Forums » Suggestions
This is a slightly more complete explanation of one way the 'armor' I keep mentioning might work.
Armor Slots: All ships bigger than fighters have at least one armor slot. Capital ships might have 6-12 (or in rare cases even more) armor slots. Smaller ships might have only 1-4. An armor slot excepts an 'armor plate gizmo'. As a special racial advantage, all ships bought in Serco space have an extra bonus armor slot (so Serco fighters have 1 slot). The Promytheus and other propriatary Serco ships have 2 extra slots compared to ships of thier class (so the Promytheus would have 2 armor slots).
Armor Plate Gizmos: Armor plate gizmos can be equipped in armor slots. Armor plate gizmos can also be placed in any weapons slot regardless of type at a 1:1 basis, replacing the weapon that would normally be mounted there. Each armor plate gizmo that the ship is equipped with reduces the ammount of damage from any damage source by a small ammount.
Armor plate gizmos come in the follow (sample) types:
Rivited Iron Plate: 10 damage reduction, 100 cr each
Aluminum Alloy Plate: 20 damage reduction, 400 cr each
Titanium Steel Plate: 30 damage reduction, 900 cr each
Nano-Ceramic Plate: 40 damage reduction, 1600 cr each
Carbon Composite Plate: 50 damage reduction, 2500 cr each
Serco Propriatary Admantium Plate: 60 damage reduction, 1800 cr each (in Serco space, much higher on the black market)
Armor values for fighter level ships are fairly trivial though the effects would be noticable. At the extreme end of the fighter scale, a Serco Promytheus replacing its small slots with armor and mounting 4 admantium plates would have a 240 armor value. Sample Effects of this are as follows:
Hits required to kill unarmored Prom/armored Prom
Adv. Gatling: 58/124
Tachyon : 40/64
Sunflares : 18/21
Screamers : 9/10
Avalons : 3/3
Please don't judge the merit of this post by the current balance of the Prom. I'm convinced the thing is too manueverable, and the only reason that the Prom comes out looking so good in this post is that it is about armor and I think it fits the flavor of the Serco that we've seen thus far (basically what sort of advanced ship they'd decide to build) to have durable, heavily armored vessels. In other areas, the Prom might not look so good. Besides which, to acheive such high levels of protection the Prom is reduced to a single weapon. Traders wishing to avoid combat but retain a degree of survivability could fill all of thier weapon slots with armor if they desired, or mix armor with 360 homing weapons like Swarms.
To my mind the principal advantages of this system is two fold. First, it provides a means of keeping capital ships alive vs. fighter level weapons without making them tedious to kill. Second, it provides a means to distinguish a hypothetical weapon doing 500 damage per shot, 10 times per second, from one doing 1000 damage per shot 5 times per second. In this case, the heavier hitting weapon is more useful against armored foes and we can achieve interesting balances by playing with the fire rate of high damage weapons. For example, against 250 armor the first weapon does 2500 damage/second. The second weapon does 3750 damage/second. If we reduce the fire rate of the heavier weapon to 4 times per second, it is inferior to the first versus unarmored foes but superior to it versus well armored foes. This will greatly increase the chances that there will never be anything close to the 'one best weapon'.
The secondary benifits of such a system is that it is realistic. You can't kill a main battle tank with a 7.6 mm machine gun no matter how many rounds you fire, whereas with a strict h.p. system you could. It also draws upon historical aspect of naval warfare, namely that the principal advantage of a large ship was that it was relatively immune to the weapons of smaller ships. A 74 gun Third Rate SOL was relatively immune to the 18 lb. cannons of a 32 gun frigate, but could be torn apart by the 32 lb. shot of another SOL. A battleship took only minimal damage from the fire of the 6-8 in guns of a cruiser, which in turn took relatively low damage from the 3-5 in guns of a destroyer.
Of course, a torpedo with a 3000lb warhead was a great equilizer.
Armor Slots: All ships bigger than fighters have at least one armor slot. Capital ships might have 6-12 (or in rare cases even more) armor slots. Smaller ships might have only 1-4. An armor slot excepts an 'armor plate gizmo'. As a special racial advantage, all ships bought in Serco space have an extra bonus armor slot (so Serco fighters have 1 slot). The Promytheus and other propriatary Serco ships have 2 extra slots compared to ships of thier class (so the Promytheus would have 2 armor slots).
