Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Recon Satellites

Recon Satellites provide the player with their own personal "Local" and "D-scan" for a remote system. Careful consideration was taken for the potential of these being OP. Appropriately configured skills, satellite characteristics, and/or long training times could balance out the power of Recon Satellites.

Recon Satellite Profile
>Anchored/Launched anywhere in K-space
>Requires periodical maintenence for continued use - Must physically visit each satellite and "Recalibrate" it (How about needing fuel instead of maintenance?)
>Provides the user with a personal "Local/D-Scan" profile of a remote system Instead, have just a list of what objects are in the system at the moment you hit 'scan'
>Can be scanned down
>Can be destroyed

Skills
Satellite Operation
Main skill. Lvl 1 enables player to use 1 satellite, up to a max of five sats at Lvl 5 This is questionable, probably should be removed

Satellite Optimization
Each level cuts down maintence frequency. Daily maintenence baseline, and each skill level increases it 1-4 days?? Cut this skill out

Satellite Tuning
Each level reduces time delay from 30 minutes ago, to 1 minute ago at level 5

Satellite Programming
Each level enables a new tier of information the satellite can relay, starting with:

Level 1 - Orbital Bodies / Structures / POSs / some celestial objects Only planets, moons, belts, stars, POCO's, and stations.

Level 2 - Drones / Probes / Wrecks POSes only

Level 3 - Anomalies (green ones) NPC ships, etc

Level 4 - Cosmic Sigatures (red ones) Player drones and probes.

Level 5 - Ships (no player names) Non-cloaked player ships

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If Recon Satellites are too over powered, then the following characteristics can be added. One, two, or all three of them can be implemented as a way of balancing out Recon Satellites.

Range
Without this trait, there is no limit to how far away (in jumps) a player can be and still receive information. Implementing a range limit and an additional skill could further balance out Recon Satellites.

- Signal Amplification
By default, each satellite has a "0 jump relay distance", meaning the player must be in the satellite's system location to receive its information. With each skill level of Signal Amplification that distance by 1 jump. At level 1, a player can be 1 jump away and receive information from the satellite, while at level 5 a player can be 5 jumps away. If you're farther out than that then you cannot receive information from that satellite. Have one jump as default and the skill max out at 6 jumps

Detection
Without this trait, Recon Satellites can detect objects without a problem. There is no failure in detection. Implementing a Detection level and an additional skill could further balance out Recon Satellites.

- Satellite Sensitivity
Each satellite has a baseline 50% chance of picking up an object. Each skill level increases that chance by 10% up to a max chance of 99%. (or 100% ???)

Reliability
Without this trait, Recon Satellites can detect what an object IS without problems. Implementing Reliability can further balance Recon Satellites by adding another skill.

- Satellite Resolution
Each satellite has a baseline of 50% ACCURACY on the objects it picks up. Each skill level increases accuracy by 10% and level five it has a max of 99% accuracy?? or 100%? or what about just 90%?

If a satellite fails to precisely decypher what an object is, it will still show that it picks up something, but that object will be titled "Unknown" in the list

Note that while Satellite Sensitivity deals with the chance of detecting an object, Satellite Resolution deals with the accuracy of what that object is exactly. A ship, for example, could be detected, but listed as "Unknown". Increasing Satellite Resolution skill level will increase the chance that the object is correctly identified as "Proteus", for example.

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A big concern that arises with this idea is the potential for Recon Satellites to be over-powered. I believe Recon Satellites could be implemeneted in a balanced and useful way by implementing the aforementioned skills and satellite characteristics.

Recon Satellites are not tools you can "fire & forget", nor should they be easy to train in to or difficult to destroy. With their required maintenence and vulnerability, these satellites would require an attentive player to maintain. The benefits of investing in Recon Satellites should outweight the responsibilities by providing them with the invaluable ability of tracking systems remotely.

Skills, numbers, amounts, etc should be tweaked/changed appropriately to encourage balance. All numbers are "first draft" ideas.

I don't understand what that picture is of and what your post meant though.

What did that mean?