Idea partially stolen from felekar.
- All ships and bases that are not identified visually appear as white symbols on the radar.
- Hostile ships/bases appear red, as they do now.
- Friendly ships/bases appear green, as they do now.
- Provoked friendly ships/bases become yellow.
- Wrecks of any sort, mined ore and cargo crates have another colour, maybe dark grey.
- Bases have a different symbol, perhaps "*", while large ships (eg: Drakes, Marauder Platforms) might be a "x". Stargates might be an "O".
- Using map ROMS would correctly differentiate friendly and unfriendly station colours.
- Cute, harmless Ferrians become green. I'm still bewildered as to why they are currently red... Is it so that beating them up isn't considered piracy?
Any feedback? To be honest, the radar as it stands currently works fine for me but the added detail might be conducive to realism.
On a totally unrelated topic... I saw Stardust the other night. It's a good movie.
Idea: Improved radar
A conducive to realism radar (yes, I am mostly not serious but overkill is good for ideas):
Radar range is up to five times greater than the current LRS. You'll see why:
You have several radar modes. Your radar can only point in one direction at a time, so it sweeps out a wedge of variable width, at around 60 degrees per second. You can have separate forward and rearward radars or a single 360 one.
Everything that exists is a blip - missiles, ships, planets, asteroids. The bigger the objects radar signature (which is not necessarily related to it's size, but obviously size affects it), the bigger the dot. Since blips only tell you where the target was when you last scanned it, they fade as they get more out of date. There might be an indicator as to the direction of the target if it was detected.
First mode is single target mode. It will follow a single target and track it continuously (basically the "wedge" your radar sweeps out is 3 degrees wide and centers on this target). You can actually track two targets this way at one time. This mode will keep an eye on a single enemy at extreme range.
Second is just a normal speed scan of the designated area (the wedge that you have set).
Third is a slow scan which provides better detail (more chance to pick up low signature objects).
Now that's admittedly overkill, but I'd like to see in game upgradable sensor of different types (perhaps you can have more than one). A few different types:
IR: All objects in space MUST radiate heat. Thus it becomes a good way to detect a ship. Anytime a ship fires it's engine it becomes VERY bright on this screen if it was pointed at you. I've always though that this is what the LRS uses, since everything is clearly visible onscreen and pre-identified. By looking at the exhaust from a ship you can tell it's mass and how much power it generates and this is a pretty good way to identify a ship class.
Radar: see above. In reality radar pales in comparison to infrared detection because it is an active sensor and there would be a considerable lightspeed lag (double the one you'd get in a passive sensor) but having stealth as well as different modes of sensing does make things considerably more interesting. Also note that ships actively radiating light up like a christmas tree on everyone else's radar.
Visual: cameras hooked up to motion sensors and telescopes. Probably the cheapest and most ineffective way.
Radar range is up to five times greater than the current LRS. You'll see why:
You have several radar modes. Your radar can only point in one direction at a time, so it sweeps out a wedge of variable width, at around 60 degrees per second. You can have separate forward and rearward radars or a single 360 one.
Everything that exists is a blip - missiles, ships, planets, asteroids. The bigger the objects radar signature (which is not necessarily related to it's size, but obviously size affects it), the bigger the dot. Since blips only tell you where the target was when you last scanned it, they fade as they get more out of date. There might be an indicator as to the direction of the target if it was detected.
First mode is single target mode. It will follow a single target and track it continuously (basically the "wedge" your radar sweeps out is 3 degrees wide and centers on this target). You can actually track two targets this way at one time. This mode will keep an eye on a single enemy at extreme range.
Second is just a normal speed scan of the designated area (the wedge that you have set).
Third is a slow scan which provides better detail (more chance to pick up low signature objects).
Now that's admittedly overkill, but I'd like to see in game upgradable sensor of different types (perhaps you can have more than one). A few different types:
IR: All objects in space MUST radiate heat. Thus it becomes a good way to detect a ship. Anytime a ship fires it's engine it becomes VERY bright on this screen if it was pointed at you. I've always though that this is what the LRS uses, since everything is clearly visible onscreen and pre-identified. By looking at the exhaust from a ship you can tell it's mass and how much power it generates and this is a pretty good way to identify a ship class.