Armor Plate Gizmos: Armor plate gizmos can be equipped in armor slots. Armor plate gizmos can also be placed in any weapons slot regardless of type at a 1:1 basis, replacing the weapon that would normally be mounted there. Each armor plate gizmo that the ship is equipped with reduces the ammount of damage from any damage source by a small ammount.
Armor plate gizmos come in the follow (sample) types:
Rivited Iron Plate: 10 damage reduction, 100 cr each
Aluminum Alloy Plate: 20 damage reduction, 400 cr each
Titanium Steel Plate: 30 damage reduction, 900 cr each
Nano-Ceramic Plate: 40 damage reduction, 1600 cr each
Carbon Composite Plate: 50 damage reduction, 2500 cr each
Serco Propriatary Admantium Plate: 60 damage reduction, 1800 cr each (in Serco space, much higher on the black market)
Armor values for fighter level ships are fairly trivial though the effects would be noticable. At the extreme end of the fighter scale, a Serco Promytheus replacing its small slots with armor and mounting 4 admantium plates would have a 240 armor value. Sample Effects of this are as follows:
Hits required to kill unarmored Prom/armored Prom
Adv. Gatling: 58/124
Tachyon : 40/64
Sunflares : 18/21
Screamers : 9/10
Avalons : 3/3
Please don't judge the merit of this post by the current balance of the Prom. I'm convinced the thing is too manueverable, and the only reason that the Prom comes out looking so good in this post is that it is about armor and I think it fits the flavor of the Serco that we've seen thus far (basically what sort of advanced ship they'd decide to build) to have durable, heavily armored vessels. In other areas, the Prom might not look so good. Besides which, to acheive such high levels of protection the Prom is reduced to a single weapon. Traders wishing to avoid combat but retain a degree of survivability could fill all of thier weapon slots with armor if they desired, or mix armor with 360 homing weapons like Swarms.
To my mind the principal advantages of this system is two fold. First, it provides a means of keeping capital ships alive vs. fighter level weapons without making them tedious to kill. Second, it provides a means to distinguish a hypothetical weapon doing 500 damage per shot, 10 times per second, from one doing 1000 damage per shot 5 times per second. In this case, the heavier hitting weapon is more useful against armored foes and we can achieve interesting balances by playing with the fire rate of high damage weapons. For example, against 250 armor the first weapon does 2500 damage/second. The second weapon does 3750 damage/second. If we reduce the fire rate of the heavier weapon to 4 times per second, it is inferior to the first versus unarmored foes but superior to it versus well armored foes. This will greatly increase the chances that there will never be anything close to the 'one best weapon'.
The secondary benifits of such a system is that it is realistic. You can't kill a main battle tank with a 7.6 mm machine gun no matter how many rounds you fire, whereas with a strict h.p. system you could. It also draws upon historical aspect of naval warfare, namely that the principal advantage of a large ship was that it was relatively immune to the weapons of smaller ships. A 74 gun Third Rate SOL was relatively immune to the 18 lb. cannons of a 32 gun frigate, but could be torn apart by the 32 lb. shot of another SOL. A battleship took only minimal damage from the fire of the 6-8 in guns of a cruiser, which in turn took relatively low damage from the 3-5 in guns of a destroyer.
Of course, a torpedo with a 3000lb warhead was a great equilizer.
too confusing IMO, I dont see why we just dont have a mass and cargo space EX. Escape Velocity, or a built in armor/shield system that is un-modifiable.
Willis: That is one of those answers where I can only reply, "Well, I guess people have different tastes in games."
If you think the armor system is too confusing and it would be better to have non-configurable armor, then by the same logic would it be better to have non-configurable weapons? engines? batteries? whatever? Would it also be better to get rid of the third diminsion and just fly around on a flat plane because 3D tends to be confusing?
We do have a mass system, its just not readily apparant and probably not as fully realized as the one the devs are planning.
We do have cargo space, we just can't trade it for anything else yet. For all I know the devs are planning to fully trade cargo slots for anything else at the cost of extra mass (though I personally would't want to take on the challenges of balancing such a thing, maybe they are up to it).
If you think configurability makes the game too confusing, then maybe it would be an option to buy preconfigured ships for people who don't like tinkering with their ship. Maybe you could only configure ships with enough of the right skills and it would cost credits otherwise. I don't know how the devs plan to implement 'simplified play' if they plan for it at all. I don't have a clue how deep the devs plan to go into this, I can only guess based on how deep the feature set is in other MMORPG's and do my best to encourage the devs to make the game I want to play rather than the game you want to play.
Sorry.
