The raw data would indeed be of great help. For example a list of all objects with (relative) position and as much info about them as possible would be awesome!Ramirez wrote:Unfortunately while can make the scripts produce the raw data I can't help in terms of making visual scan charts.
Here is another idea related to that:GGShinobi wrote:Perhaps, one could also purchase an "LRS shield frequency synchronizer" which makes it possible to do LRS scans without having to deactivate the shields of the own ship. This would work with the own ship, because the frequencies are known, but not with other ships. And perhaps it would not work as good as when one does completely deactivate the shields...
15. The Long Range Scanner is not a single device, but an upgradable, modular system, for which the components have to be purchased indiviually. For most scanner types there exists an active and a passive component. Purchasable components include:
- 15.01. LRS Base System. This is a prerequisite for all other LRS components. Installs a computer that is capable of interpreting the incoming LRS readings and the interfaces, preparing the ship for installment of an actual scanner. Only useful when at least one type of Long Range Scanner is also installed. Needs a little energy to operate. If damaged, no more LRS will be possible.
15.02. LRS Mass Detector. Available as active and passive version.- 15.02.01. Passive LRS Mass Detector: Needs no (?) or only very little energy to operate. Functions as described in 11.01. (reliably detects suns, gas giants, planets and moons within the whole system, might detect large objects depending on distance)
15.02.02. Active LRS Mass Detector: Depending on energy used and the size of the scanned area, this one might even detect masses as small as cargo containers and splinters from a large distance. The gravimetric pulse(?) that the ship sends out when scanning active can be detected by other ships that are equipped with a Mass Detector. An active LRS mass scan will appear on others' scanners as if for a short period of time (the length of the scan) suddenly a big mass appears. If used for a longer time this could also be used to make a ship appear to have a much bigger mass than it actually has (which, for example, could attract pirates).
15.04. Material Scanner: Passive and active versions. Some explanation how passive scans might work: the material scanner contains small amounts of different materials which somehow resonate to other materials. Just like erm... small metal balls can be used to detect magnetic materials, since the metal balls get attracted towards them. Active scanning would then for example mean to activate an electro-magnetic field oneself, and detecting metals this way. Water and ores, as everyone knows, can reliably detected with ship-integrated dowsing-rods!!
Active scanning requires high-tech dowsing rods and would make them actively send out resonance waves to which the materials respond. 
15.05. Visual analysis: There exist two versions of the "Stargazer" super-periscope / telescope, which may be combined:- 15.05.01. (11.04.01.) a directed telescope, capable of extreme magnification, but it needs to be exactly pointed at the wanted target / direction. Limited zooming ability (the lowest zoom should be farther than SniperOXP's highest zoom level).
15.05.02. (11.04.02.) a spherical opto-receiver, which can look in all directions simualtaneously, but which has only limited magnification. Makes it easy to detect where something is, but hard to see what it is. Needs more power than the directed telescope since the integrated computer needs to analyse much more data.- 11.04.02.1. technical note: I once found a screenshot somewhere where the game was in some kind of "panorama-mode", making it possible to see not only things that are in front of the ship, but also (fisheye-like) to the left and right (angle: 180°?). Perhaps this could be used for the "spherical opto receiver"?
11.04.02.2. I wonder if it's possible to change the visibility of objects ingame programmatically - e.g. making them much brighter. This would come in handy, e.g. for the next point:
- 11.04.02.1. technical note: I once found a screenshot somewhere where the game was in some kind of "panorama-mode", making it possible to see not only things that are in front of the ship, but also (fisheye-like) to the left and right (angle: 180°?). Perhaps this could be used for the "spherical opto receiver"?
- 15.02.01. Passive LRS Mass Detector: Needs no (?) or only very little energy to operate. Functions as described in 11.01. (reliably detects suns, gas giants, planets and moons within the whole system, might detect large objects depending on distance)
04. Stealth Ships: I don't know much yet about stealth ships / cloaking devices. I only encountered some ships that where invisible on SRS, and if I remember correctly, some of them even became invisible sometimes? Very nasty. So my question: are there different types of stealth? (E.g. some ships can become invisible, others are not detectable by SRS). How can I determine (programmatically) if a ship is stealthed, and what kind of stealth it uses? How do stealth devices work?GGShinobi wrote:04. Stealth Ships / Ships equipped with Cloaking Devices should be (much) much harder to detect.
