removing the flat damage bonus it provides; or adding more downsides to selecting it, in conjunction with another option, could all work.
Of course, removing it wouldn't be terrible either, it's not like MCs and frags don't have other useful effects, but outright removal wasn't implicit in my prior statement.
I don't know how it's explained, or even how it could rationally be explained, in the lore.
In practice, you are visible to and can detect anyone within ~40 seconds range at your current SC velocity. If the ranges in question are large enough, or the speeds low enough, throttling down can remove you from sensors. Otherwise, there isn't much that can be done to prevent you from being targeted, except hiding in clutter.
Yeah good points actually. it would be nice if it was changed either way to make it less broken. its a shame becasuse ships like the FDS which can often stand up to more volleys of Pa's than near on any other medium is nerfed into the dirt as soon as corrosive is applied.
Hull tanks need more love from Fdev. Badly.
As far as im aware the long distance sensors on your vessel use tachyon particles to detect objects in realtime, objects that would have signifigant mass or disrupt local space (like how the fsd leaves behind a trail like a boat on water) While short range sensors dont use tachyons and instead use the electromagnetic spectrum.
One thing I would love to see added is some kind of ship graveyard in the bubble where the carcass' of megaships and the like filled an area of a few hundered km.
Of all the places to have as a location to fight, that would be the one.
Now that is interesting... I did not know this. So if I'm just sitting at zero throttle in SC, I'm invisible to ships further out in the system?