If you think the armor system is too confusing and it would be better to have non-configurable armor, then by the same logic would it be better to have non-configurable weapons? engines? batteries? whatever? Would it also be better to get rid of the third diminsion and just fly around on a flat plane because 3D tends to be confusing?
We do have a mass system, its just not readily apparant and probably not as fully realized as the one the devs are planning.
We do have cargo space, we just can't trade it for anything else yet. For all I know the devs are planning to fully trade cargo slots for anything else at the cost of extra mass (though I personally would't want to take on the challenges of balancing such a thing, maybe they are up to it).
If you think configurability makes the game too confusing, then maybe it would be an option to buy preconfigured ships for people who don't like tinkering with their ship. Maybe you could only configure ships with enough of the right skills and it would cost credits otherwise. I don't know how the devs plan to implement 'simplified play' if they plan for it at all. I don't have a clue how deep the devs plan to go into this, I can only guess based on how deep the feature set is in other MMORPG's and do my best to encourage the devs to make the game I want to play rather than the game you want to play.
Sorry.
Well Celebrim, I gotta admit it. You've got a solid, well thought out idea which I mostly agree on. Except for ONE little thing: the prices. For a mere 100c, you can reduce the power of a weapon by 50! That's a lot for something that costs LESS than all the weapons. I'd say start at 500c/armor and go up to about 5000c. Also, I think giving the Promy 2 extra armor slots is a little much. 1 should be fine, and 2 extras for any Serco ship of non-fighter class. I hope that made sense. ;-)
Yes, lets give serco's ships even more armor so more people will whine about it, what a great idea!
Ok, proper thoughts have accumulated:
I don't want to see certain things being better made by one nation then another until there are more technologies, right now this is letting serconian people get 60 armor easily, lets say they go off to get a ragnorok, 3 small slots, 2 large slots, 3+2=5, 5*60= 300, this would make gravitons half as effective, along with tachyons, anything lower then tachyons will be pointless.
And why does the best armor cost LESS then the second best?
Ok, proper thoughts have accumulated:
I don't want to see certain things being better made by one nation then another until there are more technologies, right now this is letting serconian people get 60 armor easily, lets say they go off to get a ragnorok, 3 small slots, 2 large slots, 3+2=5, 5*60= 300, this would make gravitons half as effective, along with tachyons, anything lower then tachyons will be pointless.
And why does the best armor cost LESS then the second best?
hmm, well Celebrim, I guess I should stop playing, this game really is just way too confusing now that I think about it.
"For a mere 100c, you can reduce the power of a weapon by 50!"
How would you do that? 100cr buys you 1 iron rivited plate, which reduces weapon damage by a whole 10 per shot. Imagine you have a Hornet and replace one of your weapons with iron plate for 100cr.
Hits required to kill unarmored Hornet/poorly armored Hornet (DR10)
Adv. Gatling: 23/23
Tachyon : 16/16
Sunflares : 7/7
Screamers : 4/4
Avalons : 1/1
Hmm.. that 100cr iron plate bought you no protection whatsoever!
Lets do it with a 2500cr armor widget giving 50 armor that you are so afraid of:
Hits required to kill unarmored Hornet/poorly armored Hornet (DR50)
Adv. Gatling: 23/25
Tachyon : 16/17
Sunflares : 7/7
Screamers : 4/4
Avalons : 1/1
Hmmm, 1 armor plate let the Hornet survive 1 additional Tachyon hit. Clearly, two plates would be better, but it would be 5000 cr and you'd be giving up 2 weapons.
Lemming's Ragnarok is well armored at 300DR (as good as some capital ships), but he gave up all of the weapon slots to do it. It's armored transport, but not much else. (He actually could have kept one heavy slot, since the Serco get an extra armor slot.) Ok, so with tachyon's I need to hit you nearly twice as often (I only need two extra sunflare hits). So what, the Rag gave up 50-80% of its fire power in exchange for its protection. It's no longer versital, and it lacks the Rags usual punch.
"And why does the best armor cost LESS then the second best?"
Because it is a benifit of being Serco. They know the secrets of producing cheap and durable armor that no other faction can replicate. Outside of Serco space it might cost 3 or 4 times as much.
Just because I'm currently describing benifits of being Serco doesn't mean that there aren't equally nice benifits to go all around. Also, the assumption here is that the Prom's agility bug (it's currently got medium manueverability not low), gets fixed.
