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[PerturbedPug]

Hey guys,

I play a lot of Supreme Commander and I love how when you spot an enemy on radar, it's just a blip and you have to guess what it is or send out some scouts to check it out. I was thinking of how cool it would be to have something similar in Starsector. My idea proposes a new ship type and radar mechanic. Some ships would have a sight range and radar range. Enemies in radar range would be just a blip. Blips would not indicate the size or type of ship, just like in SupCom. Enemies in sight range are "identified", which reveals the ship's information, and can be tracked from radar as identified ships.

Only some ships are equipped with this radar such as cruisers, capitals and high-tech. Smaller ships and many low tech ships do not have the radar. High-tech ships have a much higher reliance on radar than low tech ships, which have a longer sight range.

Other ideas that might be nice to go with this are radar jamming ships and instead of radar scanning being constant, it would be in regular intervals like sonar pings.

Thanks for reading and please leave feedback 

[miro]

This sounds awesome. I like the idea of being tricked by the AI.

Also, perhaps you could have some clever systems that made more "blips" appear that actually exist.

[Gothars]

I'd like some sight limit and radar system on the campaign map, but the combat maps are too small for that to work well. Weapon range scratches already on the limits of the sight range, to return sight further would make battles confusing.

[ShadowEvangel]

Also, it'd be kind of hard for an AI to trick you that it has a hundred ships when the system map clearly shows it only has 9 and 5 are fighter wings

This would work a lot better if you introduce some ambiguity into the system map readout of fleets.

Ooh, had a thought:
In system view, you can only see the classes and how many of each. The ECM systems would either prevent your sensors from detecting ships in the enemy fleet (making it seem smaller than it is), or add sensor contacts to the fleet (making it seem larger than it is).
When you actually get into combat though, all the ships are visible and the closeness of the scanners would negate most/all of the ECM, making all the ships visible.

So for example a pirate fleet could have a strong ECM and appear to be only a frigate or two, but when you actually engage the fleet, it turns out to have a cruiser and a half-dozen frigates.

Or a single freighter could be making itself a less appealing target by generating a few destroyer signatures, making weaker pirates less likely to attack it.

Of course, you could get ECCMs that work to break through the enemy ECMs and reveal the true number and type of ships in the fleet, but you would still not be able to see whether that cruiser class is a freighter or a warship until you got right in it's face

(Apologies if this has already been suggested. Spur of the moment idea.)

[Plasmatic]

Also, it'd be kind of hard for an AI to trick you that it has a hundred ships when the system map clearly shows it only has 9 and 5 are fighter wings

This would work a lot better if you introduce some ambiguity into the system map readout of fleets.

Ooh, had a thought:
In system view, you can only see the classes and how many of each. The ECM systems would either prevent your sensors from detecting ships in the enemy fleet (making it seem smaller than it is), or add sensor contacts to the fleet (making it seem larger than it is).
When you actually get into combat though, all the ships are visible and the closeness of the scanners would negate most/all of the ECM, making all the ships visible.

So for example a pirate fleet could have a strong ECM and appear to be only a frigate or two, but when you actually engage the fleet, it turns out to have a cruiser and a half-dozen frigates.

Or a single freighter could be making itself a less appealing target by generating a few destroyer signatures, making weaker pirates less likely to attack it.

Of course, you could get ECCMs that work to break through the enemy ECMs and reveal the true number and type of ships in the fleet, but you would still not be able to see whether that cruiser class is a freighter or a warship until you got right in it's face

(Apologies if this has already been suggested. Spur of the moment idea.)

I like the idea, I'm just not entirely sure how it could be implemented without making players feel cheated if they engage a fleet that turns out to have far superior numbers, attempt to escape only to be horribly destroyed... or worse yet, escape with a sliver of hull only to have the damage that is dealt when escaping pop your sorry ship...

I already feel cheated when I escape a battle only to find my ships were sabotaged when I escaped....