I actually didn't understand how a ship would particularly be obscured on the scans by having the star at it's back... unless the Ship happens to emit in the same frequency range as the star...

I mean I was looking at the way the scan display was working and when he pointed to the star the star definately ate a large amount of the (Phz?) range the star was emitting in. but there were other signals showing up fine in the lower frequency areas (seemed like ice roids to me..)

I get what he is saying about finding ways to hide from scans... just not sure the star will do what was implied depending on the frequency range the ship emits.

I reckon in reality pointing a sensitive scanner at a star will clip your readings to buggery across a pretty wide spectrum. If I were Josh I'd make the star emit a pretty large swathe of noise as well as its nice clean frequency too. That'd hide a little ship.

I think there should be skill involved in finding hidden signals and the scanner shouldn't find hidden signals, at least without a ridiculously specialized scanner.

Maybe just overlay the most likely recorded signal and display the match percentage. And more complex scanners could combine multiple recordings to determine the likely sources.

Kekasi wrote:I think there should be skill involved in finding hidden signals and the scanner shouldn't find hidden signals, at least without a ridiculously specialized scanner.

Maybe just overlay the most likely recorded signal and display the match percentage. And more complex scanners could combine multiple recordings to determine the likely sources.

Yeah that's exactly what I was saying.

McDuff wrote:I reckon in reality pointing a sensitive scanner at a star will clip your readings to buggery across a pretty wide spectrum. If I were Josh I'd make the star emit a pretty large swathe of noise as well as its nice clean frequency too. That'd hide a little ship.

^I really like this solution

McDuff wrote:I reckon in reality pointing a sensitive scanner at a star will clip your readings to buggery across a pretty wide spectrum. If I were Josh I'd make the star emit a pretty large swathe of noise as well as its nice clean frequency too. That'd hide a little ship.

While it wouldn't be too realistic, I'm for this as well.

Think of it as looking into the sun outside. When you look away, you have sun-spots and can't really see much else for a few moments. Same idea with the scanner.

I'm on board with this. Give small scanning ships a role in fleets.

The Sun is pretty noisy tho, DW. It's emitting a whole bunch of radio garbage. Definitely enough to mask whatever your little fusion drive is outputting.

McDuff wrote:The Sun is pretty noisy tho, DW. It's emitting a whole bunch of radio garbage. Definitely enough to mask whatever your little fusion drive is outputting.

I'm thinking about something a little more too. Like once you 'look away from the sun' your sensors take a moment (probably not more than a moment so things are fair) to recalibrate to what's around you.

DWMagus wrote:

McDuff wrote:The Sun is pretty noisy tho, DW. It's emitting a whole bunch of radio garbage. Definitely enough to mask whatever your little fusion drive is outputting.

I'm thinking about something a little more too. Like once you 'look away from the sun' your sensors take a moment (probably not more than a moment so things are fair) to recalibrate to what's around you.

It 'takes a moment to refocus your eyes'. Exponential falloff =P And higher-level scanners could have a shorter time constant.

Subtleties, but immersion-adding!

Hey, I saw the video updates for LT on YouTube and noticed that a spectrum analyser was included to identify objects/events in the universe. My Suggestion is on how to possibly improve the concept is as follows:

In video #14 you mention how there would be a database for matching various spectrum to help in identification. Would it not be more interesting to add 2 modes to the scanner? A spectrum analyser and a waveform analyser. The spectrum analyser could be very useful in identifying what it is that is being observed whereas the waveform analyser could tell you the contents e.g. a codded message from a ship to a station/planet. This could for example allow pirates to scan using the spectrum analyser for message signals then tune their waveform analyser to that particular frequency and intercept miners communications and hence know where they are going and ambush them.

What are your thoughts?

I like it.
I think it adds a level of depth that just isn't there with the current scanner, I completely agree. It also means you can set up legitimate channels, perhaps per-faction, for communication; not just for intercepting others.

Also, welcome to the forums, enjoy your stay.

I've suggested pretty much the same thing quite a number of times. I really like both the original, circular temporal-space scanner and the newer, linear frequency-space scanner. I've suggested that the latter is used for general signature recognition based on periodic signals over a broad frequency spectrum, whereas the former could be used for time-space analysis of (potentially) aperiodic signals, which would be good for something like interpreting communication like you say.

Interpreting communication is hugely complicated so I'd aim for something simpler.
Total energy emission. Just a single value over time. A factory ship or space station could show cyclic peaks depending on what machinery is running.
It wouldn't tell you what kind of object there is... but you might get a clue about what that object is doing.

If A.I. communication is hard to implement then how about having a basic A.I. dictionary that applies modulation to a standard waveform? It could then pull message from the dictionary such as:
- My hull just be came full
- Returning to nearest station
- Pirate spotted
- About to dock
etc

This would give the effect of communication but would not blow it up to a huge project in on itself? Since this might only appeal to a small subset of players.