(You think the Serco get it good, you ought to hear my ideas about Itani and Nuetral Ships, and we can always play with the numbers anyway if 50 or 60 per slot turns out to be too good.)
How would you do that? 100cr buys you 1 iron rivited plate, which reduces weapon damage by a whole 10 per shot. Imagine you have a Hornet and replace one of your weapons with iron plate for 100cr.
Hits required to kill unarmored Hornet/poorly armored Hornet (DR10)
Adv. Gatling: 23/23
Tachyon : 16/16
Sunflares : 7/7
Screamers : 4/4
Avalons : 1/1
Hmm.. that 100cr iron plate bought you no protection whatsoever!
Lets do it with a 2500cr armor widget giving 50 armor that you are so afraid of:
Hits required to kill unarmored Hornet/poorly armored Hornet (DR50)
Adv. Gatling: 23/25
Tachyon : 16/17
Sunflares : 7/7
Screamers : 4/4
Avalons : 1/1
Hmmm, 1 armor plate let the Hornet survive 1 additional Tachyon hit. Clearly, two plates would be better, but it would be 5000 cr and you'd be giving up 2 weapons.
Lemming's Ragnarok is well armored at 300DR (as good as some capital ships), but he gave up all of the weapon slots to do it. It's armored transport, but not much else. (He actually could have kept one heavy slot, since the Serco get an extra armor slot.) Ok, so with tachyon's I need to hit you nearly twice as often (I only need two extra sunflare hits). So what, the Rag gave up 50-80% of its fire power in exchange for its protection. It's no longer versital, and it lacks the Rags usual punch.
"And why does the best armor cost LESS then the second best?"
Because it is a benifit of being Serco. They know the secrets of producing cheap and durable armor that no other faction can replicate. Outside of Serco space it might cost 3 or 4 times as much.
Just because I'm currently describing benifits of being Serco doesn't mean that there aren't equally nice benifits to go all around. Also, the assumption here is that the Prom's agility bug (it's currently got medium manueverability not low), gets fixed.
(You think the Serco get it good, you ought to hear my ideas about Itani and Nuetral Ships, and we can always play with the numbers anyway if 50 or 60 per slot turns out to be too good.)
How about this...
Name\Dmg Resitance\cost serco\cost other
Rivited Iron Plate\10\50\100
Aluminum Alloy Plate\20\300\400
Titanium Steel Plate\30\800\1000
Nano-Ceramic Plate\40\1400\1700
Carbon Composite Plate\50\2000\2500
Serco Propriatary Admantium Plate\60\1800\3000
Name\Dmg Resitance\cost serco\cost other
Rivited Iron Plate\10\50\100
Aluminum Alloy Plate\20\300\400
Titanium Steel Plate\30\800\1000
Nano-Ceramic Plate\40\1400\1700
Carbon Composite Plate\50\2000\2500
Serco Propriatary Admantium Plate\60\1800\3000
Overall.. I like it. This is one example of why it can sometimes be a good thing when Celebrim spends way too much time thinking about Vendetta. :-)
My addition (sorry Willis) is to confuse things even more by making different kinds of armor more effective vs. different sorts of weapons. Or a better way to put this would be: apart from armor, have other defenses such as EMP fields (which detonate rockets at a safer distance), energy shields (which block or deflect energy blasts), etc.
But that's a whole new discussion, really.
My addition (sorry Willis) is to confuse things even more by making different kinds of armor more effective vs. different sorts of weapons. Or a better way to put this would be: apart from armor, have other defenses such as EMP fields (which detonate rockets at a safer distance), energy shields (which block or deflect energy blasts), etc.
But that's a whole new discussion, really.
I like it too...
Quote: "Because it is a benifit of being Serco. They know the secrets of producing cheap and durable armor that no other faction can replicate. Outside of Serco space it might cost 3 or 4 times as much."
Reason: Smugglers. :P
Edit: Ooo... If we could smuggle it ourselves... It'd be really dangerous, but it'd be one hell of a profit...
Quote: "Because it is a benifit of being Serco. They know the secrets of producing cheap and durable armor that no other faction can replicate. Outside of Serco space it might cost 3 or 4 times as much."
Reason: Smugglers. :P
Edit: Ooo... If we could smuggle it ourselves... It'd be really dangerous, but it'd be one hell of a profit...
Hmm... I smell the presence of the ellusive "RPG Element"...
