Electronic Warfare: Covert Ops, Recon. AKA: An excuse to buff Boron.

[yourpowersareweakoldman]

Something I always wished existed in X3 was Electronics Warfare. EVE has EW... but it's almost an afterthought in some situations...

I know the coding of X3 kind of makes stuff like this very difficult, but perhaps in another similar game it would be nice to have.

As it stands now, you can put Sensors into a ship, and essentially you just put the "Best" sensors into it... Triplex Scanner, period. Targeting and tracking is 100% assured. If you know the enemy's there, it's safe to assume they know you're there.

I want to be able to switch my sensors to Passive mode, and be more difficult to detect, at the expense of sensor range... I want the chance to Jam enemy tracking computers, or ecm/burst to drop certain types of missiles' tracking.

Wouldn't it be cool to cycle through different scanning spectrums... Some race ships would be easier to pick up in certain spectrums. Gravitational. IR. EM.

If fighters had to 'lock' certain types of missiles, you could get computers that track faster, or at further range, or against multile hostiles simulteneously. I'd like to be able to put in ECM Jammers to make it take longer to be tracked.

It would be so awesome to be able to use asteroids as cover, to blend my ships gravidar signature in with the 'roids... So that I can properly ambush, or get away from overwhelming odds.

Or perhaps GET ambushed when flying through Asteroid Sectors, if I didn't purchase the right sensors, or use them effectively.

It would be cool to have Laser Designators for certain missiles. Allowing you to designate a target with the laser and certain missiles would track the laser. These missiles could be slightly more powerful, and have a higher performance window to account for the fact that they are not "Fire and Forget"

It would make 'visual' scanning more important. the telescopic goggles could 'see' the ships in the distance, but you may not be able to track them yet.

It would be cool to have a "Stealth" or "Cloak" on some ships, which dropped your shield and gun energy to zero for the duration, turned off all sensors, and reduced your speed by 20% of max. Of course this could have a limited duration, and be used mainly as an Ingress/Egress ability...

Ion Disruptors could have an added side-effect of fouling Electronic Warfare equipment on the target...

Additionally it would give some more race Identity to the Boron. Since the Boron prefer non-violence, they may rely more on information gathering and stealth to accomplish their goals! Their ships could all boast slightly superior electronics warfare systems, and be able to mount better ones.

I know it's a pipe dream, but it would be so awesome to see a robust electronics warfare system implemented in the X universe.

[Killjaeden]

I know it's a pipe dream, but it would be so awesome to see a robust electronics warfare system implemented in the X universe.

It would turn into a very complex game, very hard to learn - like falcon 3.0 or something similar. More of a simulator instead of a 'simple' spacegame with a manual as thick as a novel...

It would be cool to have Laser Designators for certain missiles. Allowing you to designate a target with the laser and certain missiles would track the laser. These missiles could be slightly more powerful, and have a higher performance window to account for the fact that they are not "Fire and Forget"

Imo that wouldn't fit... Why using laserpointer to give the missile it's target if you already have the technology to shoot plasma, generate energy from nothing(?) and stuff like that.

I agree with asteroid-scanner-cover and stealthdevices, because it wouldn't be too complicated.
There was a script for X3R called B.I.E.R. from Gazz that added advanced scanners to capships.

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

A very easy stealth option to implement, even within the existing game engine, would be as simple as if it ain't moving it don't show up on radar.

[Paranoid66]

A very easy stealth option to implement, even within the existing game engine, would be as simple as if it ain't moving it don't show up on radar.

Does that mean if you stopped ships would lose targetting lock as that would be a little odd as a sitting ship to me equals an easy target.

I thought X uses gravidar which obviously detects a ships gravity I assume by that they mean its mass not its movement (although I know nothing about physics).

[Gazz]

I thought X uses gravidar which obviously detects a ships gravity I assume by that they mean its mass not its movement (although I know nothing about physics).

It's simply a magical scanner that shows everything in range. Period.

Missile lock is very hard to impose. You can do that for AI ships since their missiles are all fired by the fight script but the player can press the manual launch button as often as he likes.

That would require a script to constantly monitor the playership and uninstall all missiles so they could not be launched. That would be highly annoying because you could not "prepare" the desired missile for launch.
If that is allowed, it can be launched, "target lock" or not.

