Given that changes are being planned for Exploration, I feel that this would also be an excellent opportunity to overhaul most of the games' Scanning & Stealth mechanics. As they are currently far too binary & lack any true skill component-particularly with regards to Super-cruise.
Lets begin with Stealth. At its simplest, a ship's Profile/Visibility should broadly be a combination of its physical size & its "Heat Signature"-in both N-Space & Super-cruise (heck, probably already is, for all I know). Again, regardless of SC or N-Space, that Profile should impact not only the minimum range at which the ship turns up on the scopes of other ships, but also the length of time needed to get a successful scan of the ship. As such, Heat Management should be just as important a skill in Super-Cruise as it is in N-Space......if not more so.....& ships should have the ability to utilise a Super-cruise configuration of Silent Running. Similarly, certain Modules & Engineer Upgrades should exist to make Super-cruise Stealth easier, & certain ship types (most especially the Scouts) should be designed so as to run with lower visibility IMHO.
The flip-side of this is overhauling of Scanning.....again especially in regards to Super-Cruise. Passive Scans (just clicking on the object in the Nav Panel & pointing your ship at it) would work largely as they do now, except these scans would reveal less information than is currently the case. However passive scans would always be effectively "silent", & thus be a great scanning method for ships running in Stealth Mode.
Active Scanning would require an appropriate Scanner (Kill-Warrant, Manifest, Discovery) & would be able to be used in 3 different modes-Low, Medium & High Powered. Each level of Scan power would require the player to hold the button down for longer, would reveal more information about the target (relevant to the scanner type), but would also increase the risk of the scan being detected by the scanee, as well as revealing who the scanning is (& its location). Scanning Angle & Distance would-however-also play a significant role in the utility & risk of the different scanning modes.
What is most important, however, is that all these Active Scanning methods would be just as useful in Super-Cruise as they are in N-Space. Thus adding another potential danger to players/NPC's travelling to a destination within a system. Though such functionality will make things more potentially dangerous for the Cargo Hauler, Smuggler or Criminal, it would also have the effect of significantly reducing the random interdiction of players who are running with no cargo/no bounties-as law enforcement/pirates would only tend to interdict those revealed as viable targets by an active scan.
To make things more interesting, Modules & Engineer Upgrades could exist that could allow players & NPC's to break a scan in progress, or at the very least seriously delay the completion of said scan (in a manner similar to ECM's & Missiles). Even a Scan delay might be sufficient for the scanned target to make use of Stealth Mechanics to apparently "disappear" from the scope of the scanning ships. Of course the easiest way to evade scanning is to keep away from the Shipping Lanes within a given system
.
So, in summary, what would the suggested changes do for the game?
1) I believe it would make travel in Super-Cruise a much more exciting & engaging activity, especially for more nefarious players.
2) It would allow for smaller ships to remain more viable, even for a "late game" player. It would also allow certain ships to be slightly modified to make them excel at Scanning, Stealth or both (the Asp-X & DBX both come to mind).
3) It would allow even more opportunities for Multi-Crew, as crew-mates could be involved in managing Stealth & even scanning activities.
4) It would allow for a whole range of new missions, all centred around Stealth (with or without Scanning). Covert Espionage missions that work along similar lines to Massacre Missions, Stalking Missions that work along similar lines to Assassinations & Haulage Missions that demand you can *never* get scanned.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. What does everyone else think?
Lets begin with Stealth. At its simplest, a ship's Profile/Visibility should broadly be a combination of its physical size & its "Heat Signature"-in both N-Space & Super-cruise (heck, probably already is, for all I know). Again, regardless of SC or N-Space, that Profile should impact not only the minimum range at which the ship turns up on the scopes of other ships, but also the length of time needed to get a successful scan of the ship. As such, Heat Management should be just as important a skill in Super-Cruise as it is in N-Space......if not more so.....& ships should have the ability to utilise a Super-cruise configuration of Silent Running. Similarly, certain Modules & Engineer Upgrades should exist to make Super-cruise Stealth easier, & certain ship types (most especially the Scouts) should be designed so as to run with lower visibility IMHO.
The flip-side of this is overhauling of Scanning.....again especially in regards to Super-Cruise. Passive Scans (just clicking on the object in the Nav Panel & pointing your ship at it) would work largely as they do now, except these scans would reveal less information than is currently the case. However passive scans would always be effectively "silent", & thus be a great scanning method for ships running in Stealth Mode.
Active Scanning would require an appropriate Scanner (Kill-Warrant, Manifest, Discovery) & would be able to be used in 3 different modes-Low, Medium & High Powered. Each level of Scan power would require the player to hold the button down for longer, would reveal more information about the target (relevant to the scanner type), but would also increase the risk of the scan being detected by the scanee, as well as revealing who the scanning is (& its location). Scanning Angle & Distance would-however-also play a significant role in the utility & risk of the different scanning modes.
What is most important, however, is that all these Active Scanning methods would be just as useful in Super-Cruise as they are in N-Space. Thus adding another potential danger to players/NPC's travelling to a destination within a system. Though such functionality will make things more potentially dangerous for the Cargo Hauler, Smuggler or Criminal, it would also have the effect of significantly reducing the random interdiction of players who are running with no cargo/no bounties-as law enforcement/pirates would only tend to interdict those revealed as viable targets by an active scan.
To make things more interesting, Modules & Engineer Upgrades could exist that could allow players & NPC's to break a scan in progress, or at the very least seriously delay the completion of said scan (in a manner similar to ECM's & Missiles). Even a Scan delay might be sufficient for the scanned target to make use of Stealth Mechanics to apparently "disappear" from the scope of the scanning ships. Of course the easiest way to evade scanning is to keep away from the Shipping Lanes within a given system
.So, in summary, what would the suggested changes do for the game?
1) I believe it would make travel in Super-Cruise a much more exciting & engaging activity, especially for more nefarious players.
2) It would allow for smaller ships to remain more viable, even for a "late game" player. It would also allow certain ships to be slightly modified to make them excel at Scanning, Stealth or both (the Asp-X & DBX both come to mind).
3) It would allow even more opportunities for Multi-Crew, as crew-mates could be involved in managing Stealth & even scanning activities.
4) It would allow for a whole range of new missions, all centred around Stealth (with or without Scanning). Covert Espionage missions that work along similar lines to Massacre Missions, Stalking Missions that work along similar lines to Assassinations & Haulage Missions that demand you can *never* get scanned.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. What does everyone else think?