Now me is going to play the devil :D
could cele please please please
starts poking
pokes some more
says please please please with sugar on top :D
state the ideas he "Cele" had for the itani and the neutral
"I'm interested"
PS: was thinking of giving the itani's 10% to agility and speed of ships and 50% scouting range of radars but it could be over the top :D. Most surely it is over the top :D
cheers
could cele please please please
starts poking
pokes some more
says please please please with sugar on top :D
state the ideas he "Cele" had for the itani and the neutral
"I'm interested"
PS: was thinking of giving the itani's 10% to agility and speed of ships and 50% scouting range of radars but it could be over the top :D. Most surely it is over the top :D
cheers
Renegade, it involves pie, and frigates!
Sigh, you got me, we get the pie frigate! =P
Sigh, you got me, we get the pie frigate! =P
me still wants to hear cele's thoughts :D
The radar thing is ok, but the extra agility would be way too unbalanced
10 % way to unbalanced?
it only means that very high stays very high, high stays high medium = medium high , new medium, low = medium low
medium high would only be for us, and the rest would get the medium. It just makes the mediums, something easier to dodge with :D
and it improves top speed with 6 , so in stead of 60 we get 66, not that big a difference, but we are scouts after all, and should be the best in moving very fast.
But I would accept 5% to, but it will only make it very unworthwile. Untill mow, the neutrals have the best weapons "sorry saying this" and the serco have the baddest. Neutral = most money, and can buy all the specials more easily, serco least money, and therefore should be rewarded with more defense. Itani, highest speed , but medium moneygrabber, medium in defense and medium in offense "maybe even a little penalized in the heavy slots or something like that"
But me really would like to hear celes thoughts, really I would. Me thinks I would just follow celebrim, cause I liked the plating idea very much. So I'm wondering what he has in store for the neutral and the Itani :D
cheers
PS: come on cele, post it, please :D
it only means that very high stays very high, high stays high medium = medium high , new medium, low = medium low
medium high would only be for us, and the rest would get the medium. It just makes the mediums, something easier to dodge with :D
and it improves top speed with 6 , so in stead of 60 we get 66, not that big a difference, but we are scouts after all, and should be the best in moving very fast.
But I would accept 5% to, but it will only make it very unworthwile. Untill mow, the neutrals have the best weapons "sorry saying this" and the serco have the baddest. Neutral = most money, and can buy all the specials more easily, serco least money, and therefore should be rewarded with more defense. Itani, highest speed , but medium moneygrabber, medium in defense and medium in offense "maybe even a little penalized in the heavy slots or something like that"
But me really would like to hear celes thoughts, really I would. Me thinks I would just follow celebrim, cause I liked the plating idea very much. So I'm wondering what he has in store for the neutral and the Itani :D
cheers
PS: come on cele, post it, please :D
"So I'm wondering what he has in store for the neutral and the Itani :D"
Come on, it hardly matters. I'm not making the game. Why should I get you all pumped up for something that might not be in the game?
But, in brief without doing a full write up all Itani ships could have an extra electronics slot for mounting gizmos like cloaking devices, mass detectors, improved radar, improved radio, frequency scanners, ECM fields, counter measure dispensers, shields, hardened electronics, advanced computers, and other goodies that would give you small advantages in combat. Also, certain gizmos would only be available (cheaply) in Itani space (just like the best armor the Serco get), which would let Itani ships be equipped with better tech at the same cost other races paid for less powerful tech.
Nuetral ships get a 10% bonus to the maximum cruising speed of thier engines (and maybe depending on how this play tested a 10% bonus to maximum turbo speed), and would have available more efficient (in terms of extra mass/extra cargo slot) external cargo modules than the other races. They would have various small configurability advantages making it easier to change out thier ships. Obviously, speed is combat power, but its also the ability to run a trade route faster.
This fits the triangle - Military/Serco, Technology/Itani, Economics/Neutral Territories - that I think seems to be the root design of the three factions. I don't expect the devs to exactly do it like that, but I suspect we will see some sort of flavor like the above develop.
Come on, it hardly matters. I'm not making the game. Why should I get you all pumped up for something that might not be in the game?
But, in brief without doing a full write up all Itani ships could have an extra electronics slot for mounting gizmos like cloaking devices, mass detectors, improved radar, improved radio, frequency scanners, ECM fields, counter measure dispensers, shields, hardened electronics, advanced computers, and other goodies that would give you small advantages in combat. Also, certain gizmos would only be available (cheaply) in Itani space (just like the best armor the Serco get), which would let Itani ships be equipped with better tech at the same cost other races paid for less powerful tech.