[Olterin]

Short version of my thoughts: some bits of it would be nice, some not so much.


Longer version of my thoughts: it would be really nice if you were able to hide your fighter(s) in an asteroid field to set up an ambush and some cloaking would also be nice. However, anything beyond that, and the game grows a bit too complex - remember, unlike EVE, there'll be mostly NPCs handling it. If you mention that game, you must know how the NPCs do it over there (not very realistic and certainly not fun for those who don't know). Also, we already have a manual which I read and re-read upon my game taking a bit to load, if it gets any heavier (due to more game complexity) it'll be hard to keep it around my PC

[yourpowersareweakoldman]

Maybe it would be too complex, but I don't think EW is that much more complex than complex-construction.

[Wadsworth]

Hiding in "open" space is nearly impossible at the distances that are in the X games.

Thermal: the void of space is very cold. Objects with starlight on them will be significantly higher in temperature. Not to mention all of the X ships see to use a exothermic reaction based propulsion. In addition just having the thermal transfer of the life supporting air to skin of the ship would be enough. Flares would be the easiest way to confuse IR sensors.

Gravimetrics: Filtering out the predictable natural ambient gravity wells. makes anything with ferrous metals, electrics, or enough mass would register. Any movement in a non-liniar path would instantly tip sensors that the target isn't just a rock. Jamming that sort of sensor would probably consist of a decoy sending wild variance EM fields mess with how big the target appears.

LADAR, RADAR other ray emitters are actually the easiest to fool since they rely on a return signal. Passively, since no return = nothing and return = something all the target would have to do is ensure there is no return through absorption or reflection. There are also easiest to actively jam because of finely turned dB meters requires for ranging.

Line of Sight is also a concern. You can see Jupiter with the naked eye from the surface of the Earth. It's moons, with a simple telescope. How many AU in distance would that be? And that is through miles of atmosphere and random crap in space. Even if it is jet black it will block light/radiation from background stars.

Space combat in general would be hyper deadly due the weapons required to damage would have to be insanity powerful. Keeping in mind the armors require for prolonged stays in space and high speed travel would have to be mighty tough. Things flying at mock 7+, emitting deadly radiation, and are extreme temperatures are pretty common in space.

So don't be too pissed at NASA when they lose a satellite or probe. There is only so much a ceramic, metal and tinfoil can do. They get by by "big sky" probability though.

Of coarse it's a game. Maybe I should relax a little. ahhh....shiny. w00t! a penny.

[RandomBandit]

awww maaan, you got some reality on my game...it is gonna take weeks to clean that off...and never mind the smell...sheesh!

EWar is cool. I prefer such tactics in games. In space it does not make much sense and the AI would probably find a way to crap itself. Setting up ambushes behind meteors would be nifty but it would take some computing power just to run that scenario by itself, if it where to be realistic, much less making it work in-sector. The computer can not even scan it's flight patch well, much less make constant visual threat assessments just in case there is a fighter peeking out from a rock.

alas, SOME EWar would be neat, but I would still settle for wingmates that don't eat jumpgates first.

[yourpowersareweakoldman]

Hiding in "open" space is nearly impossible at the distances that are in the X games.

Thermal: the void of space is very cold. Objects with starlight on them will be significantly higher in temperature. Not to mention all of the X ships see to use a exothermic reaction based propulsion. In addition just having the thermal transfer of the life supporting air to skin of the ship would be enough. Flares would be the easiest way to confuse IR sensors.

You're thinking of conventional technology. I would assume that in the far future, they could figure out some nifty technology to dampen the IR signature of a ship.

Gravimetrics: Filtering out the predictable natural ambient gravity wells. makes anything with ferrous metals, electrics, or enough mass would register. Any movement in a non-liniar path would instantly tip sensors that the target isn't just a rock. Jamming that sort of sensor would probably consist of a decoy sending wild variance EM fields mess with how big the target appears.

Well, seeing as the problem of Artificial Gravity can be solved in science fiction applying this technology to masking your gravitational well in a place would be a natural extension of it. It's do-able. (as far as a fictional standpoint that is)

And we're not even getting into 'active' jamming. You can simply produce so much gravimetric disturbance, or IR presence that you essentially 'blind' the sensor.