Radar: see above. In reality radar pales in comparison to infrared detection because it is an active sensor and there would be a considerable lightspeed lag (double the one you'd get in a passive sensor) but having stealth as well as different modes of sensing does make things considerably more interesting. Also note that ships actively radiating light up like a christmas tree on everyone else's radar.
Visual: cameras hooked up to motion sensors and telescopes. Probably the cheapest and most ineffective way.
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(name here)
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current "rader" actually works on Identification Friend or Foe. this is a system which transmits a counter response when it detects an automated transmission. if the response is not the correct response, it is tagged as red. if the correct response is transmitted on time, it is tagged as green.
Perhaps I should have called it "Long-Range Sensors".Sub-quantum particle signatures are picked up by your special jovian sub-quantum particle signature detection array, whereupon results are fed through a computer and interpreted to reveal different colours and symbols on your LRS screen.
Not radar, something else.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
I've never really been a fan of the magic insta-scope. It's one of those things where I think that a more practical solution is more fun.
For example, I think it is fun to NOT have everything pre-identified. I have had plenty of neat situations arise due to radar mistakes:
I bumbled into a waiting marauder platform/abbasid/bandit mine because it looked like a wreck field; I desperately used my last seconds of sustain to get to a "stargate" which turned out to be a nomad and two cargo crates; I've failed to spot the Ranx dread hiding in the ferian swarm.
etc.
Even though these are all 'bad' situations they are exciting and they add to the game.
For example, I think it is fun to NOT have everything pre-identified. I have had plenty of neat situations arise due to radar mistakes:
I bumbled into a waiting marauder platform/abbasid/bandit mine because it looked like a wreck field; I desperately used my last seconds of sustain to get to a "stargate" which turned out to be a nomad and two cargo crates; I've failed to spot the Ranx dread hiding in the ferian swarm.
etc.
Even though these are all 'bad' situations they are exciting and they add to the game.
Well, if it were to take an item slot, and drain a reasonable amount of power, then it would be more of a choice for people. Do you want to have the assurance of knowing what's to come, or would you rather have your weapons enhancer, or some such device?OddBob wrote:I've never really been a fan of the magic insta-scope. It's one of those things where I think that a more practical solution is more fun.
For example, I think it is fun to NOT have everything pre-identified. I have had plenty of neat situations arise due to radar mistakes:
I bumbled into a waiting marauder platform/abbasid/bandit mine because it looked like a wreck field; I desperately used my last seconds of sustain to get to a "stargate" which turned out to be a nomad and two cargo crates; I've failed to spot the Ranx dread hiding in the ferian swarm.
etc.
Even though these are all 'bad' situations they are exciting and they add to the game.
I don't think I am making myself clear. I don't like the idea of making up a magic device that gives a ridiculous explanation as to how it works when we can just call it an "infrared sensor" - exact same result, less crap.
Now, no one has any clue how the positronic techno-pundit electrazap sensor works. No one ever will. Does the sun interfere with it? Can it tell the difference between an asteroid and a ship? Does the facing, size, speed or acceleration of the object being sensed matter? Is it an active or passive senor? You have to make up the answerers to these questions.
However, we know exactly how an infrared sensor works - all of the questions are answerable and thus they may be applied to the game if you want. For example, assume all sensors in the game are based on this principle. Then you can approach an enemy station from the direction of the sun and surprise him. You can't hide in an asteroid field because your ship does not radiate like an asteroid. You can't pretend to be a different ship because your mass will give you away. etc.
Even if you DONT want to apply them to the game, why make up stuff when perfectly good alternatives exist?
Now, no one has any clue how the positronic techno-pundit electrazap sensor works. No one ever will. Does the sun interfere with it? Can it tell the difference between an asteroid and a ship? Does the facing, size, speed or acceleration of the object being sensed matter? Is it an active or passive senor? You have to make up the answerers to these questions.