Nuetral ships get a 10% bonus to the maximum cruising speed of thier engines (and maybe depending on how this play tested a 10% bonus to maximum turbo speed), and would have available more efficient (in terms of extra mass/extra cargo slot) external cargo modules than the other races. They would have various small configurability advantages making it easier to change out thier ships. Obviously, speed is combat power, but its also the ability to run a trade route faster.
This fits the triangle - Military/Serco, Technology/Itani, Economics/Neutral Territories - that I think seems to be the root design of the three factions. I don't expect the devs to exactly do it like that, but I suspect we will see some sort of flavor like the above develop.
mmmhhh
maybe it is, but In my slight opinion, the itani should get a speed boost also, we are scouts, scouts are in the front of the battle, so are stealthy and have speed because they have to get to and back from the battleground before someone else could say blasted.
But like you said, we will see what the devs have in store for us.
Was just curious , with what you would come up with, so shoot me for being curious :D :D :D
cheers
maybe it is, but In my slight opinion, the itani should get a speed boost also, we are scouts, scouts are in the front of the battle, so are stealthy and have speed because they have to get to and back from the battleground before someone else could say blasted.
But like you said, we will see what the devs have in store for us.
Was just curious , with what you would come up with, so shoot me for being curious :D :D :D
cheers
Hmm... well, I was hoping for a 4th 'Explorer' race (Green) - since that's another standard flavor, but it looks like the devs have green reserved for the NPC's and there hearts set on 3 races and backstory already written up - so maybe that will have to wait for Vendetta II. ;)
As for 'scouts', much of the technology of 'scouts' would be the extra electronics gizmos. Examples:
1) There is nothing that says that one of those extra electronic slots couldn't be 'Improved Turbine: 10% bonus to cruising speed'.
2) 'Extra Long Range Radar': Radar range is increased to 30km at the cost of 10 energy/second. You automatically appear on enemy radar within that range.
3) 'Scanner Dectector': You are alerted whenever someone targets you with active sensors or makes a weapons lock. (Actually, I'd kinda like this to be a standard feature of all ships).
4) 'Advanced Passive Sensors (Itani Propriatary)': Detection range is increased to 9km. You do not automatically betray your presence, and you can make a weapons lock at up to 3km away without being detected.
5) 'Frequency Scanner': At the cost of 10 energy/second, you have a 10% chance + 2% per level of the Electronics skill of dectecting any enemy ship that makes a radio transmission in this sector regardless of channel, and a similar chance of decoding the message if it is detected. You have double that chance if you are in a jumppoint and the broadcaster is using a hyperspace transmission (ei it goes out of the sector).
6) 'Tight Beam Communicator': Your radio communication is only 1/3rd as likely to be picked up by a frequency scanner.
7) 'Mass Detector': You detect and can weapons lock any ship within 150m + 50m/size class regardless of interveening obstacles or cloaking device.
And so on and so forth virtually ad infinitum.
As for 'scouts', much of the technology of 'scouts' would be the extra electronics gizmos. Examples:
1) There is nothing that says that one of those extra electronic slots couldn't be 'Improved Turbine: 10% bonus to cruising speed'.
2) 'Extra Long Range Radar': Radar range is increased to 30km at the cost of 10 energy/second. You automatically appear on enemy radar within that range.
3) 'Scanner Dectector': You are alerted whenever someone targets you with active sensors or makes a weapons lock. (Actually, I'd kinda like this to be a standard feature of all ships).
4) 'Advanced Passive Sensors (Itani Propriatary)': Detection range is increased to 9km. You do not automatically betray your presence, and you can make a weapons lock at up to 3km away without being detected.
5) 'Frequency Scanner': At the cost of 10 energy/second, you have a 10% chance + 2% per level of the Electronics skill of dectecting any enemy ship that makes a radio transmission in this sector regardless of channel, and a similar chance of decoding the message if it is detected. You have double that chance if you are in a jumppoint and the broadcaster is using a hyperspace transmission (ei it goes out of the sector).
6) 'Tight Beam Communicator': Your radio communication is only 1/3rd as likely to be picked up by a frequency scanner.
7) 'Mass Detector': You detect and can weapons lock any ship within 150m + 50m/size class regardless of interveening obstacles or cloaking device.
And so on and so forth virtually ad infinitum.
Sorry if I am beating a dead horse, a bit new around here. Maybe large ships could have limited shielding? I would like small shields for all ships personaly, 300 or so absorbtion. Those pesky chat fraggin npcs...