Lienzo
Amanuensis
9
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Posted - 2015.01.10 22:22:39 -
[1] - Quote
The easiest way to understand something is to break it down into its component uses.
Cloaking.. -Removes us from d-scan. -Allows us to be on the same grid as another player without their knowing. -Does nothing for information from local or watchlists.
Separate or distinguish these function, and you narrow the problem.
For example, we could have a device which makes one invisible on the same grid, but visible on d-scan.
Alternately, we could have a device which obfuscates d-scan, but doesn't make one invisible on the same grid.
In the further extreme, we could have a device which neither removes one from d-scan, nor from being visible, but removes one from local chat.
Naturally, it would make sense that these systems not be able to be used simultaneously, and in most cases not be used perpetually.
In general, I am strongly in favor of a broad diminution of the capabilities of d-scan. It's a major impediment to other areas of game development. For a large number of players, it has no real abiding use except to hurl insults at one another. For some that may be as important as the ship spin counter, but we could get on fine without it. All d-scan signals should really be reduced to 1, 10, 100 or 1000MN signals, distinguished by the four main signal types. Only the ship/core scanner should distinguish these signals by an ID code. It should also lose precise range finding, eliminating the advantages of spamming it for targets on one's own grid. Instead, just round to the nearest AU, with "<1AU" as the smallest increment.
A further nerf could be to make d-scanning yield no valuable results within or towards any belt or within 1M km of any planetary system or major solar body. Perhaps even different groups of ships could have more restricted d-scan range, with pods and free ships having the most awful scanning capabilities and update frequencies.
Another area of consideration could be grid sizes. They don't seem to have changed more than once or twice in the past decade. Is it possible that the hardware is in a place where increasing their volume can be considered? Could greater engagement ranges come with new mechanics, like a cloak that only works based on signature ratios? Could we have dynamic signatures based on the current range between target and targeter? Is it possible to have a sufficiently compromised cloaking system that a "silent running" mode could be added to most hulls by default, and that stealth modules would simply amplify this innate ability?
What kind of modules and modes are needed is really shaped by the environments in which players are asked to operate. If you aren't pondering the implementation of new environments, such as perhaps asteroid fields whose only descriptors could include immensity or other superlatives, then perhaps we don't need very much in the way of new things. Most player engagement currently occur at chokepoints and load-in zones anyhow, and most solar systems tend to feel very small. |