(Old) Sensors - LSFN/Design GitHub Wiki

=Description= Some ideas on how sensors could work

== Vision == Default assumption: line-of-sight human colour vision in a limited range. Affected by light sources.

==Mass gravometer (passive sensors) == Here's an idea based on mass. Every object in space with mass will show up on these sensors unless they are using Cloaking. In the 2D case, the ship is in the centre of a radial grid. There are a fixed set of radial lines in this grid, they get further apart further away from the ship. There are also concentric grid lines that get further apart when they are further from the ship. The result is a radial grid with high resolution closer to the ship and low resolution further away. Each cell has a mass value which represents the sum total of all the mass in that cell (this could also be at different levels of precision depending on distance). This system allows ships to hide behind asteroids if the pursuing ship is far away because the ship's mass will be merged with that of an asteroid's in the pursuing ship's sensor grid. Only when the pursuer gets closer will they be able to distinguish the mass of the ship from the asteroid. The range at which the pursuer can distinguish the ship decreases as the pursued ship gets closer to the asteroid.

Wyrm suggests 'apply some blurring kernel to underlying art assets in order to generate lower resolution'.

Here is an example scenario: image:http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/3238/massgravometerreality.jpg Here there are 4 ships, only ship 1 is not hidden from the view of the big ship. image:http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/3757/massgravometergrid.jpg The mass gravometer has the grid overlayed onto the world, object may freely overlap cells. As we get further away from the ship, the cells get bigger and will cover more space. Here is what someone using the mass gravometer actually sees: image:http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1048/massgravometerfinal.jpg Already it is very hard to distinguish ships from asteroids. In the case of ship 1, it is very obvious that the corresponding cell contains a ship, it is a small object with a lot of mass. In the case of ship 2 it is hiding behind a small asteroid. However, that small asteroid appears suspiciously dense to us, so we might conclude that there is a ship behind it. Ship 3 is among asteroids and far away, it is practically impossible to tell if there is a ship there because the asteroids account for the majority of the mass. Finally, ship 4 is all alone and very far away from the ship. As far as the big ship is concerned, that cell contains no more than a small asteroid if not space dust.

==Reflective (active) radar - bouncing torch beam == Like a normal radar spins and has a sort of beam, so does this. In the 2D case, as the radar dish spins, the emitted beam travels across space and sometimes hits something, the sensor info record the location of where the beam hit. Additionally, the radar can record the location of where the beam hit after it had been reflected a given number of times up to a limit.

I liked Luke's analogy of 'shining a torch'. I'm also thinking of a lighthouse beam in the dark. If your passive sensors are functioning poorly for any reason, you can have some tension and a horror scenario: catching a glimpse of something moving in the dark.

I think the players should be able to direct the beam, probably at the cost of some energy or heat.

Perhaps the sensor hits should slowly fade?

Wyrm suggested adding some Gaussian noise to the sensor hits.

Here is an example scenario: image:http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6447/reflectiveradarreality.jpg

The big ship is after the little ship and the little ship has taken to hiding behind an asteroid. However, this is what the big ship can see: image:http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9666/reflectiveradarblindspo.jpg So, the big ship uses it's reflective radar: The beams fan out from the ship and record the positions of the first thing they hit. image:http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/8828/reflectiveradarfirst.jpg The first set of points tell the big ship what they know already and isn't very helpful. However, after the first bounce: image:http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/2720/reflectiveradarsecond.jpg The big ship can see more of the area behind the asteroid which is really weirdly shaped, but nothing conclusive to indicate a ship. Finally after the second bounce: image:http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/407/reflectiveradarthird.jpg Here the big ship can quite clearly see that the little ship is indeed hiding behind the asteroid. Additionally, here's what the beams are doing: image:http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/6489/reflectiveradarbeams.jpg