However, we know exactly how an infrared sensor works - all of the questions are answerable and thus they may be applied to the game if you want. For example, assume all sensors in the game are based on this principle. Then you can approach an enemy station from the direction of the sun and surprise him. You can't hide in an asteroid field because your ship does not radiate like an asteroid. You can't pretend to be a different ship because your mass will give you away. etc.
Even if you DONT want to apply them to the game, why make up stuff when perfectly good alternatives exist?
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Fossaman
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Actually, it sounds to me like you just have to apply a cattle-prod to an extremely self confident technology consultant, and they'll tell you what's out there.Now, no one has any clue how the positronic techno-pundit electrazap sensor works.
Even if you don't like the idea of infra-red (I would expect it to be included in the ship's basic loadout, myself) there are many other perfectly good high energy particles that we are currently capable of detecting. Presumably the detection technology for these would be greatly compacted by the time we've learned not just to detect but to emit these particles at high levels. (Ion weapons, anyone? What did you THINK those were?)
I would love to see long range sensors that could detect the bearing and basic type of weapons fire, engine emissions, exhaust trails, and catastrophic failure of fusion units (stuff going boom). But I agree with OddBob; no technobabble, please.
X-ray laser! Pew, pew pew!
> = = = = ۞
> = = = = ۞
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(name here)
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I remember IFF being a real in development tech which worked as i described. It also has the advantage that it gives a reading that is always accurate when not screwed with deliberately. and not too messed up by funny angles or adjusting power levels.
EDIT: well, it doesn't work exactly as i recall, but here is the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identifica ... end_or_foe
EDIT: well, it doesn't work exactly as i recall, but here is the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identifica ... end_or_foe
IFF is real, I assumed it was being used even in the overkill example. It doesn't tell you what type of ship is out there however, only if it has the proper codes (and those codes can lie or be unfamiliar - do Ringers use the same system as the CW?)
Ok, without technobabble.
Don't forget that we are dealing with a technological level which can construct powerful machines the size of a molecule, and quantum computers. Technology might be limited only by human imagination and the amount of energy involved. Push an atom here... pull a chromosome here... kill a man by reseting his synapses... create 3 cases of synthetic terran eggs out of dirt and old bed springs...
Its entirely feasable to assume a future spacecraft would have powerful long-range sensing abilities with an array of various sensors. Once something is identified as hostile, friendly etc, it is a relatively simple task for the computer to keep tabs on it.
One sensor detects and calculates the emissions from a spacecrafts thrusters, another sensor detects the mass of the spacecraft. The size of a spacecraft is determined, its model, whether it is moving...
Infra-red sensor? Sure
But there will undoubtably be other sensors. X-ray sensors. Optical devices. Devices that detect radio transmission.
We know that the players ships has the technology to "look" at something far away. As an example, you target a Corsair MK 2, you knock its shields down and it flies off. Looking at the target screen, you know when its shields are back up and even more interestingly, the direction it is flying in. I don't think that is an unrealistic expectation for the level of technology in Transcendence.
Don't forget that we are dealing with a technological level which can construct powerful machines the size of a molecule, and quantum computers. Technology might be limited only by human imagination and the amount of energy involved. Push an atom here... pull a chromosome here... kill a man by reseting his synapses... create 3 cases of synthetic terran eggs out of dirt and old bed springs...
Its entirely feasable to assume a future spacecraft would have powerful long-range sensing abilities with an array of various sensors. Once something is identified as hostile, friendly etc, it is a relatively simple task for the computer to keep tabs on it.
One sensor detects and calculates the emissions from a spacecrafts thrusters, another sensor detects the mass of the spacecraft. The size of a spacecraft is determined, its model, whether it is moving...
Infra-red sensor? Sure
But there will undoubtably be other sensors. X-ray sensors. Optical devices. Devices that detect radio transmission.
We know that the players ships has the technology to "look" at something far away. As an example, you target a Corsair MK 2, you knock its shields down and it flies off. Looking at the target screen, you know when its shields are back up and even more interestingly, the direction it is flying in. I don't think that is an unrealistic expectation for the level of technology in Transcendence.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
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(name here)
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I figure the visual display works along those lines, and the LRS is simpler. i also feel that the targeting rom focuses a few sensor arrays and cross references the data to determine behavior.