Silent running

[Cholmondely]

How is this to be experienced by a player?

It seems to me that one would be jumping along merrily and then at some point masslocked by pirates who would then "come online" and attack. This strikes me as almost identical to the current behaviour in which you are merrily jumping along and are suddenly masslocked by a group of pirates who attack you.

Is the requested functionality "briefly before attacking, but after being masslocked pirates are marked as white on the scanner"?

I just don't see the point.

I think that it is something else to play around with, bluntly. Yes, indeed, some of this might be reconstructed exactly as you suggest. But is it not a logical extension of the way in which we conceive masslock & scanner blipping to operate, and allows games of hide-and-seek both by enemies and by players, and it does get peoples' imaginative juices flowing. If we can get one or two decent adventures out of it, will it really not have been worth it?

Surely the more we can add in to Oolite, the more people will enjoy it (since they can choose what they like, and leave the rest) and the more people will join us in developing it?

What do you like about Oolite? Why do you keep on coming back, a decade and a half since you first joined? Surely the development of Oolite, the continual addition of new capabilities has to form part of the attraction?