Draglide12 wrote:Well it's not like Voyager is particularly sleek or designed to be difficult to detect.

Well you'd expect an interstellar starship that's maybe a thousand or a million times bigger to emit more than a 1W signal or whatever it is.

Draglide12 wrote:Another thing to consider is that within visual range most players will be fighting based off of what they can see. Unless complex instrumentation is added (which I wouldn't expect) then just having a visually stealthed ship would be a huge advantage in a dogfight.

No, I strongly suspect you'll be able to detect other ships using the frequency scanner Josh has implemented.

Sure, still a pain in the ass to shoot at them though.

Draglide12 wrote:Sure, still a pain in the ass to shoot at them though.

Well I mean, once you've spotted them, you could chase after them.

ThymineC wrote:

Draglide12 wrote:Another thing to consider is that within visual range most players will be fighting based off of what they can see. Unless complex instrumentation is added (which I wouldn't expect) then just having a visually stealthed ship would be a huge advantage in a dogfight.

No, I strongly suspect you'll be able to detect other ships using the frequency scanner Josh has implemented.

in addition to some nice "i detected a ship there" brackets on your HUD

Cornflakes_91 wrote:

ThymineC wrote:

Draglide12 wrote:Another thing to consider is that within visual range most players will be fighting based off of what they can see. Unless complex instrumentation is added (which I wouldn't expect) then just having a visually stealthed ship would be a huge advantage in a dogfight.

No, I strongly suspect you'll be able to detect other ships using the frequency scanner Josh has implemented.

in addition to some nice "i detected a ship there" brackets on your HUD

Exactly, yeah. In automatic mode, at least. I think Josh wanted it so you can manually interpret sensor readings as well, right? I mean that's at least what he showed in the update videos.

I suppose with the brackets it would be feasible.

ThymineC wrote:Indeed, it takes something like 1 second for modern-day satellites to resolve the 1W radio signal of, what is it, the Voyager or something? Something on the far end of the solar system I believe. Detecting stuff is very, very easy in space, which is why I'd love to have stealth/cloak mechanics but puzzled how they'd be plausibly implemented.

In a somewhat more realistic universe, that's easy. If you don't use your engines, switch off everything you can and limit life support to your spacesuit...and have heat sink to store heat that's generated by the rest of the systems....while being disguised to look like an asteroid using chunks of real asteroids mounted on your ship's hull...I'd say you'd effectively be invisible. It's hard to see small rocks, especially among other small rocks. You glide through space, you wait for the ship to appear. You gently nudge yourself towards it using nitrogen thrusters. You attack with ze missiles! You power up your systems, and you hit them with everything you've got! Then you quickly collect the loot and get the Hell out, using gravity assists from several asteroids with engines turned off to make your path less traceable. You power down, and you wait again. Real-life space piracy is BORING!!!!!

But actually, with drag reduced to almost zero it might be viable in realistic-sized LT.

Gravity assist from an asteroid?
if you have that much time you are not on the run

Cornflakes_91 wrote:Gravity assist from an asteroid?
if you have that much time you are not on the run

Space is big (c). Good guys will need time to see you plundering the transport, to analyse what's happening, and to dispatch somebody to deal with you. And this somebody will have a jolly good time getting there while seeing you escaping. If you leave some people alive this somebody will have to aid them first. And gravity assist can be performed at very high speeds; in case of getting away it's needed to slightly alter your trajectory and throw off pursuit. It's dubious but I don't see why it won't work. But it's an off-topic; my musings about real-life space piracy and how little sense it makes. LT has no gravity anyway.

Actually....wait a minute. Wait a bloody minute. I got it!

We can land on asteroids, right? I've seen it in one of the monthly videos.We can land there and wait for the ship to come nearby. We can vent heat into the asteroid itself, and use only passive sensors with most systems turned off. We wait for some ship to appear, we destroy it, we fly deeper into the asteroid field and land on some asteroid again. And good luck finding us.

outlander4 wrote:

Cornflakes_91 wrote:Gravity assist from an asteroid?
if you have that much time you are not on the run

Space is big (c). Good guys will need time to see you plundering the transport, to analyse what's happening, and to dispatch somebody to deal with you. And this somebody will have a jolly good time getting there while seeing you escaping. If you leave some people alive this somebody will have to aid them first. And gravity assist can be performed at very high speeds; in case of getting away it's needed to slightly alter your trajectory and throw off pursuit. It's dubious but I don't see why it won't work. But it's an off-topic; my musings about real-life space piracy and how little sense it makes. LT has no gravity anyway.

still, the gravity pull of an asteroid is so small, you'd probably be more efficient by taking your litter and throwing it out of the window for thrust

Well, it'd be enough to alter your trajectory slightly and if you throw away litter as well you might change it considerably to escape. And well, I had big asteroids in mind - something the size of Vesta, and going really close to the surface for maximum effect. You use what you've got

outlander4 wrote:

ThymineC wrote:Indeed, it takes something like 1 second for modern-day satellites to resolve the 1W radio signal of, what is it, the Voyager or something? Something on the far end of the solar system I believe. Detecting stuff is very, very easy in space, which is why I'd love to have stealth/cloak mechanics but puzzled how they'd be plausibly implemented.

In a somewhat more realistic universe, that's easy. If you don't use your engines, switch off everything you can and limit life support to your spacesuit...and have heat sink to store heat that's generated by the rest of the systems....while being disguised to look like an asteroid using chunks of real asteroids mounted on your ship's hull...I'd say you'd effectively be invisible. It's hard to see small rocks, especially among other small rocks. You glide through space, you wait for the ship to appear. You gently nudge yourself towards it using nitrogen thrusters. You attack with ze missiles! You power up your systems, and you hit them with everything you've got! Then you quickly collect the loot and get the Hell out, using gravity assists from several asteroids with engines turned off to make your path less traceable. You power down, and you wait again. Real-life space piracy is BORING!!!!!

But actually, with drag reduced to almost zero it might be viable in realistic-sized LT.

Mate, I don't think it's possible to have any ship capable of supporting dozens, hundreds or maybe thousands of people and have it so that they emit less than 1W of radiation. Like, really. :\

Of course we're assuming that preoccupied NPCs will be scanning the horizons 24/7

Draglide12 wrote:Of course we're assuming that preoccupied NPCs will be scanning the horizons 24/7

thats what automated scanner systems are for