info on objects in a system : use your long sight !

[trooper]

I find quite surprising that you have to search with the eyes (meaning : you have to locate a moving spot on the horizon) an other ship instead of looking your radar (this one seems to be blind at very short range). Pressing the targeting keys doesn't help very much at long range two. And it's quite impossible to find informations on a planet if this one is not in sight.
I think a decent spaceship should have at least :
- a radar with a range superior to the navigator's sight.
- a detailled map of the known systems, with infos on planets (inhabited, what shops you can find on it...).
- a collision radar (can be found on any jet plane nowadays...).

Maybe I've missed some features in the game or some usefull sensors components that could solve this pb, I don't know.

[Suicide Junkie]

The button just right of the galaxy map will give you a nice local system map. Press the toggle to show labels on the planets, and you'll see what kind of colony each is.
The colony type should give a good idea what facilities are present.

A collision alarm would be OK, but would need a separate volume control so it can be turned off if it gets annoying.

I don't know about the radar though. Having full coverage of the system on your mini-map radar built into every ships would be a bit of a dissapointment. Sure it would be handy, but then it would also be free and invulnerable.
If it were still a component, then there wouldn't be much difference between a level 1 and a level 10 scanner.
I see it as;
1) Radar mini-map - Short range, 360 degree, computer processing to simultaneously track many ships weapons and stationary objects.
2) Optical LR FoV - long range, moderate view angle. Minimal processing.
3) Narrow beam scanning, When targetted at long range via clicks, you can pick of a few extra details for one ship at a time.

[Wydraz]

Originally posted by trooper:
I think a decent spaceship should have at least :
- a radar with a range superior to the navigator's sight.

I agree. The problem is that realistically you should not be able to see ships (or planets!) millions of miles away! But this is a game, and realism comes second to playability for me.

- a collision radar (can be found on any jet plane nowadays...).

Many have complained about this, including me. A visual and/or auditory clue as to your imminent collision would be a nice option!

[Suicide Junkie]

Perhaps we're thinking about it the wrong way here.

AFAIK, the only reason Radar even came into this discussion was because you wanted to call the minimap a radar screen.

Your ship's built-in detection equipment builds up a full system map quite quickly, and allows you to view a small angle of the picture in great detail (on-screen vision), and allows you to pick off one particular object for a very narrow beam scan.

The only things you need extra detection equipment for is:
- to extend the effective range of the 360 proximity scanners (which provide IFF, heading and relative position tracking of planets, ships, fighters, missiles and even bolts(!))
- to allow penetrating scans of enemy ships to the level of IDing individual components, damage %, cargo & etc through the hull.

[PvK]

You can rationalize the 3D view as scanner feedback, but that's another multiplier making the game more arcadish and less like a starship command game. A starship commander not only has scanners but also a crew of people to use them, and to pay constant attention to attacks and potential collisions (which should almost never happen anyway if the scale weren't many orders of magnitude off). However, in the game, the player is the only crew member, the time scale is passing days in seconds of real-time, and the player's view is quite limited, and attention divided.

Is there any way to mod the visibility range to be based on the scanner range? Any way to mod it so the visibility range is affected by the difficulty to see the target?

PvK

[Suicide Junkie]

Visibility range is specified in the one of the options menus by the player, so not really.

Cloaking could work the way you want though...
All the ships would be invisible, but you'd still be able to see planets and stars.
Hopefully allied ships would let you see 'em at any range.