05. When I thought about the range of the long range scanner I came upon the question of how big a system can be? Are all systems of the same size?GGShinobi wrote:05. As mentioned before, the area that is scanned should be adjustable. That is, both the size and the region. Or, to be more realistic, perhaps the scanned region should always be relative to the players ship, e.g. "scan the region in front of the ship up to a distance of 100.000 km". The bigger the selected region, the more energy is needed. Maximum size: whole system.
My thoughts so far are: Unlike the real world, where normally a sun is the center of a system, I believe in Oolite the center is somewhere between the main planet and the sun, since this is where most of the action takes place. But on my machine (I think it might be because of an OXP I installed) that distance varies. So I thought I would make the maximum distance of the LRS not a fixed value but always depending on the distance Sun <-> Main Planet. This could be explained for example like this: In systems where the planets are close to the sun, because of the bigger amassing of... erm masses and energy and so on, the LRS receives more distracting noise, effectively reducing it's range. In systems where the sun is farther away, there is also more free space, less distraction, resulting in a longer scanning range.
08. Even passive scanning uses a significant amount of energy, because - just like SETI - the computers need to work hard to process all that incoming data. But if the shields are lowered for Long Range Scanning, not only the results will be (much) better, also the energy not needed for the shields can be used for scanning, making much longer (perhaps even indefinte (I imagine that shields use MUCH energy)) scanning times possible.GGShinobi wrote:08. Perhaps it would be cool if there where "active" and "passive" scans: passive scans giving much less information (since they only read what is emitted by the objects themselves) and active scans giving more information (depending on the energy used), but being detectable by other ships that are within the scanned area, thus revealing to them the position of the player's ship and probably attracting them when scanning actively (or, if they are fugitives and you have to hunt them, making them run away).
11.01. The masses of objects that are relatively close to each other (from the scanning ships' point of view) could sum up and might appear as a single, bigger mass. So a fleet of 10 small ships might appear as one big ship.GGShinobi wrote:11.01. Mass Detection: Detects objects based on their mass. Sun, Gas Giants, Planets, Moons are detected even by passive scanning, large objects (asteroids, big ships, star bases) with lower probability and based on their distance. Active Scanning makes detection of lower masses possible. Since it's only mass that is detected, the type of object cannot be determined by this kind of scan alone.
Also, if an object is relatively close to a very big mass, it becomes more difficult to detect. Ships in close proximity to a planet for example will be very hard to detect by mass detectors.
The active mass detector sends out a (directed) gravity wave, which travels with relatively low speed, but significantly faster than a ship which uses a jump drive. I imagine that the wave needs about 10-15 seconds to cross a whole system. Masses (=> objects) which are hit by the gravity wave resonate to it, and these resonations can be detected by passive mass detectors (not just the one of the ship that sent out the gravity wave / pulse) But since only the ship that sent the wave knows exactly which characteristics the gravity wave had (since it created it), it is the only ship that can exactly calculate the real mass and positiion of the resonations. Other ships only get some vague value and direction (and of course can exactly pinpoint the ship that sent out the wave)
11.02.03.07: Something I forgot: Scooping emits energy, too. I assume scooping is based on a technology similar to a tractor beam? (at least so it feels in the game, and it would make sense). So if ships are scooping, their tractor beam emissions can be detected.GGShinobi wrote:11.02. Energy Detection: Detects objects by their emitted energy. Different kinds of energy can help in identifying the object:
14. Hmm, now I think it's better to delay the decision how the LRS can be accessedGGShinobi wrote:14. The long range scanner can be reached over the map (first press F5 then some other key combination (shift-n?)).
New feature:
16. Station Scan Service:
"With the introduction of Long Range Scanners, many stations quickly seized that new business opportunity and now offer Long Range Scanner Services for a (more or less) reasonable fee."
- 16.01. Filtered results: Some stations offer the service only to clean commanders. Some offer it to non-clean commanders, but filter out police ships. Pirate coves on the other hand filter pirates from the results
16.02. Lower prices if customer has some LRS-equipment installed. Reason: The customers' LRS-computers can aid in the data processing, taking some load off the stations LRS-computers and therefore saving the station some time and energy.
16.03. Short Range Scan Service from within station?
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